Tristan Thorne

Character: Tristan Thorne
From: Stardust
Made: 2008

Tristan is the hero of Stardust, a Neil Gaiman novella that was made into a movie in 2007, and which sadly flew a bit under the radar. It's an utterly fantastic movie, and not nearly enough people have seen it. If you liked The Princess Bride (and is there anyone out there who doesn't?), then you'll love Stardust. It's a fantasy movie for grownups (you can't say "adult" because that means something entirely different!) with humor and sarcasm and a smidge of ridiculousness, and also Robert De Niro as a cross-dressing sky pirate. How can you say no to that?

Anyway, in the course of the movie, Tristan gets a snazzy new outfit (courtesy of the above-mentioned De Niro) with a long, cream-colored coat. We hadn't even left the theater when my husband said, "I WANT THAT COAT." Since I'd been coveting the blue dress worn by Yvaine, the heroine, I was happy to oblige! This costume was debuted at Dragon*Con 2008. I hadn't yet finished my Yvaine costume, but my friend Kimmerie saved the day-- she'd won an auction for a screen-worn costume for the character of Una, which she very kindly allowed me to wear. I finished my Yvaine costume the following year.

Dragon*Con 2009
(pics by Maggie & Kathy)

WonderCon 2009
(pics by Corli)

Dragon*Con 2008
(pics by Maggie and Kathy)

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Robin Sparkles

Character: Robin Sparkles
From: How I Met Your Mother
Made: 2008

"Robin who?" You mean you've never heard of Robin Sparkles, the Canadian teen pop sensation? She dominated the early-90s airwaves (the 80s came to Canada a bit late) with her hit song, "Let's Go To the Mall," although her followup, "Sandcastles in the Sand," was considered a disappointment. She disappeared from the music scene shortly thereafter, and hasn't been heard from since...

...so anyway, if you're a fan of "How I Met Your Mother" (and if you're not, you should try it!), you know that the character Robin Scherbatsky, a no-nonsense, career-oriented tomboy, has a deep dark secret-- that as a teenager, she toured malls all across Canada as "Robin Sparkles." When her friends discover the music video of "Let's Go to the Mall," she's utterly mortified, and everyone else is riotously entertained. The HIMYM folks actually made a full music video, and it is 80s-tastic; they've got it on YouTube here.

I love HIMYM, and I laughed my head of at the LGTTM music video (honestly, the whole episode where Robin Sparkles is revealed, called "Slap Bet," is a classic). So after I went to Dragon*Con for the first time in 2007 and discovered people dressed up as all sorts of random TV characters (Jim and Pam in their Halloween costumes! Adam and Jamie from Mythbusters!), I decided it was the perfect place to run around as Robin Sparkles.

I debuted my costume at D*C 2008 on Friday night, and had so much fun that I wore it on Saturday as well. And a good thing too, because it turned out that there was another girl dressed as Robin Sparkles on Saturday. We met by chance-- and I am 100% not kidding-- AT THE MALL. IN THE FOOD COURT. It was glorious. Actually, the reaction I got as Robin was fantastic. Not everyone recognized me, but the ones who did *freaked out.* It's a hella fun costume, and as the song says, "having fun is what it's all aboot."

Dragon*Con 2008

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Londo Mollari

Character: Ambassador Londo Mollari
From: Babylon 5
Made: 2008
Awards: Part of a skit that won Judges' Choice in the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con Masquerade

This was definitely not a costume I had ever planned to make, I'll tell you that! My friend Cordelia suggested a skit for the San Diego Comic-Con 2008 Masquerade that involved a bunch of sci-fi characters with big hair. My husband, who's a big Babylon 5 fan, said, "I want to be Londo!", the Centauri ambassador with an impressive sideways mohawk. Video and pictures from the skit are available here.

Anyway, I agreed to make the costume if he handled the wig. (He decided to make the wig bigger than it actually was on the show, to up the silliness factor of the skit.) Londo got a huge cheer from the audience when he first appeared! Still plenty of B5 fans out there. He's also worn the costume without the wig and people still recognized him, which I consider an unqualified success!

San Diego Comic-Con Masquerade 2008

Dragon*Con 2008
(thanks to Maggie and Kathy for the pics!)

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Hairspray Dancer

Character: Backup Dancer ("You Can't Stop the Beat")
From: Hairspray (2007 version)
Made: 2008
Awards: Part of a skit that won Judges' Choice in the 2008 Comic-Con Masquerade

I first saw the movie version of the musical Hairspray in spring 2008, and I absolutely fell in love-- the story, the songs, the costumes, everything was completely awesome. (I mean, giant production numbers. What's not to love?) I especially adored the last number in the show, "You Can't Stop the Beat," and the gorgeous dresses the dancers were wearing. Oh man, did I ever want one of those pretty pastel dresses with their big twirly skirts!

I got my chance when my friend Cordelia suggested a Hairspray-themed skit for the San Diego Comic-Con 2008 Masquerade. (A video of the skit, plus more pictures, are available on that page.) This has become my new favorite party dress-- I've worn it many times since I made it, including to the wedding of a fellow costumer and my work holiday party!

San Diego Comic-Con Masquerade 2008

Dragon*Con 2008 (Yule Ball)
(thanks to Maggie and Kathy for the pictures!)

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T'Posh

Character: T'Posh (T'Pol/Posh Spice mashup)
From: Star Trek: Enterprise/The Spice Girls
Made: 2008
Awards: Part of a skit that won Best in Show Presentation at the SciFi/Fantasy Masquerade at Costume-Con 2008

I made this costume for our 2008 Costume-Con skit, "Space Girls," a Star Trek/Spice Girls mashup. (Lots more pictures, plus video, are available on that page!)

My Space Girl was T'Posh-- a mashup of Posh Spice (better known these days as Victoria Beckham) and T'Pol, the Vulcan officer from Enterprise. One of my favorite episodes of Enterprise (okay, also one of the only ones I've seen) is the mirror universe two-parter, where all the female crewmembers wear form-fitting, midriff-baring versions of the uniform jumpsuit. I'm not even kidding. *Midriff jumpsuits.* They're so fantastically over-the-top, I wanted to hug the costume designer when I saw the episode.

T'Pol normally doesn't wear the Enterprise jumpsuit uniform, but she does in the mirror episodes. So I took that as my starting point, but I changed the pants to a skirt, because Posh usually wore skirts. Then I added five-inch heels with laces that wrapped up the leg, sort of like Posh's shoes in this picture, and a wig that looked like the Posh bob. And of course a pair of pointy ears!

Costume-Con, San Jose 2008
(photos by Kel, Corli, and conpix.net)

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Debby's Wedding Dress

Our friends Debby and Dan got engaged three days before our wedding, and decided to hold the wedding in Las Vegas in May 2005, to coincide with the opening of Episode III. Debby asked me if I would make her dress, and I agreed.

Making this dress was definitely a labor of love for us both. We'd have marathon sessions where Debby would spend hours at my house working on her programs or bridesmaid gifts, and I would sew like mad and call her over for periodic fittings. It kept us both honest-- it's a lot harder to procrastinate when someone else is there with you!

In the end, I was really proud of how the dress turned out. I don't think I'll ever make another wedding dress, though; the stress of having to get everything exactly perfect was too intense. (All self-inflicted pressure, I should point out. Debby was fantastically low-maintenance and about as far from a Bridezilla as you can get.) But I was more of a perfectionist about her dress than I was about my own!

Debby and Dan's Wedding, May 2005

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Kaylee's Shindig Dress

Character: Kaylee Frye
Costume: Party dress from "Shindig"
From: Firefly
Made: 2005

The short-lived television series Firefly remains one of my all-time favorite TV shows, and this is my absolute favorite costume from the entire show. It's from the episode "Shindig," where in order to meet with a business contact, Kaylee and Mal have to go to a fancy dress ball. To make up for being mean to Kaylee earlier in the episode, Mal buys her this dress, which she'd seen in a store window and loved. Now, Kaylee's no city girl, and her taste is-- questionable, to say the least. This dress is unbelievably pink, unbelievably fluffy, and I, like Kaylee, love it beyond all reason.

I'd been wanting to make the dress since I saw the series in fall 2004, but an email from my friend Kel convinced me to make it a bit earlier than I'd planned. She and some of our other costuming friends were planning a big Firefly group entry in the San Diego Comic-Con Masquerade to promote Serenity, the movie that was based on the Firefly TV series. Were my husband and I interested in joining them? You're gorram right we were! I tossed together a Mal costume for him, unfortunately sans his signature browncoat. That one's still on the to-do list.

 Of course, the dress ended up being yet another last-minute, no-sleep project, so I'm not as happy with some parts of it as I'd like to be, but I had so much fun being in the group and doing Masquerade that it didn't matter. You can see a video of our skit on YouTube here, and Carolyn, who was our "casual-clothes" Kaylee, has a page about our group's entry.

San Diego Comic-Con 2005, as part of the "Big Damn Heroes" Masquerade entry
(Thanks to Cathleen, Cordelia, Kathy, Kel, Kim, Hasufel, Eurobeat King, and Consplayers for the pics!)

OH MY GOD IT'S JOSS WHEDON.

Dragon*Con 2007

(Thanks to PinkRouge and Kay_Dee for the pics!)

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