Weekend

We saw a http://www.reagleplayers.com/ production of 42nd Street on Friday. Such a great show! The music and dancing and costumes and sets were great. Its definitely up there as one of my favorite musicals (as far as traditional cheezy Broadway goes). Brian enjoyed it a lot (there is a lot of T&A, which helps) so I was glad for that too.

The rest of the weekend was spent doing a lot of costuming for Dragoncon. I spent all of Saturday trying to craft the front of the bra top and thought I almost had it, only to find that nothing I did all day worked - damn womanly curves!. I wanted to throw my machine out the window. Brian spent some time on Sunday morning with me working on it, and it took him hours to figure it out. I guess I don't feel so bad now given that he had similar difficulties. My strengths lie in concrete absolutes where his lie in vague creativity, so I guess we complement each other well - I didn't even know where to begin approaching our problems. By midnight he had the front pattern squared away and I had the gloves and armband done sans paint for the pearl beads. I'm hoping to paint tonight and take some pictures. Somewhere in the middle of all of that we met up with some friends and an out of town 501st member from the Midwest Garrison. Geek is universal. :)

The bow is looking awesome! Brian built it up and it was ready for paint, but then he decided with some friends that sure, there would be time to get the various LED lights in there. He ripped it apart again and he'll spend tonight with some friends after a trip to U-Do-It Electronics setting up some kind of circuit board or something. The thing is HUGE - its a good thing we're driving to the con, because there is no way this would come on a plane with us.

Overall this has been one crazy project, but its been fun. I'm feeling better about getting it done in time.

Dita and Freddies

"Frederick's of Hollywood is taking its 2007-08 Holiday collection back to the vintage era of glamour goddesses and dream dames! To help unveil the company's upcoming "Pin-Up Parade" Holiday campaign, the lingerie legend has commissioned burlesque bombshell Dita Von Teese as its cover girl. The Pin-Up Parade is Von Teese's first print collaboration with an American lingerie purveyor as well as a historical landmark for Frederick's of Hollywood. In its sixty-year history, this is the first campaign to feature a celebrity on its iconic catalog cover. " www.Dita.net

Whoot! :)

Bedazzler

Do any of my crafty friends in the Boston area have something akin to the Bedazzler ala the 80's?

I wasn't going to plan on putting all of the hand painting and beading onto this Inara bodice, but in case I have time I figured I'd inquire of you all. Have you used something like this on fabric before? Was it effective? Can you find supplies locally/easily (i.e. no time for mail order) and do they carry pearl like buttons for it (i.e. not just the rhinestones)?

I don't need a lot of them, but it sure may make application easier (and if one of you has one I could borrow it would be very cool). Here's an example of what they'd be used for on the bra, not the armband

Or do you think it would be easier by hand? I've never used rhinestones or anything of that nature before. I'm not looking for fancy - just something that look sort of like white pearls.

Here's the painted detailing on the back . I need some gold paint markers.

Inara Jewels

A few pics of mine. Link goes to the first one (click 'next' three times):
http://www.marmontianderson.com/photos/displayimage.php?album=10&pos=6

They aren't exact but the gloves are close enough for me. I'm not so happy with the armband, but I used what I had left from the handflowers (I should have bought one more). Given that it will show on the outside of my arm and given that I wasn't going for 100% accuracy its fine with me.

I bought 3 handflowers from a bellydance vendor and painted some of the beads with white pearl paint to try and mimic the originals. You can see them here:
http://serenifly.tripod.com/serenityinara6.html