Costumes Part II

So how did you do on the riddle? Did you figure it out yet?

That's right, I went as a Weeping Angel from Doctor Who. For the uninitiated, here's the Wikipedia rundown on what are probably the scariest villains in the Who-verse.

Here's my take:

Obviously, I had some issues with the makeup. I'd never used greasepaint before, and had a horrible time with it (I guess it's supposed to go on over foundation and powder? Anyway, I could tell just from the patch test that it would have made be break out something awful, so I decided to skip it). In the end, I scraped some grey eyeshadow into a dish and mixed it with my moisturizer. Up close it worked pretty well, but the coverage was uneven. From far away, however, it's barely noticeable. It was more of a tint than actual face paint. Once the moisturizer had dried a bit, I took a powder brush and did a second coat of the dry eyeshadow to help even things out.

The outfit is a combination of things. I wore grey leggins and a grey long sleeve shirt (both storebought). The chiton (that would be the Greek-style dress) is some grey suiting material I bout at Joanns. I sewed little X's at the shoulder to hold them in place, but other than that it was stitch-free. The belt is five strands of grey yarn slip knotted together to make a cord.

 

I did use silver hairspray to color my hair--liberally. I had to wash it twice to get it all out--but it's rather difficult to get full coverage on the back of your own head, and my pony tail wasn't really having it. 

In the back of the chiton I took pinking shears and cut a slit for the wings. The wings are sewn, with the feathers done on a regular sewing machine. They're filled with quilt batting and have some 20 gauge jewelry wire running through the tops to hold their shape. In the end, I took some small safety pins and pinned the tops to my shoulders to keep them from flopping around. Since I wore this costume to work, I didn't want big giant wings or pieces that would flop around a lot. 

The wings are tied on  seperately, under the chiton. From the center of the wings there are four more of the slip-knot cords, which I tied in an X formation in front. Since the chiton is open on one side, this was pretty easy to do. I just had to pull back the front, tie the cords in place, then drop the front and arange the open side so I wouldn't flash anyone too much thigh and tie on the belt. While I'm reasonably confident that it would have stayed shut on it's own, I did add two more small safety pins there, just to be safe. Which is good since at one point my outfit caught on a rack and would have torn completely open otherwise. 

I did do my nails for this costume, but they're not all that interesting. Just grey, and then they read "Don't Blink" with one character on each nail and a TARDIS on my left thumb. For the life of me, I could not get a good photo or even a decent one that showed the nail art. I was too pressed for time. 

I leave you with a clip from the episode, which features MY doctor. Because no subsequent Doctor can ever really replace your first Doctor: 

Geek Nail Challenge: TV and Movies

You know when you get really excited about doing something, and then when the time comes to do it you just draw a complete and total blank?

That was me this week.

Now don't get me wrong, I love all sorts of geeky shows and films--Joss Whedon can do no wrong in this house, and I love the comic book movies being made. When I manage to catch Big Bang Theory in the break room at work, it makes my day. But I just couldn't find a theme that felt right.

And then I had a Duh moment.

Because really, can you get any geekier than spaceships and Klingons?
I decided to go original Star Trek on this one, even though "my" Trek is actually Next Generation. I remember being in about third or fourth grade, sitting on the floor of our living room with my mom on the couch, both of us working on crochet projects during a cold, wet Ohio winter that made outside extremely unpleasant.
I am inordinately pleased with the way this came out. My roommate just rolled her eyes. I can't wait to show this off to a friend at work (who works at StarBase Columbus) and will properly appreciate it.

Colors used:
Red: Pure Ice "Siren"
Yellow: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "lightening"
Blue: Essie "Smooth Sailing"
Black: Claire's Nail art pen
Topcoat: Seche Vite

Wondering why McCoy and Spock are wearing glitter? Mostly, it's because I can't find my go-to blue at the moment. But also, this is closer to the actual color of the costumes. And who doesn't get a giggle out of the idea of the two of them wearing glitter?

Yellow is Kirk, obviously.

Wondering who the Redshirts are?

Does it really matter? They won't be around for very long, anyway.

Live long and polish.