Quorra TRON: Part 3 R3CONFIGUR3D

"Hey Jackie, are you going to build anything new or are you just going to keep re-doing the same stuff you've done over and over again?"

A little bit of column A, a little bit of column B....
I like getting things right the first time and in this hobby that doesn't always happen especially when you're trying new materials and processes for the first time. That means I have to re-do them until I'm happy with it!
Quorra has been a lesson in that. Mistakes. Failures. Success. Rinse. Repeat. Oh and lights, lots of lights.
This time I think I am 99% happy with the outcome. I'm mostly done with the sewing and about to hand it off to G to do the lights.  Oh and we bought a helmet from a guy on the RPF named Crimson490 after our mold broke last year right before con. The guy does some great work, I am super pleased with this helmet. (when I find if he has a FB or something I'll link it) I have also passed that on to G to put lights in and shine up. G gets to do all the dirty work.

I was (and still am) working with limited quantities of material and trying to stay on a "budget" since con is approaching and I'm actually trying to make more money than  I spend this year.
I tore apart the old Quorra costume I had as a pattern (QV.2 RIP) and made it a little bigger just in case. When working with limited materials, better to have to cut more off than not have enough. I was also going from a not stretchy material to a 4way fabric so I wanted some room to mess around with the fit.
This is my most favorite part of this whole costume and of sewing in general. The fitting!! I feel like I'm sculpting with fabric. I pinned my material down in it's appropriate spots, wrong side up and started pinning and tucking. I do it this way so I can draw on it if needed with chalk and so when I pin everything and go to sew, my seams are all done for me and I don't have to flip everything the opposite direction.

 

I was beyond ecstatic to be using a 4way stretch material this time instead of the kind-of-maybe-on-a-good-day-stretches-a-little-bit vinyl I used the last two times. This is a matte 4way and it looks perfectly rubbery which fits what I was going for exactly. I waited to sew the general fit of the whole suit before I cut out the chest pieces so I could draw that part on there once everything was the shape it was going to stay. When you have cut outs like this, you don't want anything changing how they lay or are positioned.

Sewed that all up. Did some fittings on myself and the dress form with the shirt underneath and then it was time to fit the disc mount. Garrick made a new buck for his vacuform table that was more even this time. Cut that out and fit it to where I wanted it. I decided to keep the whole underpiece of the disc mount since she looks like she has a tiny "turtle" pack under her disc.

I have since made it a little tighter fitting (my dress form has wider shoulders and "ribs" than I do even thought I set it to my measurements. Just a quirk I guess) so it would have less ripples in it. I also didn't want to make it too tight since when the lights go on it a lot of the stretch will be disabled do to the EL tape. I also am going to be putting the skirt part on after the lights go on since I had some placement issues do to doing the skirt first last time.

I did try something new with this. I was really concerned about using too much velcro around the neck area and having it be bulky looking but I needed a way to stabilize that area from stretching too much or at all. So I decided to try out some fusable interfacing! Never used this stuff before since I've never made a collar that's needed it. It's weird. It's also awesome. I wasn't expecting it to stretch in one direction so I had to plan around that. I also wasn't expecting the test piece to stick to my steaming cloth. I think the directions should have been a little more specific. Or I need to learn how to read...who's counting?! No more moving or puckering on that cut out! Whoo hoo! I did put some velcro in two spots to keep it held down, but not nearly as much as I thought I would.

This is on the back side of the fabric btw

I am using the same boots because they're awesome, the same pants (they are also awesome), and gloves (they need a repair but are thirdly awesome). I'll post more updates when G does the lights and helmet.

I know I usually post music I was listening to while I work and I'm still going to do that, but I don't know if Quorra would really listen to it. I needed some motivation and inspiration lately and this completely UN-likely source did the trick and gave me a new favorite artist. Macklemore is a really inspiring guy who is not afraid to call out his entire genre on their prejudices and inconsistencies. Thank you for reminding me that I do like hip-hop when it's not all about strippers, blow, and gold. Although he does have a song about gold, not feeling that one, but you get what I mean.
Quorra might like him, who knows :)

Back to Deadpool and Monarch repairs now....
I'll show you what G and I have been working on for Meredith when he puts up his post. She just launched her kickstarter for Hinges, check it out here.
Here's a preview of what we are working on:

Raksa the paper tiger

Birthdays, Daft Punk, TRON, and Paintball

This week's post is a little different than my normal posts because it's about my mad cake decorating skillz!!
Let's be real, that statement is a joke. I tried! I thought I would show that I do things other than make costumes in my free time. I guess I didn't preface this with "other things I do well", it's http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7785699815060139987#editor/target=post;postID=6775976128030834499just "other things" for now. Since most of my time goes to that nerdy hobby, my other hobbies/activities suffer...(MGS4 I will finish you this year...) Now onto my first adventures with fondant and making light discs out of it.

It was Garrick's Birthday last week! Happy Birthday Monster!<3



We had a party and there was cake....and beer...and unexpectedly porn....thanks to our friends' awesome present of Pintsize and Winslow from QC with Pintsize holding a batman porn, because Pintsize always has porn...

I thought I would redeem myself and try to re-make the cake I made Garrick last year. Every year I make Garrick a themed cake usually of whatever he's obsessed with at the moment made with his super-secret-birthday-cake recipe  Most come out pretty awesome (companion cube, ghostbuster symbol, light disk part 2) some don't (dark tower and light disk part 1).
Last year I thought "how cool would it be to make a light disc into a cake?!" Since we were using so much EL I thought it would be even better to make it light up. Well I was wrong. It was a sticky glowing mess. I should have used fondant but I thought "no icing will keep the EL in place better, I can even use that blue gel icing to make it look like it's in the cake!" I was very wrong, again. It was awful. I was embarrassed for Garrick.

This year was a little better....



At least you can tell what it is. I wanted to put EL on it but we ran out of time and I figured I shouldn't tempt fate twice. I even drew the lines on it with edible silver dust!!Look how fancy-pantsy I am.
**note If you are actually going to try to make your own fondant, go on the stiffer side and add more powdered sugar. I think I could have gotten straighter lines if I had added a little more. Especially if you are dying it a dark color like I did. You will have to add extra. My mixer was protesting and heating up since I had to make two batches. so i backed off since I didn't want to kill it.**

I had some left over fondant and decided to make two special cupcakes for our friend Ron who's birthday was a week or so before.



Should have taken pictures of them before everyone started drinking....oh well!
(Don't hate on my MS Paint skills all you tech-savvy photoshop users...I'm keeping technology old school.)

Oh and we went paint balling with Deb and Paul (yay!!)
And I got one of these...



in my armpit...

Btw, I'm thinking of doing a new theme for my paintball gear, MGS foxhound inspired...let me know if you have other awesome ideas!!

Quorra v.20

Before you say anything yes I'm still working on it. Life has gotten in the way and I WILL have this done for PHXCC this year, no exceptions! Garrick is helping me with the helmet (by helping I mean doing all of the parts I don't like, i.e. sanding, sanding, and more sanding) and is going to try to cast it before we work on the final version for me.

What makes this version different is the fact that I actually had a dress from to work with that my wonderful friend Shannon let me borrow.You may be thinking,  "Gee Jackie, don't most seamstresses NEED a dressform?" Yes. I just like doing things the hard way... I also got a bigger sewing desk so my back doesn't feel like it's 80 yrs old when I'm done hunching on the floor for hours. We are in the market for a male and female dress form now, yay!!
Garrick also updated the costume by vac-u-forming the disc hub, now we have additional storage for batteries and it doesn't look like it was cobbled together from QT cups....which it was. We also decided to bite the bullet and just use EL tape. It looks soooo much better! I also made a new shirt that is a better "black" it has a better feel and texture to it.

So here is my progress thus far. We have to do the sleeves, the helmet, and I'm going to get a new light disk that's white instead of blue. I'm using my same boots because they're awesome but I did get a new wig that I cut myself and am pretty damn proud of! Garrick is going to make a "program" costume for himself, he just hasn't decided on the final designs.

Back


(Yes I know it's a Rinzler disk, It was the closest one to me and I was too excited to find the Quorra one)

Front



Both of these have the lights on them now, they're just in boxes and I don't have the dress form to display them on. Once I finish the sleeves I'll take some completed pictures.

New wig!!