Modesty's Costume Closet

 Here's some photos of the full costume on me.  I would not call this the photoshoot. I did just get my photo backdrop so I will likely do more but it will have less of my apartment mess in it. LOL.  What Went Right: - Most of my plans went well! - Learned to knit! - Did some cool designing on things even if some of it was improvised.  - Dyed fabric - Sewed a lined kimono successfully - Kept a regular pace and finished in 2 weeks (over the course of 4 months.) - Ended up creating a new character and I'm perhaps making a story with all the kitsune I came up with. It's a lot. I'll share character designs later!  What could go better:  - Creating and attaching the sleeves, hindsight.  - The neckband doesn't stay down properly.  - Hair chalk did not work very well, will need to wear a wig - My kanzashi broke. The hot glue was not enough - Bought one more kimono pattern for reference - Bit more fabric research...find something that irons! - Faux Fur fox Tail or Yarn tail

Make-up is a powerful tool in a costumer's arsenal. You can create a whole costume around face makeup! When it comes to costumes there are (in my consideration) three kinds of makeup:  Fashion Make-up Theatrical/Stage Make-up Costume Make-up Fashionable at one point.  Fashion make-up accents the natural shapes of your face to make it look its best according to a fashion/cultural aesthetic.  Theatrical or Stage make-up is a major exaggeration of facial features that can be seen from a distance with the bright lights of a stage.  All done with eye liner and eye shadow. Costume make-up is a mix of both. It looks good close-up or from a distance. It exaggerates if it needs to or accents where it can.  However, all make-up has this in common: using color to create an illusion with your facial features.  Health Note: There can be allergens in some make-up depending on what it is made out of. Be sure to either test on your skin beforehand or check the ingredients (if you know what your al

 I saw a thing on Etsy that I sort of wanted to buy but didn't because I thought I could make it. An LED edge light lamp with various scenes or figures. I figured I could 3D print some stencils then use that as a template for painting or etching. While it IS possible, (see video below) I kept screwing up my stencils. The lines and details were getting lost. But the video does detail how to make an etching without having to modify your 3D printer. (To be fair, I was printing on the default bed and not onto the glass directly. I have never printed onto acrylic glass before so...something I may need to try.) Turned into a whole thing. But here's where I've ended up. (Currently, this is untested by me. I will update this post once I give things a go.) UPDATE: I have tested some of these methods with great success. See my Art Blog for details about these projects.  So CNC machines like the Cricut can cut vinyl and engrave things like acrylic glass or leather in some cases. So

 When I was getting started with 3D printing, of course the first big decision was "which machine will I get". It's one of those things where there's not necessarily a wrong answer, but there could be a best choice.  I am very pleased with the machine I ended up with, but I think this was partially dumb luck. It's hard to know what you don't know! And therefore...it's hard to know where to start without a guide. (My guide was a YouTube channel dedicated to printing miniatures for Table Top games, not costumes.) If by some cosmic coincidence this blog is your first exposure, then allow me to make some suggestions on where to start and some of the questions to ask.  What do you want to 3D Print? Oddly enough this will be a major decision factor into the machine (or machines) you decide to purchase. What kinds of things will you be 3D printing a majority of the time? While you can do pretty much all things with a 3D printer given some proper adjustments, some

 As of 4/10/2022, the wisteria fox costume is complete. I completed the final touches that I wanted to make. And here's what I did.  Kanzashi Piece I had purchased a hair piece but I felt like it needed to be a little bigger to cover my human ear so only my fox ears were prevalent. I know how to fold these things but had to get new ribbon to do it. It took a few tries but eventually I created this hair piece.  Wisteria Kanzashi  I used the instructions from this video for folding the flowers, but did my own construction of the hair piece.  Mask This was one of those things where I could ponder forever at this blank canvas and never come up with any ideas. I tried doodling some patterns based on references but still wasn't really happy with what I was coming up with. So, I just had to sit down and go to town with paint and get it done. I had a couple elements from references that I was kind of using but mostly just painting. There's no turning back now. To be fair, this is t

 Made the tail. Finished hand sewing the sleeves and I'm not 100% happy with them but I also don't want to futz with them anymore. I just won't make future sleeves in the same way.  How the tail will work is this. I'm using the default nylon webbing belt that it came with. The obi will fit over it.  Things are really coming together quickly now. The only things left are details. I'm going to hand paint wisteria flowers onto the kimono. But I'd like to use stencils for some of the parts. I found some vector graphics and made files for my 3D printer. This past weekend I ran some tests with the newly armed 3D printer/cutter. Unfortunately, it is not ready to cut vinyl or paper at this time. The bed on my 3D printer is not level and no matter how I fiddle with it, some parts of it remain uneven. (Likely a bit of warping or something. Hot metal can do that.) So I'm looking into getting a CR Touch to auto-level my 3D printer. Which will help in the long run.  In t