River Song Parachute (Zeeda) Dress Cosplay

In my previous post, I got a little broody and serious, so I'm going to try to brush that dust off my coattails and move forward!  I mentioned I'd finally finished my River Song costume from the reboot of the tv show "Doctor Who".  I wasn't much of a Doctor Who fan when the Nerd Husband first started watching (I think I actually picked on a him a bit for watching such a silly show - sorry about that, NH).  But somewhere along the line, I got sucked in a bit.  Then I got sucked in even more.  And then I met River Song.

River is one of those characters that I instantly fell in love with.  She's brilliant, witty, beautiful, mysterious, adventure-seeking, and she has a heart so full of love for the people she cares about.  Plus, she's an archeologist, and that kind of felt a bit like a female Indiana Jones to me.  I'm sold.  Plus - the HAIR!

I've done a River costume once before - the all-denim outfit from "The Impossible Astronaut" (picture comparison below).

Original Costume

My Costume

I loved how this one turned out - plus I got to wear a western gunbelt which made the little kid in my squee like I was four years old again in my spurs, boots, vest, and cowboy hat.  I waited a long time on eBay to get a gunbelt like that in my price range (and one that would fit my hips, but that's a whole other matter).

However, there's another particular costume I had my sights on.  She wears it a few times throughout Series 6 in such episodes as "Day of the Moon" and "A Good Man Goes to War". 

Original Costume

My Costume

From here on out, it's going to be some in-depth costume talk and pictures.  If that's your thing, you're welcome to stay with me and keep on reading.  If it's not, then this blog is not for you.  ;)

Let's start on this journey and talk about what I learned, what I liked, and what I don't particularly care for.

Dress
The dress River wears in these episodes is actually based on an All Saints Zeeda dress.  Based on my many hours of reading, it sounds like a few modifications might have been made to the original Zeeda dress, however, on the whole it is largely screen-accurate as-is.  The problem these days is:
1.) They are no longer in stock at All Saints.
2.) They run somewhere in the $250-$500 price range every time I see one pop up on eBay.
3.) They're really difficult to find in a US size 10 (which seems to correspond to a UK size 14).

I've seriously had this dress (and all of its keywords) set-up as saved searches on my eBay account for probably the last three years.  I never had anything that remotely came into my price range, and I started to lose hope.  I started checking out other types of dresses that I could just add a zipper to, and I even bought a couple of patterns to frankenstein together to get me a decent pattern to sew my own.  And then I found an alternate dress - a Lagenlook parachute dress in a light taupe color.  I asked the seller for the measurement from armpit to armpit (always a deciding factor), and it was on the lowest end of what I could manage.  So I bought it - because hey, it was worth the risk.  The price was right (around $36 or so, I believe), and now was the time.

I absolutely adore this dress.  I had two little blow-outs in some of the stitching while I was at the con, but nothing that I can't fix later (one in the armhole and one in a skirt panel).  I did have a tricky situation finding an undergarment that wouldn't be visible with the style of armholes this dress has, but a strapless bra did the trick.  So happy I took the risk and got this dress.

Wide Brown Belt
The wide brown belt with the bronze-looking studs is actually another off-the-rack item from All Saints.  It's the Anina belt, and it's another one of those items that is highly sought after and - thus - highly expensive when I find them on eBay.  That was a large "no" for me, so I figured it'd be a good thing to make from scratch.  There are some wonderful DIY tutorials out there from other River cosplayers, and I found these two particularly helpful:
https://sweetieoolong.livejournal.com/1078.html
http://ifyougiveagirlaneedle.blogspot.com/2016/11/all-saints-anina-belt-construction.html

I actually ended up using the same studs that Jordan mentions in her tutorial (see second link listed above), and they were so simple to use!  It was simply a matter of cutting my vinyl, punching my holes, adding the studs, and voila - belt.  That makes it sound a lot faster than it actually took (because punching belt holes is exhausting), but overall, it was a pretty simple and fun project.

My vinyl came from JoAnn Fabrics, and it should be a very easy thing to locate in the Home Decor fabric section.  It'll be on a very large roll, and you just take it up to the cutting counter and get what you need.  I believe I purchased 1/4 of a yard, and that was plenty for my belt and my vortex manipulator (more on that later). 

As for my process, I didn't 100% think this out, so I could have done things a little better.  Not a huge deal, thought, and I made it work.  Just to give a basic rundown...

I cut a long strip of the vinyl 4" tall by however wide my fabric was (probably 55" or so).  I knew I'd be using the brass studs/holes for fastening the belt, but my vinyl wasn't quite sturdy enough to stand up to that kind of use.  To give everything a little more strength on the end of my belt, I folded wrong-sides together in order to get me a bit of overlap on the back, and  I "pinned" this with a clothes pin to mark my place.  I then repeated the same fold on the other side of the belt (always remembering the overlap I'd need for my brass studs).

Instead of sewing down the folds I made, I used E6000 adhesive to glue the two backs of the vinyl together.  It worked wonderfully, and I'd definitely use it again.  I glued both of my folded sections, and I let them dry under some weights for 24 hours.

24 hours later, it was time to measure and punch some holes.  I used the measurements provided in the links above to create a cardboard template to use to mark my punch holes.  Using a silver Sharpie, I marked all of my holes down the length of my belt.* 

*This is where I would have changed something.  I spent so much time trying to figure out how far apart in length these holes should be, and I finally arrived on a particular number...but I never took into account the entire length of the belt I'd just cut and glued.  Yikes!  So if I were to offer advice, measure the length of your belt first.  Let's say your belt is 36 inches long.  Figure out how many holes you can evenly space along 36 inches.  For example, if you want your holes to be spaced 1.5 inches apart, then you can fit 24 sets of holes.  If you have an odd number for your belt length, seriously...do the math as best you can and flub the rest.  That's what I did, and no one is the wiser that I have one set of holes that's entirely too far away from its neighbor.  Oops.

I then used a leather hole punch I borrowed from a friend of mine to punch all of my holes.  You can find leather hole punches at craft stores or get one from Amazon.  I used a tabletop hole punch, which saved my hand from cramping.  I used the smallest setting available to me and tested it on a scrap piece of fabric first to make sure it would work with my brass studs.  Once I was satisfied with it, I punched.  And punched.  And punched some more.

The screw-back brass studs were the last piece, and they were incredibly easy to use.  If you've every worked with a screwdriver at all, you can probably figure this one out.

The last step was trying on that belt and making sure it fit.  In my case, it was actually slightly large, but I wasn't about to stress about it.  I have enough things to worry about in life; it's not worth it.  So I tugged it a little further down my waist, gave myself a smile of approval, and moved on.  I hope you can do the same.  :)


Curious about that vortex manipulator?  Want to know more about the Nerf gun repaint job?  Stay tuned until next time... (Maybe not exactly the next time, but eventually we can talk about it.)

Struggles, Spoilers, and Songs

There's a lot going on these days.  At least that's what it feels like.  I'm not 100% sure if that's accurate or if that's just feelings, but it's what I'm going with at the moment.  There are people I love who are going through some really rough stuff right now.  I want to be there for them, but I'm struggling with some personal things, as well.  It makes me feel a bit like a selfish attention hog lately - "please, look at me and realize I'm struggling, too - help".  And when that doesn't work quite like the annoying 5 year old in me wants it to, I turn to my projects and bury myself in the work that takes over my mind and makes me happy (to a point).

That's a rather depressing introduction to a post that's meant to say...I finally finished my River Song costume.  (Is a blog that promises to focus on Disney and Star Wars allowed to be depressing and get off-topic by discussing Doctor Who?  You know what - I don't care.  Sure, it can.  Because it's my blog.  So there.  ;p)

There are elements of this costume I'm not 100% happy with, and I think that's all right for now.  All of my cosplay (I still have a hard time with that word because I used "costume" and "costumer" for years because that was when I started out this entire journey) is done simply and on a certain budget.  I like to try to make things from other things instead of spend my time tracking down screen accurate fabric for $40 a yard that requires me to then buy 3 packages of RIT dye to make it the right color.  I have nothing against that sort of thing, and I have a great deal of respect for the folks who go through it.  It takes a heck of a lot of work, and the results are impressive.  I get caught up in this mindset now and then - "how accurate do I need to make this?" or "should I buy this so it's 'right'?"  It's a very easy place to fall into, and it's not a bad thing if that's who you want to be.

However, I've come to believe that my real place in his cosplay world and my calling here is to prove to other people that they can do it.  You don't have to be a genius.  You don't have to break your bank.  You don't even have to have knowledge on how to sew.  And honestly, if you're out to just have fun - you don't need to be accurate.  You just have to be willing to try, to learn, and to work with what you have when you have it.  I want to encourage those people who are starting out - the people who feel like crap because someone told them something was "wrong" with their costume.  I've had younger folks come up to me at a convention, fangirling or fanboying out over something I've made and then degrading their own work as they're wearing it in front of me, feeling horrible that they can't be as good as someone else.  That's when I try to point out to them what I actually have here - a PVC pipe from Home Depot, some silver spray paint, a rubber inner tube from a bicycle tire, a thumbtack, a cell phone clip, some washers, a plastic cable clip, and some glue.  It's not much different from what they have at all.  And it's certainly not impossible to do with just some time, practice, and a new way of looking at things.

Wow, does this blog entry have a point?  Because if it does, I seem to be taking an awfully long time just to say I finally finished my River Song costume.  ;)  The costume is 100% complete and ready to go for the comic expo I'm attending this weekend.  I'm uncertain if she'll go out for one day or two because I anticipate this will be a fun one to walk around in.  I guess we'll just wait and see.

And since I'd like to try and follow-through what what I said above (about helping people realize they can do this sort of thing, too), I'd like to follow-up this post with another post talking all about the costume and how I made it work.  Look for that to come soon.

In the meantime, just remember that you can do it - whatever "it" is.  I know it sounds corny and awful, but I believe that if something lies within our realm of power to change and learn, then we can accomplish it.  I think it's easy to forget that because the world like to buck up against us and tell us we can't move.  Sometimes, it's true - we can't.  Sometimes we're just stuck.  But even in those times, your ability to fight forward and keep moving is a blessing, even when your heart, mind, and body are tired.  Keep going.  Keep moving.  Because it's getting closer. 

Whatever "it" is.