Rising New Moon Studios

The following are my slides that I use when presenting my panel about costuming at various conventions.  Since many people ask for this information, I'm posting it all right here for everyone to see.  Most of it is self explanatory but I'll annotate it where necessary. The previous two slides are something I feel extremely passionate about.  In all of the subcultures that are nerdom, there's a lot of animosity between the fandoms and within fandoms.  But, honestly, this is SO DUMB.  We should be sharing our love for these thing not hating on each other for sharing common interests.   More importantly, we shouldn't be judging other cosplayers based on stupid things like age, race, or size.  We should support and encourage each other because we should understand each other and this passion we share.   Think about it, what happens when you tell a "normie" that you like to go to conventions on the weekends and run around in cost...

The Beaux Stratagem Sir Charles Freeman Completed November 2013 Items Made: Coat, Petticoat Breeches The Beaux Stratagem is a restoration comedy written in 1707. The character, Sir Charles, is supposed to be a little older, therefore in a style of dress a little before the rest of the cast.  But this was super fun to make.  The designer wanted him to look like a peppermint stick.  There were lots of one word descriptions for the costume themes in this show.  And since it's comedy, you can get away with it.  The Jacket is made from black cotton with silver embroidery and lined with red silk-satin.  The sleeves are slashed and the jacket is trimmed with green ribbon and buttons.   The petticoat breeches are absolutely ridiculous which in a costume shop equates to "Holy wow! So much fun!"  In the actual restoration period, when it came to bagginess of breeches, baggier was better.  So I made them as baggy as I could wit...

The Beaux Stratagem Lady Bountiful Completed November 2013 Items Made: Bodice, Stomacher, Skirt, and Apron The Beaux Stratagem is a restoration comedy written in 1707. The character, Lady Bountiful, is sort of a sadistic, mad-doctor type. But also wealthy.  Anyway, the designer wanted her to look like a big bruisey tumor.  So lots of purple and green.  To me, I think she's a little like any of Helena Bonham Carters recent characters.   The skirt is a crushed purple taffeta, and the bodice a purple/green stripe moire with green hued batik cotton trimming the sleeves.  The stomacher is purple microsuede with green/gold brocade trim and rosettes made from the same fabric as the skirt.  The apron is a two tone green strip cotton.    The coolest/most challenging part was drafting the bodice based on patterns from that era... which, when drafted, come out super tiny.  I know people were smaller back then, but these patterns...

Click to go to All-Con's official webpage   Hey everyone!  Just a quick post to let everyone know I will be presenting panels at All-Con next month! My Schedule is as follows: Costuming for Conventions Pecan (Thursday) 4:00 PM - 4:45 PM (Rated: Everyone) Costuming for Conventions Elm (Friday) 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM (Rated: Everyone) Costuming for Conventions Addison Theater (Saturday) 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM (Rated: Everyone) Hope to see you there!!!

So I've had another go round with the Lady of the Lake.  As you can see, possibly, in some of the photos, I've removed the sleeves and now we're gonna go with an opera length gauntlety thing.  I also reworked the wings/fin/cape whatever so now it's floor length starts at the neck.  To fix the uniformity that I didn't like with the previous cape thing, I made panels in different widths and staggered them in no particular pattern.  They also start narrow out narrow at the top and get wider at the bottom... I might have to add more panels on... I'm not sure... I guess it depends on if she has to raise both her arms over her head...  Right now the cape forms a full half-circle...  All that's left is fitting the bodice, sewing down all the facings (which I don't wanna do until the bodice is fitted) and add make the sea shells for the bust.  Oh... and attach everything to everything that needs attaching...  

So these past few days I've started on my next project... well... it isn't for me... but it's something I'm working on.  This one is for a character from the Monty Python stage show, Spamalot .  It's pretty much Quest for the Holy Grail ... with more musical numbers.  My mission this go round is the Lady of the Lake (who's not in the movie but was added to the stage show).  And she's pretty much THE female lead.  We're kind of going with medieval warrior mermaid lady...  So the bodice is pretty standard... princess seams... not quite a square neckline and made out of a green velvet upholstery.  The skirt is from a purple and gold brocade... but I'm using the reverse which looks like scales... floor length with a train.  Pardon the mannequin in the pics... it's really short so the costume drowns it.    Next up I added in a slightly puffy upper sleeve with a bell shaped lower sleeve.  The upper sleeve is a green stretch velvet ...

Okay, so I don't really like saying New Year's resolutions... cause it's kinda lame... but there ARE goals that I'd like to accomplish this year... so I guess, technically , they're resolutions... but whatever... haha!  Some of  them are new projects, some are completions of old projects, some deal with costuming and some don't.  But I wanted to share a few of them with you guys! I guess I was really inspired by a couple of other blogs I read right around the new year.  Apparently there are some cool sewing challenges that are designed to inspire/motivate you to spend more time sewing and less time procrastinating... which is something I'm REALLY good at... when I get around to it.  Here's a couple of those challenges. http://thedreamstress.com/the-historical-sew-fortnightly-2014/ http://biancavonbavensen.blogspot.com/2013/12/five-foundations-challenge.html They're both mostly geared towards historical/period costuming for women.  But sinc...

Or as I like to call it... "The Workshop Under the Bed"  because, seriously, this is UNDER my bed.  And this is what I've been up to the past several weeks.  I've been a busy bee sorting, cleaning, purging, organizing, and all the other "ings" you can come up with.   Now, it's not completely done, and it isn't perfect.  But that's okay because the important thing is I can start working at home again...  So let's break it down and I'll give you the pictorial tour!!! First off, my bed is from IKEA.  They call it a loft bed, but really it's a bunk bed minus the bottom bunk.  Which is awesome because in my new place I have less room to work so I had to maximize my space.  The climbing in and out of bed is kind of a pain, but the end result it totally worth it.  Then I added in a shelving unit and desk combo ALSO from IKEA. The desk gives me a sizable work surface and all the cubbies provide plenty of storage.   ...