Costume-Making 101:  Road to Comic-Con

Evening folks, day early I know but what with the builders being in for the past two days (my bathroom looks lovely, thanks for asking) and being away with work for the next couple of days, progress has been a little slow and mainly planning-based.  

I'll say it now as we're a month out from the event, but my next few blog entries are likely to be mainly updates rather than the design process itself - I need to get everything looking good for Comic-Con!  So, where are we up to now?  

Let's have a look at my coat first, because it's my blog:

Buttons added, hood arranged and a nice little nod to Connor's coat from AC3 with the pinned back skirt.  All well and good I hear you say, but when will we get to see you wearing it?  Well my friends, feast your eyes:

Yes, I can see out of the hood, but yes, it is bigger than I first expected - it'll be getting some gathering stitches to make it hang straight, but essentially, done!  Who left that tea-towel by the cupboard..?  Sloppy.

Then I got distracted.  I thought about some kind of shoulder armour for my left arm along the lines of Ezio from AC2/Revelations.  After a quick search around I found some old leather in the store cupboard and set to gluing it together.  A day later it still needs a lot of work (what doesn't..?) but I have a rough shape ready:

If I have time I'll be adding a rabbit skin, beads and some leather cord-work to give a Native American vibe, which I'll have to work into my back-story somehow, just to add some more textures and layers to the costume.  Plus a lot more work.  

Other updates - I managed to get further along with my friend Scott's Ezio-inspired costume, for which I'm going a bit off-piste with some scratch-built armour.  The plates were designed and cut from plastic mannequins bought from eBay, sanded, painted, sanded, painted, ruined, sanded and painted again.  They need weathering and varnishing, then I have to build the leather backing parts, but hey, what are Bank Holidays for?

Here's roughly how they will look on the grey tunic:

I have two plates for the shoulder, three more for the back and one more to go under the arm.  I've included a spread below of their eventual position, once I've got the leathers finished:

The finished piece will get at least one blog entry after Comic-Con...

So, must keep this brief as I have to pack tonight and iron things, apologies in advance for some pic-heavy entries to come but anything I miss explaining will be made up for after the end of May, along with a full round-up of everything we saw at MCM London.  In the meantime feel free to ask if you want to find out more.

Keep an eye out for surprise updates over the weekend again, and keep everything crossed it all gets finished!



Until next time.

Costume Making 101 - The Other Side of the Coin

By way of apology for some sub-standard blogging of late, may I present my first crack at the back-story for my Comic-Con character.  Unfortunately I have to assert my intellectual copyright here as this is my own work and I don't want it distributed without the proper accreditation, but please feel free to comment with suggestions or other feedback.

Also, if Ubisoft are reading, I'm available for hire.

That being said, are we sitting comfortably?  Good, then I'll begin.

Assassin’s Creed: Frontier - Stand

The room fell silent.  Three men, each considering the weight of the burden ahead as destiny drove a wedge between them, their fates forever set by the actions of the next few minutes.  Joseph was the first to speak, addressing his friends in an earnest attempt for them to see sense.

“We need every able man here to hold line. We must -” Crockett waved his protest aside with a gesture and exhaled audibly.

“No, your path lies elsewhere.  We will hold them here as long as we’re able, it should give you enough time to be away from this place.  If the Alamo falls our enemies cannot find what we’ve fought so long to protect.  You’re a worthy shot, but one more pistol won’t stop them if we can’t already without you.  We have canon, strong walls and resilience on our side, but I fear with or without you my friend, a breach is inevitable.”

“He’s right,” whispered Bowie, his voice still heavy with fever, “as much as I don’t want to face it, you being here just means one more dead man walking.  Take the gold, use the chaos to flea and put it beyond their reach.  It must not fall into their hands.”

Crockett stood, crossed the room and past the window to a small cupboard set into the white stone wall.  Lifting the latch, he opened the door and removed the various books, bottles and other items from the bottom shelf.  Running his hand along the back of the empty shelf, his fingers sought the camouflaged latch, disguised as an exposed nail head.  Pushing the head, there was an audible hollow click as the shelf lifted to expose the hidden depression beneath.

Returning to his companions, Crockett placed an oil-cloth covered object on the table between him and the others.  They sat for a moment before Bowie loosened the binding and upturned the cloth into Joseph’s hand.

No-one spoke.  Joseph turned the object around in his fingers, a mix of wonder and incomprehension filling him as he tried to fathom the meaning of what he held.  He had heard talk of a precious treasure being held in the Alamo, but this was far from what he had imagined.  Larger than a man’s fist, the object seemed a perfect sphere, golden coloured and metallic to the touch.  Its polished smooth surface was broken in several places by geometric lines and devices of uniform thickness, glass-like in appearance but warm, almost as if lit from within.  It was then that the pulse began, almost imperceptible at first but building, ever so slowly and with a foreboding patience, each that much stronger than the last.  With it came the light, growing in strength with every measured pulse, sickening and alluring in equal measure as it grew to illuminate the three men intoxicated by its lurid brilliance.  That light held within it the wonder and promise of all the world’s beauty, at once mixed with the coldness and weight of the abyss.

The silence shattered with the guttural bark of a canon.  Seconds later the splintered crack of iron splitting stone and the sound of bugles filled the air.

“There’s no time,” started Crockett, standing and removing his pistol from his belt, “take this, you’ll need it if you’re spotted.”

Joseph nodded and tucked the dark wood pistol through his belt, quickly re-wrapping the golden orb in its oil-cloth and placing it into a belt pouch.

Bowie shuffled to the window, still wrapped in his sleeping blanket for warmth, to steal a glance at the approaching hoard, turned back and crossed the room to the rack of hanging coats by the door.  After a brief search he threw a bundled coat to Joe and rolled up his sleeve to reveal a slim metal object strapped to the inside of his left arm.

“Here,” he said, loosening the leather straps and handing the object to Joseph, “take this.  Stealth will be your greatest ally; there are other weapons at your disposal less clumsy and loud than a pistol.”  Bowie smiled and threw a glance to Crockett, who could do little restrain his own.  Noticing Joseph’s obvious confusion, he continued.

“You don’t earn a reputation like mine without knowing a thing or two about knives.  Sometimes it’s best to let your opponent think you’re unarmed, and sometimes it pays to have one more blade up your sleeve, just in case.”

Joseph strapped the metal box to his arm, fixed the buckles and slipped the plain metal ring over his index finger, an almost invisible wire connecting it the body of the device.  He shook out the coat Bowie had thrown to him and paused a moment before putting it on.  It looked similar enough to his own duster, but off-white and of a good sturdy canvas.  Split for riding, the most conspicuous difference being the large hood that sat in place of a regular collar.  As a second canon announced its presence he shrugged into the coat and settled his belt and bandoliers, sheathing his knife and hatchet.

Turning for the door, Crockett caught his arm and pulled Joseph around to face Bowie, who was now in the far corner of the room, running a hand along the bottom of the wall, close to the floor.  With a sound of stone upon stone, the straw-covered floor slid down and sideways, revealing a series of rough-cut steps that disappeared into the void below. 

“Here, this will be a safer route,” said Bowie, stifling a cough.  “Take the stairs and follow the path into the hills, there’ll be a horse and provisions waiting for you.  Ride North as swiftly as possible, one of our number will find you.”

“How?” asked Joseph.

“They’ll find you.  Ride north and don’t stop for anyone,” answered Crockett, guiding him to the stairs.

“And what about you, what will you do?” said Joseph.

Crockett considered, “We stand.”

Until next time.

Costume Making 101 - A Pause for Thought

Well now, a week on from a rushed post and the fates have conspired somewhat to mean that very little work has been done.  Plus, my blog entry is late.  And lacking.  

So, my apologies for being so unproductive this week but I don't have a lot to show for it.  Well, I've finalised this:

Needs a pair of authentic-looking pirate trousers and some boots, then Little 'Un's costume is done.  Remarkably, considering how lazy and recycled this effort was.  Of course there are accessories to be added - the hidden blade, pirate pistol, hair to do and some make-up, but all in all, a quick build.  

Where next...

The missus from Comic-Con in London last year.  Her costume remains pretty much the same - frock coat (worthy of a blog itself it's so complicated...), cloak, boots plus the basque.  Speaking of which:

Both barrels.  Ka.  Pow.

What else am I trying to cram in to the next four weeks?

Who knew my missus had a "game face..?"

My friend Scott's Ezio-inspired costume.  It'll be tight on time, but he'll be getting a new sash, a belt an a little free-form armouring in the form of two destroyed mannequins, paint, a lot of sanding and some scratch-designed leather work.  Teaser anyone?

And then there's me.  In the realisation that this blog is both late and rushed, again, here's an embarrassing picture of me in a costume trial, shot in terrible lighting, trying to look much more awesome than I actually do.

Fail...

On top of everything else, I've tasked myself with building an impressive centrepiece for my costume, I was thinking something like this:

So hopefully you'll forgive these rushed and imperfect blog posts - as a special apology for all you good people who follow my random thoughts, keep an eye out over the weekend for some deeper delving into what I'm up to and how I'm getting up to it.

And excuse any spelling mistakes, I just don't care today :)

In closing, check out what my clever brother did in 3 hours 35 minutes, some kind of foot race called a Snickers?  Oh sorry, a Marathon.  If you laughed at that you can be my friend:

Thanks for sticking with me. 

Costume-making 101: Part the Second – Design

Hello again and welcome back to another instalment of my (loosely called) adventures in the world of costumes.  When we left the (loosely called) action last time I’d come to the realisation that my progress thus far had come to nought as the assembled pieces, although individually fine, didn’t work well enough together to fit my brief.

I needed a new plan to get things back on track in time for May’s deadline, so where to start now?  Looking back over the elements I was already happy with, I went back to the original design to see where natural progression would take me.  Taking a step back, I had the concept of Old West meets Assassin’s Creed, so the natural step was to go back to basics on the iconic clothing of the period.  I had in mind a back story for the costume revolving around the siege of the Alamo in 1836 (I’ll assert my intellectual copyright here – short story is coming soon…), plus I had the duster coat idea that I still felt had some validity to it, I just had to make the two fit together.  I’d previously put together a period (ish) shirt from a Simplicity pattern I had on hand, number 2895 for anyone curious, and I knew that this pattern also included parts for an overcoat.  I had a sort through and liked the look of it but on checking the pieces it turned out I was missing a few crucial pieces and another two had been ripped over the years.

Bugger.  Where was I going to find another copy of an old Simplicity pattern in good time to keep the momentum up?  Well as it happens in a local haberdashery near to my office, and as it happened, they were having a sale – one replacement pattern for £2.60 and no sodding about with postage or waiting for it to arrive!

For my fabric choice I decided to with a really heavyweight calico I had already, my fabric supplier referred to it as “calico canvas,” used for crafts and painting – essentially a much heavier version of the calico I’d used in my original duster attempt.  Learning from a previous mistake I pre-shrunk the fabric, which luckily resulted in less than a 5% shrinkage and no warping that I could see.  Cue a frantic weekend on patterning, cutting, sewing and smoking, plus a few evenings of adjusting, ironing and hemming, we had this:

As far as alterations went this was pretty much a by-the-numbers build direct from the pattern.  The main changes were to make the coat without a lining as I would be wearing it in the summer, plus to add a hood instead of a collar.  The lack of lining was pretty straightforward, though it did entail pressing and over-stitching every seam, a process that took a lot longer than expected.  Still, I think the results were worth it:

Having made several hoods before with varying degrees of success, I decided this time not to work from scratch.  I’d previously designed hoods that sat well but were quite closed, whereas for this design I thought a larger, open hood would sit better.  Up until now, I’d been working from this:

For now I turned to another paper pattern I already owned, this time Simplicity 5840, using the hood pattern from a cloak.  After cutting and tacking together I had to trim the back of the pattern down to sit correctly – you can see the difference between the pattern and the finished hood below  I did this by eye and lucked out getting it right on the first attempt:

So not a huge amount of progress this week in the grand scheme of things, but I am now back on track with a costume piece that I’m happy with and which I for one am very proud of.

In case you’re wondering what happened to the original tunic/coat I’d planned to use, well nothing goes to waste here!  My step-daughter still needed a costume for Comic-Con to fit with a pirate/smuggler theme, so I teamed the tunic with a pirate shirt I’d made years ago and came up with the following:

Lots to do and a hasty blog entry this week, more progress next time but I’ll leave you with a little design I posted on my Facebook page, a project for after Comic-Con to develop my Old West costume further – a neat way of storing your nitro-glycerine grenades/healing potions/miscellaneous glass tubes without them getting in the way.  I’ll make this from veg-tan leather and post a step-by-step when I get around to making it!

Join me next time for more progress, a better written blog and maybe the start of a background/short story – Ubisoft, I’m available for the next Assassin’s Creed game and my rates are very reasonable!

Until next time. 

Costume-making 101: Part the Second – Design, with an interlude

Greetings fellow enthusiasts of all-things creative, welcome to the fourth part of my musings about one of my current fabrication projects, the Assassin’s Creed meets the Wild West Comic-Con costume.

When we left the metaphorical action last time around, serendipity had struck and I was ready and able to make some real progress on the historically-inspired “duster” element of the costume.  Little did I know however that my new-found pride in my little design realisation would soon lead to a pretty big fall…  Dramatic music.

So, I had my general design sorted and a good base garment that I’d be able to adapt to fit my new brief.  For fans of repetition and for convenience sake, here’s that picture again to illustrate what I had to start with:

Looking things over, the sleeves would have to go.  I’d adapted them from the original pattern, Simplicity 4059 (incidentally, the same one I used for a friend’s Ezio-inspired tunic, more on that later…), which called for the sleeves to be hemmed along the back seem and open towards the front, held closed in three or four places with buttons.  I’d re-designed them slightly, created my on pattern and attached them to the shoulders, without realising that I hadn’t included a seam allowance.  School.  Boy.  Mistake.  Please remember folks that when you’re taking measurements and creating new pattern pieces, you must include an allowance for the seams – it doesn’t matter the size, just remember to include it, otherwise you’re going to end up with wings rather than sleeves.

Sleeves going, that’s the first decision.  I could unpick the shoulder seams and finish the open shoulders with a strip of fabric bias, but this would leave me with a fairly uninspiring hooded waistcoat.  Something else was needed.  Looking back through my reference photos and with some input from my old friend Google, there was a common theme when it came to the “Old West” style dusters – a shoulder cape.  I knew that somewhere in my Big Drawer of Stuff I had a pattern for a long cloak complete with a shorter cape section (Simplicity 2513 for those keeping score), so I dug it out and set about cutting.  Some cutting, ironing and sewing later, I had this:

I then removed the sleeves, more to come on this in a mo...

After some consideration I’d decided not to alter the size or shape of the cape section despite it being a few sizes larger than needed – I liked the over-sized and dramatic nature of it, plus the shape and size sat well across the shoulders of my mannequin and provided a good silhouette.  I also like the way the thing moved when you had it on and the off-white vs. white of the over-tunic/undershirt would be subtle but there enough to make it interesting to look at.

Now, we have to skip around in time somewhat here to appreciate my next decision.  I write these blogs retrospectively whilst continuing to work on whichever particular project I have on the go.  I’ll cover in more detail things such as the shirt, sash, details, etc. next time, but for the purpose of this entry it came time to start trying things on to get an overall sense of the finished costume.  So then, what did we have?

Trousers – a stand-in for now, they aren’t right but they are the colour I wanted and they were on hand:

Shirt – more on this soon, but for now it was almost complete (having lost the collar pattern piece – there’s a lesson here people…):

Over-tunic – as per the above, it was now hooded, caped and had the sleeves removed and shoulder seams encased:

And of course, the hat.  I had this laying around since my ill-fated and last minute attempt at a work Hallowe’en party costume, Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead.  I’d then planned to use it for my own take on Freddie Krueger, which may still happen, but for now it worked well enough for my Old West needs:

Plus of course a sash, which again I’ll cover another time, along with a belt I’d found on a popular auction site:

I have to admit I was quite excited about putting the whole thing on for the first time, mainly because if it all worked together, I had a real chance of getting the rest of my little projects ready for Comic-Con in May.  The result..?

It looked terrible, to the point where I forgot to take a picture of it on me.  The sash and the belt sat wrong, the hooded tunic didn’t gather properly around the waist, sit across the shoulders as I’d hoped with the hood up (or down), the shirt bunched and caught against the tunic and the whole thing looked shapeless and underwhelming (I'll add a photo next time, it's late...).

Bugger.  In fact, the actual word I used was a little stronger, but I’ll go with that for the sake of not offending the children.

Hopefully you’ll see why I still include this post under the Design section of my project – sometimes things change on the fly, other times your hand is forced to a new direction once you get further into a project and sometimes, things just look plain wrong in reality when compared to your initial ideas.  I’ll leave you hanging now until next week, suffice to say I needed a plan and I needed it quickly…

This week’s closing image/sneaky peeky?  Well, remember somewhere above I mentioned the adapted Ezio-esque costume for a friend of mine?

Check out his inspirational blog detailing his battle to overcome cancer at the age of 28 and to go on to compete in obstacle races across the south-east of England – much more worthwhile than my fabric-based musings:

http://mudbagrunner.blogspot.co.uk/

It’s been emotional

Costume-making 101: Part the Second – Design

Hello again and welcome to my ongoing musings about the world of costume and prop-making.  Following on from my first two posts I thought I’d continue in the same vein this week and talk a little bit about the design process for my costume projects, using as a handy guide the Assassin’s Creed original creation I’m working on for this year’s London Comic-Con.

So, where do I start when it comes to designing a costume?  Well, rather unhelpfully, it depends upon what I’m trying to create.  Some projects are relatively straightforward in terms of “design” as most of the work will have been done for you: for example building straight from a pattern, painting/adapting a found item or kit, etc., etc.  I find these sorts of projects to be great for relaxing and keeping my skills sharp, but nothing beats starting from scratch and really letting my imagination loose to run around in circles, waving its metaphorical mind-arms in the air like a sugar-fuelled four-year-old.  You know, like this:

Classic. 

For our little sample project, I mentioned in my previous posts about trying to get a “feel” for the costume that I’m working on, rather than singling out individual elements.  Those of you who’ve been keeping up with the reading (for those who haven’t, shame on you) you’ll remember that my Assassin’s Creed meets Wild West concept has now been established, as have the pieces currently in production that I have to work with, so now I need to start bringing it all together into something that feels right – something that is believable for the character I’m trying to portray and not like a collection of bits I’ve had to try to fit together. 

Looking at what I had on hand, the largest element I have to work with is my off-white tunic/under-shirt that I’d mentioned in my last post, presented again as a reminder – apologies again for the mess, I still haven’t cleaned up:

I liked the idea of a long, flowing piece of costume, a shirt or something of that kind, but I couldn’t really see this working with what I had within my new brief.  The sleeves were causing no end of problems due to my own ineptitude when altering a pattern, but I’d put a lot of work into the construction and was pleased with the quality of the work.  I’d even included decorative seams:

So I had the tunic; the flowing form fit well with the whole AC aesthetic, but I couldn’t use the thing as it was.  What to do?  Well first off, get annoyed.  Then, a plan.  Google would help me – it’s always been more than happy in the past to provide a surprisingly helpful array of picture references, so that’s where I turned.  There was something at the back of mind that had sparked an idea, the rear of a cowboy-style caped over-coat, but with some stylistic changes…  Some Googling later, I’d discovered that an Old West over-coat was not called a “duster.”  Stay with me, this history lesson is going somewhere.  A “duster” was an over-garment that went over your clothes when riding to stop you from getting dust all over your nice new jeans.  Or whatever it is that folk wore back then.  Levis maybe.  Someone out there will correct me.  Here’s a picture I found (of a duster, not Levis):

It was usually made of lightweight cotton, white or off-white, full length and cut to fit when riding.  Anyone closing in on the same epiphany as me?  So, I have the basis of a classically-inspired Old West duster sitting here, albeit with knackered sleeves and a hood.  Ladies and gentleman, we have a start. 

A duster then.  White, billowy, lightweight and period accurate.  Good start, but I’d need more than this – May gets warm but I’m not going to Comic-Con in what is essentially a night-shirt.  Once I had this idea fixed though, the rest of the costume elements fell into place relatively quickly; I’d need a period shirt, most likely white to continue the Assassin’s Creed colour pallet, something red, logically a sash as the design ethic of the series dictates, and some trousers (I’ll translate for those across the pond – pants).  I wanted to work some blue in with the trousers (pants – still being helpful here) for a bit more interest, plus the all-important leather elements and details.  It’s strange but this always seems to happen to me, I get one important piece sorted out and the floodgates open.  I think this sums up the “feel” that I keep going on about, in that when you have a strong sense of a silhouette and a theme, it should be simple to add in elements that complement and enhance the look you’re trying to achieve around a central costume piece or prop. 

Ezio had his doublet, which I’ve made.  Connor had his over-coat, but no-one cares because the gameplay was terrible, plus I’ve already made that as well.  Edward had his pirate-y tunic thing, which I haven’t made.  Yet.  I would have my duster.  And a hat.  Because, you know, you can’t be a cowboy without a hat. 

Next time I’ll look at the smaller costume pieces and the changes needed to make the duster work, plus how to juggle a hat and a hood.  For now, another little taster of something else I’m working on for my other half for Comic-Con; part of her Renaissance Assassin costume I’ll be featuring at a later date:

It’s been emotional.