Another way I like to waste my spare time...

First and foremost, this post is brought to you by my assistant Holly. Who really doesn't do much in the way of assisting. Her expertise is more along the lines of sitting on my hands while I try to type.


AND NOW, I present: another one of my many hobbies.

I have always been interested in costuming and making things. My mother taught me how to sew when I was little and I'm not too shabby at it if I do say so myself. In high school I experimented with this little thing called cosplay, which is essentially nerdy dress up for the sake of fun. I didn't really have many conventions to go to, living in small town Vermont, but I had a lot of fun making costumes for friends and for Halloween. When I went to college my costuming kinda got put on hold, due to the fact that I no longer had a sewing machine or my group of costuming friends. However, last year I made some pretty awesome friends who encouraged me to get back into the game and come to some conventions with them, and holy WOW did I have fun! I figured I would share some of the costumes I've made recently (pictures all taken by various friends).

First we have Toph Bei-Fong, from the cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender (which you should totally check out if you haven't, because it's AWESOME). I actually wound up doing several variations of this particular character over the course of the year, starting with the red outfit, which I made over Christmas break '07





Then came "Invasion Day Toph", which I made to match a couple of friends' costumes (who were dressed as other characters from the same episode)

(I'm the one on the left :P)


Unfortunately I have almost NO good pictures of this costume for some reason. I'm planning on wearing it again at Anime Boston this year (because it's one of my absolute FAVORITES and hasn't gotten nearly enough wear) so hopefully I can get some then.


This seriously blurry, but it's the ONLY half decent picture I could find of me with my helmet on.



FINALLY, we have outfit number three, which is Toph's dress from the series finale. This is probably the FASTEST costume I've ever made in my life. I put it together in less than a week. XD





This picture doesn't show off the costume very well, but I just like it. :P



Most recently, I have moved on from Toph and started attending conventions dressed as my very favorite resident of Arkham Asylum...



This costume was a BITCH to make, due to the fact that spandex is the most horrible material to sew with EVER, but it sure does look good when you can get it to cooperate. However, my favorite thing about this costume is the fact that if I don't feel like wearing the hood and makeup (as happened Sunday of New York Comic Con), my hair is still accurate to the character.


Even Harley Quinn loves the Ninja Turtles!



And that is all for now! I'm working on (or at least planning) some other costumes at the moment for both myself and others. This year I will, for the first time, be attending San Diego Comic Con! I've never been able to afford to go that far for a convention, but this year I'm spending the majority of my summer in San Diego anyways, so it all works out. I'll likely be dressed as Harley Quinn the whole time, hopefully with my partner in crime Poison Ivy.