Roll for partial success!
Jun. 23rd, 2009 06:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
omorkaSo, I think I have a costume, more or less.
None of it is perfect. I'm going to have to learn to sew for that. (And possibly have to learn to make patterns, although I suspect that there is a serviceable jumpsuit pattern out there somewhere.) But it's all good enough, and since this is a hall costume, not a masquerade entry, good enough is a stopping point.
Went out this afternoon (well, yesterday afternoon at this point, but I'm nocturnal again, so I haven't slept yet, thus it is still logical Monday by my internal calendar) in search of shoes that would do and the correct elbow pads. I ended up with two pairs of shoes - one pair of monochrome black high-top sneakers, and one pair of heavy-soled monochrome black workboots. Neither is perfect, again - the correct boots are monochrome black military surplus jungle boots, which I cannot find anywhere in my size, because I have girly-girl feet and apparently women with girly-girl feet do not join the Army in sufficient numbers for their suppliers to make extra shoes in my size. But the workboots are close enough - part of the upper is black canvas rather than something shiny, which isn't right, but the body of the shoe and the soles are right, and they'll look fine as long as someone doesn't decide to study my feet. I got the sneakers because I do not currently own a pair of high-tops at all, and if I decide to, say, go to the dance, I'd like to have something that won't mess up the overall look of the costume but won't be incredibly clumsy.
I couldn't find elbow pads with a circular pad area, much less one with the correct three ridges across, so
I got the closest thing I could find, and I will attempt to sew something like three straight lines (ulp) across, then dye them gray. This required that I also pick up a packet of Rit dye. This may get complicated. This also, in turn, required that I buy latex gloves. (One nice thing about the cartoon suits, as opposed to the movie ones, is that they don't require the heavy black gloves; Ray wears them in all of about five episodes, and Peter in maybe one, and the others never wear them at all.)
I also need to sew and then iron on the patches for the jumpsuit. I suppose I could just do a really good job sewing them on and not bother with the ironing, but I do not trust my sewing skills that much.
But at the end of all this, I will have a reasonable approximation of the uniform Janine is wearing in two of her first three appearances in the 'Buster jumpsuit/Venkman's regular jumpsuit from the cartoon.
Now I need to think about accessorizing, if I'm going to wear this again.And how I'm going to manage a correct first-movie suit. And the version Janine wears in the later seasons, when she has a uniform of her own. And whether a second-movie suit is even possible.
None of it is perfect. I'm going to have to learn to sew for that. (And possibly have to learn to make patterns, although I suspect that there is a serviceable jumpsuit pattern out there somewhere.) But it's all good enough, and since this is a hall costume, not a masquerade entry, good enough is a stopping point.
Went out this afternoon (well, yesterday afternoon at this point, but I'm nocturnal again, so I haven't slept yet, thus it is still logical Monday by my internal calendar) in search of shoes that would do and the correct elbow pads. I ended up with two pairs of shoes - one pair of monochrome black high-top sneakers, and one pair of heavy-soled monochrome black workboots. Neither is perfect, again - the correct boots are monochrome black military surplus jungle boots, which I cannot find anywhere in my size, because I have girly-girl feet and apparently women with girly-girl feet do not join the Army in sufficient numbers for their suppliers to make extra shoes in my size. But the workboots are close enough - part of the upper is black canvas rather than something shiny, which isn't right, but the body of the shoe and the soles are right, and they'll look fine as long as someone doesn't decide to study my feet. I got the sneakers because I do not currently own a pair of high-tops at all, and if I decide to, say, go to the dance, I'd like to have something that won't mess up the overall look of the costume but won't be incredibly clumsy.
I couldn't find elbow pads with a circular pad area, much less one with the correct three ridges across, so
I got the closest thing I could find, and I will attempt to sew something like three straight lines (ulp) across, then dye them gray. This required that I also pick up a packet of Rit dye. This may get complicated. This also, in turn, required that I buy latex gloves. (One nice thing about the cartoon suits, as opposed to the movie ones, is that they don't require the heavy black gloves; Ray wears them in all of about five episodes, and Peter in maybe one, and the others never wear them at all.)
I also need to sew and then iron on the patches for the jumpsuit. I suppose I could just do a really good job sewing them on and not bother with the ironing, but I do not trust my sewing skills that much.
But at the end of all this, I will have a reasonable approximation of the uniform Janine is wearing in two of her first three appearances in the 'Buster jumpsuit/Venkman's regular jumpsuit from the cartoon.
Now I need to think about accessorizing, if I'm going to wear this again.
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-23 02:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-24 12:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-23 06:18 pm (UTC)Didn't have a camera with me, unfortunately.
Was especially funny when they posed against the Vampire LARP people--then when they were in the costume contest during the day and were lounging around waiting the results with Kosh and Ivanova from Babylon 5 (also dead ringers).
no subject
Date: 2009-06-24 06:38 am (UTC)If they were second movie or cartoon costumes, then I'd like to know where they got the suits, too.
There are several costumers' websites that talk about how to build your own proton pack, although again, they're mostly the movie versions (the cartoon versions are actually a a lot sleeker).
no subject
Date: 2009-06-23 08:55 pm (UTC)IOW, you're not entering it in a Worldcon masquerade; it doesn't have to be a completely, absolutely perfect reproduction. "Close enough to look good at a casual glance" is perfectly acceptable, because casual glances are mostly what you're going to be getting.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-23 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-24 06:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-24 05:11 am (UTC)I have that same kind of OCD on some of my projects.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-24 12:20 pm (UTC)