Destination Star Trek

Back at the beginning of the year Showmasters announced Destination Star Trek which was scheduled to be on the weekend of my birthday. After much thought I decided to get tickets and go as it was all the way up in Birmingham.

On the Friday Matt and I headed up to a travel lodge where we stayed for a couple of nights before heading to spend the Sunday and Monday with Laura and Sammi over in Nottingham.

I woke up on Saturday and got ready and finally put on my Star Trek skant that I had made earlier in the year. You can see the making of that here. I was so pleased with how it turned out and I couldn’t wait to get there. We headed off super early on the Saturday morning to the arena and got in really quickly compared to London Film and Comic Con. I had a photoshoot with William Shatner on the bridge of the enterprise first thing, so I got that done and I was super happy with how that turned out.

After that we went to a talk called ‘For the Love of Spock’ where Leonard Nimoy’s son talked about his father and the documentary that he made. It was fascinating to listen to him speak about his father as much to my dismay I will never get to meet him, and was a lovely tribute to him.

Afterwards we decided to also go to the George Takei talk too, which was fantastic. He is a living legend and hearing him talk so passionately about LGBT issues and how he struggled for years was really inspiring. It was also great to hear stories from behind the scenes when they were making Star Trek. 

We did have a look around the stalls but to be honest, they were very disappointing. I was expecting something more like perhaps when we have been to smaller shows like Brighton Film and Comic Con (I excitedly took all my birthday money), but there was very little there. Luckily and also unluckily the queues for everything were SO bad that we didn’t have much sitting around time so at least we didn’t get bored. Well except for being in queues.

They did have an art exhibition and a ‘museum’ area where they had props displayed and that was cool to look at. Some of the artwork was absolutely stunning. Towards the end of the day I took part in breaking the world record of most people in star trek costumes in one room which we beat which was awesome and I ended the show by getting to meet the legend himself George Takei with a photo-shoot.

After the show shut we queued up to attend ‘Shatner World’ which was pretty much William Shatner just talking about himself for a solid two hours. It was pretty entertaining and funny and I just had to have the full William Shatner experience. I’m not 100% what I actually watched but it certainly was an experience. That man defiantly will never have any self-confidence issues in his life haha!

We then headed to Wagamas on the way home, had a little birthday dinner and went and chilled out in the hotel room.

I did enjoy the day and I treasure the photos and experiences that I had there, but I really don’t think the event itself was worth traveling all that way and also the price alone to get in was crazy expensive. I don’t think I would attend a Destination Star Trek again in the future, but I am glad I did it and hey not many people if any can say they meet William Shatner on the bridge of the enterprise on their birthday!! 

Totoro dress cosplay.

It has been a while since I have updated on here! It’s been quiet for me socially and insanely stressful and busy for me work wise, so all free time as been spent trying to relax and have some me time. Also I have rediscovered my love for Tumblr and a lot of of my free time and passion has been sucked up there. Actually I have found a new fandom that has fueled my inner fan girl and that too has sucked up my time.. I might write about it on here soon.

Work wise (I work as a designer for a publishing company) I have spent the last year redesigning the magazine. Last week we went to press with the first issue and it was really exciting but also a lot of pressure. However it is all done now and we are going back to a more normal pace of life as of this week thank goodness. It will be busy still for a few weeks but it should be ok!

So I am feeling quite proud of myself because I finished my big redesign and I also made a new Cosplay yaaay! Oooh smooth transition to the topic of this post!

My friends are having a fancy dress party in October with an 80’s movie theme. Matt doesn’t like to dress up so I was trying to think of something we could do together that would be subtle for him. I then suddenly remember that Totoro was out in 1988 and we could do that together as it is one of my favourite films.

That was months and months ago but October is fast approaching and I thought, bugger I need to make costume asap! So last weekend I finally started to buy some bits and pieces. I bought lots from hobby craft which included:

• Googly eyes
• Pompoms
• Glue gun
• Felt
• Wire
• Interfacing
• Dress pattern
• 22inch zip
• Plastic leaf

I also got some nice grey fabric and some cream velour type fabric, and then last weekend I set to work. I started by measuring myself and then cutting out the dress pattern and then I cut it straight out of the fabric. I was a little lazy this time and didn’t make a test dress first. I ended up with so much extra fabric I was confident that if it went wrong I had enough to cut new parts. This was my first attempt with using a dress pattern, I decided to go with a pattern to make it easier for me rather than trying to guess as I went along.

I made the bodice first and worked out how to sew on the furry tummy. That took the longest and also making sure the bodice fitted. Once I was happy I hand sewed the ‘beans’ as I kept calling them on to the tummy bit.

It was happy that it fitted so well first off, I just had to edit the darts slightly to fit. The capped sleeves were slightly awkward too but after a lot of head scratching I worked out how to do it! Then came the skirt part and that actually went on quickly and easily.

Then it was time to sew on the zip. Now I have NEVER sewn on a zip before and I found out that I didn’t have an invisible zipper foot but thank goodness for YouTube I found a video showing how you can sew on an invisible zip with a regular zipper foot.

It was tricky but I managed it and then came the moment of truth, I put it on and zipped it up for the first time. I was so happy when it fitted. It is a little snug across the chest and arms when I reach up or move a lot but nothing that is that noticeable. I came running out of the bedroom twirling and jumping with excitement.

It all came together very quickly and I finished the dress on Saturday. I planned on leaving the head band until another weekend but as my sewing machine was still out I ended up starting the ears and then before I knew it I had made the whole thing haha!

I made the ears and then sewed them together and turned them inside out. I then shaped wire to the shape of the ears and pushed them inside. They were a little floppy so I used some cotton wool to pad them out a little and sewed them up at the end. I then used the wire sticking out of the bottom to wrap around the headband to attach them. I had to massively trim done the leaf I had bought to go between the ears that I also attached with the wire. Then with the help of my new glue gun I wrapped some grey fabric around the headband to hide the wire and the headband and then stuck googly eyes to a pompom and stuck that on the leaf to hide the wire.

I am so pleased how it came together and how it looked. I am proud and impressed with myself with the dress I made and also the headband. I now have a wig on its way and MANY sprites to sew onto a t-shirt for Matt. I am also considering making an underskirt to attach pompoms to that too! 

I also have some elastic and netting to make an underskirt so I can attached more pom pom sprites to it. I plan on doing that one weekend soon as I don't think it will take too long. I also need to hand sew a lot of felt sprites onto Matt's t-shirt. There is also a lovely grey wig on its way too so once it is completed I will do a full finished cosplay post.

I am so pleased with how this came out and also how quickly it came together. I cannot wait to get it all finished and to wear it to the party now!

Making my Star Trek Skant phase 3

If you have been following my Star Trek Skant making you will have seen I finished the actual dress last weekend. I was too excited and ordered the braiding and the badge on Monday ( was planning on waiting till payday oops. I wasn't expecting them to come for a while as they were coming from America but they materialized (hahah see what I did there) on Saturday! 

I was shocked Las Vegas to London in 4-5 days.... crazy! I was really happy with the quality of the items and I started sewing them on straight away. The detailing and the quality of the patch and braiding were really impressive and I have to say well worth the extra money to get the real thing!

Bought from eBay here

It did take a while to sew everything on, I made sure to take my time and sew neatly and slowly. I then had a couple of alterations to make in the dress and once I did that hey presto I had my first ever Cosplay! It really made such a difference and made it look like a star fleet uniform straight away.

Trying a typical Star Trek mid action pose!

Close up of the details on the dress.

Hoping I am doing Spock and Mirror Universe Spock justice.

I am really proud of myself, I can't believe how well it all went! Overall I am so happy, if I were to do it again I would change a few things: maybe a different slightly thicker fabric, a little more fitted and a tad longer. Although they are very small niggles and I think at the moment I prefer that it is a bit too loose this time round as I know I will be feeling self conscious in it so it probably isn't a bad thing! The fabric is a tiny thing I don't even know if I would change it as it does get so hot in conventions and of course it was meant to be longer but ended up being rather short oops but as they are meant to be bum skimming mine is still much more conservative! 

Now I must count down the days till October and I want to try and find a phaser and some black boots to finish it off completely...Let me know what you think or let me know if you have made your own as I would love to see other peoples creations! 

Making my Star Trek Skant phase 2

This weekend has been an intense one for sure! Following on from my previous post I got home from work and in-between dinner and my pilates class I started to resize my pattern. I used some brown paper and first did the front and it seemed to work well.

I then left the project till the weekend and Saturday morning started an intense weekend of sewing. I made the back of the Skant with the new patterned pieces and once I was happy with the fit I sewed them together. 

I was quite nervous when I started to sew it together, there were lots of points where I had to stop and think… hmm how shall I do this? However I manged to work it all out and I tried it on one final time and I was so excited to see it all worked and fitted well!

Matt and I then popped out for a bit, we were meant to go to the cinema but ended up going and having a desert out. I needed a break so I was grateful for it. When we got in however I continued with my project and I cut all the pieces out of my actual fabric. I won’t lie I was nervous and kept debating if I had done enough prep work but I couldn’t think of anything else I could try so on we go!

I cut all the pieces out and pinned them together, but by this point it was coming up 2am and I was starting to get a little annoyed and tired so I tried on the pinned version and decided to take a break and go to bed.

I got up quite early Sunday and started sewing just before 10am. Everything came along really well and quickly. The dress itself was so simple to make it was just the altering that took so long. The hem ended up being a little problematic as it was very wonky in places but with the help of Matt I trimmed it so it was all even. The one downside was it was now a little shorter than I had planned so I had to sew a very small hem. I tried so hard to get the hem perfectly straight but it is so hard on the jersey fabric but I was pretty happy with the end result.

I then moved on to adding the neck part. This was hard as I didn’t have a pattern for it. I measured and then drew a pattern piece out but it didn’t work that well. I started with some scrap fabric so I could snip it and trim it and resize it. After looking online I altered it and I was pretty pleased with how it looked so I cut out the real thing and pinned it on and once happy with that I started sewing.

I then put it on and did a happy skippy dance, I was SOOO HAPPY with how this turned out! Seriously I can't believe how well it worked!

So this is where I am up to, Matt also treated me to the Tricorder bag which is awesome. So practical but I can use it as part of my cosplay too!

I think it fits really well and doesn’t really cling much either. I would of liked it to be more fitted round the waist but when I tried to do that it just didn’t work very well at all. I was worried the fabric would be too thin and perhaps cling a lot but actually it’s worked out really well. I’m not sure I would want a thicker fabric actually as I think it would be too thick as once you add all the pieces together it as quite heavy. Plus it gets so hot in conventions I think I would over heat. I also decided against adding a zip, although part of the original design the dress is so easy to get on and off with a zip I didn't want to risk ruining it or making a mistake by adding a zip.

Now I need to get myself the badge and rank braiding for the sleeves and just work a few bits out on the dress such as pinning the inside flap somewhere as it tends to drop down. Once I have some money I will order the badge and braiding and I think I will be done!

I also need some slightly darker tights and different boots but again I can pick that up as I go along after all I have 6 months until the convention. I started it so early as I didn’t think it would work the first time and would need to be remade but hey presto it did work and I am SO EXCITED and proud of myself.

I will update again once I have the added the finishing touches!

Making my Star Trek Skant phase 1

As I wrote about a few weeks ago here, Matt and I are going to destination Star Trek in October. This year I have decided to try my first ever cosplay. I have wanted to try some cosplay for a while now and I have also REALLY wanted a Star Fleet Uniform Skant!

So over the Easter break on the spur of the moment I picked up some fabric and a dress pattern. My plan was to make a basic fit and flare dress and then alter that to have the correct neckline. That didn’t work as the pattern I bought didn’t go up to my size even though my measurements were on the back of the package. NOT IMPRESSED.

So at the weekend I put my thinking hat on and decided to actually use the original pattern to get a more authentic dress. I did a lot of research and actually there isn’t much out there to help me make it which is a shame. You can buy the pattern but with p&p to the UK you are looking at £30 for the pattern alone.

I managed to find a few people who had used the original pattern that they used in the show and they seemed to make it work so I found the pattern and I started off my blowing it up to the correct size. My brain at this point was going OH MY GOODNESS THIS ISN’T GOING TO WORK IT WILL GO WRONG GOD HOW WILL I DO THIS. But I kept going!

Original Pattern

I then printed it out on A3 and stuck all the pieces together and then cut out the pattern pieces. At this point I was feeling rather overwhelmed as I had NO IDEA what the size of the original pattern was so I didn’t know how to increase the pattern to fit me.

I spoke with a wonderful woman I work with who suggested I make the dress from the current pattern and then add slices in to get the fit right and redraw the pattern once I know what needed to go where. So that is what I did, I measured the dress flat on the floor and worked out what extra bits I needed to do. Luckily for me the arms and neckline seemed to be ok which was great and the waist and bust wasn’t too bad either. It was just the hips that needed a lot adding as I have wide hips and I want something that skims them and is more skater style.

Dress put together from original pattern pieces

I started by adding 2 slices (one in the sides front and back) and it fitted much better but was still clinging to my hips. I then added two more slices in the front and back centre. I was really happy with how this is now fitting! It is nwo skimming my hips and fitted around the bust and the length is now more decent (although still too short).

So the plan now is to re draw the pattern pieces with the extra widths and length and then re cut the pieces out and sew together a first prototype. I am hoping with all hope that it goes together well as this has been less complicated than I first predicted so please do keep your fingers crossed for me!

I don’t think I will get much done before the weekend now but no doubt I will get completely lost with this project over the weekend, I may even have the beginnings of finished project made!

Easter and the Bank Holiday weekend.

I finished work on Thursday, dragged my bum to the gym and as I settled down on the sofa I knew there were 4 glorious days ahead of me!

I woke up on Friday and just pottered most the morning. The Sun was beautiful and it was actually really warm outside. I watched 'The Land Before Time' which bought back lots of happy memories of watching it on Bank Holidays as kids. 

I also decided to do some themed nails as I never really do them anymore, but as I have the 4 days off I decided to spend the morning doing them.

I am really pleased with how they came out..... they actually came out much better than I expected which is a first as it is usually the other way round. 

I couldn't pick what colours to do so I just did all of them in an Easter bunting type fashion. The most shocking thing is both hands actually look pretty darn good, even if I do say so myself!

I then headed to the pub with my sister, it was a huge let down. Had to pay to park, the garden was shut due to repainting and the service was awful. So we headed over to Reigate park and had a lovely time eating ice creams and just sitting in the sunshine.

You really can't beat just sitting in a park on a sunny Bank Holiday.

We then saw 'Zootropolis' on Friday evening and that was FAB! I really really enjoyed that. It is a really good film with a strong message of acceptance and racism which is really needed at the moment!

Saturday was a pretty chilled, did lots of boring cleaning related things and I watched Hairspray for the first time and I enjoyed that a lot. It was much better than I thought, again another film tackling racism! I thought it was just about a larger girl wanting to become famous but I was wrong there. 

Then Easter morning arrived and Matt and I got ready and headed to my Grandma's. I picked a little green bird dress as I thought it was really cute and 'springy' to brighten up a rather drizzly bank holiday.. Apparently 1 day of sunshine was enough!

Dinner was lovely as usual my Grandma really does make the nicest food! I know everyone probably says that but I truly believe mine does haha! We spent some time vegging out after eating all the food and chocolate and Matt and I headed home to get ready to go and see the new Batman vs Superman. 

I have to say I did enjoy the film even though I think the title was misleading and should of just bee Batman and Superman, and the first half of the movie was kid of pointless. However overall I enjoyed it!

And then in the blink of an eye Monday rolled round and we didn't do much except have lunch out and then headed into Crawley. On a spur of the moment type thing Matt talked me into buying the fabric I need for my Cosplay I want to do in the summer! 

If it isn't obvious it will be a star fleet dress a science officer. I want to do a female Spock and I am really excited to make this! I've never Cosplayed before but I've always wanted to and I think this will end up being really cool. I wont lie I opened the pattern and went HOLY SHIT WHAT DO I DO? So I have arranged to go to my Aunt's so she can help me because I am worried I will screw it up! But fingers crossed it will turn out good!

The bank holiday was very nice even though it seemed to disappear much quicker than I would of liked. I felt well rested and had a lovely time off!

I hope your Easter was a nice one and you did some nice bits too!