Firefly/Serenity Costuming

Help for a newbie

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 16:34:58 GMT

Okay, well, I found this comm at the perfect time. I want to be River for Halloween(actually, I've wanted to do a River costume for some time) but my problem is, I have NO idea which one to do.
I was thinking the green-ish dress from the movie,but then,due to my nit-picky cosplay tendencies,I'd feel the need to make the sword,axe, etc.
Anyway, any suggestions? I'd like something that would atleast be flattering on me,because I'm ridiculously pale and it's easy for things to look bad on me.lol
Also,wig-wise what do you all suggest? I was thinking and Ashley 850 in natural black from amphigory.
and if it'll help,I'll try and find a not fugly recent picture of me.lol

Thanks in advance for any and all ideas/suggestions!!!

Post D*C Howdy

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:43:31 GMT

Howdy from Jayne Cobb!

D*C has come and gone, and I made a LJ page to keep in touch with those of you I met there.
My DragonCon pics:

http://s437.photobucket.com/albums/qq99/airborne223/

I am the Jayne in the orange Fighting Elves shirt (far right) on jj9437's photoshoot picture (4 September) below.

Anyone planning on heading to ConNooga this year?

"Finished" Wash Costume

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:06:33 GMT

(Quotations denote that no costume is ever truly "finished"!)

Worn to Katsucon and Anime Boston, expect to see an appearance at MarsCon (Williamsburg)! Had my pic taken a few times at Anime Boston, still looking for any of those.

Jumpsuit from eBay, $12
Ribbed sweater from thrift store (cuffs + collar), $2
Undershirt from thrift store, $2
Puma NuMostro Perf shoes from Zappos.com, [too much, but authentic!]
Dinosaurs from KB Toys, $5
Craft foam for harness (molded rubber is a PAIN) and velcro, $8
Patches from eBay and bornintheussr.com, $28
Green fabric paint (epaulet decorations), $4
Belt from eBay, $5

_____________________________________________________________________

Addendum:

Thanks for the feedback and compliments, everyone! Still have to add some zippers, but they're non-critical. If I were going to start from scratch, I recommend finding olive-green woven ribbon for the epaulets instead of paint, and taking the time to stitch it down by hand. I would also make sure the jumpsuit fits PERFECTLY, as I found that mine really needed to be 'Long.' I will also look for another ribbed sweater that more-closely resembles the color of Wash's collar and cuffs, since mine are really too close to the same tone and shade as the rest of the jumpsuit. ^^;

D*C photos

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 02:54:26 GMT

They aren't all up yet, but I keep putting it off, so I want to get the link out to you all. There are lots of photos from the shoot and the shindig in there, although apparently my dad's camera was having issues, so some didn't focus right.

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/wicked0witch/Dragoncon/

Enjoy! I'll try to be adding more in later.

Inara, Kaylee, River - our first try ^_~

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:02:39 GMT

Perhaps some of you are interested in seeing a few pictures.
The costumes aren´t perfect, but I think okay for the beginning!

Here we go...

Hanging around...

Hands of blue...

Perhaps you schould wash your hair from time to time

Excuse my terrible englisch,
and thank you for looking

frustrated

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:27:25 GMT

I've been trying for a year now to find a gorram shirt to at least RESEMBLE kaylee's asian pagoda shirt, ive given up on actually finding it. I'm a big girl, would probably wear at least a 4x which was my first problem. I figured it would be easier to just find the material and make my own shirt but Ive failed at that as well. So I am going to suck up my pride..and say

pleeeeeeeeeeeease for the love of all things shiny, HELP ME *cries*

Last call for 2008's Browncoat Ball!

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:53:45 GMT

Get your tickets now for this year's Browncoat Ball in Austin, TX.
Tickets are going fast, and it's your last chance to grab one before they
go up in price on September 24th.

http://www.browncoatball.com/2008/registration.htm

Whether your dreams are to be a bad guy, a signaler, or a companion;
you don't want to miss a minute of the Browncoat Ball.

For more information about all our awesome activities, visit our online schedule:
http://www.browncoatball.com/2008/schedule.htm

The hotel is also almost full, so make those reservations now!

D*C pics

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 07:12:32 GMT

Dragon Con was fun even if nothing happened the way it was planned. I missed most of the photo shoots. My camera died Saturday after the parade. I got separated from manwithpez for a few hours. Just a mess. But out of the mess was good. If anyone's interested I have 299 pictures uploaded so far.

ThatCostumeGirl's Dragon Con 2008 Gallery

*cross-posted everywhere

D*Con Photos

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:08:19 GMT

I just threw all of my D*Con pics into one album. A huge chunk of it is Firefly/Serenity. It was a great time hanging out at the photoshoot and the shindig. Looking forward to more surprises next year! :)

DragonCon Pictures

Dragon*Con Firefly/Serenity Photoshoot

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 04:49:33 GMT

I just want to say a big THANKS to everyone who came out to the photoshoot on Saturday. We had an awesome turnout! It was great to see everyone's wonderful costumes and meeting everyone. You guys rock! Next year lets try to get even more Browncoats to come!

More photos can be found here of the photoshoot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/97695140@N00/

I'm still uploading pictures of the Shindig and will post pics as soon as they are up. :)

Post DragonCon sleep Thunk

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:25:10 GMT

I stayed up late, and got my pictures uploaded, I had an absolute blast looking at everyones costumes, and hated having to leave early on Sunday to beat the hurricane home.

So, at long last, thanks to DragonCon I finally have pics of some of my browncoat costumes to share!

http://www.texasartcat.com/dragoncon2008/P1000611.jpg ; 76th battalion!

http://www.texasartcat.com/dragoncon2008/P1000679.jpg ; I'm the shorter Kaylee on the right!

and for anyone looking for pics, www.texasartcat.com/dragoncon2008 is my 150 pics, feel free to ignore the first few pages which are roadtrip from Texas, and well, the incredibly amusing 10th floor of the marriot bathroom pics. Page 5 is where the costumes really start.

Your costumes are all amazing, and yall have motivated me to finish attaching patches to my kaylee jumpsuit!

War Stories- near completion

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 23:54:11 GMT

This costume seems to be quite popular. Everyone else's looks great!

So I figured that I would never find a vest fabric that I absolutely loved, and it would be $99/yd if I did find it, so I dug around in my stash and found some seat cushion fabric with vaguely the same color scheme. It was chenille and really thick, so hemming it was done... sloppily. But at least I managed to make it.

The pictures turned out not so good because the lighting was dark and I had to use the old camera, so it took me awhile to figure out the auto-timer.

My walls are interesting...

I didn't know what facial expression to have, so here's my sleepy lack of facial expression.

Me failing at the crossed-arms pose

I didn't even bother hemming the bottom.

Now all I need is boots. Here I'm wearing a pair of boots that make me around 5 inches taller... I guess it's several trips to Goodwill then.

And I still don't really want a wig, but wish I had longer hair.

So what do you guys think? Any suggestions on how to stop the edges of the vest from wrinkling? Maybe I should figure out how to adjust the tension of the thread on the bottom... (sorry for my lack of terminology)

Thanks!

How Many Jayne Hats Can Be Knit At A Single Con?

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:29:31 GMT

Make a pledge for how many hats you think our Secretary, Claudia, can make during Dragon*Con. The number she makes will determine the amount you owe.

Claudia will only be knitting during the booth hours
Friday, Saturday, Sunday 10am-7pm
Monday 10am -5pm

Visit Her Jayne Site
to watch her progress.

To Pledge, please email claudia@austinbrowncoats.com.

Remember, your pledge supports Austin Browncoats and our charities!

Firefly/Serenity D*Con Photoshoot

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 04:31:47 GMT

Okay guys, thanks for your interest in getting a photoshoot together. I've finally finalized plans, with mere days to go. Here is the info:

Firefly/Serenity Photoshoot
Day: Saturday
Time: 8:30 PM (Right before the Shindig!)
Location: Sheraton Lobby

Please tell anyone you know who'd be interested to come. I will be there in my River battle dress, carrying a sword and ax around lol.

I look forward to meeting everyone!

Long Time Watcher, First Time Writer....

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:29:21 GMT

Hi guys! This is my first post! =)

I just wanted to share some pictures of my Kaylee costume. It still needs to be splattered up and have the Chinese characters added. Does anyone know a good reference photo for the characters?

My personal favorite... ignore the catboy.

My best Jewel Staite impersonation. I keep cutting my hair too short to really get it right; luckily, I'm not that big of a perfectionist.

Not the greatest pic, but the only full-length one to show off the costume. It was my first sewing project, supervised and assisted by two awesome sewing cosplaying Firefly fans. <3

Well, what do you guys think?

Big Damn Crafters' Big Damn Challenge

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 23:54:18 GMT

Showing off a little here. Sorry, but I'm awfully smug about this one...

I'm part of an Etsy Street Team called the Big Damn Crafters. There are a lot of people there, doing a lot of awesome Firefly-related stuff. Not all of it costuming by any means, but you still might want to take a look.

The group's August challenge was the episode Shindig. After watching it a couple times (for research purposes, y'know) and doing a bit of digging around, I decided to do the necklace Inara's wearing during the duel.

Another piece inspired by Firefly, this one by the necklace Inara's wearing during the duel at the end of the episode Shindig.

I went about this as if I were researching a piece for the SCA. First I looked at the originals:

Those were the best shots I could find on Can't Take the Sky From Me, one of the best places I've found for Firefly screencaps and an all-around great site for Firefly fans. Not a lot to work with for the actual beads, but you can get a good idea of the general layout of the piece itself.

My choice of beads was dictated partly by my feel for Inara's fashion preferences in general and partly by which beads I actually had available. She wears a lot of purple and in fact you can see amethyst used in other pieces of hers, and I had some really awesome amethyst around so that was an easy choice. The smaller quartz beads I used as separators mostly because I had them available and they were unobtrusive enough that they didn't look wrong.

When all you've got to work with is a pair of pretty blurry photos, sometimes 'not wrong' is about as close as you can get.

The hard part was the bells. I'm not really sure that's what they are in the original though after a lot of close examination they sure looked like it. Listening carefully to the scene in which she wears the piece I don't hear any bells, but then I wouldn't have, unless they were a part of the plot.

The bells I used aren't actually shaped like the originals (if that's indeed what they are) -- the ones on Inara's necklace appear to be acorn-shaped, whereas mine have a ring at the top. A tiny cutout barely visible in one of them, though, tells me that bells are as good a guess as any. And they really do look good in the finished piece.

...I think I did okay, don't you?

Yes, that's me wearing it. I did also get a shot on the stand, but I felt that I needed a picture of it being worn to really get the full effect.

I'm awfully pleased with how it came out. The beads I had were perfect and I do like how they look with the bells. The bells chime gently when you move, not obtrusive at all. I'm sure it'd get loud if you were doing jumping jacks, but who'd do jumping jacks in a piece like this?

The one thing I changed was partly a mistake, partly deliberate. In one of the shots it looked like the center drop had only three beads, like the two on either side of it, and that the hang on the necklace made it look a little longer. When I looked at the other photo I realized that that wasn't the case -- the original has four beads there, not three -- but I'd have been short a bead if I'd made the center drop longer and I wanted to use the 10mm amethyst along the main part of the necklace as well, at least in the front.

I did use smaller amethyst beads for the rest of the necklace. You can't see that part in any of the shots I've seen of the original, and it makes sense that smaller, less valuable beads would have been used there, where they're less visible anyway.

I'll admit I'm completely smug about this piece. It took a long time, between researching the original, planning out the layout, and assembly. But, if I may say this about a piece of mine, it looks good. Damn good.

Also, kitten.

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:34:22 GMT

So I'm basically done with my War Stories River dress! I still have to hem the dress, but I was excited to have it basically done.

Sewing! Well, Pinning.

I don't know why I'm making this pose.. I was trying to beat the auto-timer. Lol. (I'm not that fat, I swear... o.O)

The back.

Now, some fun photos with the auto timer

And Kick!

This is a conundrum... What is it?

My only issue is that I look like i'm a walrus in the dress.... its very... poofy... I still have to iron it though, so hopefully that will help... Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

<3 Rachael

Inara's "The Train Job" Dress

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 07:16:14 GMT

Hi everyone, first post here (though I've been lurking for a while, this comm is a great resource).

I went to San Diego Comic Con for the first time this year, and my friends and I thought it would be fun to go as some of the Firefly gals. There are so many of Inara's outfits that I want to try my hand on, but for my first one I decided to make Inara's dress from The Train Job.

It took me months to actually get it finished, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Me and my gals (that's Kaylee from her flashback scene in Out of Gas on the left):

Group shot with all of Serenity's ladies and her Captain (we couldn't find the rest of the guys... lucky Mal had us all to himself ;D )

And lastly just a solo shot:

I had an awesome time wearing that dress. I only wish we had been able to get the whole crew together... oh well.

Next project will either be the purple Pilot dress or the BDM dress from the scene where Mal first meets the Operative.

Dragon*Con Photoshoot

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:47:46 GMT

Hey guys. We are mere days from Dragon*Con and I'm trying to get my photoshoots and events in line. My friend (baw61983) posted up a bit ago to see who was interested in doing a photohoot. I really haven't seen anything else come up about doing a Browncoat photoshoot, so I thought we'd kinda try to get one organized. If there is one already going please tell me. This is my first Dragon*Con so I'm not 100% sure about where to get all the info from.

That being said, I think most people said they'd be in costume on Saturday. So how would everyone feel about doing a photoshoot at 8 pm Saturday night before the Shindig? My friend and I will be in our costumes on Friday as well, but I thought Saturday would be better.

So post here if you think this would be good. Also, could anyone help in thinking of a place to take the photos, I have no clue where a good place would be. And spread the word to your friends!

Aim to Misbehave!!!

kaylee's patches?

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:46:16 GMT

Ok, so I've been sewing on Kaylee's patches on the overalls, but I can't seem to find a good picture or two that show all her patches. I only have the bear and the heart up, but I don't know where everything else goes? Anyone have any detailed pictures of her overalls?
Thanks!! I appreciate it.

All Ready for Dragon Con

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:32:52 GMT

After many trials and...well, it was pretty much all trials. But at last, my Kaylee costume is ready for Dragon Con!! Thanks ever so much to my friend rosiethehobbit for the modifications to my jumpsuit and the fabulous distressing job!

Inara Fabric Find!!! Gold corset from "The Message"

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:08:28 GMT

I found a seller on ebay with this fabric and it looks exact to me. I sent him a message and he says that he can get more yardage if he sells all 15 yards. Check it out! There is also a brocade for Lando's cloak from Star Wars.

Ebay Store

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 05:28:15 GMT

So, I think I got my River shoes for my costume. I know they aren't perfect, but I figured that instead of buying the exactly cannon boots for a lot of money that I don't have for wearing them one time, I'd get boots that are similar to ones that she wears in Serenity, only without the buckles. They are more comfy, plus they are back in fashion for this season, so i can wear them in everyday life, which is good for a college student. ^.^

So do you think that it will work... I figured that If everything else looked nearly perfect that the boots would be ok.

What do you think?

Inara

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 14:00:35 GMT

I was at Disney World in Orlando, FL last week, and when I got to the China Pavilion in Epcot, I saw a few Inara-style outfits and articles of clothing. I wish I had more money, so I could have gotten one of the beautiful dresses. Of course, I thought of everyone here and took pictures, which are behind the cut...

Browncoat Listing on Etsy

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:10:08 GMT

x -posted to fireflyfans

Browncoat on Etsy

The price listed is the new price.

Again, if you need a smaller size, please visit my website.

Jayla Beta's Intergalactic Costume Emporium

Oh, and I purchased space for Connooga next year for anyone interested in a Tennessee con.