Another year is coming to a close.

I will say, I feel like this year was a turning point in my craft.   I have started practicing and refining skills through a lot of trial and error.  I'm getting better at fitting, it no longer takes me an hour to put in a zipper and I'm feeling up to tackling my abysmally messy hand sewing.  It's getting neater, slowly, but surely.

In the midst of all the costuming, I did something crazy I swore I would never do:

Yup - that's me, running in the Colfax Marathon relay - 6 miles through the heart of Denver.  I was slow as hell, rolled my ankle and still had a blast.

Back to the costuming - I also started doing more custom cosplay work, which has been a lot of fun and a great way to tackle new skills.

First, there was the Power Puff Girls (shown with Capt. America):

Then I tackled creating an idea that had floated around on deviantart, starting with the concept sketch:

To reality!  Some fit issues with this one - I don't think I'll use this bodice pattern again because it was NOT fun to work with (seriously, should have gone almost two sizes down on their measurement estimates)  But we got there, and had a blast:

Next up was creating an Agent Carter to match the Captain America (which we wore on Memorial Day for Denver Comicon)  This was my first time with suit tailoring.  It turned out ok, but some revisions will be needed in the future.  The wig was a work of genius by a friend - because my curls wound never have turned out this well!

Another unique challenge I had this year was starting to create costume pieces for "Participation plays" when they have to on kids of all shapes and sizes and still look good.  Here is my over simplified version of Bumblebees:

Finally, I ended up with a difficult challenge on my hand.  A HUGE multi-costume musical on practically no budget.  This is where the construction skills took a HUGE uptick since I created several sets of costumes from scratch - curtains and bed sheets and thrifted fabric and borrowed corsets.  All things considered, it turned out exceptionally well and I'm very proud of what I accomplished.  I present, CURTAINS:

Two more shows to costume for the year, plus the inevitable Halloween rush of "DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING I COULD BORROW???"

Let's see what else I can learn!