Derby time!

Sorry I've been absent.  Tons of work and not enough time.  Anyways, I wanted to do a blog post about Derby hats and fascinator creations.  A group of us worked on a hat and fascinator last night and had lots of fun.  I live in Louisville, so this is a big deal.  Creating these were lots of fun and I wanted to show them off.  Take a peek!

Next year for derby, I will be making more!  

Future costume: Pan Am stewardess

So I received some late graduation money from some great aunts and uncles, which instructions to get something fun with it (meaning don't get food or gas with it) get something cool.  ha.  So I went shopping with my family today and my dad told me go to into Brookstone and take a look at the back wall.  And look what I see!  PAN AM bags!!  So of course, its mine!

So of course this means a costume must follow!  I tried to get into the show and I like the premise and the actresses but the show never clicked for me.  Maybe because it was on Sunday night, and those nights were reserved for Downton Abbey and the Walking Dead.  But I hope to watch the full season when it comes out to Netlfix.  I do remember falling in love with the costumes.  Sooooo much.  I will be making the stewardess costume.

 Very excited for this one.  

When should I premiere this one?  Halloween?  possibly.  Any thought to what con I should take it to?

New business cards!

So excited to receive my business cards!  Woohoo!

Ready to do some business.

Website coming!

I'm excited to announce that I will be building a website very soon for everyone to contact me on making a cool unique costume for yourself or for someone else.

I'll make anything from baby costumes to historical reproduction costumes.  Just talk with me and we can discuss a plan of action and cost.

Until then, email me if you want to start something.  Remember halloween is only 8 months away and will be here before you know it!
Email-- AmandaD1988@gmail.com

The next blog will be a follow up on Lexington Comic Con which I am attending on March 24.  I will post pictures of some awesome cosplay costumes and travel pictures!  So excited to really take off with this little business.

Darth Maul February 2012

I am a huge Star Wars fan and to celebrate the re-release of Ep.1 I had to go Maul.  He is the best villain, so evil, so great.  

I started with researching Trisha Biggar's costume design sketches and concepts.  Now being female, I knew I had something to mask up top. Ha.  I created the pieces very boxy and nothing tailored.  I used many screen shots of Maul in action to get a whole concept of his costume.  I decided to do it all, to include the cloak and everything.  I was able to find a pattern that I altered to fit the look of Darth Maul. 

   

I used black linen, and a lighter black canvas (the actual name is escaping me right now), and the pleather for the belt.  I created the tunic, cloak, belt with front, and a black sash for around my neck.  I gathered gloves, a lightsaber, black boots, and a black skirt for everything else.  The look came together well!

This was a in process picture, I haven't attached the belt front for finished the sash for around the neck yet.  

The 2nd big hump was the makeup.  I applied a bald cap and had a friend help me a lot with the painting of my whole head.  It took around 2 hours.  And I followed various youtube videos on the makeup design. But I found you could get really creative with Maul makeup design.

I also created from scratch the horns for my whole head using the same material that I used to create my black swan crown last October.  It was super super handy.  Just organic molded the pieces to want I wanted.  Let them dry over night, painted them the next morning using acrylic paint, dry.  Then went over with Modge Podge to seal it.  And I also labeled them to the appropriate spot to my head.  The was helpful.  

It was a successful night.  I am planning to turn Darth Maul into Lady Darth Maul, because I found that having extremely long hair made it extremely hard to put under a bald cap.  But my next post will have more on that.

Black Swan October 2011

Hello Everyone, first post!  Here we go!  So I have made a lot of clothing and costumes over the years but this is really the first one I intended on documenting on and from here on out will be documenting every one.  This is a "inspired" reproduction of Natalie Portman's finale black swan costume in the film Black Swan that was released December of 2010.  Loved the movie ohhhh so much, I decided to make my costume for halloween of 2011 that exact costume.

I decided to do this costume on a short notice, so I didn't exactly have enough time to really go all out and reproduce the to its cannon look (for those of you who don't know, cannon means as close as possible to the production of the original costume).  I am a ballet dancer so I happened to have a good amount of leotards on hand to work with.  I basically hand sewed all kind of different types of feathers in as close as they were in the movie, almost matching the original bodice.  I used ostrich and regular store bought feathers and also some with a slight green tint to give some different colors.  (I will post more pictures of the bodice very soon after I repair it, CAUTION on wearing this to an actual event with lots of people).  I also hand stitched large square rhinestones.

Some what closer image of the bodice top.

NOW the tutu!  Which was actually very therapeutic.  I started with my waist measurement for the 2.5" wide elastic and stitched it an 1" less than my waist measurement so it would stay put then did row after row after row of black strong tulle, I worked upside down and pleated the tulle every 1/2".  So it ended up being completely pleated.  I did about 4 or 5 rows each after stitching them to the waistband.  I wanted to achieve that "pancake" tutu that the real swans use in the ballet Swan Lake.  There are many ways to achieve it just make sure you use strong tulle and I found that working upside down helped maintain that pancake look.  I also tacked the edges together at the very end

Next I added the feathers and rhinestones.  This part was tricky, being that I did it like a week before halloween, I said to myself, "Amanda, its ok...get the hot glue..."  So after that weeping moment of oh dear jesus I have to use hot glue, it was ok.  I basically attached the feathers with hot glue all around the top part of the tutu.  It worked out better, but as a perfectionist costumer, I wept inside.  I sewed the rhinestones on.  Adding an extra ring of tulle around the top edges helped cover that nasty hot glue evidence.

The makeup was super super fun.  I mostly just found images of Natalie Portman with her makeup and took it from there, I used Ben Nye products and went crazy! 

The crown lastly.  I created it completely from scratch.  I used leftover wire from the feathers I bought and fitted it to my head.  Then I took black oven baked clay and molded it into organic different sized pieces about 1-2" each.  Then baked them.  Attached them in an organic way to the crown very closely to the original crown Mrs. Portman wears.  Then to fill in the empty spots, I took air drying, paper weight clay and "filled it in".  Once everything is dry I painted the entire thing with black acrylic paint, dried, then took watered down silver acrylic paint and brushed it on.  Then super glued the rhinestones to there proper place.  I also made, which you can see a bit of, a "bun cover" which is a crown basically for the back of your head, to give a complete crown look to the entire head.  

I also added the detailing to my arms with black makeup and drew organic lines and feathers.  Pretty cool till it rubs off, so powder well. 

More to come.....

Hello everyone!  Let the introductions begin.  Name's Amanda and I make costumes, do special FX makeup, and love to travel in my RV.  I started this blog for people to keep up with my awesome creations, travels, and general fun of my life.  I love being the unique geek I am and I think y'all love me too!  Stay tuned for the next upcoming post...here's a hint.  Sith...


May the force be with you.
-A