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Hey look, costuming content!
Our hillbilly themed booth at the National Homebrewers Conference was a hit. We even had genuine moonshine on hand for authenticity. A lot of the work we put into gathering props kind of got wasted. We were sharing a 10x10 space with another club that had as many kegs as we did (about 10), but luckily no food and no props. We spent time putting together a weathered looking sign out of a slat from our privacy fence and a piece of particle board. I got some black paint and sloppily painted some mountain peaks with smoke rising from them and the words Smokey Mountain Breakdown at the top. At the bottom corners, I painted banjo in one and a set of three moonshine jugs in the other. The idea was to use duct tape and cardboard scraps to make a list of the beers we had on tap at the time. The plan was to set it up in a paint can full of pea gravel, but the sign wound up not getting used. It wouldn't stay standing and couldn't really be seen from behind us. Not to mention the lights kept going out on it. I couldn't find any pink plastic flamingos, but did find some lights that looked like they might have been stolen off someone's RV trailer. I also picked up a small garden gnome, some really cheap and crappy looking silk flowers, and a small toy banjo and guitar. We had bluegrass blasting from an ipod the whole time (though you couldn't hear it much over the dull roar of the crowd on club night). Hickerson had picked up some fake beards for the guys (as in ZZ Top looking beards, down to their waists). He also snagged some toy riffles and a few extra corn cob pipes. Chris had gotten some straw hats and corn cob pipes as well. We all went barefoot and rolled up our jeans a bit. We actually didn't forget our camera for once. The only problem was, we forgot the batteries. I've only found one picture of us up on Flickr so far, though I know lots were taken (well, we posed for a lot anyway).
A bunch of hillbilly A.S.S.es (our club name is Antioch Sud Suckers). Top left is me of course, then moving right is Chris, Carl, Tom and Kyle is on the bottom row. I'm not sure where Hickerson was when this was taken. Possibly manning the booth while we ran around acting like idiots. In Carl's hand you can see the jar of moonshine. We had a piece of duct tape labeling it "Light American Lager". The jar was empty by the end of the night. We had a blast and are planning to go again next year, even though it's in San Francisco. We might not bother with a booth (trying to get props across the country would be nuts), but we'll at least attend.
With less than three weeks left in July and just under two months after that, I'm getting panicky. I've procrastinated, always feeling like other things were more important and now I'm running out of time. My originally ambitious list has shrunk by half, maybe even less than half. I'm now just hoping to finish the Angel gown, put finishing touches and make a couple of adjustments to the Blood Red gown and the Dream gown and possibly squeeze in Rosie Cotton's Blue Party Dress before the end of September. The weekend right before ALEP, I believe, we'll be in Asheville (hopefully), so I won't have that weekend for last minute sewing. My Angel gown mockup is nearly done. I need to do another fitting with the under and overgowns together, then do the sleeves for the overgown and then I can start on the final dress. I still need some beads and embroidery thread to finish the neckline trim. Then there's all that edge beading. I'm feeling ambitious by saying that I'm hoping to have all but the detail work done by the end of July.
Then, if I can spend August on Rosie and the three weeks in September to do hand/detail work and make the necessary adjustments and finishing touches on all four costumes, then I'll be mighty happy. I'm thinking I can possibly take a shortcut on Rosie by making a working mockup and dyeing it. Since it seems the fabrics are various weights of cotton, I think I can get a few different weights of muslin and dye the finished garments. Must remember to prewash muslin. I don't think there's much detail to Rosie's outfit. There's some lace on the bodice I think and maybe some quilting to the bodice (it might be matelasse but I'm not going to spend time looking for it). Other than that, it looks very simple. I've got a blouse pattern in my stash that I think will work and possibly even a pattern for the bodice. Everything else should be very simple and no patterns needed. Granted I won't be a very convincing 6 foot tall hobbit, but oh well. I've always liked that dress and haven't done any research on hobbit clothes yet, so this should be fun.
On the Blood Red gown, I sewed the neckline about a half inch too low on the sleeve caps and it pulls down off the shoulders a bit. I need to fix that and hand sew the trims on, put a zipper in the overgown and finally finish hemming the overgown that I never got around to almost a year ago. The dream gown mostly needs hemming done, but I think I noticed last time I really looked at it that one side of the outer back panel was not tacked down like the other one. A zipper would be nice, but I'm not going to kill myself to try to get one in. It slips over my head easily enough.
It can all be done, but I don't have a great track record for finishing costumes in a pinch. Wish me luck! I know a lot of you are starting to feel the pinch of Dragon Con as well!
A bunch of hillbilly A.S.S.es (our club name is Antioch Sud Suckers). Top left is me of course, then moving right is Chris, Carl, Tom and Kyle is on the bottom row. I'm not sure where Hickerson was when this was taken. Possibly manning the booth while we ran around acting like idiots. In Carl's hand you can see the jar of moonshine. We had a piece of duct tape labeling it "Light American Lager". The jar was empty by the end of the night. We had a blast and are planning to go again next year, even though it's in San Francisco. We might not bother with a booth (trying to get props across the country would be nuts), but we'll at least attend.
With less than three weeks left in July and just under two months after that, I'm getting panicky. I've procrastinated, always feeling like other things were more important and now I'm running out of time. My originally ambitious list has shrunk by half, maybe even less than half. I'm now just hoping to finish the Angel gown, put finishing touches and make a couple of adjustments to the Blood Red gown and the Dream gown and possibly squeeze in Rosie Cotton's Blue Party Dress before the end of September. The weekend right before ALEP, I believe, we'll be in Asheville (hopefully), so I won't have that weekend for last minute sewing. My Angel gown mockup is nearly done. I need to do another fitting with the under and overgowns together, then do the sleeves for the overgown and then I can start on the final dress. I still need some beads and embroidery thread to finish the neckline trim. Then there's all that edge beading. I'm feeling ambitious by saying that I'm hoping to have all but the detail work done by the end of July.
Then, if I can spend August on Rosie and the three weeks in September to do hand/detail work and make the necessary adjustments and finishing touches on all four costumes, then I'll be mighty happy. I'm thinking I can possibly take a shortcut on Rosie by making a working mockup and dyeing it. Since it seems the fabrics are various weights of cotton, I think I can get a few different weights of muslin and dye the finished garments. Must remember to prewash muslin. I don't think there's much detail to Rosie's outfit. There's some lace on the bodice I think and maybe some quilting to the bodice (it might be matelasse but I'm not going to spend time looking for it). Other than that, it looks very simple. I've got a blouse pattern in my stash that I think will work and possibly even a pattern for the bodice. Everything else should be very simple and no patterns needed. Granted I won't be a very convincing 6 foot tall hobbit, but oh well. I've always liked that dress and haven't done any research on hobbit clothes yet, so this should be fun.
On the Blood Red gown, I sewed the neckline about a half inch too low on the sleeve caps and it pulls down off the shoulders a bit. I need to fix that and hand sew the trims on, put a zipper in the overgown and finally finish hemming the overgown that I never got around to almost a year ago. The dream gown mostly needs hemming done, but I think I noticed last time I really looked at it that one side of the outer back panel was not tacked down like the other one. A zipper would be nice, but I'm not going to kill myself to try to get one in. It slips over my head easily enough.
It can all be done, but I don't have a great track record for finishing costumes in a pinch. Wish me luck! I know a lot of you are starting to feel the pinch of Dragon Con as well!