Resourceful Costuming for the Non-Seamstress

Though I've done a little bit of costume sewing in my time (wow, that makes me sound old...), I am certainly no seamstress. Nor do I have the patience or time -- hello, I'm writing a novel -- to become one.

But I'm picky. I like things to be nice, and while I'll put up with a slightly lower quality when it comes to costumes I make, I like them to at least be worth the ammount of work put into them, and very much dislike tackiness. Cheapo costumes sold at Wal-Mart or Target during Halloween are pretty much out of the question. Those things just scream cliche. There's little to no creativity when it comes to those.

Those two reasons -- my lack of sewing skills and my dislike of cheap storebought costumes -- are mainly why I will spend a little extra on tailored costumes like the ones from armstreet.com and yourdressmaker.com.

However! There is another option I haven't yet mentioned when it comes to costuming. And that is normal clothing. You would be simply amazed at how well a properly matched outfit bought in the regular clothing section in a store can play the role of a quality costume for a given occasion. You just have to know what to look for.

Before I give a few tips, you'll have to understand that these are regular clothes. They're not top notch specialized costumes, so there's only so close you'll be able to get to the 'real thing'. But you can get pretty doggone close if you're creative and, yes, a little lucky.

Medieval/Fantasy

Girls
~Peasant tops. These are great as a base piece, though be sure to get them in solid colors and not modern patterned fabric.
~Ankle length tiered skirts. These are full and swingy and are also great as a base piece. Once again, solid colors; no modern patterns.
~Woven belts
~Gold or silver bangles
~Hoop or feather earrings
~Medallion necklaces
~Another cool one is taking a plain solid color mini-dress and wearing it with brown or black pants underneath, a belt, and boots.

Guys
~Oversized solid color t-shirts (best colors are brown, dark green, and black). Worn with a belt, these resemble medieval tunics, especially if they're a little long.
~Courderoys in black or brown. So far courderoy is the most medieval looking pant fabric, even over khakis.
~Since men's boots are very modern looking these days, with the laces and combat boot feel to them, we've found that wellies -- or golashes, as Americans call them -- work pretty well. Yes, they are made out of rubber, and may be pushing things a bit, but hey, that's what imagination is for. Besides wellies, boots or all black sneakers work well. Sorry, guys; you don't get as much fun with footwear.
~Belt. Almost any kind of guy's belt will work.

Accessories

~I've seen leather bracelets of various types in stores nowadays, and though I haven't bought any yet, they've always struck me as awesome unisex costume accessories.
~Shoes. Like I said before, boots are great, but another option for girls is to wear plain brown ballet flats.
~Bling bling! Silver and gold make for great jewelry, especially for a gypsy.
~Consider sashes as a substitute for belts.
~Leather string. I can't think of the proper name for it... Anyway, I found these things at Jo-Ann's craft store in the very small leather working section. If you use these to 'lace' up the bottoms of your pants, it looks really cool. Same can be done for sleeves.
~Use your belt to go diagonally across your chest like a bandolier.

Weapons

Most of these do actually have to be made, but you can find some fairly cheap daggers online.

~Swords.
~Daggers.
~Bows and arrows.
~Axes.
~Spears.
~Poisons. Vials can easily be bought at a craft store, then all you do is fill them with water and food coloring of various types.
~Slingshot.

Sci-Fi

Okay, I actually have pictures for this one. My siblings and I have come up with our own knock off of Star Trek. So we needed uniforms.

Since we were taking off of a uniform design that was already made up, our job was much easier. Especially since this design happened to be fairly simple. We followed the basic uniform concepts from The Original Series (which happens to be my personal favorite series of Star Trek), which consists of a solid color top and black bottoms. That's pretty easy, but it's ridiculously easy when you consider buying those clothes from a regular clothes store instead of trying to make them or buy the 'official' Star Trek merchandise from online. That's also where a little bit of luck comes in. We found a shirt at Target that was so amazingly close to the gold/yellow shirt Captain Kirk wears in TOS that we were practically squealing with excitement. It's perfect.

Anyway, we actually began with assigning colors to the various divisions on the Penterprise (it's a PenKnights ship, we decided), then assigned each person to a division, and that's how we knew which shirt color to buy for who.

Command Uniform

Security and Operations

Cadet

As you can see, they're not perfectly Sci-fi, but they are pretty doggone close. And a great thing about these outfits is that they can also be worn as proper clothes. Because of that, they will last quite a while and look good.

Here are also a few other ideas of what to wear while playing Sci-Fi Imagination Games.

Girls
~Surprisingly, many of the base medieval costume pieces will work for sci-fi, as well. Look at some sci-fi; a lot of the clothing -- when not completely outrageous -- has a slight medieval tone to them. Especially clothes for royalty. The trick is changing the color theme from forest colors like brown, green, orange, and so on, to colors like black, grey, and other deep colors, and adding the right accessories.
~Black, grey, or deep colored mini-dresses make for good tunics over black or grey pants. Go for trim, clean lines.
~Black belts with silver or gunmetal accents.
~Boots or sneakers work better than ballet flats when it comes to look.
~Metal jewelry rather than beads.

Guys
~Black or grey pants.
~Trim shirts that don't look like tunics.
~Black belts, or utility belts for those with a more mechanic type job. Like the ones handy men wear.
~Boots or sneakers, though not wellies.

Accessories

~Wristbands. Leather is best, if you can find them.
~Fingerless black gloves.
~Drop holster. I am honestly not quite sure where to find these, and I don't know how expensive they are. We use one of my Dad's old ones.

When it comes to sci-fi, there is less of a specific style to follow. With fantasy, we go off of medieval stuff. With sci fi, what is there? It's the future; you have a lot of freedom. It's up to you to design your sci-fi culture and thus the rules of clothing. The one guideline I know that helps keep things looking more sci-fi than modern or fantasy is to keep things sleek, trim, and clean. With fantasy there are a lot of layers and 'frills', if you will. With sci-fi, things are very straightforward with fewer layers, and only a few accents.

Weapons

~Nerf guns! While not exactly colored correctly, these are the weapons we use for every one of our sci-fi IGs, both with and without darts.
~Daggers.
~Slingshots. Yup.
~You can also use storebought lightsabers, if you like.
~PVC guns. Yes, it can be done.
~If you have some creative energies left after all this, try your hand at creating something like the Covenant Energy Sword from the Halo series. If you do this, give me pictures. Because that would be seriously one of the coolest things ever.

That's all I've got for you, folks! Putting together costumes from normal clothes is great fun for those who have a mind for it. It involves a lot of creativity and resourcefulness. I've given you some ideas to start with, but you're going to have to come up with many more of your own.. Unlike with sewing, we're restricted to what the stores have to offer, so consider every angle, keep your mind open to possibilities as they present themselves, and don't be afraid to try something that you hadn't originally thought would work. You never quite know what the end result will be.

Have fun!

Dia duit,
~Penny

The Things That Happen at Two AM in the Morning

Sometimes time just slips by. Usually I'm either talking to a friend on skype, or am in a glum mood. Tonight it was both.

So here I am, saying hello to two 'o' clock AM. Hello, 2 AM! *mad waving*

Now that we have the formalities out of the way....

Here's what I've been goofing off with:

I wish I had this outfit in real life....

A friend of mine called Katana Kain introduced me to Polyvore a while back, but I'd never really had time to goof around with it. Well, until now. Although technically I was going to write a couple blog posts, but I ended up feeling under the weather, so.... Yeah, lame excuse.

Anyway.

I'm on Polyvore. This does actually tie in to a post that I plan on doing later about putting outfits together. Obviously the Dragon Tamer Set I did up there is modern, but one can put together a medieval/fantasy looking outfit from bits a pieces from here and there without having to buy a specific costume. Thrift stores are the best when it comesto this sort of thing, and I can say for certain that thrift store prices beat tailored costume prices hands down.

But that's for some other time. Right now, I should probably go to bed and attempt to arise at a semi-decent hour tomor.... er, today.

Night!

Dia duit,
~Penny

Introducing Lynn MacDonald

Lynn in the dress she sewed.

Say hello to Lynn, beloved younger sister to Dana MacDonald. That is her in the picture, and that is also a dress she sewed. A far cry from my rather patchy attempts...

Lynn MacDonald is our seamstress. She just recently got a sewing machine, and has, from what Dana has told me, been sewing up a costume storm. I have numerous pictures of that purple dress, and of the various cloaks she's made, plus I'm told there are more outfits that haven't been photographed, even.

Lynn in the Red Riding Hood cloak
she sewed.

As you can see, she's quite talented. I think coupons and gift cards to fabric stores will make excellent birthday/Christmas presents, hm?
I spoke with Lynn and got the names of the patterns she used for the dress, and the cloaks.

For the dress she used Simplicity 4940 Misses Costume.
For the cloak she used Simplicity 9887 Unisex Costume Hooded Capes.

Lynn in the very first cloak she sewed.

Not too expensive, either. $9 bucks for the cape pattern, and $10 for the dress. Right now Lynn is working on numerous cloaks, and also a tunic that came with the cape pattern. I demanded pictures of the finished product, and expect to be satisfied promptly. Rather bossy, aren't I? Hm.

I'll have Lynn write out some sewing tips in a later post, for those who enjoy costuming.

Dia duit,
~Penny

Penny's Dabbles -- The Guinevere Dress

I'm lazy when it comes to making costumes. Taking the time and thought to sit down and sew a complex, beautiful medieval gown with all the trimmings is never high on my to do list. I'm an author, I have novels to write. Lots of them!

So I am very happy when I find simple costume patterns. This is such a pattern. I found this pattern on Pinterest (<3), and it's called the Guinevere Dress. It's a slightly persnickety, requiring some custom tweaking here and there, but it's an awesomely fast project for when you need to whip out a medieval gown really fast. Here's the Pattern:

Design by CharterMagic on DeviantArt

So far I have made two of these dres-- wait, no, three. One I made for my sister and I to share, one I made for my best friend, Siani Delaney, and one I made for my five year old little sister. The red one in the picture above is the one I made for Siani, modelled by one of my little sisters. As you can see, I didn't cut the sleeves as is shown in the pattern, although for the one I made for my sister and I, I did. It works both ways.

The tricky part is making sure everything stays even. That's really the only key thing in this pattern. Keep everything lined up the right way as much as possible, and you're set! Fabric that hangs loose is best, and it's loads of fun to coordinate fabric color with waistband color. Did you know silver looks great with red, and gold goes well with blue? Usually people do it the other way around. Just a thought.





As I said before, this isn't the fanciest, most accurate costume, but it is definitely fast and looks pretty good afterwards, as well. Have fun and give me links to pictures if you decide to make a Guinevere Dress!

Dia duit,
~Penny

Introducing Dana MacDonald

One of the Lords of our humble realm, Dana MacDonald. Normally one would bow and give proper salutations and blessings, but seeing as it would be rather odd of you to wave at the computer screen, we'll skip that. (By the way, yes, that's him in the picture.)

Dana and I share a measure of admiration and enthusiasm for celtic -- especially Scottish -- culture and style. So when he informed me that he'd recieved his kilt outfit in the mail, I immediately demanded pictures. I must say I'm very impressed, and quite pleased. Kudos to any guy who can, and does, wear a kilt unashamedly. You have excellent taste because, quite frankly, kilts are awesome.

This outfit is hopefully going to be used in an LARPG the PenKnights have planned called Lore. Dana plays the character Beowulf in it,. Doing a passable Scottish accent, and with the PVC claymore my brother is going to make him, the whole get up will be legend worthy. Definitely going to take pictures...

From what Dana's told me, the quality of the outfit is excellent. He ordered it from a website called YourDressMaker, and seems quite happy with the outcome. I've had tabs on this website for some time, as it has a tartan dress that I want to purchase from them someday, and overall it looks to be a fairly good source for medieval and rennaissance costuming. Their prices, compared to other medieval costuming sites and even Armstreet (where I purchased my green medieval dress), appear reasonable, as well.

It's late, so I shall turn in to bed now. Tomorrow I exact revenge on my brother for impaling me with my own sword...

Dia duit,
~Penny

Not The Most Heroic Entrance

Well, first post on my new blog, and it's certainly not the most heroic. I have sticks and leaves in my hair because, rather embarrasingly, I was downed by my opponent and stabbed by my own sword earlier today. A failed attempt on my end to wrest the weapon out of my enemy's hand that resulted in my being thwarted by a grappling move that landed me, as I've said, flat on my back on the forest floor.

Ah well. There's always next time.

At any rate, my name is Penny, or Lady Kearney, if you wish. I'm not particularly more interesting than any other person who blogs, in fact I'm really just odd more than anything else, but there may be some other odd people out there who share similar interests as I do.

It's difficult to say exactly what this blog is going to be about. As evidenced by the title, I love swords and dislike wearing shoes. My imagination is exspansive, and while most of it is occupied writing novels, it sometimes spills over into real life. That's the best way to explain it, really. This is the bucket that catches my spilt imagination.

For example, the sword in question that ran me through -- my sword -- is actually made out of PVC pipe and duct tape. I own a medieval dress I bought on sale at Armstreet, and I dabble out rather pathetically in makeshift costuming. All of these things find their way into my life, and often times, my friends and family and I will have all out invisible (or visible, depending on whether we've brought the armory) weapons battles, or short live action role playing games, which we call Imagination Games. All these things are what will be discussed on this blog. Tutorials for the awesome weapons we've discovered how to make, some easy (and some hard) costume patterns, discourses on some of the Imagination Games we've played and what we've found works rule wise, and more than likely some history, sword fighting techniques we learn (which are based off of European Martial Arts), and lots of pictures. More than likely some mention of things related to the novels I'm writing will seep in here, as well.

Like I said, odd. Hopefully some people will find it at the very least amusing. It sounds a little trite, when everything's all written out, but half the reason I enjoy playing out medieval games and battles is because of the valor and honor concepts that go with the genre of legend and myth. Heroes are heroes for a reason. That will most definitely seep in.

Dia duit,
~Penny