Every year, my daughter and I attend Fan Expo Canada. Her favourite thing about Fan Expo was competing in the Masquerade, a gala event where individuals share their elaborate home-made costumes on stage. Unfortunately, Mary is now too old to compete in the youth division. (You must be under 12, but your costume must still be hand-made by a family member.) I usually dress up as some sort of accessory.
Year 1 (2009) - she was Mei from Pokemon and I was Jessie from Team Rocket.
Year 2 (2010) - she was Princess Peach from the Mario video games and I was Yoshi. She rode me on stage.
Year 3 (2011) - she was Frankie Stein from Monster High and I dressed as the Bride of Frankenstein. This was the first year I didn't go on stage with her.
This year, she is planning to appear (not in the Masquerade but at Fan Expo in general) as Sailor Saturn from the Sailor Moon anime/manga. Since I have neither the body type nor the inclination to be a Sailor Scout, and because I like dressing up just as much as she does, I decided to be a creeper from my favourite game, Minecraft.
I myself cannot enter the Masquerade because I did not make my creeper head - my husband bought it for me from Jinx. Costumes can't be bought, even if it's only part of the costume. Plus, having listened to the feedback the costume judges give the Masquerade participants, I don't think my craftsmanship is up to snuff. Just in case you were wondering how I did this, here are the steps I took.
I learned a lot on how to make my costume from Screen Team Show's video on how to make the creeper head and applied some of their techniques to the body. My squares are 1.5" and I made them with a combination of a Creative Memories square puncher and a ruler/scissors. It was tricky to find five different shades of green in a size big enough to cover a body-sized box, but I purchased bristol board, painting paper, and a few sheets of scrapbook paper from Michaels, a craft store. I used a glue gun to stick each individual square on the box in a random fashion. I didn't draw a grid on the box and I didn't paint the box green underneath. My husband helped with a dilemma I faced about arms. Creepers don't have arms but I couldn't imagine walking around the Metro Convention Centre unable to use my upper limbs. I didn't want to put holes in the sides because it would detract from the overall effect. James recommended flaps that I could push my arms out if needed and pull them in for photos. Brilliant idea hubby! In this photo, I'm wearing capris but today I bought green knee socks so my legs wouldn't be an eye sore. I also have to glue a hat on the inside of the box so the head doesn't wobble as much.
I don't know how many squares are on my costume. When I did the first side, it was 200, but that didn't include the flap near the bottom. I suspect I have about 1000 squares on the costume. I really hope it doesn't rain when I wait in line to get into Fan Expo. I'm bringing a garbage bag to cover me just in case. I have to say there was something oddly soothing about spending days sticking squares onto cardboard. I'll re-use this outfit for Halloween but after that, I'm not sure how or where to safely store it. If you see a creeper wandering downtown in the next few weeks, that'll be me.
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