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!! 

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 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!