DIY Han Solo Skirt

In prep for Star Wars Celebration, I decided I wanted to do a fem Han Solo. I've been wanting to do this for a long time actually. But getting the costume or making one from scratch was daunting. I am ok at sewing squares and rectangles and mostly things with straight edges and no real patterns. I have not ventured into the clothing dept yet. So I can revamp or redo some clothing pieces for costumes if needed but never from scratch. A friend put me onto Cosplaysky.com tho and well, things have changed the game! So I bought myself the Han Solo costume there, where it will fit me and is tailored to me! I am only 5' tall and pretty small and petite overall. Small arm and leg lengths, etc. So having a custom made cosplay outfit for me, for a relatively cheap price? Sold!

All that aside though, I still wanted to be a fem Han Solo, not just a woman wearing his costume type of fem. I wanted to wear a skirt instead of pants. So after a lot of searching for the perfect A-line swing skirt that was the right length, size and color, (and small pricetag!) I finally went to work on this skirt! (FYI, I eventually found the skirt at a TJMaxx in a state thousands of miles from my home while on a family vacation. It's a CWonder designer skirt (they are now out of business) that normally is about 80 bucks. I found it there for a mere 20 bucks).

I will tell you though I ended up doing this twice, two different ways and one way that was clearly much better than the first.

Firstly, though, I also found the perfect color and width ribbon to use for the side panels at the crafts store. Cut them into the proper length I needed for the skirt. Then with permanent markers I carefully marked every inch with a line. Gently using the marker because they do bleed on the satin ribbon, so don't press the marker too hard or it will bleed and have a really thick line or uneven looking line.

Then my first attempt at attaching the ribbon was to use fusible web strips and iron-on the ribbon to the skirt.

Ironing on the sides using the fusible web.

This proved to be the wrong way to attach the panels.

The fusible web didn't really adhere to the thick knit fabric like it should have, no matter how much heat I used or how many times I ran over the damp towel over the ribbons (don't want to burn the ribbon by putting the iron right on the ribbon). So, then I used some frabic glue to help adhere the parts that didn't want to fuse with the webbing. Another bad idea as the glue bled through the ribbon and even when dry, was then much darker and sloppy and blotchy looking in those areas.

So, I decided to do it the right way in the first place. (Hey, lesson learned that's all that matters haha)

The old ribbons came off the skirt easily since none of the webbing really stuck in the end. And wherever there was glue, it came off pretty simply as well. Whatever glue did stick, I think there was a way to get it off completely if I wanted, but it would just get covered again anyway, so I just pulled off as much as I could with my nails.

Redid the ribbons as mentioned above with permanent marker at one inch intervals.

Then this time I took out the sewing machine instead. And though I still had some issues with this, because it's a thick knit skirt, the ribbon did stretch a bit with the fabric so one end on each side is a teeny bit shorter than orginally planned and therefore the ribbons on one side of each, are a little crooked. But with the natural folds of the skirt and how I will wear it, hopefully you don't notice it.

Close up of the sewn finished side. You may or may not notice the left side (top of the skirt, I can't turn the picture) that the stripes look a little diagonal which is because the ribbon stretched as I sewed around it. It's mostly noticeable at the top of each side so hopefully my Han shirt should hide some of it or the holster belt will hide it as well.

Below is the finished skirt! (view of the back of the skirt) The skirt has pockets in the front so I needed to sew the stripes onto the seam behind the pockets, which mean the stripes face the back a little more than they normally would. But I'm perfectly OK with that.

I'm so excited to use this at Star Wars Celebration next week! ^_^

 

Homemade Han solo props & Revamping Toy Weapons for Cosplay

In prep for Star Wars Celebration, I decided to be Han Solo. I admit I am not crafty enough to make the outfit from scratch so I did get my outfit itself, from CosplaySky. After a slight mishap with the pants, I had the outfit ready. I bought the belt from JediRobeAmerica. And I actually had my outfit all ready to go for FarPoint convention in Maryland. So I used it for that. What I didn't have ready in time were my accessories so my friend Kyle graciously lent me his Droid caller and blaster for FarPoint. In the meantime I started on my own Droid callers and painting up my blasters for both my Han Solo cosplay and my Princess Leia cosplay that I have planned as well.

Basically I saw this person's cosplay and was inspired on how to make my own Droid callers. She doesn't give directions on what she used or which pieces of plumbing she used so I just went down the plumbing aisle at my local home improvement store and matched the picture as best I could. Some parts were different then hers, just based on what was available. But I'm ok with that. I have provided some pics of which parts I used still in their packaging. Hopefully that helps others with their cosplay making too.

All the peices that made up the Droid callers. I basically made two just in case. It was cheap enough to do two.

 Black spray paint was a must for everything, including the blasters. So one big can of that. It goes a long way. PVC piping, I can't recall which size they were. But they are only a few inches long but don't recall the circumference. The threaded end pieces fit perfectly in the ends. And you needed threaded pieces to have the metal parts attach to the rest of the body. I bought special PVC piping cement glue. Tho trust me when I say this stuff is a LOT stronger than cement glue so be careful using it, use is in a well vented area. I found some metal plumbing pieces for the top part. Again using some threaded pieces made it all easier to put together without more glue. The caps I did exchange last minute tho because the 3/4" caps looked like they'd pop in ok, but did not. So I exchanged to 1/2" caps instead. They fit better and I glued with hot glue just to secure it in place.

Started out with basic small PVC piping and some threaded ends that fit into them. Used the special PVC glue to attach those to each end.

 

The only threaded ends I could find were hexagons instead of rounded like the link above. But it's ok. It looks good anyway.

After gluing those pieces together, I went outside and spray painted this part all black. I stood them upright and sprayed the paint circular and from above. But I had to come back and do it twice by flipping it over and do the other side in the same manner. In doing so, I created drip lines from the spray paint. Oops. You can see some of them in the pics. Overall no one will see it when it's on the belt though. So I'm not too worried.

After it all dried, I screwed in the metal pieces one at a time. There is a flat sprocket like gear that I put on the bottom of the big metal piece first. That part went closest to the PVC pipe. Once that got put on as a whole piece, it really looks close! But I wanted to get some silver Sculpy and make the buttons like she did.

Almost there!

Made buttons out of Sculpy. It's mush like working with clay, only you can bake it to harden it and make it permanent.

Then I made the part that looks like its meant to be attached to the buckle as a slide in piece. But it's non-functional of course for our purposes. Layered the pieces together and folded around the PVC to get its shape before baking.

Droid callers done! One piece of the sculpy on one is much larger than the other. Oops. But it came out well overall. It gives the basic idea.

A little more up close of the better Droid caller made.

Now onto the blasters! I needed the Han Solo blaster and I needed something similar to Princess Leia's blaster that she took from the Stormtrooper in A New Hope. I managed to find Han's blaster no problem. It took some research to really figure out Leia's blaster. Eventually I settled on a newer blaster from I think Clone Wars. Both were bright white so I needed to get outside in warmer weather and paint them. First chance the warmer weather came, I went out and did it. Again, I had to do it twice in order to flip it over and do the other side. And same thing, I got drip marks on it but hopefully no one can really tell from a distance.

I covered the orange tips in order to preserve that for safety reasons. But some of the masking tape got stuck to the Leia blaster so I left it there. You can still see the orange tips enough. And the Han one, the paper I attached like a cone to the front, well, as you can see from the first pic, some paint soaked through that paper. Oops! I sanded it down a little but it's still there. Oh well. Minor mishaps happen. I can't be too OCD about it or I'll never get things done!

 

 

 

Once they were painted on both sides and any extra coverage I'd missed was done, I then got some acrylic silver paint from the crafts store and with a bristled paint brush, I went over the edges and parts of the gun to make it look worn, used and beat up. I did a little too much on one side of Han's blaster and some of my strokes had too much paint on the brush for Leia's but again, it gets the point across.

And fin!

I'm really happy with how these came out overall. So now I'm ready for Star Wars Celebration!

Doctor Who's Tom Baker Q&A at RegenerationWho

At the RegenerationWho convention, they pulled off an amazing Skype call wtih special guest Tom Baker for an hour. It was one magical hour. Tom Baker is the sweetest and kindest man with that grandpa quality we all wish we could be around all the time. And he has the most infectious laugh you'll hear and you'll just start giggling anytime he bellows it out. It's adorable! He's adorable!

I did not videotape the entire interview due to contractual agreements between the convention and Tom Baker's associates. But here is a snippet of one of the questions about how it was to wear the scarf all the time, did it get in the way, etc.

I cannot transcribe the entire Q&A either but here are many snippets and quotes from the session. We all wished it lasted longer. He was such a doll to talk to! And imagine him taking his time answering the questions and kind of rambling on, in the best possible way, but when he realizes he's rambling, he immediately, straight-faced and eagerly says, like a child, "Ask me another one!" heehee

-As a child Tom Baker saw his name in lights. "I enjoy being worshipped."

-On becoming the Doctor: he had to keep the news secret for two weeks. It was a great relief to get the job. He didn't have to reach for the part because he, like the Doctor, believes in the impossible and being kind. It was easy being the Doctor because he's been the Doctor forever.

-His thoughts on his costume:
    -It was very old student look; with big trousers and the jacket
    -The costumers sent all this wool yarn to Pegonia Pope to make a scarf. But no one told her when to stop and she never bothered to ask. So they visited her to see the progress or what she did make and it was 58 feet long! They cut it down of course but it was still so long that he tripped over it a lot while shooting scenes!

-Someone asked "Why Jelly Babies?" To which he simply stated that he just thought it would be funny when faced with a really evil villian, to suddenly just offer some jelly babies to them and see what happens. Haha

-When asked what he thought about the latest incarnation of the Doctor, Peter Capaldi as the twelfth Dcotor, Mr. Baker says he thinks Capaldi's bony face looks like "he comes from...someplace else..." hehe

-Speaking about getting recognized while in public:
    -He said he was at a pub with friends and he kept getting interrupted to sign autographs. Here he is still sober and still on his first drink and his friends were already on their fifth pint getting drunk... So he later goes to another bar, more of a hole in the wall type place. And someone comes up to him with a paper and he is tired and still sober but thinks, "Fine.." and the guy is pointing to the paper but not saying much, so he proceeds to sign it and hands it back to the man. The man looks at him and says, "What's this?" Tom: My autograph! Man: What? no! He flips over the paper -- I need directions to here!  Tom had a good laugh over that one.
   -Another time he saw a whole school bus of kids and he said they all recognized him and he described it as the bus was going to tip over because they all gathered on the one side of the bus to see him! So they all pile out of the bus and surround him with hugs and adoration. And he loved it!

-He is not interested in those not interested in love.

-He mentioned that he wanted to play the Master and waited by the phone for that call. He lost a lot of weight waiting. Haha

-When he discussed what it was like to come back and do the Big Finish audio, and asking if any other companions would join him now: He said it was nostalgic to bring him back. It was like going back to childhood to when the fans were young so no other companions could come in now that two of the other actresses have passed away.

-When asked about life after Doctor Who, he commented that he may have hung up the scarf but he never stopped being Doctor Who. Nothing he did after Doctor Who was ever as successful.

-On other acting gigs after Doctor Who: he says that he just kept playing the Doctor, It was fun and it was for the fans because he knew any fans that came in, they wanted to see the Doctor, it was for them, not the other actors, which the other actors probably didn't care for. haha But he says if he stopped playing the Doctor, then no one would love and recognize him anymore.

-Discussing watching Doctor Who now:
     -He never even watched his scenes when they aired because he doesn't like watching himself. He merely loved working on it and being a part of it. The job fulfilled him so much and he was unhappy when he wasn't working on it. He loved playing that crazy character!

-He discussed other acting jobs and said he will not take on anything that have violent parts. Those parts don't hold any interest him because he "lives in cloud cukoo land". He believes that heroes live and wants to do gentler things. He wants people to be happy. (I love that he made a Lego Movie reference haha)

-Tom Baker says he's full of affection and he loves meeting people and fans. And that being here, as fans at this convention, confirms his approval of him. heehee

-He currently owns five cats and a dog. Two cats are Burmese and three are Siamese. He recites Shakespeare sonnets to his dog whilst on walks in the woods.

-He once wrote a book in 1999 about a very vile boy who gets it in the end. It's still for sale and being published which he's amazed at. He says it sells very well in the Jewish section of Liverpool.

-He says he's a master of self delusion

-He says no one has failed at playing the Doctor and that anyone can play the role. He says that Johnny Depp could have played the role back in the day.

-If he could play any part in Sherlock in the current incarnation, would he and what part?
   -He's played Sherlock twice already
   -And he played both Holmes and Moriarty in the same play as the plot was that Moriarty had surgery to look like Holmes so Baker had to play both parts. It was written in such a way that the characters weren't on stage together but the audience would get confused as to which character he was at that moment, Holmes or Moriarty?
   -He is very tender towards Watson. And during the show Watson dressed in drag and Baker pretended not to notice.
   -He has read all the Sherlock stories though
   -But no, he would not want to play it anymore. He wants nothing more to do with the character.

-Appearing on Skype must feel much like appearing on the Tardis view screeen. Baker wants to learn how to use Skype more so that he can Skype all his enemies! Ha!

-Have you beaten K9 at chess?
   -No -- But he loved K-9. Though he loved the actor who played K-9 in rehearsals and his voice actor better than the mechanical dog. Especially because that actor would get Baker coffee and such. Ha!
  -He had to be on his knees a lot during any two-shots with K-9 because they couldn't fit them both in on screen otherwise. He disliked that part of it a lot.

-He loves special effects work. It challenges him and it's fun. There was a scene where he had to blow up Daleks and when the strings were coming closer and closer together he said "I can't do this! I love the Daleks! If it was the BBC..." haha The journalists were on set that day. One had a field day with that and the headline the next day in the paper was "Tom Baker has a rat and wants to blow up the BBC!" Well then people tweeted back that they would have liked to as well! Ha!

-Any last words of wisdom for fans?
   -He laughed heartily at this question and said "Beware old men doling out words of wisdom. The world is run largely by old men and look at the state of it!" Big laughs were had at that.
   -He says he has no other words of wisdom though. Just thankful for this opportunity to speak with fans across the pond as he probably won't be able to come over to the states as he gets older.

No, thank you, Mr. Tom Baker! You are awesome, funny, sweet, kind and I can laugh because you have a loveable and infectious laugh! It was a pleasure to have this Skype call with you!

Tom Baker during the Skype call

View of the Skype call from my seat

Before the call started Tom Baker put his stuffed bear to the screen and made him peak out of the screen and such. Adorable.

Tardis cookies

The other weekend I went to RegenWho con in Maryland with friends. In prep for it I made Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies with Tardis sprinkles! I handed them out to people I would meet or already knew and was meeting up with at the con. I wanted, of course, to make cupcakes but time prevented that and traveling through NYC with them was not really an option. So cookies it was!

The Tardis sprinkles were part of a kickstarter I backed that also made steampunk sprinkles (little gears), lightening bolt sprinkles (which are reminiscent for Harry Potter fans) and Meeples which is from a tabletop game. I only had the funds for the Tardis ones. And I absolutely love them!

If you missed the kickstarter though, you can still purchase these geeky sprinkles here! 

Before the oven...

Tardis sprinkles!

What better way to take them out of the oven but with my Tardis spatula!

Finished product!

RengenWho Cosplay

Attended RegenerationWho convention a couple weekends ago and cosplay is a huge part of any convention but I always love it when the whole convention revolves around one of the many geek themes I enjoy. In this case, Doctor Who is the theme! All the people who cosplay are pretty amazing and really talented. I'm sorry I don't have everyone's names on these pics. I was a poor planner and did not ask for names this convention... So sorry! There were also so many I missed taking pics of because I was in line or rushing to a panel or in a panel and couldn't stop to take pics! eeps! But enjoy the cosplayers I did manage to get and their awesome costumes displayed here!

Waiting for the masquerade. So many amazing cosplayers! I can play an eye-spy game -- I spy an Ace, 9th Doctor, 6th Doctor, Cat Nurse, 10th Doctor, Clockwork droid, and so many more!

9th Doctor (Brad Trechak) meets a fem 9th Doctor, Dara Dandrea-Giannotti

Kristin Sirota as the amazing hula-hooping Tardis

The Master

Fem 9th Doctor, Dara Dandrea-Giannotti, and me as Bad Wolf Rose

Masquerade with Clockwork droid

Captain Kyle (Kyle Williamson) as Jackson Lake

Somehow the Doctor regenerated into the Governor! Uh oh. #cosplay #DoctorWho #layer @captainkylephilly

A video posted by Missy Skywalker (@pooh05bear) on Mar 28, 2015 at 12:03pm PDT

Brad as a mashup of 4th Doctor and 6th Doctor and indicating that he's a Zygon

Missy and... Missy?

10th Doctor and Davros

Brad as the 6th Doctor

Brad as 6th Doctor, me as Rose, and Captain Kyle as Jack Harkness

Mini 10th Doctor (Evan) meets mini Dalek (Bumpy w/ Bella inside; via Richard Siegbigteroth)

mini 10th Doctor meets big Dalek and fights him!

Me as Bad Wolf Rose and Brad as 9th Doctor

Brad as Inspector Spacetime and me as Rose

It's just too easy... Vote for me! Erm Missy... I think?

Missy (as Bad Wolf Rose) meets... Missy? Again?? (Johnathan Michael Sternquist)

Davros

Me as Bad Wolf Rose and Brad as 9th Doctor on stage at the masquerade trying to recreate the scene from the "Parting of the Ways" episode.