Sketching Ideas ~ Enterprise Poodle Skirt

I'm not a fashion designer. I've never taken anything more than my 8th grade sewing class. I have no idea how the professionals do it, but this is how I start on new ideas. Some notebook paper and scribbles till I get an idea of what I want. This is me kicking around an idea of an Enterprise Dress. I have a couple different ideas on what to do with the top and I haven't quite settled on any one of them yet. Most of my designs get this far, but no farther. Next step will be to continue to doodle until I get just what I'm looking for. Then maybe I'll peruse my box of patterns, tho honestly I rarely use patterns. Poodle skirt would be easy, its a big circle with a hole in the middle. I think the top would be a modified thrift store find. If I go with the sweater set then I really don't want to have to knit the whole thing myself. I'm a slow knitter. I'd rather modify something else.

Some Google Images pictures of the Enterprise and of Poodle Skirts. Again, I just searched these online, I didn't create any of the following images.

And found this while searching for "Star Trek Poodle Skirts". I love nerds :D

K9! How adorable is that :D

What to do and Who to be?

I'm a big girl. Not that I'm grown up, although, yeah, I guess I'm grown up. I mean that when picking out costumes and characters to cosplay, I have to keep in mind I ain't no size 3. You will not see me Cosplaying as Slave Girl Leia. One day when I'm half the girl I am now I'd love to get a Classic Star Trek mini skirt/dress thing, but not today.

So what should I cosplay as? I've drawn up some possibilities, but I need more ideas. NOTE: None of these images are mine. I got them searching Google Images. No idea who the credit goes to for them.

~Donna Noble~

Regular Outfit

Wedding Dress

Or Donna in Pompeii

The Pros: It would be a fairly easy outfit to put together. It's all "Normal" clothes. Not much needs to be made. I could prolly find nearly everything at Goodwill or some other thrift store.

The Cons: It's rather normal looking. Not much of a costume if I could wear it to work and not get a second glance. Except for the wedding dress. I think my boss might have something to say about that. I'd prolly never get recognized except at a Whovian convention. And let's be honest here, I do it for the recognition.

~Rule 63 Jabba the Hutt~

Don't google that. I mean it, just don't.

It was an idea, but no. How do you girl-ify Jabba? Put a bow on his/her head? And I don't think my self esteem could take the hit of dressing up as Mr. Lardbutt himself. (Rule 63 states that for every male fictional character, there is a female version of it. Same for female to male) Google image search was gross and I'm not gonna do it.

~Cheery Littlebottom~

Pros: She's a character from a book so the rules regarding her are so much looser than those of a movie or tv character. And she's from a series of popular books, so the cool kids would recognize her. And I get to wear a beard :D

Cons: I'm not afraid of research, but a literary character will be difficult to get across visually. Oh, and I have to wear a beard :P

~Adipose~

Fat cells have never been more adorable.

Pros: Very recognizable. And cute. Don't forget cute.

Cons: The only way I see this getting pulled off well is for it to be a full suit. Fursuit style. I much like making full suits and don't really like wearing them either. Adipose work better as a prop stuffed animal, not a full outfit.

~Tardis/Enterprise~

Tardis dresses have become a Thing. There are no hard and fast rules regarding them, as long as you look at it and go "Huh. That's a Tardis dress".

This one I recognize. You can find the Tardis Princess on facebook.

But I'm thinking why does the Tardis get to have all the fun? What about my girl NCC-1701-D? Otherwise known as the Enterprise from Star Trek: TNG. (No images found because I guess "Enterprise Dress" isn't a thing. I need to fix that. Oooo! How about a Serenity dress too?)

Pros: No one can say your doing it wrong. Unless you misspell Police Box. Then you're probably doing it wrong.

Cons: How do you make an Enterprise dress? Other than that...umm...I'm not sure. Let me think on it and see if I come up with any other cons.

~The Bowler~

Pros: Again a costume that would be easy enough to pull together. Modifying thrift store finds is a lot of fun. The ball would be the hardest prop to find, I think.

Cons: Well the ball. The idea is not to spend to very much money. Or any money at all :) And this is a character from a movie made in 1999, and I don't think the movie did all that well at the time. And I'm not too sure I could pull off the Bowler all that well. I could try, but I don't think I'd look all that good doing it.

Well those are the ideas I've come up with since last night. I'm still thinking, but

Creativity Strikes at 3 in the Morning.

I couldn't sleep last night. That in itself was odd, I don't usually suffer from sleepless nights. Lay on the bed and I'm out before my head hits the pillow. Last night, however, my mind just wouldn't shut up. I'd spent the evening looking at Cosplay pictures from Comic Con and Dragon Con, and I was afire with creativity! I want to sew and I want to sew NAOW! So to shut myself up, I've created this blog for costuming and cosplay.

A bit of background. I've been a Civil War Re-enactor for years. Don't make me count the years, it just makes me feel old. Suffice it to say I've been doing it since high school.

Aren't I cute! Photo by Tom George Davison. Check him out at
here!

That gave me my first taste of costuming and garb. It also has shaped how I approach costuming. I always have an itch to make it more authentic. Even when working on my fantasy costumes. I maybe be making a dress for an Elven Princess, but it will be the most AUTHENTIC Elven Princess this side of Middle Earth. Weird, I know. I didn't get much sleep last night so this post is going to be a bit weird.

Shortly after high school I saw some people playing something in the local park. Not unusually but what caught my attention was they were all dressed up in crazy costumes. I didn't care what they were doing, I wanted to play too. So I joined Belegarth for a couple years. Up till then I hadn't shown much interest in costuming. I liked to sew, but Civil War clothes have so many rules to them. Belegarth was fantasy! I could do what ever I wanted to!

Actually this is a picture of the game NERO, I can't find any of
my old pics of Belegarth.

 Unfortunately, I was also fresh out of high school with next to no money, so the costuming I came up with was usually made out of the cheapest cotton broadcloth I could find. That and patched together out of remanent bits. I also promptly forgot everything I ever learned in sewing class. I made so many mistakes but the ones that haunt me to this day is the white shirt I sewed together with black thread. I was lazy and didn't want to change out the thread on the sewing machine. I loved that shirt. Still have it to this day. I even tried to dress it up later and added black embroidery to the neck line so the black stitching would look on purpose.

After Belegarth I drifted for a bit. Still did Civil War cause that is a family thing, but not much fantasy. I made the occasional Ren Fair dress for fun, but only got to use it once or twice a year. Dressed up for movie premieres when I went to the theater with friends because that's how we roll, but that was about it. Then about three years ago my sister and her fiance started to do some Live Action Role Play (LARP) that he used to do years ago. I had an excuse to make costumes again! We've had so much fun making our outfits, we've started making more for our friends. Just for the joy of it.

So that's where I am. I like making costumes, but in no way whatsoever am I a professional, or even good at it. I just like it is all.