All Saints Anina Belt Construction :: River Song Cosplay

When I decided to recreate River's look from 'The Day of The Moon', I spent a few hours researching the original pieces used during the show. Most of them were from a store in the UK called AllSaints and they were also all discontinued...yayyyyyy! (HASHTAG SARCASM) So I went to eBay to try and track them down, and only managed to find the All Saints Zeeda dress that Alex Kingston wore (and there was much squealing and rejoicing and happy tears when I finally won that dress auction!!)...but no dice on the boots (All Saints Criollo) and the belt, the All Saints Anina.

She also wore the Anina belt in 'The Pandorica Opens'

After a few months of fruitlessly stalking eBay, I figured it wouldn't be too hard to replicate, and I had always wanted to try my hand at leatherworking, so I jumped right in!

After some research, I found that the original belt is about 3 3/4 inches wide. I decided to round up to an even 4 inches and ordered a 4 inch Leather Belt Blank from an eBay seller named landco317. It came super fast and I would totally recommend him if you are looking to purchase leather for this project. It was $30 with free shipping and came super fast!

I also purchased a leather punch...

and proceeded to mark out the hole patterns on the belt blank. I marked the holes vertically in 3/4 inch intervals. I found this diagram (I don't remember where??) that is helpful for the more visual learners...

I then proceeded to punch LIKE 349527 HOLES IN THIS BELT UNTIL MY HAND WAS LITERALLY ABOUT TO DIE. LIT. ER. ALL. Y. ABOUT. TO. DIE. I wasn't able to punch the middle rows of holes with my punch so I drilled those with my dremel tool. If you have a drill press, this project will go 1000x better and more quickly!

note to self...buy a drill press...

ANYWAY. After the holes were all punched I ended up with thisssss...

I then went to Hobby Lobby and bought a bottle of Fiebings Leather Dye in 'Dark Brown', because it was the darker of the two colors they had in stock and I wasn't really sure what to expect. 

So I applied a few coats with a wool dauber...

...and was SO EXCITED ABOUT THE COLOR...

...UNTIL IT DRIED...

wat the poop.

So note to self...this stuff dries a lot lighter than expected...

MOVING ALONG

I consulted the swatch guide on Fiebing's website and ordered a bottle of dye in Chocolate and tried again. After one coat I had this...

and after four coats it was looking MUY BETTER (sorry for the potato quality on this picture..it was late, I was out of Dr Pepper, and hence too lazy to go get my camera)

After that had dried completely (this stuff dries SUPER FAST. It is AWESOME!) I applied a thin coat of resolene with a regular kitchen sponge (diluted 1:1 with water) and let that dry completely. It is NECESSARY to apply resolene or the dye will rub off on your clothes and skin...and ain't nobody want that.

The final touch was putting in the button studs used to fasten the belt. I bought these in 'bronze' and they worked perfectly.

After that I ended up with this!

And some action shots!

I got lots of compliments on it at MegaCon Tampa and was super pleased with how it turned out! Let me know if you try this for yourself, I'd love to see others!


Check out the other posts in my River Song Cosplay Series!

-River Song Wig Tutorial-
-All Saints Anina Belt Re-Creation (you're here!)-
-River's Gun Belt & Holster-
-Completed River Song Cosplay at MegaCon Tampa-

MegaCon Tampa Bay 2016 :: River Song Cosplay

So this past weekend I had the extreme pleasure to attend my first Con; MegaCon Tampa Bay! And what a FANTASTIC experience it was! I am not sure what I expected out of the convention scene, considering I had never been to one before, but I was completely blown away. The atmosphere was amazing...everyone I ran into and spoke to was so friendly and I honestly felt like I had known these people my whole life. I met so many AWESOME people; cosplayers, vendors, and regular convention goers.... AND DID I MENTION DAVID TENNANT AND BILLIE PIPER??

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! The fact that I didn't pee my pants and/or pass out is a straight up miracle. I walked in and David said, 'Well look at you, you're a perfect River!'

*cue fangirl screaming*

AND ROSEEE!! Billie Piper was another person I never thought I would ever get to meet but I did!!

*cue more fangirl screaming*

After the photo ops, Billie Piper had a panel by herself, and at the end of the day Billie and David did a panel together which was so fantastic seeing them on the same stage together.

At Billie's panel...

...and the David/Billie Panel...AREN'T THEY PERFECT!?

Apart from the panels, I had a fantastic time wandering around the vendor and artist area, which was mind blowing! There were an INSANE number of booths chock full of ridiculously talented merchants and artists. I wanted to buy ALL THE THINGS! I had so much fun meeting and posing with other cosplayers and discussing the nitty gritty details of costuming and the like. So many people stopped and asked to take pictures with me (which, I was honestly surprised and quite flattered over, because there were some incredible cosplayers there) and the number one question I got asked was whether my hair was real or not, which almost made me cry because I spent FOREVER trying to get my wig just right (you can find the tutorial post on styling my River wig here!)

This was the first picture I took of the day (hence the not super great pose, lol), and this chick was AWESOME as Ten!

Ran into myself (haaaaaaa) and loved this girl...I wish I had gotten her name! I freaked out over her phone because I thought it was just a prop but then realized she had made a phone case to look like River's communicator and I was fangirling so hard over it! Genius!

Also met Harrison of Lonely God Cosplay! Fantastic Ten!

Will Friedle and Mitch Pileggi were there signing autographs, too!!

There was this flippin' awesome TARDIS transformer...



An AWESOME Cassandra by Old Fat Cosplay!



And the other amazing Cassandra!



Did I mention that there were ALL THE PEOPLE there?? It was packed! This was just the line to get into the line for one of the panels.



CON SWAG! And Chili's, cause I was HONGRY.

I'm going to be posting how I made the different components of this cosplay in the nest week or so, so keep an eye out!

-River Song Wig Tutorial-
-All Saints Anina Belt Re-Creation-
-River's Gun Belt & Holster-



***ALSO! I've had a few people tag me on Instagram in a few Con pictures (like this one from gbalda)...I would LOVE to see your pictures! Link me! :D

Lady Thor Helmet :: Cosplay

When Jason Aaron dropped the new Thor comic about a year ago, featuring a mysterious woman wielding Mjolnir and the name of the Norse God of Thunder, I was PUMPED. While Loki has had his (and her) share of genderbending comic appearances, it was exciting to me that Thor was going to get a makeover and new perspective.



After I read the first comic I was hooked...Lady Thor (I wont spoil her identity for you...but you should totes go read it!) is BA as all get out and I loved her costume so much I knew I wanted to cosplay it. I also liked that it was one of the more 'masculine' female costumes (which sounds backwards, I know) but in the world of tiny spandex body suits and stiletto boots, its nice to have a change of pace from your stereotypical BOOBS IN YO FACE getup.

  Whenever I look into a prospective cosplay, I start with the most difficult part of the costume, so I don't spend a huge chunk of time on other parts of it only to get to the end and not be able to do the more difficult pieces. With this costume, it was definitely the helmet.

       

I had never made any sort of helmet or armor, so I kinda went in blind on this one. I finally decided I would try paper mache, and try and get it smooth as possible.

The first step was to get the basic helmet shape to have a support base for the paper mache. I tried making a cardboard frame, which failed magnificently. SO magnificently, in fact, that I almost gave up on the whole thing right there.

Later whilst doing some laundry, I noticed that the top half of my bleach jug had the general shape of helmet crown, and I had an epiphany.



THANKS, LAUNDRY!

So I went to the local Dollar Tree (seriously like my favorite store ever...I can spend ALL THE DOLLAH DOLLAH BILLS at Dollar Tree) and bought THREE more jugs of bleach with the same shape plastic bottle. I also swung by JoAnns (ALSO MY FAVORITE STORE) and picked up a paper masquerade mask that resembled the face portion of the helmet.

When I got home, I emptied the bleach (SAFELY) out of the jugs, rinsed them well, and let them dry. I then chopped them up along the lines in the highly detailed diagram below.

(You see these mad photoshop skillz? If you would like to contact me for business inquires; please use the tab above)



After I cut up the jugs, I glued them together to form the conical shape of the helmet, and glued the mask on the front. I also added a piece of plastic to the back to extend it down and cover more of my head, and some little pieces to the top to make the point. I covered the seams with the only tape I had on hand (lol so FESTIVE) to try and 'smooth' our the joining edges.



I cut a length of 18 gauge wire the circumference of my head and hot glued it inside to help stabilize the thin plastic. I also attached two strips of craft foam crossways to help the helmet fit my head a bit better.

After I had the general shape like I wanted, I covered the entire thing about seven thousand layers of paper mache.  I used news paper and 1 part water to 1 part flour.



After it was completely dry it looked like this!



Then, I painstakingly covered the whole thing with Bondo. When working with bondo, apply in small sections, and get it AS SMOOTH AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE THE FIRST TIME AROUND JUST TRUST JORDAN ON THIS. I actually found that the best way to apply it is with a playing card. They're cheap, stiff enough to apply it but flexible enough to go over curves.




After you get your bondo on, gently sand down the rough edges and high points.with a sanding block. For my first sanding (BRACE YOURSELF FOR ALL THE SANDING) I used a 220 grit. ALSO...please wear a respirator...I don't want any of you guys getting black lung or something equally nasty.



After sanding the first layer, you're going to want to go back over it with spot putty to fill in the two million tiny crevices in the first layer of bondo. I let that dry completely, and then added another layer, just to be safe. Then I wet sanded the entire thing with 800 grit sand paper, then 1000 grit.  This was my first time wet sanding and it was super cathartic how smooth it gets the piece!





Two coats of grey primer later, I was getting so excited about how it was looking!
For the 'ear wing' thingies, I cut out the shapes with craft foam and cardboard...I used giant googly eyes for the rounded part...who knew googly eyes were so versatile? I attached them with my trusty E6000 and let them dry completely before giving the whole helmet a few coats of metallic silver spray paint.







I knew I didn't want to risk destroying the entire helmet by trying to etch the W shaped design on it, so I cut it out of craft foam, painted it gold, and glued it to the front. The 'rivet' is another googly eye that I spray painted silver and glued on.

To 'weather' the metal a bit, I rubbed watered down black acrylic paint over the entire surface, let it dry JUST A BIT and then wiped it off with a paper towel. Finally, I went over the helmet with a thousand and one coats of spray acrylic sealer...annnnnnnddd we're done!






Stay tuned for the rest of my posts on this cosplay!