DFW Costumers Guild

2012 event line-up

2012-01-24T14:20:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful business meeting yesterday, and thank-you SO MUCH to everybody who came out for it and helped us set our schedule for next year. I wanted to give you a run down of the events that we discussed so that you can start putting things on your calendar and start daydreaming about costumes.

February 18th: Antique Elegance show at the Civic Center in Richardson. The early birds can meet at 9:00 for the fashion show, and then we will have another meet-up at noon in the area near the little break room and where all the manikins are set up for the Cat's Meow booth. Costumes are optional, and you can dress in any historical era from Regency through 20th c. vintage. The fashion show is for Big Band Era fashions, so I'm sure 30's and 40's stuff will be big this year.

March 18th-19th: All-Con at the Crown-Plaza Hotel in Addison. We will have a club table and will be hosting multiple panels, including a knitting circle, a fabric swap, a millinery class, a class on working with rhinestones, and... what am I leaving out, Maggie? I thought there were 5 classes, but I'm drawing a blank on the last one. There will be tons of other costume-related classes and panels hosted by others, plus costume contests, a dealers room, celebrities, and all the usual con stuff.

March 31tst: Steampunk Tea Party at the Plano Heritage Farmstead. We will have food and tea plus steampunk games on the lawn of this charming historical site. We will have a gear toss, a steampunk marksmanship contest where you can bring your own modded water or nerf guns and show off your skills, and hopefully croquet for the more traditional Victorian crowd (unless any of you can think of a way to add a steampunk spin to croquet!) Costumes for this event includes anything Steampunk, Dieselpunk, or traditional Victorian or Edwardian. Tickets will be $12 for members and $15 for non-members, and we will start selling them in the next week or so.

April 14th: Edwardian day in the Park, location TBA. This one will be very similar to our Georgian Picnic - we can bring snacks and games and enjoy a lovely costumed outing in the park. Costumes can be anything from 1900-1920, and we are drawing inspiration from the Titanic anniversary, Downton Abbey, and all things Edwardian.

May 12th: Tarantula Train and Frontier Forts Days at the Ft. Worth Stockyards. We were thinking about trying this one again, but this time riding the full train ride that leaves from the Grapevine station at 1:00, then we'll have a layover at the Stockyards, then return to Grapevine on the train at 6:00. If you didn't want to do the full trip, you could just meet us at the stockyards.
June 9th(possibly): Summer Business meeting.

July 28th-29th(?): Costumers Retreat. We will share more info on that one soon!

August 11th(?): 20th c. Vintage Ice Cream Social. We had a wonderful time at Beth Marie's in Denton last year, so we were considering doing this one again. The dress would be anything 20th c. vintage, and we could do a bit of antique and book shopping on the square after enjoying some ice cream.

September 15th: Antique Elegance Show in Richardson. Similar situation to the one held in February.

October 13th: Sewing day, location TBA.

November 10th: WWII event in Waxahachie. We are looking at having our own table in the black market section of this event. We could possibly sell small items as a fundraiser for the guild, but even more than that, it would give us a place to hang out and something to do during the event.

Novmber 17th: 4th annual Georgian Picnic at the Botanic Gardens in Ft. Worth. Come enjoy food, socializing, and period games. Costumes include anything from the 18th c. or Regency periods.

December, date TBA: Lanternlight at the Plano Heritage Farmstead. Victorian holiday event that includes a tour of the main house with historical interpreters, games, food, music, wagon rides, Father Christmas, etc. It is a wonderful family-friendly event. Costume include anything Victorian or Edwardian.

January, date TBA: Titanic exhibit at the Museum of Science and History in Ft. Worth. We will dress in 1912 appropriate attire and visit the traveling exhibit from the Titanic Museum.

If you have any questions, thoughts, or suggestions to help us with this schedule of events, please let us know! It is possible that we might add small additional events (like movie outings) or modify some of these if we find that changes are needed, but we will try to at least keep the themes the same so that you can start making costumes and feel confident that you will have a place to wear them.

We hope you all will join us for some of these wonderful DFWCG events this year!

-jen

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

2012-01-15T15:53:00.000-08:00

The DFWCG folk are rather fond of their tea parties. Since 2009 the guild has hosted at least one tea per year whether in someone's home or in one of the various tea houses in the DFW area. Guild participants have become so fond of their tea parties, in fact, that this year we decided to schedule two of them.

This first tea of 2012 was themed Mad Hatter's Tea Party and was held at Mitra's Tea Room in Hurst. Costumes and grand hats were encouraged, but the only real rule for attendance was that each attendee be wearing some sort of hat. Small, Large, gregarious, or modest, all kinds of hats were represented at our tea party.

Here is a partial group shot that shows the range of historical hats in attendance. And there were also a couple Sci-Fi hats in attendance. Lisa brought two hats as well as her sonic screwdriver!

We had an honored out of town guest for this tea. Maggie of Padawansguide and CostumersGuide was visiting and decided to join us. It was wonderful to host her as reading about many of the 18th century and Regency events she has attended in her home state are the inspiration for our own. Plus, her costume guides have been a big help to several of us looking for research. It was so nice to meet her in person.

The afternoon tea menu was lovely. Mitra's serves a proper cup of tea steeped in individual small tea pots as opposed to bringing out hot water tea pots and tea bags to steep in the cup.

We were so delighted with each course that we forgot to take pictures of most of it until after we dug in. Oops! These scones and muffins were great as was the cream that came with them. There was also a strawberry butter and a lemon cream that's not pictured. Both were lovely compliments.

Their chicken salad sandwiches, shown here in the round whole wheat bread, were absolutely wonderful as were their cucumber sandwiches, which got gobbled up before a picture was taken. I didn't have an egg salad sandwich, but they were all gone too, so I believe they were good also.

Our fearless leader, Jen, surprised us with some games to play as we waited between each course. First we played a guess the hat game. You can see that one in the picture of the sandwiches above. Then we played a game where we named as many hat names or types as we could think of.

Here we are all thinking very very hard to list as many hat types as we could in 5 minutes.

And here the winner of the game, Ginger, compares notes with Maggie who just barely missed the win by one hat. There was actually a tie, then a sudden death round where Ginger came up with one more hat and Maggie accepted defeat.

After the tea we all decided to head down to a local park for some nice photographs in our costumes and hats. But Beth couldn't go, so we made sure to capture her lovely bustle ensemble at the tea room.

And of course there is the obligatory group shoe shot.

It's so much fun when we can get together in a park setting and finally photograph the clothing we've worked so hard on. Jen took photographs of each of us in turn so we have new pictures to add to our scrapbooks and portfolios. Everyone looked so lovely!

Jen sporting her lovely Regency wear. I wish some of the details in the Spencer showed up better, like her lovely silk lining.

This is an outfit that several of us read about on Maggie's blog. It was just as beautiful up close as it is in pictures.

Arranging the train and shaking out the train were common occurrences with Christy's lovely dress. It takes a village for a perfect shot.

But look how beautiful it is!

We all oohed and ahhed over Ginger's lovely fur muff accessory.

Cynthia has been working on her 18th century garb for quite some time now. She hand sewed a great majority of it. Her results photographed beautifully!

Maggie's Tudor fitted gown and kirtle are part of several projects she's been working on for a couple of years via The Tudor Tailor.

Christopher and Lisa were sporting their Sci-Fi gear. Who doesn't love crazy fun hats like that?

Lisa's 2nd hat, the tardis beanie!

Our 3 Regency ladies.

The adorable couple.

And finally here we are together as a group.

We laughed a lot told funny stories and played games. It truly was a wonderful day. And just think, our next tea is just right around the corner. If you'd like to join in on our tea party fun, plan to come to our Steampunk Tea Party in March at the Heritage Farmstead Museum in Plano. Remember, you are not required to be in costume for our events, you can just come to chat and play games with us as well. We hope to see you then!

Gearing up for Georgian! {18th century November Picnic}

2011-10-03T09:44:00.000-07:00

Our 3rd annual Georgian Picnic is just around the corner! (Nov 19th) This is a small post hoping to spread some enthusiasm and ideas to get you started or keep you going on your 18th century costuming :)

Of course, like all of our events, costumes are not required...but gosh it makes it all the more fun!

Our first year we decided to expand the title of the picnic to "Georgian" to incorporate a number of silhouettes of this time period. We usually have everything from panniers and bum pads to sleek lines of the regency period.

There are a number of great tutorials and commercial patterns out there to get you started. I have personally used a few different patterns from commercial sellers that I think have worked quite well. Mill Farms has been easy for me to use and I have fashioned a few different jackets from their $10 pattern.

Below is my mill farm jacket at the first picnic (and as you can see with my bright pink...you don't have to be historically accurate hehe)

Fellow around the web costumer Koshka-the-Cat has a fabulous tutorial for petitcoats similar to the one above:

http://www.koshka-the-cat.com/18c_petticoat.html

That jacket and petticoat are a basic and good start to the 18th century.

I have also used Sense and Sensibility patterns for regency era and found that they are easy to use...I am a more advanced sewer but I think both of these patterns (the Mill Farms and Sense and Sensibility patterns) are good for a beginner-intermediate.

As for the men: I have used the Rocking Horse Farm 1795-1820 Tailcoat pattern

...as the pattern suggests, its not for a beginner. But a great alternative costume for men that is simple would be a pirate type shirt, slim-fit khaki pants, and a vest of some sort....all of these could be found at a thrift-store (which is my favorite place to quickly refashion costumes and stay on a budget)

Now for accessories. Accessories can really put the final touches on any costume.

Think about first: the top side..meaning your hair or a hat. Most ladies and gentleman wore some type of hat for this time period.

If you go early think about a wide brimmed straw hat with a low crown for ladies. Pretty faux flowers and ribbons are great decoration. Poke bonnets work well for the Regency era. Hair is either worn up (really high and big or curled back, sometimes hidden under a mob cab)

As for the gentlemen: Top hats or tricorns are great for this period...or think George Washington hair ;)

Mitts are another great accessory which I am thinking I will be making this year (if I can get to it in time)... A great example is from Cynthia G. at www.cfgriffth.com... check out her costume galleries page for the entire 18th century outfit she finished this year! Its charming!!!...GREAT ACCESSORIES!

http://www.cfgriffith.com/costumes/18th-century-embroidered-mitts/

Be sure to check out our groups flickr pages from previous picnics for other great ideas:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/dfwcg/pool/page20/

Hope to see new and old faces next month at the event!
<3 Kaycee

AnimeFest 2011 & Beaded Pixel Art

2011-09-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

Labor Day weekend I had the great pleasure to represent the DFW Costumers Guild at Anime Fest alongside fellow members Jennifer K and Gypsy James. We had an absolute Ball!!!!

Jennifer and James helped to judge the Friday night costume contest. When I met up with them on Saturday I heard all about some of the beautiful costumes they were treated to by the costume entrants. On Saturday we all three participated in judging the Hall Cosplay Contest. Again, we were just mesmerized at the skill level and beauty of some of the costumes presented before us. And in this case, we were able to ask questions of the entrants and we came away with some new Brilliant ideas for prop making ourselves. I have to say that if you are looking for innovation and smart problem solving, I have recently learned that I need to look no further than our local Anime cosplayers.

After the Hall Cosplay Contest on Saturday, I was off to present my Pixel Art Bead Jewelry panel. Wow, I had anticipated that I would have more people show up than I had tools to provide, but I had no idea that the number of people attending the panel would exceed the number of handouts I had made. We had between 40 and 45 participants in my panel. I was really surprised. And a little flustered over being able to accomplish any of my intended pieces. Originally, I had pre-made patterns that I was going to let people choose which one to make, but there was just no way any of those pieces was going to get made in an hour with me having to go around the room group by group handing out supplies and teaching people the very simple method of stringing these beads. So I changed the plan. Instead of making one of the pre-selected patterns, I quickly explained to the panel how to make their own much smaller square pattern. Below is an example of the type of pattern we switched to. This pattern along with the patterns on my original hand out is available in the above patterns link.

Thankfully pixel art is an easy concept to understand and people caught on very well. I am also thankful that a very helpful panel attendee offered to cut wire and pass out beads with me. She made my job a lot easier! Most of the panel was spent teaching different groups how to start their project. Some people finished, some people barely got started. I wish everyone could have finished their project, but I hope at least everyone came away with a good idea of how to start their own project and the confidence that they can finish something fun and crafty in a short period of time.

Sunday was another day that my fellow guild judges and I had a great time together! We were all back together again for the Cosplay Skit competition. We had so much fun with that one!!!! And we had enough awards to hand out that each of our favorites won something. It was a great way to end our participation in this fun Con!

In my panel on Saturday I promised those who didn't get a pattern handout that I would post a blog with my patterns and step by step instructions. I apologize that it has taken me this long to get this blog put together. But I hope that now any of you who had questions and didn't get to ask me because I was helping others will see this and have those questions answered. If you still have questions after this blog, please put them in the comments. I'll be sure to answer them for you.

Now, this whole idea of the panel came from my trying to re-create some Luna Lovegood jewelry for the last Harry Potter screening. The DFW Costumers Guild gathered at Studio Movie Grill on opening weekend in costume and I wanted to make sure I had the right jewelry. I made radish earrings and the beetle ring. I was really surprised at how easy it was to put those things together and I thought it would be a fun activity for a con panel. I figured there was a whole world of possibilities with seed beads and pixel art! I was right. But there were very few people online making pixel art with seed beads. The only one I saw was this person and it looked like they had the same idea I did of using the bead sprite pattern method.

As I've already mentioned, I got all of my ideas from Googling Bead Sprite designs. When I was little, Bead Sprites were most certainly not this cool. We made simple coasters with almost no design. Or we made bracelets. We did not make works of art. Some of the designs I saw in my Google search were so elaborate and detailed they were not appropriate for my panel, but I encourage you to check them out with your own Google searches because they are quite fantastic.

For my patterns, I specifically got my ideas for these patterns from these sites:

PC Pointer and Nintendo pieces

Mario Mushrooms

There were so many options to choose from on my search, but in the end, these blog entries presented simple items that I thought were easy to understand and reproduce. Plus, Nintendo and Mario Bros is Just Cool!

Now, on to the tutorial:

First, you need the right tools. Here I have pictured my tools. My regular needle nosed pliers have been with me for years in various projects, the other three are new since this beading hobby of mine is new. Most needle nosed pliers actually have wire cutters built in them, but I would still recommend you purchase some small wire cutters anyway. There are many situations where those needle nosed pliers won't do the job. The wire cutters can get in to smaller spaces. I also recommend narrow needle nosed pliers. Even if you don't think you will need them, they are much better in more delicate situations. Plus, sometimes you will need to use a pair of pliers in each hand to pull wire through tight beads. Those purple pliers are for rolling and looping wire. I use them more than the second pair of pliers. Pliers will be your most expensive investment in this particular beading project.

Many people in the panel asked me what kind of wire I was using. You can get many gauges of wire at your local craft store. Use the smallest gauge. And remember, the larger the number, the thinner the wire. The day I went wire shopping, the smallest gauge I could find was 24 gauge. I found this 28 gauge wire at Home Depot in the picture hanging accessories aisle. It's my favorite. And I recommend using wire as opposed to thread for this work because thread is flimsy and you have to use needles and be more careful with the beads buckling. With wire, you just need the wire, beads, and pliers and the object holds a shape better.

The beads you are using are your basic run of the mill seed beads. You can purchase them for under $2 a package at your local craft store and they come in all sorts of colors.

Now let's get started! Threading beads with wire is easy. You just insert the end of the wire into the seed bead opening. Here's where your pattern comes into play. For the first (meaning the bottom) row, thread the entire count of beads onto the wire and let them fall all the way to the center of the wire.

Like so. Pretend you can see the ends of this wire and the meet up in the middle so the sides are even.

For the second row, thread all the beads for that row in the pattern just like you did the first row, except stop them from falling very far down the wire.

Now you are going to pick up the end of the wire on the other side and thread it through the beads like so.

Your object is to work the wire and beads so that you have opposite ends of wire coming out of each side of the row. Be aware that some seed beads suffer from having smaller openings. Sometimes you will have beads that cannot be double threaded like this. So it would be a good idea to eyeball each bead and try to determine the smaller opening beads to discard for this project. Otherwise, you will spend a bunch of time threading, then taking the row apart, then picking new beads, then re-threading. It's a pain. I speak as someone who keeps forgetting to cull small beads and pulling my hair out over this often.

Here's where your pliers may come in handy. If the fit is tight on these beads, you'll need the pliers to help you grip and pull the ends of the wire. You want to pull the ends so that the new row of beads moves down towards the already completed row. Make sure you are pulling each side equally. You still need each side's length of wire to be relatively the same. You don't want to have to start over because you let one side get too short.

Pull the wire as tightly as you can.

Here you see me using my thumb and fingers to manipulate the bottom row from a curve to a line. This only happens during the first and second row construction when you are making square pieces. You shouldn't have to manipulate rows on square pieces after this.

Here you can see where I've made a third row. I made that row by duplicating the instructions for the second row. In a square piece, this is really easy because you are just counting beads according to the pattern. Be aware that if you have beads which differ wildly in width, you may need to adjust bead count in the pattern for that discrepancy.

This is my near finished Domo. As you can see, he is not perfectly square. This is for several reasons. First, I messed up one of the red bead rows and shorted it. I decided to leave that in so you could see how missing beads in the pattern can affect things. But that's not the only reason Domo is distorted. Some of the rows have differing size beads. You can tell this the most on the bottom tooth row. Those white beads are smaller. The same thing happened with my Ankh at the top of the blog post. I actually even tried to adjust the bead counts in some rows to account for smaller or larger beads. If you really want your projects to look perfect, you should pick through your beads at the start of the project to attempt to keep bead size uniform. You're already picking through to choose for large opening sizes, you may as well pick through for uniform size as well.

Now to finish our little Domo, I use the clothes hangar method. I pinch together the remaining wire...

and then twist.

Then cut the excess wire and use the rolling pliers to bend the twisted wire into a loop.

These more narrow needle nose pliers are great for pinching the loop together.

Then all that's left to do is to clip the excess wire away and thread some ribbon or chain through your new pendant. Or if you are making earrings, thread the wire through the loop end of the fish hook earring before you clamp it down and then as you are clamping down, twist the pendant loop so your earrings hang properly facing forward.

Now you have your own pixel bead art! And how simple was that? Once you are comfortable with the process, here is a website with a few more Bead Sprite patterns you can work with. And Pixelgasm has even more fun ideas you can convert from Bead Sprites. If you're feeling really confident, you can also try your hand at making patterns for little Kaos. This site doesn't have the grids set up, but the kaos are small and simple enough that if you can make the Mario Mushrooms in my pattern, you should be able to figure out how to pattern some of the kaos. To start patterning, all you have to remember is to keep it on a grid. And each bead should represent one square on that grid. Easy Peasy!

Happy Beading!

All-Con 2011 Recap

2011-03-24T16:12:00.000-07:00

Wow, What a weekend! There are parts of me and my habitation that are still recovering from that whirlwind of fun. The folks at All-Con really pulled out all the stops this year. There was excitement and entertainment well into the early hours of the morning and somehow we all woke up mostly on time and did it all again.

This year the DFWCG participated in three panels. I have to say they were all a success. Thank you to Everyone who came to our panels and double thank you to those who ran those panels! We could not have been a success if it was not for either of you.

Friday we took it easy. Jennifer Kubenka and Coleen Swafford were at All-Con early so they got our table started while I was still at work. Thank you Very much Crandall for getting our information together so that they were able to do that! We saw some great costumes and talked to a lot of cool people. And some inventive people too! Check out this Dalek interpretation:

Once the time came to shut down the tables we all broke away and then Coleen and I came back to enjoy the Dr. Horrible Sing-a-Long Blog screening. I opted to come in Dr. Horrible costume along with a few others, but I was the only one representing the red lab coat.

Founding Member Traci Baker glammed it up in her new PVC corset outfit on Friday night.

What a great way to kick off the first night of the con!

Saturday we were up and at 'em early as we had our knitting panel first thing. Last year we had a large group of people who all wanted to learn how to get started. This year we had a smaller group learning, but over all we were of differing levels. Regina came to be our expert again. And as usual she was fantastic and very funny. We had another Regina drop by to show us how she spins fibers into yarn. She's from Rose Path Weaving in Lindale, TX. Our instructor Regina spoke very highly of this shop's yarn selections.

One of our knitters was brave enough to try making our little Jayne Hat Pin that Laura put together for last year. We were all so busy learning last year that we never got around to making them so I had lots of leftover supplies. The rest of us learned or practiced our basic knitting.

Our next panel on Saturday was the Fabric and Pattern Swap. Each year this panel has grown. I remember the first year when there was only two of us who participated. This year, we covered nearly every table with swap items. How fantastic is that?

We moved a lot of fabric and patterns during that swap. Of course we also had so much more that wasn't taken home. Although at first I was a little overwhelmed with the amount we had left and what on earth I was going to do with it, I have since decided to donate the remaining swap items to a local theater program or school. Now I just need to choose where to donate.

During the swap, I met two ladies who are making some interesting innovations in dress forms. They're Epps & York Apparel & Accessories. And they make custom dressforms to mimic soft tissue. In layman's terms, they squish better than a Uniquely You foam form. They didn't have any forms on hand at this con for us to look at, but I am hoping we can see a sample some time soon.

Saturday afternoon was our beaded jewelry panel. Our Treasurer Rondinella was gracious enough to be here from Austin after her time at Gulf Wars in Mississippi to put this panel on. She was also gracious enough to donate the supplies for the panel so people could go home with something they made instead of just watching a demo. So a Huge thanks goes out to Rondinella for her contribution on Saturday! Here's a sampling of what went down in the panel.

At posting, Rondinell hadn't had a chance to sort through her photos she took of the finished products. I hope to have her photos to showcase soon.

The Beaded Jewelry panel closed out our panel participation for the day, but over at the club table we continued to see some amazing costumes.

This family was a major favorite walking by. It's so great when the whole family can participate.

And this Yellow Lantern Scarecrow looked really awesome up close.

I'm not sure what costume this is, but it also looked really great up close.

We officially wrapped up Saturday's club table in the evening so we could all break for dinner. After that some of us rested and enjoyed the vacation of the hotel. Others of us played well into the night and early morning hours taking advantage of the extended programming All-Con provided this year.

Sunday was to be a day spent just sitting behind the table and wrapping up our connections with new people. But at the last minute we were asked to sit on a panel about Master Level Costuming as the panelist couldn't make it. That gave me a chance to sit on a panel with Cynthia, who also was a great help lending us a dress form for costume displays. We all had to think quickly on our feet to fill the time, but I think the panel attendees were able to come out of the room with some helpful information.

I have to say that out of the 3 years the DFWCG has participated with All-Con, this year was my favorite. I had anticipated a great time as soon as I saw the theme and I was even more excited about it as soon as I started to see the panels fill in on the schedule. 2012 has some big shoes to fill. But considering the theme, I think we're in for another wild ride. See you guys next March for "The End of the World"!

All-Con 2011 is almost upon us

2011-03-14T14:22:00.000-07:00

Are you ready? Have you rifled through your costume closet and found enough to put together a suitable wardrobe for 3 days of costuming?

If you're anything like me, your house or apartment is an absolute explosion of fabric and thread due to the last minute ideas and the refusal to be seen in "that same costume for a third time." This last week my living space was transformed into a veritable sweat shop so I could fix items that were torn, or alter items to better mix and match. I nearly finished one costume only to realize that what I really needed to finish was a large boarder at the bottom of the skirt. And I almost altered a costume which was too big only to decide that if I took the fringe off of it and hacked away at an old brides maid's dress, the whole look would be infinitely better.

Am I finished? No. Of course not. This week I finalize closures and rifle through what's left of my make-up stash that survived a bit of an apartment disaster. And I start getting creative with my hair. I have several ready to wear wigs, but I think for my steampunk I'm going to play with my new extensions for a fresh hair style. I think I'm most excited about my Steampunk outfit. It's Steampunk Light, but it's cute and is an example of how a person can take some regular closet items and cobble them together with other costume pieces for a decent Steampunk look. I can't wait to share it! Needs a hat though.

But it's not just the costumes I'm excited about. For the third year in a row the DFWCG is presenting our Fabric and Pattern Swap. Each year this swap has grown just a little bit more in size. And I've heard that this year we should have some very interesting fabrics offered. There's also going to be patterns and trims. If you didn't stop by last year, you missed the opportunity to snag 2 yds of nice Italian silk. Who knows what jewel will surface this year? And remember, you don't have to bring something to take something.

We're also reprising our Knitting panel. We had such a great time learning last year that we decided it would be fun to meet up again to see what everyone's been up to. We've got instructors on hand for anyone who needs to learn from the beginning or who needs to refresh their lessons. We will have extremely limited supplies for those who want to learn, but aren't ready to buy their own supplies. Since those supplies are limited, we encourage you to go ahead and bring your own. The supplies list for beginners wishing to learn is:

1. US 7, 8 or 9 needles - Hobby Lobby has great short 'learner'-type needles made by Red Heart in sizes US 7, 8, and/or 9, for a couple of bucks a pair - they're called 'basics' or 'learners' and come in red, blue and yellow, respectively

2. A light-colored yarn.
a. Sugar and Cream dishcloth cotton, or

  b. Sinfonia cotton, or
  c. a non-novelty acrylic yarn (smooth yarn without any frou-frou crap in it - makes the stitches more defined and clean, and easier to see and understand), or
  d. Inexpensive yarn options available at big box stores:
   1. Red Heart Super Saver,
   2. Patons Classic Wool
  e. Yarn store options - reasonably inexpensive, and available in many colors:
   1. Cascade 220 (100% wool)
   2. Encore Worsted (acrylic/wool blend)

3. If you want to try to make some Jayne Hat pins to donate to the Austin Browncoats, also bring a pair of US size 3 or 5 straight needles. We have the instructions and the yarn supplies.

4. Patterns and projects to discuss.

For those who are a little more experienced, please feel free to bring anything you want to finish or for show and tell. Like a proper knitting circle, we welcome folks of all levels to chat and work together.

And lastly, we have a special beaded jewelry panel that I'm excited about. DFWCG Treasurer Rondinella is going to be showing us all how to make our very own beaded jewelry. She'll lead you through tools all the way to construction of a basic piece. I can't wait to see how this panel goes!

We hope to have enough room around our table to have some costumes on display again this year. And we'll have some books out for con-goers to look at. I'll also have my camera out and I'll be handing out lanyard tags to wear with your badges. So make sure you drop by to see us during the weekend. We'd love to photograph you in each of your costumes and get to know you. And also please let us know what kind of panels you'd like for us to offer for future dates of All-Con. With your help, we would like to continue to build our con activity each year.

Harajuku fashions for historical costumers

2011-02-01T17:52:00.000-08:00

When I first heard about the costume guild's upcoming Tokyo Pop event, my first thought was: "sounds like fun, but what on earth would I wear!?!" Since I mostly focus on historical costumes and have no interest in anime, I was worried that this event might not hold any interest for me costume-wise. But then I started looking into Harajuku street fashions, and I was amazed by how many diverse and historically influenced styles there are to choose from. I'll share some of the info that I've gathered in my search this past month, and maybe it will give some of you other folks who are new to this cultural phenomenon a place to start as well. Here is a quick rundown of some of the major styles that might appeal to those of us who are beyond our teenage years and looking for something more historical than anime for inspiration:

Visual Kei - a style inspired by Japanese rock musicians that is characterized by the use of elaborate costumes, make-up, hairstyles and costumes. The look often has a very androgynous feel. Think 80's glam rock, but even more theatrical. Most of the rock bands are made of guys who look like girls, but the Harajuku visual kei style is mostly made up of girls dressing up like their favorite rock guy (who dresses like a girl). Got it? ;) A lot of the visual kei looks are very modern punk or goth looking with a hard edge, but others are more "pretty" and historically inspired. The Japanese visual kei band Versaille has some especially fun looks ranging from 18th c. through Victorian.

Gothic Lolita (also GothLoli) - this style is characterized by lots of Victorian-inspired black and white clothing, short flared skirts, anything with ruffles or lace, elaborate hats, veils, and bonnets, oversized handbags, parasols, stockings, and platform shoes. The wearers often try to invoke the "cute" looks of children or porcelain dolls... but with a gothic edge to it. Victorian blouses, corsets, and accessories fit in well with this style.

Classic Lolita - This style is a more mature and less "cute" version of the loli look. The silhouette is similar, but the dresses can be more A-lined or princess cut, and there aren't nearly as many ruffles or frills. This style also uses more variety in colors and some floral patterns, and the accessories aren't as costumey. A lot of 50's looks would work really well for this style.

Elegant Gothic Aristocrat (EGA) - Again, a more mature subset of the gothic lolita style with an emphasis on historically-inspired elegance. Colors are still predominantly black and white, but skirts are often tea or floor length and slimmer, and long tailored jackets are common. The style is very androgynous at times, and you often see EGA outfits that make use cravats, tophats, or walking sticks, but corsets and traditional Victorian womenswear is common as well. This style has a lot of similarities to the gothic fashions that we have seen in the US for decades now.

Pirate Lolita (PirateLoli) - Another loli subset that combines eye-patches, tricorns, frock coats, and other pirate garb with the short, flared loli skirts. Arrrr... so piratey, and cute! If you've ever made a pirate costume, you probably already have some pieces that would work well for this one.

Dolly Kei - This style uses a lot of vintage garments, extreme layering, and Eastern European or gypsy styles to create an rich and eccentric combination. Pretty much anything goes with this look! It is very bohemian-looking. I could see a lot of Renaissance faire garb working well with this style - especially when combined with other thrift shop or vintage pieces.

Mori Girls - This style is supposed to look like the wearer would be at home in an enchanted forest. Colors are light and neutral, and the clothing is layered and loose fitting. Victorian or Edwardian petticoats or camisoles, 1910's lingerie dresses, neutral colored shawls, vintage fur stoles, and earthy 70's clothing all could be used as staples of a good mori girl outfit.

I hope that gives you historical costumers out there a few more ideas to get you inspired for our Tokyo Pop event. Once you know the names of the styles, it is easy to look for more pictures and webpages dedicated to these fashions on Google, Flickr, Tumblr, LiveJournal, or elsewhere. The hardest part for me was just knowing what to look for in the first place!

I have tried to focus my search on styles that have a historical influence and that would be more appropriate for adults, but there are TONS of other Harajuku styles that are more modern and youthful. The main thing that I have learned about Harajuku fashions is that creativity and personal style is treasured, and there are no hard rules for anything. If you don't like any of these styles, create your own! Who knows, you might start the next Harajuku fashion trend!

Easy Anime Costuming

2011-02-01T09:48:00.000-08:00

In honor of the upcoming All-Con and Tokyo Pop events this spring, we give you a guest post by Coleen Swafford on easy anime costuming:

My daughter loves anime and anime costumes. I have made 3 so far and thought I would share what I have learned. Since I don’t watch as much anime as she does, I rely on pictures she supplies and any additional details that she feels are relevant. Obviously, the important thing is to come up with something that is easily identifiable as the character. Materials and methods are of less importance.

All three of the characters she requested are from Naruto. The first costume was to be Sasuke. She gave me these pictures. Well, this outfit was pretty easy. I made knee length baggy white shorts. For the top, I went through my patterns until I found a blouse with a stand up type collar, then over exaggerated it. I made the top large and pull on. Then I cut out the fan shape and appliquéd it on the back. The arm bands were white cotton with elastic in the blue end pieces. We polished it off with a cheap wig found on ebay and a headband we found there as well. Footwear was our biggest problem. They don’t sell toeless ninja boots at Target. But we did find knee hi toeless socks there and paired them with a pair of black slippers.

The second character was Sakura. For this outfit, I decided to see if I could find part of this at thrift shops. A trip to Goodwill netted me a short pink skirt and a red sleeveless tank. I opened the side seams on the skirt and made small straps with fake buckles on each side. A pair of bike shorts worked well under the skirt. Since it wasn’t necessary to have the top unzip, I bought a long white zipper and sewed it on the outside. I could have bought soccer pads for her elbows but instead made them from old sock tops. Some black gloves, the Saskue footwear, and another cheap Ebay wig and I was done.

The third character was TenTen. I decided to make this one from scratch. I found a pants pattern that had cut down pockets. I made the pants out of burgundy cotton. I used white cotton for the inside of the pockets and made the lines with rows of stitching. Then attached a grey strip of fabric over them. I finished the legs of the pants by blousing them mid calf. I’ll admit the jacket didn’t come out exactly as I wanted. I probably could have found a store pattern for this but instead used a Chinese jacket I found at Goodwill. The jacket was too small and the wrong color, so I took it apart and used it to make larger pattern pieces. I didn’t get the neckline totally right but it was enough that anime enthusiast recognized exactly who she was at Anime Fest.

OMG That Dress!

2011-01-16T07:08:00.000-08:00

I'm still new to the whole Tumblr thing, but I stumbled across an amazing Tumblr blog this weekend: OMG That Dress! OMG is right! I've wasted hours at this site already. What wonderful eye candy!

The other Tumblr site that I've been enjoying for awhile now is Edwardian Era. Have y'all found any other good ones? Or cool costume-related blogs in general?

Downton Abbey

2011-01-15T15:43:00.000-08:00

If you haven't found this already, you might want to check out the new online episodes of Downton Abbey. It's packed full of wonderful Edwardian costumes, and the story is really interesting too! It reminds me a lot of the reality series Manor House, which I loved as well. I just watched that series this past summer by checking the DVD's out from the Dallas Public Library.

Although I adore the clothing in both of these, it sure does make me grateful that I'm not an Edwardian!

Georgian Picnic costumes on the cheap

2010-11-02T06:50:00.000-07:00

On Nov. 13, the DFW Costumers Guild is hosting a Georgian Picnic at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. This is the second year for this event. We decided to make it an annual event after we had so much fun basking in the fall gardens last year.

The costume turnout was of a wide variety of 18th Century. Some people came to the event in Marie Antoinette inspired frocks and some came in more American styled clothing. And then some came in later 18th Century fashions more of the Jane Austen bent. Everyone looked Fantastic!

As always, we hope that as many people who are interested in the period will come to our picnic, but sometimes people worry about being "Period Correct." Don't let that worry you. For one, costumes are encouraged at all of our events, but not required. And in addition, 18th century garments can be just about the simplest costumes to make if you know how to cheat.

Exhibit One - the Chemise Dress (Chemise A La Riene):

Marie Antoinette, the queen herself, in a Chemise Dress

Also Marie Antoinette in a simpler version of the Chemise Dress

Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Marie Antoinette's portrait artist, in a different kind of chemise dress.

Izabela Lubomirska, a Polish noblewoman in a lovely Chemise Dress

Madame DuBarry in a higher necked version of the Chemise Dress

Madame Seriziat in another Chemise Dress without much lace, but with a fichu.

Reconstructing History makes a pattern for a Chemise Dress, which I believe also includes a pattern for a fichu. That pattern should be pretty period accurate. However, if you already have a white chemise for your Renaissance Faire garb, you can save that $30 for the Reconstructing History pattern. All you need to is find a nice wide ribbon to tie at your waist, some ribbons to tie the arms, and then a small amount of muslin to make a fichu. You could also add lace to the neckline and wrists of your chemise if you are willing to take that particular chemise out of your Ren Faire Garb closet and permanently transition it to 18th century.

Exhibit Two - Empire Waisted Dress:

Period correct Regency dress includes a light under dress, a pair of stays, and then the dress. However, if you get dark enough material for the dress, you can skip the under dress, and frankly, the Regency stays were designed to do Exactly what our modern bras do - lift and separate - so you can skip the stays and just wear a good bra if you don't have the time or inclination to make all of the correct underwear.

Here's a photo of us at this year's Regency Tea. One of us in that picture may or may not have skipped the period underpinnings. But you can't tell can you?

For those distiguished gentelmen who will be joining us: Slim fitted slacks, top hat (stovepipe Victorian is close to the same look in regency), altered vest to be straight across at top of pants, and I purchased the Rocking Horse Farm 1790-1820 Tail Coat pattern that took me just a few days to put together (pictured above). My other thought was to alter a tail coat from the thrift store. My next step is to make shoe covers that look like tall riding boots (made with faux leather from joanns).

And again please don't worry about being "period correct"...notice my HOT PINK skirt from last year lol:

Please feel free to post any questions or suggestions to yahoo groups message board :)

Looking forward to seeing everyone!!!

From students to Pros

2010-10-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

On Oct 7th I had the great fortune of speaking to a class of Theatrical Costuming students from Plano West High School. And I really do mean great fortune because my speaking was the result of meeting a family member who volunteers with the class and we may never have connected if another, closer, family member hadn't mentioned she should talk to me about costuming. Funny world isn't it?

The ladies in the Theatrical Costuming class are true beginners. They've been set on a path of sewing napkins and aprons. Honestly, I can't think of a better first project than those. I think I started on a gathered doll apron myself in my Theatrical Costuming class in college. Learning to handle those straight lines is one of those things I still mess up on occasion, but when I really need to focus, I transport myself right back into that workroom in Commerce, TX and keep an eye on the marker on the sewing plate. It's like I'm in 1999 again.

The main purpose for my talk with the class was to discuss costuming in general as well as to discuss costuming outside of High School. These students are just starting, but some of them are already eager to know if they could still enjoy the trade once they graduated. I was happy to inform them that there are many opportunities to keep using the craft if you want to. And some of those opportunities will even put some money in their pockets.

Many costumers will work to produce costumes on commission. DFWCG founder Traci Baker does just that. You can see her creations on her website as well as on the bodies of many folks all over the country. Other costumers choose to teach. I lecture at local conventions. Jennifer Thompson, our guild president, blogs and has written articles for well known online costuming publications. And some costumers in the DFW area enjoy the extra outlet of working their craft in the theatre and film arenas.

To get started with taking commissions, you should get examples of your work out in the world and seen by any means possible. Build a website and join networks. Make friends at conventions and events where people wear costumes. Pass your business card out to Haunted Houses and Renaissance Faires.

To get involved in teaching and writing articles, start a blog and make friends with people who run conventions or host publications. Submit an article. See what happens. Many costume groups will be delighted to have a new voice offer to teach something. Conventions are great places to begin teaching and so are local recreation organizations.

In both theatre and film, the best way to start out is to volunteer your services for free to llow or no-budget productions. I am not personally familiar with the process in theatre, but in film, the idea is to get on set doing Anything. Even just as a PA hauling equipment. By just doing your job and having a great attitude, you will be asked to join future productions. Eventually, you will have the chance to shine as a costumer. And just as in any profession, you will have the opportunity to advance in the ranks and maybe even get paid for your work. Once you start getting offered paid gigs, then you can really get serious about applying for big jobs.

In preparing for this talk with the Theatrical Costuming class, I spoke to a fellow costumer who has made that next step from hobbyist to film professional. I met Jennifer Dryden through mutual friends and conventions. She has a long list of theatre and film work attached to her name that she worked on for little to no pay. A few years ago she decided to make the jump and try to go pro. She is slowly making her way to bigger productions with each job. Here was her advice on getting your foot in the door:

Find out about the state film office if there is one and look at their ‘hotline’ for jobs every day and send a letter and resume to every production that shows up on said hotline
Join the local ‘production partnership’ if there is one.
Contact the local chapter of IATSE and ask what has to happen for you to join.
Find out if there is a local film production resource guide, get your hands on a copy and cold email the folks in the department you want to work in.
If offered a job, don’t say NO. If it is at all possible, take it.
Network, Network, Network. Join Facebook (and keep it professional), LinkedIn, and any other local message board or website that promotes film production in your region.

You'll find links to all the resources you need on the following pages:

http://www.austinfilm.org/for_filmmakers/filmmaker-resources

http://www.dallasfilmcommission.com/

http://www.shortfilmtexas.com/

I have to say it was pretty wonderful meeting these new faces just as they are getting started. I hope that I get to see the progress of these new costumers and that they bring great things to DFW area costuming.

Antique Elegance Show September 18th!!!

2010-08-27T09:44:00.000-07:00

Just a few weeks away!!! We hope that you can join us for the next Antique Elegance Show that will be held the weekend of September 18th, 2010. The Guild will be meeting for the Tea Tasting that will take place on Saturday the 18th at 1:00PM. We suggest arriving around 12:30PM to get a seat at our table(s). I'm really excited to see all the new goodies (or should I say "old" goodies) from the antique vendors!.

Costuming is of course optional, though if you do choose to get quirky and fabulous.... Regency through 20th century vintage costumes are encouraged.

Cost: $5 for admission on each day (pay when you walk in)

Location: Richardson Civic Center (see the official webpage for directions)

Side note from the author::: I still can't decide what to wear to this event!! I had so much fun at the Steampunk Social I may go a little victorian steampunk :) ....something with a nice victorian bustle anyways :)

Steampunk Social Wrap Up

2010-08-20T09:02:00.000-07:00

What a fun evening! Gigets and Gagets galore! Saturday, August 14th, the Guild met at Generator Coffee in Garland for some Steampunk Socializing. This was my first Steampunk event and thanks to everyone who attended it was a great success! Special thanks to Maggie for helping to organize and promote with our new friends at the Steampunk Illumination Society! Looking forward to meeting and collaborating with Steampunk IS in the future. Check out our Flickr photo stream for additional photos of the night.

Also visit http://www.steampunkis.com/ to find out more about our new friends at the Steampunk Illumination Society :)

Are you ready for some gadgety fun?

2010-08-11T09:29:00.000-07:00

This Saturday Steampunk enthusiasts and DFWCG members will meet together to share their love of invention and costumes. The location, The Generator coffee house; the theme, as inventive as you like.

For weeks now, I have been working on my new costume as well as favors to hand out to participants. And I have to say coming up with these little favors has been a lot of fun. I am one of those costumers who has admired the creativity of this Steampunk movement, but has never been very confident in reimagining the historical, which I'm more comfortable with, as fantastical and inventive. This whole exercise of preparing for the Steampunk Social has been a fantastic journey. I've learned that I'm more creative than I thought! And I might just have some interest in hardware store jewelry. Imagine that! Has anybody else had this experience in learning this new genre?

One of the most amazing things about this costuming hobby is the potential of learning something new every day. Many of you who are attending our social event have been costuming Steampunk for a while now and others are just getting started. I hope that through our social gathering, we can all manage to share something new with each other as well as make new friends. And I hope that this social is the beginning of more similar events to come.

DFWCG Steampunk Costumes of the Past:

Irving Steampunk Event (L-R) Dartpoly, Daniel, Sally, Maggie

All-Con 2009 (L-R) Amie, Jennifer

Steampunk Ideas

2010-07-22T08:27:00.000-07:00

I know some of us are kind of new the steampunk era of costuming. Just thought I would share this really cool Etsy.com shop that I found. Looks pretty steampunk to me....Know of any other cool steampunk ideas to share? Leave a comment :)

http://www.etsy.com/listing/50445230/bolero-lace-up-leather-harness-with?ref=fp_feat_1

more adventures in millinery

2010-07-12T18:47:00.000-07:00

I whipped up another quick tutorial on my blog, about how I made my straw braid bonnet that I wore to our 19th c. tea party this past weekend. While this was definitely more complicated than just reshaping an existing straw hat, I was pleasantly surprised at how quick and painless it was to make!

Sense and Sensibility Underthings in Review

2010-06-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

I am fairly satisfied with the way the Sense and Sensibility chemise and short stays turned out (and yes I crisscrossed the lacing). The stays I sewed completely on the machine (except for the eyelets) and the chemise I did any visible stitching by hand.

PLEASE NOTE::: The stays pattern is WAYYY big...measure first *i had to adjust even after measuring*

It took a good solid 3 days with the hand sewing but overall wasn't too horrid. I also bought the downloadable version from the site so that took awhile to piece together but not too bad. I have been super busy so I didn't track the progress but will hopefully be able to for the spencer jacket and bonnet. Also stay tuned for men's regency wear!!! Cut away tailcoats and drop front breeches! Can't wait to see everyone's 19th century fabulousness! Hoping to see some steampunkers as well so I can chat a bit about upcoming events and good costume ideas ;)

-K

another Regency undies overview

2010-06-17T12:52:00.000-07:00

Regency underwear must be on everybody's minds lately! Here's another great overview that just popped up on my blog reader yesterday.

19th Century Tea Online Purchasing

2010-06-16T15:00:00.000-07:00

Due to the reservations needed for our 19th century tea, we have been asked to have a firm headcount for our party. To accomplish this, we are asking that all attendees pre-register for the tea. Below you will find a Paypal button for purchasing your seat a the tea. Ticket sales will end on June 30th and we will be unable to guarantee accomodation for anyone who did not pre-register. If you have any questions, please contact the event chair, Kaycee, who is also our Vice President.

Purchase tickets to the 19th Century Tea here:

regency underthings

2010-06-15T13:50:00.000-07:00

A number of us are working on creating some new Regency-period costumes for the 19th c. tea, the Antique Elegance Show, or for the Pride and Prejudice Pity Party next year. If you would like to see a good overview of some of the major Regency undergarment patterns that are out there, you might want to check out this site. I thought this was very helpful - especially when they linked to pictures of finished examples! I'm working on the Past Patterns long stays right now, and I think I'm going to try one of those free chemise patterns at the top of the page. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Suffragette recap

2010-06-05T18:04:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful time at the suffragette event last weekend! We had 12 ladies in attendance (including the wee ones) who were wearing a wonderful range of fashions dating from the early 1900's up to the early 20's. We did a little shopping at the farmer's market (yay cookies!) and then came back and shared a yummy light picnic lunch. I really enjoyed chatting with everybody and taking lots of pictures in our beautiful setting. And I had a blast making the banners and poster and researching some of the writings of the suffragettes. Thanks to everybody who came out! Here are my pictures from the event.

2010-05-27T14:39:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that our Suffragette picnic is this Saturday! The even begins at 10:00 and we'll be having a picnic luncheon on the historical park grounds around noon.

You can find full information here at the Guild website or through our mailing list.

I hope to see you all there!

hat tutorial

2010-05-23T19:34:00.000-07:00

I posted a little hat-shaping tutorial over at my blog. These things make a great base for Edwardian styles, but they could be used for a lot of other periods as well.

suffragette dress diary

2010-04-30T20:51:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody! I'm having a blast working on my new dress for the suffragette picnic, so I decided to make a dress diary so that I could blog about my progress.

Check out my Festive Attyre blog if you'd like to follow along!

Shakespeare in the Park: OCT 16, 2010

2010-04-26T20:22:00.001-07:00

Shakespeare in the Park of Dallas presents: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Here Ye! Here Ye! Join us October 16^th, 2010 as we have the pleasure to attend Dallas’ Shakespeare in the Park in Addison Circle at 7:00PM. The players will be showing The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Those in attendance are able to bring food and drink for a lovely picnic during the show. Are you a CURRENT member of the DFWCG? As a paid DFWCG member you may purchase a discounted ticket in advance for $8. Non members can also purchase tickets in advance for $10. Check out www.dfwcg.org for more ticket info in the next few weeks. In the Shakespearean spirit costumes are encouraged to be around the Elizabethan/Tudor/Renaissance Era. The play itself has a very Italian theme so think Italian renaissance to really get in the mood. Need some ideas? Craft Store patterns are below:
http://www.simplicity.com/p-1576-costumes.aspx
http://www.simplicity.com/p-2009-costumes.aspx
http://www.simplicity.com/p-1547-costumes.aspx
http://www.simplicity.com/p-2022-costumes.aspx

http://www.simplicity.com/p-2089-costumes.aspx

http://mccallpattern.mccall.com/m5155-products-6518.php?page_id=493

http://mccallpattern.mccall.com/m5444-products-7840.php?page_id=915

http://mccallpattern.mccall.com/m5647-products-8938.php?page_id=915

Suffragette Picnic

2010-04-22T16:23:00.000-07:00

Good new! Although we hit a snag with the Liberty Fest thing, the suffragette event is back on! We have moved the venue to Chestnut Square, which is a beautiful little historical site close to downtown McKinney. We are planning to set up a suffragette booth at their farmers market, and then we'll have a private picnic at noon when the market ends. I am SO excited about this event, and I am thrilled that we found such a welcoming host at Chestnut Square.

I had the idea of bringing paint and extra ribbon so that people could paint their own "votes for women" ribbons to wear. It would be a fun way to occupy our time, and I think even some of the random market folks might want to get in on the fun. I figured that I would just buy some cheap floral ribbon and make a stencil that people could use for painting.

When I was looking for examples of banners, I stumbled across a FABULOUS suffragette site that I hadn't seen before. It has an overview of the suffrage movement in America and an image gallery of various suffragette stuff that was really helpful. Some of us were wondering what colors were used for the banners back then, and the answer seems to be mainly yellow or gold, but purple and white were used extensively as well, and purple/white/green was also used occasionally (those were from the British movement). I also think I'm going to paint a copy of one of those posters and it would be cool to have a banner with a slogan on it too. And I was going to print up some fliers with one of the propaganda illustrations from this site and a quote from one of the speeches. Can you tell that I'm excited about this? ;)

After the market is over, we can relax and have fun doing other various Edwardian activities. I thought about bringing cards or dominoes so we could play some games. If anybody else has any ideas, I'd love to hear them!

Another All-Con, another success!

2010-03-15T14:22:00.000-07:00

It's the Monday after the 2010 All-Con and I'm still recovering. Not only from being horribly sick, but from all the pure excitement. And guess what? I'm still excited. I'm already crazy excited about next year! If there's one thing I love about a good Con is the inspiration. I know I've seen some good costumes if I come home and say, "Man, why didn't I think of that!"

This year, the DFW Costumers Guild hosted panels on the basics of Victorian fashion, we learned to knit, and we swapped fabrics. All of our panels were a success. People learned things in the first two. I can't believe I can finally Knit!!! And I went home with less fabric in my stash than I came with, which was my goal. And some folks went home with fabrics that they didn't think they'd see at a swap.

I'm already thinking about the panels the DFW Costumers Guild wants to offer for All-Con 2011. I have several ideas. I'm pretty sure we'll bring the fabric swap back and we'll knit again next year as well. Although it'll be a basic knitting circle with part focused on knitting for charity and part focused on instructing all at the same time. I hope the ladies who attended our panel this year will come again next year so we can all see who we each advanced. And maybe this time we can offer more items to the Austin Browncoats for their charity auctions.

But more than my own ideas of what I'd like to offer for next year's All-Con, I'd really like to know what other people would like to see us bring to the table. If there's a panel you would like to see, let us know. We'll do our best to work something out. And hopefully we'll see many of you at our events between now and next All-Con!

18th Century Picnic

2009-11-15T09:39:00.000-08:00

On November 15th, the DFWCG hosted an 18th century picnic at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. I have to say that seeing the lovely period clothing that everyone made was an inspiration. And the few hours we were able to spend learning to dance and playing badminton just weren't enough for me. I hope that we can do this event again in the future and maybe spend more time learning about the period and playing games.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the day. All photos by Crandall.

The whole picnic party.

Relaxing on blankets. Man it was a beautiful day!

A little badminton?

Our fearless President teaching us a period dance.

Dancing!

The rest of the photos can be found on the DFWCG's Flickr stream.

All-Con 2010

2009-07-09T09:42:00.000-07:00

The preparations are underway. The DFW Costumers Guild has officially signed on to be a part of All-Con for the 3rd year in a row. And as the coordinator of our involvement with All-Con, I can proudly say that I'm already pretty excited about it!

In 2009 the DFWCG offered panels on Steampunk 101 and pattern re-sizing. We also hosted a pattern and fabric swap and we photographed some lovely costumes when we weren't busy talking to fellow costumers. For the upcoming year the DFWCG would like to step in even more. This week we have begun organizing a committee so we can brainstorm to bring even more exciting panels to the table.

In an effort to bring con attendees the panels they want to see, the DFWCG would like to hear from you. What panels would you most benefit from? Is there a craft you want to learn? Are you a beginner who just wants to understand patterns? Is there an historical period/fantasy realm/movie costume you'd like to know more about? Send us your ideas and we'll do what we can to pull the panel together.

In the meantime, Happy Costuming!

Need motivation for those 18th Century Stays??

2009-06-10T12:04:00.000-07:00

18th Century Stays is a blog all about just that - 18th century stays.

If you'd rather follow the blog on Live Journal, someone has made a feed for LJers here.

DFWCG Summer Business Meetin

2009-06-07T11:08:00.000-07:00

Please join us on Sunday June 14 for our Summer Business Meeting. Whether you're a paid guild member or not, we'd love to have your input on our future projects. See ya Sunday!!

Proper Corset Materials

2009-05-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

What are the proper corset making materials? That's one of the first questions that anyone looking to make their own corset asks. And honestly, anyone looking to buy a corset should be asking the same questions. Right now over on the Live Journal "corsetmakers" community there is a debate over whether cable ties can be considered a "Proper" corset material. You can see the debate here.

What are your thoughts on this debate? Is steel boning really the only "proper" material when it comes to boning a corset? What about the fabric? Is Coutil really the only right foundation material? Or is "proper" to you simply what gets the job done?

Does the answer change whether the corset in question is for sale or for personal use?

And finally, what materials have you made your corsets with? What successes and failures did you experience with each kind of material?

All-Con a success

2009-03-16T08:17:00.000-07:00

Well, it's Monday morning and we're all back at our regular lives now. The blitz of All-Con has passed and hopefully we all came out of it richer of friends, knowledge and, yes, Cool Stuff.

I had planned to blog so much more during the weekend. I should have known I would be so busy talking to people and running around that I'd barely have any time to blog. Ah well. Such is life and the fact that I didn't blog because I was busy talking to people about the Guild is not a bad thing One Little Bit!

All of our photos we took are uploaded to Flickr now under the tag allcon2009dfwcg. You can also check out the DFWCG group on Flickr to see who of our Guild Members attended All-Con. We're missing pics of one or two of us, but I hope to get those photos in soon. Since we were so busy talking to people we also didn't have as much time to take photos of all the amazing costumes walking by. Next year I would like to try setting up a better area for Photos so we can get All of you. There were truely some amazing pieces of work walking around this weekend. Thank you all for the inspiration!

And speaking of next year, I have informed All-Con that the DFWCG would like to continue to work with them next year and that we would like to step up our involvement. So if there's anything you can think of that you would like to see us offer at All-Con, please let us know. You can comment here, or also come see us at our Yahoo Groups board.

In the meantime, we will be having a meet and greet at Scarborough Faire for Opening Weekend, and we'd love to meet new people and chat. See our Events page on the website for all the details.

New friends

2009-03-15T06:36:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to say that it was very nice meeting all of you yesterday. I really enjoyed hosting the Pattern Re-sizing panel and now that I've gone through it in real time with real people, I think I just might be able to finish that slide presentation with some additions that were brought up in the class. I think if I finish it, I may post it up on our guild website.

Don't forget to stop by our club table and introduce yourselves and tell us about your costumes! I'll continue to take pictures all day today. Hopefully I'll get to take more today than I did yesterday.

Also, please bring us your unwanted patterns and fabrics. We'd love to have any and all of it for our fabric swap. And who knows, maybe you'll find something you need while you're there, For Free!

Photo preview

2009-03-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

It's about 3:30 on Saturday afternoon and we've been so busy talking ot people at out club table that we haven't been able to catch many people for pictures. But here's a peek at a few favorites so far.

Look for weekend Blogging

2009-03-12T13:53:00.001-07:00

Hi all. This weekend is the much anticipated (by me anyways) All-Con convention in Dallas. I plan on being Very busy at and around our Club Table this weekend. In addition to greeting everyone who walks by, I plan on playing photographer for the Guild. We'd love to take Tons of photographs of All the great costumes around the con, so please stop by our table and indulge us!

I'll be posting all photographs on Flickr under the tag allcon2009dfwcg. If you search that tag, you'll be able to find each and every photograph I take. I'll also be giving out little Photo Op tags to people whose photograph I take and the tags will have the Flickr tag on them in case anyone forgets.

Also, if you've signed up for our Yahoo e-mail list, please let me know who you are. I have Guild Groupie tags for you to add to your Con Badge. You should be able to tell who of us are Guild Members by the badges we are wearing. And I'm working on getting other little special tags made for fun too, so even if you've resisted us thusfar, we'd still love to meet you and see what you're wearing.

Happy Con Prep!

Flickr announcement

2009-02-07T08:21:00.000-08:00

A message from our President on Live Journal:

I wanted to let you all know that the DFWCG now has its own flickr group! Yay!!!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/dfwcg/

Sharing your costuming pictures with other guild members just got a whole lot easier! A lot of you already use flickr, and those of you who don't, flickr is a feature of yahoo, so you just use your same login info from the DFWCG yahoo mailing list to get started. If you have any costume photos already on flickr, we would love for you to add them to our group. After you join the DFWCG group, you can just select a photo (either individually, or in batch organize), and click the "add to group" tab.

Guild members and all other DFW costumers are welcome to participate in this group. Share your pics from any guild or non-guild event. The more pictures the better!

Let me know if you need more thorough instructions for joining or posting pics.

Welcome and Intro

2009-02-04T08:46:00.000-08:00

Hi there, and welcome to the DFW Costumers Guild Blog.

Please be patient with us regarding content. At this time we are in the process of testing things for a move from Live Journal to Blogger. We are trying to take into account the needs for All of our current readers and members so everyone can read our blog in the way that is most convenient for them.

In the meantime, if you've found us and we're not live yet, please feel free to visit our website. We also are active on Yahoo Groups. That's where most of the magic happens, actually. And if you're on Live Journal, we're still posting there and may continue to keep that account open for RSS feeds in the future.

Happy Costuming!