How-To Tuesday: Make An Elf Ranger Costume

Last year I blogged about Dave’s Kisame Costume and it seems to be a rather popular post, though this may just be because it is based on a character from a fairly popular anime series. Either way, Halloween is coming up and being a big fan of the holiday I decided that I would do another Costume How-To.

My costume this year is more-or-less the same as last year, an Elf Ranger. I created the cape in a similar fashion to Dave’s Kisame cape by using the Simplicity pattern 5840. I made it using a heavy green material. I purchased a gold tassle for the hood and a wooden button to hold it shut (the loop was made with gold cording). I sewed gold cording around all the edges (around the cuffs, bottom edge, front opening and around the hood) and gold ribbon around the chest for added detail.

I got elf ears from a costume shop here in Ottawa, Malabar, and after gluing them on I put cover-up/concealer over them and my ears to blend the two together a bit better. (the trick to the ears is not where to buy them or how to get them on, but rather getting them off at the end of the night. It was a true ordeal last year that was incredibly uncomfortable, but apparently not too bad as I am wearing them again this year.) I

wore black yoga pants and a black shirt. I would have liked some sort of dark brown vest with a slot for a knife, but couldn’t find anything and ran out of time to make it myself.
For a bow, I actually used Dave’s bow but brought no arrows to the party as it is an actual weapon and that mixed with alcohol could have resulted in some very bad things.
I will be wearing the same costume this year but with the addition of

fantastic brown boots I purchased from Town Show at a discounted price recently. I may even get around to finding/making the vest I wanted last year.
Perhaps this year I will actually get around to taking some photos of me in my costume…but I wouldn’t place any bets on that.

What’s in a Name

Like most people, I have searched my name before and realized that you can find my blogs and Flickr account through that. I have also learnt that if you search something relating to the Naruto character Kisame (specifically if you search Kisame costume) you came find photos I took of Dave and Justin’s Halloween costumes from last year. I have also learnt that if you search Winnie-the-Pooh you can find some of my photos from my 100 Possibilities Project. That being said, today I learnt that of a search term that leads to me that isn’t so obvious.If you search night beach you can find some of my night time photography photos. This is not because they were taken on a beach, or have anything to do with a beach, it is actually because they are night photos taken by Stephanie Beach. Apparently my name is not only awesome, but also quite handy at drawing people’s attention to my photos.

Way Back Whenesday: Hocus Pocus

Hocus Pocus was one of my favourite Halloween based movies when I was growing up. I thought the song Sarah Jessica Parker sang to lure into the children was really pretty and I always wanted to be her character when I was watching it.
If memory serves, it is also where Chris' cat Binx got her name - though they thought she was a he when they first got her and her name was therefore Zachary Binx after the boy/cat in the movie.

How-To Tuesday: Make a Kisame Costume

Every Halloween Dave and I make him a rather intensive costume. This past year the costume we made for him was Kisame from Naruto. The character is generally a man-shark with blue skin and pointy teeth. He has a large sword called sharkskin and wears blue clothing under an Akatsuki (a black cloak with red lining and red clouds on it - part of the coalition he is in) cloak. Below is an image from Google (as usual) of the animated character.Despite my disdane for sharks, I agreed to make Dave this costume - from scratch. The focus of the How-To Tuesday will be How to Make a Kisame Costume. Below is an image from the anime series to let you know what the costume is supposed to look like.First, the sword. Dave made this from scratch using styrofoam (the pink board kind). He shape it and then put a rake handle up it with about 2 feet sticking out for the sword hilt and handle. He then cut metal triangle (shark scales) out from a dollar store serving tray, fixed them to the end and spray painted them light blue. Bubble wrap was then wrapped around the non-pointy parts of the sword to make it the right thickness to let people think there were scales throughout the entire sword. He wrapped a white bedsheet around the bubble wrap, glueing it in place. This is not the final wrapping of the sword, merely a way to ensure no pink foam shows through the final product. Next came the tedious task of cutting/ripping strips from the remaining white bedsheet and wrapping and glueing them onto the sword - leaving the pointy bits uncovered. A few remnant pieces were placed on the edge of the pointy bits so it looked like they just ripped through. Wrap the handle with faux suede and place a skull on the end of the handle and you are good to do.

Second, the Akatsuki cloak.

This one was my doing and I therefore have a better understanding of how it was done. First, I used Simplicity Pattern 5840 as a starting point. I cut out all the pieces for Robe B in both black and red broadcloth - except for the hood. I then sewed all the matching red and black pieces together. Following the pattern directions I then sewed the now two coloured pieces together using the black as the 'right side' (outside) and the red as the 'wrong side' (inside/lining). Once this was done, I cleaned it up by trimming down the seams and hemming it to Dave's height and arm length.

Now, that hood I had you not make. Essentially Dave and I took the hood pattern that came with the package and made it two separate rectangles instead of the one pointy quadilateral. This essentially makes a very high collar. Same as before, cut the rectangle shapes in both red and black but this time do not sew them together completely - Leave the tops open. Sew the two rectangles together and then to the neck of the robe according to the pattern instructions, including the pleats.
Next add the red trim detail to the front of the cloak by cut two long strips of red fabric about 2 inches wide and the length of the cloak from the top of the collar to the bottom. Fold these in half and sew them to secure the straight edge. Now sew them to the openings of the cloak using black thread so that they stick out about half an inch.
To get the hood to stand up you will need to cut some boxboard to shape (and size) and then slip them inside the top opening. Fold the black fabric down over the boxboard and the red down to match (this leaves a nice finished edge on the top) and run it through the sewing machine - make sure not to sew the boxboard but rather just the fabric itself.

Cut out four red cloud shapes from felt. Take white broadcloth and cut strips, fold them in half. Line the clouds with these either by placing them behind the clouds and sewing with red thread or by folding them over the cloud edges and sewing with white thread. Attach these to the cloak.
After you put on some velcro to the cloak you will have an Akatsuki cloak.

Third, the head piece and shoes.
Dave made the shoes by taking a very old pair of runners, cutting out the toes until they showed all but his pinky toe, and then sewing blue broadcloth around the shoes. He then took a white sock and cut it to fit under the shoe and up his shin.The head peice was made by taking a properly shaped winter headband and covering it in the same blue broadcloth making sure to sew it while the headband was stretched (if you don't, it won't fit over your head anymore). Dave then took a dollar store serving tray and etched in the markings for the head plate. Cut it out and then glued it onto the headband.

Fourth, the sash
The sash could have been made differently than it was by taking the faux suede fabric we bought and fashioning the sash from scratch. Instead, since we didn't think we would be able to find the right fabric, we bought a black sash and covered it in the faux suede fabric.

Fifth, the hair and makeup
Dave bought a blue wig and him and our friend Yan spray painted it with blue paint while hanging it upside down. This makes the hair stand on end. Dave then affixed it to the inside of the headband to enable the two to be put on easily - more like a tight hat then a headband.
The makeup was bought at Malabar hear in Ottawa. We applied it to Dave's face, feet and at the last minute, hands. We used black eyeliner for the gills and eye-wells (see image for headband for makeup and hair).This is the finished product. I think it came out really well. Dave's skill with the sword (and shoes) and mine on the clothing came together to make a really awesome (yet nerdy) costume.

Justin Go Home

For the last two weeks our friend Justin was staying at our place. He arrived the Thursday, Oct. 29 and whipped up some costumes then went to the Halloween parties with us. We spent the rest of the time, generally hanging out and playing a tons of computer and PS3 games. He stayed until two Saturdays ago when he had his convocation from Carleton University. He graduated from the computer engineering program there and is now back home in Kingsville. It was a lot of fun having him around again. Since he left back in April, Ottawa had been a little less nerdy and Dave and I have had one less person to hang out with. Hopefully, he will be able to come back again soon.

Recent Hallowe'ens Past

From what I understand, Dave's family didn't really do Hallowe'en growing up. They stayed in and watched movies as a family, didn't even give out candy. Things are different now, and Dave loves Hallowe'en. Every year we put many hours and probably too much money, into our costumes - primarily his. He decided what he wants to be, usually some sort of anime character who uses a massive sword, and we get to work accomplishing his goals. For the most part, I put together the clothing and every year it is getting closer and closer to a 'from scratch' costume. I spend hours cutting, sewing and stitching together random pieces of fabric and/or clothing found at Value Village. Dave spends this time assisting me and making whatever weapon is needed for the costume that year.

The first costume I remember making with Dave was Boba Fett in 2006. It was primarily made of cardboard and paint. He made the blaster out of cardboard, a couple cheap toy guns and heaps of hot glue. I fashioned the helmet out of paper mache and bits of foam and cardboard. I then spent hours painting the stupid thing. I believe there was an all nighter right before Hallowe'en that was necessary to get the costume completed. The photo below is from this years Halloween - Dave wore his Boba Fett helmet and the gun with his suit and went as a professional (killer) (it was his back up costume for the first party).Dave spent the hours in which I painted his costume fashioning home-made wings out of wire for me and I threw some fabric on them at the last minute and went as a fairy. Unfortunately, the wings were eye-gougers and were deemed unsafe for party use.2007 was the first year of the anime costumes. He was as Cloud from Final Fantasy VII. This costume was primarily made of things found at Value Village and a hockey chest guard. As a side note, never try to sew through chest guards, it is very difficult and leads to lots of blisters on your fingers, even when you drill holes through it first.My costume as pretty much pre-made in a few seconds in Value Village. I found a dress that sort of fit and then got some gloves and a staff and voila - a warlock. Chris then decided to go as my succubus minion and we were giant losers for going as WoW characters.Last year Dave (2008) went as Ichigo from Bleach. Once again this consisted a fancy sword for Dave to make and lots of sewing for me. We found an old coat at Value Village and I tailored it to fit Dave and added many new aspects of it. The coat should have had tears on the bottom, but it was so pretty and it took so long to make that I couldn't bear to rip it all up. I also learned how not to make pants from scratch as the process to forever. It did result in the perfect looking pair of pants for the outfit, but I am certain there was a faster way to do it.
Since the costume was incredibly intensive, and we didn't start making it even remotely early enough, my costume was once again thrown together at the last minute and turned out to be rather boring. I was a photographer. We found a silly crocodile Dundee type hat from a Hallowe'en store and sewed the buttons from Dave's coat onto it since they looked a little like teeth. I wore beige pants, a brown shirt and a beige vest and my beige pashmina as it was cold and carried my camera around all night. In reality, I looked like me, especially since I stopped wearing the hat after an hour or so at the party because I don't like hats.
This year I insisted that we start early with the costumes, or at least try to. Dave decided what he wanted to be and we got to work on it almost right away. We also decided that the best way to make the costumes this year was to start completely from scratch and use the sewing machine we had bought the year before and patterns. I have since learned that though patterns make life simpler, they also make it much more chaotic. Come Hallowe'en all the costume patterns have been picked up from the FabricLands in Ottawa and you are left ordering them online. But since I live in Canada I have to order them over the phone, which I do not like doing. They take up to two weeks to come so despite the fact that we knew what we wanted to be and ordered the patterns early, we were still left making the costumes at the last minute because of shipping time.
That being said, they didn't really take that long to arrive and we were able to start working on them much earlier than any previous year. Dave decided to go as Kisame from Naruto (our friend Justin is going as Itachi from the same show). We spent a great deal of time modifying the pattern but I am pretty happy with how it turned out. Of course, Dave spent hours making the new giant sword, though this time the thing is significantly lighter (previous swords have weighed a ton and would never be able to be used as no typical person could swing that more than once of twice in a fight). Like I said, the robe and sword were made from scratch. The rest of the costume, pants, sock, etc were found at various stores and modified as required.My costume was a little different this year. It changed at least three times as I was making Dave's. I determined that as the complexity of Dave's costume increases, so does the simplicity and thrown-together-ness of mine. In the end, I decided to go as a wood elf. The robe was made using the same pattern as Dave's with a few less modifications. We added some gold details to it to make it extra special and then Dave let me borrow his bow for the evening. We bought elf ears and I wore neutral clothes that I already owned beneath the robe. Unfortunately there are no photos of me wearing my costume as when we did the retake of the costumes, there wasn't enough time to get my ears back and as they took quite a while (and hurt quite badly coming off).

Hallowe'en at DST

Most workplaces have people who get dressed up and some will have candy and treats for their employees near Hallowe'en, and DST is no exception. This year we had a myriad of costumes and a pizza lunch/staff meeting.

The costume contest participants at DST Ottawa, are pictured above. There was our (female) CAD Technician who dressed up as our Sector Manager (with newborn son) pictured below, won the costume contest despite the fact that she wore the same costume (minus the child) last year. It is just such a funny costume it can't be topped.

Dave was a little upset later on when I told him that he likely would have won if a) his costume was complete and b) he wasn't sent out of town for the day (by me) to complete waste audits. He was only upset because the winner (and runner up) got gift cards to Future Shop and Subway, respectively. I hope that next year, my costume will be completed in time for me to participate as well as it just looked like everyone was having so much fun.

Happy Hallowe'en

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN

(image found through Google)