Modesty's Costume Closet

Everything came together! Lookit how cute he is! The eyes are very expressive and show up so well on camera. It is inconvenient to put on. But my korin belts helped Made with elastic, a plastic slide, and pacifier clips.  Here's the turn around of the outfit.    Here's how I hide my arm to manipulate the puppet.  I stuffed an opera glove I had and safety pinned it to the sleeve of the hanjuban. Then I pinned the sleeve and hand to Goro's backside.  And here's what it's like all together. Some close-ups of Goro: 

Even though I started this costume back in April, it feels like I'm down to the wire on this. My time perception is so dumb sometimes. There are only a few more things to do.  1. The Mask + Kimono Got the kimono pretty much done.  The Kitsune Mask is painted and sealed with varnish. I added the macrame cord and elastic and the wisteria resin charm.  Fixed the nose! 2. Goro Puppet I've had my head down with the puppet for the past couple weeks. It's coming along! I attached the ears AND made the front paws. Fixed the body girth and added stuffing here and there. I need to fix one of the arms that's gone a bit wonky. BUT I think the claws on the front paws came out very cute! And the head looks so nice with the ears on.  I attached the head to the neck and closed up a few more seams. Made a few mistakes that I'm going to cover with extra fluff. 😅 I'm still fiddling with the stomach opening for my hand and I need to make the tails. I think that will be my goal for

The Goro puppet project has been going on quietly in the background. It is a learning experience and some things are going very much to plan while other things are decidedly not.  My first positive is the back scales:  I was able to crochet the back in a few hours. (Not in one sitting mind you.) I mixed metal with plastic scales which has a fun effect. I still have some left over plastic scales that I could sew into the body but I like how this looks.  Victory 2: Body Structure While the head has been my main focus I was able to take a break from that and morph some EVA foam sheets into a makeshift skeleton for the body.  Positive 3: Started the yarn tails to see how they'll look compared to the body size. I've done this before so feel confident that I can do it again.  Positive 4: While I did burn myself with hot glue, I made some ears with minky, stiff felt, and a bit of faux fur. I even painted them so the markings are correct.  Positive 5: Mouth contructed! I put in the jaw

 I was in a fey mood and decided to try out the pattern pieces I cut. I have some silver minky and just cut and stitched it all together. Then put it on the model. Here are the results.  This is the good side. Here's what it looks like with the jawset.  The left side has too much puckering around the eye.  I'm balancing the jaws on my fingers. And with a nose and eyes.  Thee eye holes are too small. But it is looking cute. Here's naked face with the eyes! Looks much happier and livelier!  The 3d lids had a little lever on them but they would not fit inside the head. So I cut the levers we'll see how the mechanics turn out. I'm starting to plot out the internal bit with foam.

The head of a puppet is the most work-heavy portion of the project. It does the heavy lifting of making this a puppet and not a doll. Today, I will show how I've patterned out the head which will be covered in fabric.  Patterning Process  First, the head was wrapped with saran and taped with masking tape. I made sure the jaw was mostly open while doing this. This will cause some "pucker" in the fabric around the mouth which I do want.   Next, I draw stitch lines. and color change areas. This is something I did by feeling and past experience making stuffed animals. I knew where the nose would be and where the eyes should go and their shape. I marked lines were the color will change from silver to white on the face. The other lines are just where I thought stitch lines would look good.  Then, I cut the masking tape along the stitch lines and removed it from the 3D printed head.  Finally, I cut darts until flattened. I do this by finding corners and cutting straight into the

 ...shoulders knees and toes! Just a little update on some of the little things I've been doing.  I printed out a couple versions of the eyeballs just to see which one looks best. It took a few layers of white paint but we got there.  For these eyeballs, I printed out the iris and made a cabochon out of uv resin. The 3D printed eye is round with a flat part where the cabochon and iris sit. I then continued to blob on UV resin (Gel Nail polish) until the shape was smoothed out and it was shiny. I like the size of these irises but I wanted to try to experiment.    These eyes were from Tioh and already had an indented iris and pupil. I used acrylic paints to color the iris and pupil. (I messed up one pupil.) Once the paint was dry, I filled in the indent with UV resin. My paint job kind of ruins this but I want to see how they look in the face. I'm not sure if large or small irises are better.  I'm also painting the teeth and gums for the mouth pieces.  Painted and sealed with

I was revisiting some of my sketches for Goro's fox form that I made awhile ago.  The first image is the ideal look I want for the puppet except the front paws aren't quite right.  The correct vibe and anatomy. Wrong face, but correct front paws. The character concept for Goro is a dragon-blooded kitsune. This is why he has scales down his back and more dragon-like front paws. However, I must consider how to make this in puppet form! There are few things these front paws need to do:  Support the puppet by hooking into my clothes with claws Have a bit of weight to hold it in place Keep a round, finger paw shape Support the wire frame and remain posable Method 1: Sewing The easiest method would be to simply sew and stuff the paws more like a lizard or frog. This would give them the correct shape. The downside is that squishy front paws won't "hook" onto my clothes as easily because stuffing deforms. Even if the claw portions are a hardened material, it won't dis

 My brain has ping-ponged into all aspects of this costume and for now I'm looking into how to make the Shrine Maiden Costume. I am utilizing all my experience with making kimono and kimono-like costumes to make this. Not really futzing much with the original look.    Design Considerations Accuracy with some flare Making room for puppet arm vs regular arm Simplifying the design so it's not a hassle to wear and keep on (I hate having to worry if my pants will slide off or something.) Pieces/Layers Juban/Undershirt For style points, I'm making this red. The "Puppet" arm may need extra consideration such as an opening in the Juban sleeve at the front or under the arm. I could also do this for both sleeves so I can switch primary puppet arm if I wished.  Kimono This will be a plain color or small patterned top with semi-detached sleeves. The left sleeve will be the primary "puppet sleeve".  The length of the kimono will only come just above the knees...to sa

Progress Report Time! The beginnings of the puppet are taking shape. The focus has been on getting the head infrastructure in place.  3D model by Tioh So this was kind of the "easy" part. I resized the models to fit the sketch size and then just let it print. I mean nothing too fancy. I've temporarily attached the lower jaw with zip ties but I'm not mad at how it's been working so far so I may just keep the zip ties on. 🤷  I did the same thing for the eye mechanics Original by Tioh The mouth was also resized and printed. These were so tiny but proportional so glad I didn't have to sculpt them.  A beautiful fit! Now the models still need some work. The eyes and teeth need to be the proper colors. The inside of the head needs a few things to prepare for internal mechanics. But before getting into all that, I will have to create a pattern for the fabric covering the head. I'll be taping down masking tape or painter's tape over saran wrap. The tricky part