A Costume's Beginning

Unfortunately, last weekend was not spent with James making a mold out of my common-law as we hoped. Mother Nature decided she wanted a big blast of snow and it has been snow or rain ever since. Now, with all that moisture in the air, the plaster won't set so our plans are postponed for now.

In the meantime, I've been wondering what to post that has a bit of substance. I already did fluff after all, time for something with a bit more purpose! And never fear, I've got many ideas, but they do take a bit of prep work and right now I've actually got a costume I need to get started on. This morning, as I'm drawing up my plans, it occurred to me...post what I'm doing. It's a simple concept...so naturally it eluded me for a while :)

Everything has to start somewhere and a costume starts with a drawing. Actually, I guess it starts with an idea, but eventually it will have to be drawn out. Now, I hate drawing. Err, rather I can't draw. But even with my non-skills I can still get my concept down on paper which is valuable for a few reasons. I can make sure my ideas actually look alright ("oh...stripes and dots looked good in my head but I can see in my drawing it's awful"). It also gives me a chance to make sure I'm not forgetting anything ("Huh, I never thought about the pants"). And finally, it's how I make my shopping list.

 

Even if you're artistically challenged like I am, you can still get out a design well enough to help you. All I do is trace an outline from a colouring book (or you can Google "paper doll" and print an outline) and draw my ideas around it. As you can see, it doesn't look spectacular, but it gets the job done.  From that, I make little notes to myself including needed materials. I doubt this is how the pros do it, but hey, it works :)

With this particular costume, there are a lot of things with small details that I can't get across in the overview picture. So I did up a second page just for these gadgets. You know, looking at my gadgets page, I'm starting to think I missed my calling as an artist. I mean that squiggly thing with the line coming out of it is premium stuff...

Anyhow, these next couple of pictures are more of a testament to my obsessive-compulsiveness than anything else. I think most people could look at these pictures and come up with one list of materials right? Not me! I demand more! My first list is all the materials each item will need.

And this second list with all those same materials re-arranged and listed by stores. I know...it's a bit excessive hey? But in all fairness, I take transit and have to go out of my way to get to any of these stores. I would rather have everything overly organized than have to make multiple trips. It would be different if I drove or if these stores were near work or home but such is life. Excessive, sure, but in the end it will save me time.

 

 So, now you can see how my Saturday morning was spent. And I guess it's official now, my next costume is underway!

Now run along and go do something fun. I'd better get back to work :)