San Diego Comic-Con 2016, Day 3

OK, all you nerds and nerdettes from waaaaay back in the day, this is where the con starts getting really good! September 2016 marks 50 years since the little sci-fi show that could, Star Trek, made its debut on NBC-TV -- and the world was never the same. It's been watched by civil rights icons, scientists, and presidents. Fans of the show insisted that NASA name America's first reusable space craft after the USS Enterprise.

The big anniversary panel for the show just ended a little bit ago, but the franchise is still going strong. It's one of the most eagerly awaited movies of the summer, and will be coming back to television as part of CBS-TV's new streaming service. It's also been tinged with sorrow of late, with the passing of both Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin, who originated the role of Chekov in the JJ Abrams Trek.  He was by all accounts a sweet and very talented young man whose loss is being keenly felt by his castmates. The outfits I chose to replicate represent male and female starship uniforms in Abrams' movies. The male uniform (in command gold) belongs to an ensign, in honor of Ensign Chekov and the late Anton Yelchin. The female uniform belongs to Zoe Saldana's Lt. Uhura. As ever, live long and prosper!

San Diego Comic-Con 2016, Day 2

It's Friday, and that means the second day of San Diego Comic-Con 2016 is in full swing. There'll be celebrities and nerds and pop culture fiends galore, and I'm insanely jealous that I'm missing it. I'm particularly sad to be missing the panel for AMC's The Walking Dead, as I've been a fan of the comics since my husband pressed the digital collection into my hands shortly after our wedding and told me I needed to catch up.

Fans of the TV show are just now learning what we readers have had a while to digest - Negan is coming and it won't be pretty! No spoilers here, of course; just know that it's going to be gleefully profane and violent and awesome. In honor of the panel I'd be camping out for today, I re-created an iconic look for a fan-favorite character: Michonne. This is the outfit she wore on the cover of issue #19 when she was introduced with her katana and her "pets". Badass in the zombie apocalypse has never looked so good!

San Diego Comic-Con 2016, Day 1

Well, ladies and germs, this is it - the big grandaddy kahuna of the nerd/con scene is upon us! Comic nerds and other sci-fi/fantasy/geek pop culture aficionados of all stripes will descend on Southern California to cosplay, mingle, see and be seen. Today is day 1 and not even the actual weekend yet, but there's still plenty on the schedule of events to take in. Since I am cleverly disguised this year as a responsible adult who can't actually take off work to make the con, I figured I'd live vicariously through my crafty creations.

This is my first costume of the weekend, and I was inspired by the simplicity of this panel's title - "Cosplaying 101". Supergirl is rapidly becoming one of my favorite members of the capes-and-tights set on TV, so I decided to create her iconic outfit, as worn by Melissa Benoist in her portrayal of Kara Danvers/Supergirl.  There'll be more geeky goodness to follow during this Comic-Con weekend (an outfit a day), so stay tuned!

Happy birthday America!

For this last day of the long Independence Day weekend, I could've certainly gone for an easy outfit. Captain America, Betsy Ross, Wonder Woman...all would have made perfectly cromulent cosplays. But I didn't. I decided to dig a little deeper.

For the past month, I've been obsessed with the cast recording of the musical Hamilton. In fact, I was kinda tardy to the party on this, cuz I was a bit scared to step outside my comfort zone (musically) and allow myself to enjoy hip-hop. I'm sorry it took me so long, but over the moon that I get to enjoy such an amazing story. I saw the performances the company gave at both the Grammys and the Tonys, cried at Lin-Manuel Miranda's acceptance speech for Original Score, and decided that I needed to memorialize part of how crazy good this whole thing is.

So here it is, the gorgeous blue frock that Phillipa Soo wears as Eliza in "The Schuyler Sisters". It's their first appearance in the show, and it's been said that these girls were pretty much the Revolutionary equivalent of the Kardashians. The little lace bits at the neck and sleeves were hard but beautiful, and ultimately worth the trouble. Sounds like my favorite country, come to think of it...

First dress in the virtual closet...

So I'm finally getting this page off the ground, with an initial post that I'm really proud of. I plan on including clothes in this blog that I would love to wear but can't for any number of reasons - for one thing, I'm too poor/impatient to be able to sew my own clothes the way my awesome sister-in-law does, lol! But I also plan on taking the word "cosplay" seriously in this space. There will be superheroes, Jedis, aliens, and maybe even a teensy metallic slave bikini - if I can find the right material and do it with a straight face!

But for right now, I'm starting my online fashion show simply, with a character I never thought I'd adore. I first fell into vicious, helpless lust (erm, love) with January Jones during her amazing turn as Emma Frost in X-Men: First Class. So imagine my joy when I discovered 4 years later that I could mainline Betty Draper's chilly perfection while binge-watching Mad Men on Netflix! That entire show was an inspiration to me, but particularly watching Ms. Jones breathe life into Betty's suburban ennui. And the costumes were SO. GOOD! Believe me, in between the geeky goodness to come on this blog, there will also be more Betty, and Joanie, and my spirit-animal herself, Peggy Olsen.

The pictures below show what can be done with a bit of patience, inspiration, good crafting tools, and a steadfast refusal to hurry any of the process. The image I based the dress on was a promotional shot for Mad Men; I'm not sure what season it was taken for, but I loved the way it seemed like a moment out of time. It was clearly the early 60s (who wears gloves anymore, for goodness' sake?!), but that dress would still be charmingly appropriate in any formal office setting in the year of our Lord 2016. I loved the way this turned out, and I'm dying to see what my imagination and my X-acto knife will show me next!