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Art Post: Piper Designs (SunDowner)

Blog, my art, sundowner

Art Post: Piper Designs (SunDowner)

May 16, 2002 /

Piper’s various looks…

art old sundowner

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Princess Leia art project parts 10 & 11 - the rebe

Princess Leia art project parts 10 & 11 - the rebel briefing room uniform and the Endor gear. Another case of same costume with added accessories so I’m posting them together.

Princess Leia art project parts 8 and 9: the Hutts

Princess Leia art project parts 8 and 9: the Huttslayer metal bikini and the deleted sandstorm cape

Stuck these 2 in the same post since it’s the same costume with new accessories.

My Costume History, Day 133: Wonder Girl from Teen

My Costume History, Day 133: Wonder Girl from Teen Titans, for GMX 2010

So here’s the thing with this costume - for years I had it miscategorized as a 2009 costume. I finally went back in my blog, looked at date stamps on photos, and realized it was 2010. LOL So here it is properly dated - made for GMX in 2010.

This was a quick little throwaway costume really. Kevin wanted to do a Superboy costume - the basic one with the T-shirt. So I got that for him and decided to throw together this Wonder Girl look.

Bought the jeans and added the red stars to them - just cut them out of some red sticky back felt, so I could remove them later and wear these as regular jeans. Made the “WW” belt buckle out of some leftover silver thermoplastic - it’s all just glued together, and taped to a black belt I had.

Bought a plain red tshirt and cut the sleeves off and took it up to fit the way I wanted, and added the gold trim to the neckline (leather leftover from Kingdom Come Wonder Woman). Added some velcro to the front so I could just use my WW chestpiece with it, and also used my WW gauntlets, and a wig I had (told you you’d be seeing that Black Canary wig a lot more LOL)

Wore this with my circa 1995 red converse shoes which I still have and wear occasionally. Amazing how long those shoes have survived.

For a long time, GMX 2010 was the only time I wore this costume, and I had exactly 2 photos of it. It all kinda fell apart after that - the belt buckle was in pieces, the red stars were stuck to a bin, and eventually I donated the jeans after wearing them in my regular wardrobe rotation for a few years. FINALLY in 2023, I got a new pair of jeans, reassembled the belt buckle, peeled the stars off the bin and got this shot on the white backdrop. Long overdue. And now it’s permanently retired!

My Costume History, Day 132: Briar Rose from Sleep

My Costume History, Day 132: Briar Rose from Sleeping Beauty, for Halloween 2010

Since I did Aurora in 2008, I wanted to get more use out of the wig, so might as well make a Briar Rose costume too!

Headed to Hancock for all of my fabrics. Got a lightweight grey for the blouse, black suede for the bodice and grey suede for the skirt. Didn’t really want suede for the skirt, but it was all they had that was in the color range I wanted, and at that time, for these Halloween costumes, I’d generally make do with whatever I found locally, even if it wasn’t ideal. I hated ordering fabric (and still do!)

Made the basic blouse modifying a peasant blouse pattern with elastic at the sleeves. The collar is a separate piece - I bought a cheap button up shirt, and replaced the collar with a new one made of matte satin, so I put that on first, then pull the blouse over it.

The bodice I made using my fav bodice pattern, Simplicity 5006, modified for shape. Experimented here with adding a leather panel in the interior for the front V shape. Added the eyelets in the front for the little upper lace-up section, but the real lace-up section is the eyelets in the back.

Made the skirt by cutting the grey suede into panels and gathering them onto a waistband. Wore it over one of my old petticoats.

The shawl was a scrap of cotton gauze leftover from Alyss that I dyed purple, and I bought the headband. Also found a basket at the second hand store that worked for this.

Wore it Halloween 2010 and really liked it! Planned to wear it to Dragoncon the next year, but never did. I ended up not wearing it again until 2015, when I finally did the white backdrop shoot - with a new black bodice. Honestly I’m not sure what the timeline is here, I made the new black bodice at some point when I was bored. I hadn’t been happy with that experimental first version, so one day I just made a new one. I think I did eventually sell the first one? Or the second one? I don’t know. I’m unreliable narrator sometimes LOL

Either way I still have the costume and one of the bodices, had it out for a tiktok video not so long ago, so it’s still here and kicking.

My Costume History, Day 131: Illyana Rasputin/Magi

My Costume History, Day 131: Illyana Rasputin/Magik/Darkchilde from New Mutants, for Dragoncon 2010

When Chase and I went on our first date in 2005, I told him about 2 dream costumes I wasn’t sure how to do myself, one being Kingdom Come Wonder Woman (which we did in 2007) and the other was this one - Magik’s armor from the Inferno series. I’d played around with figuring out how to put it together as far back as 2004 - when I had that silver suit I eventually used for Dazzler, but I didn’t think all spandex would look the way I wanted.

So for 2010 we decided to finally make it happen. The base of the costume IS all spandex - it’s a silver spandex leotard and matching leggings. From there, Chase and I built up all of the armor. It’s all heat-formed plastic we formed over casts of myself on a vac table - the chest piece, back piece, hip panels, thigh pieces, shinguards, biceps, gauntlets, and hand plates. Once we had all of the pieces cut to to shape and painted, we got velcro placed for everything.

The shoulder pieces were made from 2 plastic garbage cans cut into the shape and painted, and the base of the helm was a kid’s helmet that Chase added extensions to, and the spikes. The horns I bought online, painted, and they velcro onto the helm.

I made the tail out of a piece of tubing covered in black faux suede and painted - it ties on around the waist and feeds through the back plate. Chase made my sword using a kids foam sword as a base.

I was sooo happy to have finally made this costume - but it was a totally pain in the ass to wear. All that armor was hot, it pinched as I moved. Honestly, I hated wearing it LOL

But wear it I did, I wore it to the Marvel photoshoot at Dragoncon that year. Got a few good photos of it and then put it in storage until I finally got it out in 2015ish and shot it on the white backdrop. I’ve tried to sell it several times because it just takes up a lot of room, but I’ve never had any interest. So it’s still here, in a bin. I’ve thought about getting it out and jazzing it up with some more details and wearing it again - might as well one of these days, it’s not going anywhere else at this point!

My Costume History, Day 130: Alyss from The Lookin

My Costume History, Day 130: Alyss from The Looking Glass Wars, for Dragoncon 2010

I felt like my Dcon 2010 lineup was missing something. I was reading The Looking Glass Wars at the time, and got to the art in the middle and saw this dress - THAT was what I needed.

I started by making a base dress out of this peachy pink taffeta - modified a wedding dress pattern with an empire waist and a big skirt, adding the puffed sleeves. Once I had the base layer made, it was time to start adding ruffles. Bought a ton of poly chiffon, cut it into strips, and dyed it all. I cauterized the edges of the ruffles, then started sewing them onto the skirt. I did what I could on the machine, but as it got bigger, I had to start hand-sewing them on.

The collar area is a layer of chiffon and a fitted choker, and I added some red beading to all of that. Also added the draped panel of chiffon at the bust and at the end of each sleeve.

The standing collar I made by altering the Snow White pattern piece for that - it’s a layer of cotton and interfacing, and then the layer of gradient dyed cotton gauze over the top and hanging from it. It does all snap on - but I don’t think I’ve ever completely taken it off of the dress, I do unsnap it in a few places for storage purposes but otherwise it stays on! The “loops” over the collar are made of clear tubing with some scraps of chiffon stuffed inside, beads glued on, and hand-sewn onto the dress.

The wig is I guess an early form of helmet wig? LOL We took made a plaster cast of my head, painted it the collar of the hair, and then I glued the wig to it and styled it from there, so the head shape never collapses. The upper part I made out of foam and glued the hair around. I built the crown into the wig - it’s all made of craft wire, various beads and such, all hand-sewn into place into the foam base.

I debuted this at Dcon 2010 - and I had a particular pic I wanted, in this chair in front a red painting, and I got it. EXACTLY what I had in my head LOL. I haven’t worn it since, except for the white backdrop shoot not long after. I keep saying I’m going to take it out for a cool photoshoot somewhere, but still haven’t had the opportunity.

My Costume History, Day 129: Lady Gaga, for Dragon

My Costume History, Day 129: Lady Gaga, for Dragoncon 2010

I wanted to do a Gaga costume! I had several on my “maybe” list, then saw her at the Grammys in this Armani Prive dress. The choice was made.

I started this by making a base corset out of cotton and canvas - I altered a stays pattern, raising the neckline. Once I had the base layer made, I covered it in layers of white & lavender organza, & added my eyelets to the back.

The skirt was fun. Chase helped me build a wire cage, & we engineered a panel that fits under the bodice that holds the whole thing up. I made a mockup out of scrap fabric around the frame, then used that to cut out my layers of the organza, & hand-sewed it around the frame.

The bodysuit is made of a nude mesh - cnce I had it made, I put it on myself and started hot-gluing sequins to it (I tried doing this on my mannequin, but it was sticking TO the mannequin). The shoes aren’t exact - but I could not find the same kind of shoes nor did I trust myself wearing those shoes with this, so I just picked something that would give a similar silhouette. Once they arrived I added sequins, then put them on with the suit to make sure the sequins on the suit “connected” to it.

The “hoops” were the most frustrating part. Initially I was going to use metal hooping, but it was too heavy. Switched to light plastic boning, and covered it in some silver holographic tape. The tape would not stick though, so in the hotel room at dragoncon I was still adding clear tape over the top of it all to keep it all together. The hoops all snap onto the bodice at 2 points. Bought the wigs.

Getting downstairs at Dragoncon in this was interesting. I went down the stairs with sandals on this switched to my real shoes! And as soon as we got downstairs, the snap broke off the hoops, so Chase had to tape them on me.

Despite that I did get to wear it for a few hours and I was overall really happy with it. It was a really neat project and I loved wearing it. I did the white backdrop shoot not long after, and I love how those photos turned out! A few years later I did sell it - because I just had nowhere to store the skirt anymore. (Should’ve made it collapsible!)

My Costume History, Day 128: Mara Jade/Arica from

My Costume History, Day 128: Mara Jade/Arica from Star Wars, for Dragoncon 2010

I’d wanted to do Mara’s dancer disguise for ages. Having not done a Star Wars costume in 09, I decided to do this for 2010.

I found a blue stretch netting for this, but it was a little too light, so I painted it all into a darker blue and it ended up with a cool gradient effect I really liked. Assembled the leotard with a skintone spandex lining layer. The symbol on the front I made out of a layer of the chiffon from the skirts, backed in some lining fabric, then basted onto the front panel of the leotard. After I had it in place, I went back over it with some embroidery floss to give it some more texture.

I made the skirts using my Huttslayer skirts as a reference, just adding the side panels. They are made of a poly chiffon I picked up at Hancock - they are lightly stitched onto the leotard in a few places, and the left side closes with a snap. I made the cape sleeve things out of the same chiffon, attaching them to some silver bangles and black leather cording at the top, and the upper back is attached to the leotard. My tiara is a piece of silver thermoplastic cut into shape and it ties on under the wig.

Now the drama here was the boots. Some of the references showed her wearing thigh high black boots, so that’s what I went with, since I had these suede black boots from Yuuko I could use, and I thought the suede was a nice tie-in to Huttslayer. I put this on at Dcon and the second I got downstairs... one of my heels broke off. I was like... ok, I can power through this and hobble around for a bit. A few minutes later... the other heel broke. All of my pics of this are me in the hallway outside our room with broken heels LOL

After Dcon I took it to a cobbler that said it could not be fixed. They weren’t made right. So I glued them back together myself and wore it to GMX later that year, where they broke again of course. Glued again for the white backdrop shoot the next year - but you can see in the side photos one is already broken again LOL

So I haven’t worn it again since then. One of these days I will replace the boots and bring it back out. I swear.

My Costume History, Day 127: Ame-Comi Supergirl, f

My Costume History, Day 127: Ame-Comi Supergirl, for Dragoncon 2010

I told yall I was obsessed with the Ame-Comi line of DC character statues - & the 2nd version of Supergirl I thought was SUPER cute & I had to make it.

I started out with my fav bodice pattern & made the base out of some blue cotton and spiral steel boning. The outer layer of the bodice is my blue spandex, and it laces up the back. I added the spandex circle skirt to the bottom. The tricky part here was the cut-outs on the side - I should’ve just done them with skintone material, but I really wanted them to be “real” cut-outs. They don’t sit exactly right, but they work.

For all of the yellow stripes on the suit, I made a pattern on the costume on the dressform using tape and transferred it to paper, then used that pattern to cut out some yellow marine vinyl I had. In previous projects, I would’ve hot glued this on, but instead I hand-sewed it all. I was really happy with the end result and was glad it wasn’t glued on.

The sleeves are separate and really just long gauntlets, but are made of the same blue spandex with yellow vinyl stripes. The collar piece is foam - Chase cut it and added all of the little details for me, as well as making the “S” symbol in the front. It all velcros onto the suit along the top edge. The cape is just a square of some red fabric I had in my stash, and it velcros to the underside of the collar.

I bought the boots at the second hand store and covered them in some red spandex, and added the yellow stripes to those too. I did change the shape of the boots from the figure - I did a high/low sort of thing instead of straight across, just felt like that would look better on me.

I debuted it at Dcon 2010 and loved it!... except the wig. I had bought the wig online but I did not like the look of it. So when I took it to GMX a couple of months later, I instead wore a different blonde wig from another costume (Gaga) and liked that so much more. I brought it back to Dcon 2011 with the new wig as well.

Need to reshoot this on the white backdrop one day - for some reason we only shot like 10 photos of this? It’s on my (very long) reshoot list...

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