New "Sash Belt" Ventress in the Great White North

[kathgruben]

This past weekend I once again attended the Fan Expo in Toronto where I debuted another Ventress costume - this time the "sash belt" version, with my main point of inspiration and reference being the GentleGiant statue.

 

 

 

 

While I had done the CloneWars Ventress last year, the large amount of time spent getting all of the makeup on right makes that costume somewhat prohibitive. This version requires only half the time in makeup.

 

My sewing skills have improved over the past year and I was able to construct the majority of the costume myself, excluding only the lightsabers. Still, I learned even more as my work progressed: finding the right grey fabric was tricky; I'd never worked with the black pleather-type material before; and figuring out how to make the collar was the most difficult part to get right - all of those curves around the shoulders and neck area add just a little more challenge!

 

Here's some pics of the lightsabers, which are a couple of Ultrasabers customized by a squad-mate (or rather sabersmith) and painted up by my hubby:

 

 

 

I had a great time at the convention with my fellow legionnaires, and even had the time to beat up some rebel scum:

 

 

 

 

Actually, the rebel scum was my hubby in his Obiwan costume as we performed a lightsaber demo for the public. I did have to take the belt off during the demo for fear of either destroying the belt or tripping over it and falling on my face. Thankfully, we stayed accident free

 

The most annoying thing to happen was that at one point I had been staring too long while people were taking pics that my eye started to tear. Left a lovely mark down my face. My friend calls this pic "when Sith Lords cry"

 

 

I spent the past year researching this project off and on, with much of what I found and needed taken from this forum. The people here are a great resource and I have to thank you for all of the tips and tricks you graciously and freely share.

 

Can't wait for the next big event to wear this one again!

[Guest Sakara]

that looks fab!!!! love the sash ( well i would its my fav part of Asajj's costume!)

[kathgruben]

Thank you.

 

I have to say the sash is what drew me to this version of Ventress too, it appeals to my artistic-painter side. I think I'm going to make another belt though, this time out of leather and adding the 2 small black side belts with the silver details. This first one is made out of vinyl that I doubled and hand painted, and turns out it is more delicate than I anticipated. I think using leather will be more durable. I'm also taking a leather carving course soon, so might get some ideas for adding other relief details.

[Guest Daritha]

Great costume, kathgruben! I esp. like the "crying" pic. Don't Dooku, when he saw it, intervened with the words: "Nobody puts baby in the corner!"?

[Guest StungunMoy]

I agree, I absolutely love the sash You did a great job with the detail involved in it. Fantastic! I hope to see some more pictures up soon!

[ionicdesign]

Looking good, love the detailing of the sabers. I'm in process of doing the same for LadyB's pair of Ultrasabres.

[kathgruben]

Time for an update!

 

Having learned a lot from producing my first version of this costume last year, and with SWCV on the horizon earlier this year, I decided to work on creating a second version, Ventress 2.0 if you will.

 

The lovely sash belt had taken an absolute beating from wearing it only the one time, largely because the automotive paint I used to paint the vinyl fabric didn't stick very well and really began to flake off in certain areas.

 

 

I had also managed to find a light grey stretch fabric that was better suited for the body suit and leggings, so I wanted to redo those parts with a new round-edged collar.

 

 

For the sash belt, I decided the best way to re-make it would be out of leather. In the fall last year I took a leather tooling class at my local leather store, which taught me a heckuva lot about leather and some basics of working with it. I purchased a nice piece of 7-8oz vegetable tanned leather shortly after completing the class, enough to make the Ventress sash belt as well as for the bracers and sash for a Luminara costume I'd like to put together eventually.

 

Thankfully, I had saved the templates I'd used for the first belt, and used those to "draw" the pattern onto the leather pieces.

 

 

After several weeks of work (and simultaneously watching all 6 seasons of LOST), I finished tooling the belt pieces.

 

 

Again, using the first belt as a point of reference, I mixed up the leather dye to achieve the blue-grey colour I wanted. While the dye can be applied with a dauber, the leather store staff recommended I airbrush the dye on the leather. Thankfully, I am blessed with a wonderful hubby who is very talented with an airbrush, and was thrilled with how beautifully and evenly the leather took the dye. After two coats of dye was finally dry, I painted the silver accenting on by brush using thinned down Tamiya modelling paint. I also remade the buckle, slightly larger than the first version to accomodate the new metal buckle blank attached to the back.

 

 

After completing a few more tweaks to the costume (snaps are wonderful!), I was proud to present Ventress 2.0 at Celebration 5 a couple of weeks ago.

 

 

Attending Celebration 5 was a fabulous experience, providing the opportunity to put faces to forum names and to have a wonderful time sharing the convention experience with a couple of great fellow Ventress costumers.

 

 

 

 

This weekend the hubby and I are off to Toronto's FanExpo, but topping off a troop in costume at Disney will be hard to beat!

 

 

[Guest Sakara]

LOVE that work on the belt, you looked fantastic in the photos ive seen of you.

 

brilliant triple Ventress shot there too.

[ladyb]

The costume is gorgeous, especially the leather. It was a pleasure to troop with you at CV.

[Guest Anonymous]

Great job. I really love the "when Sith Lords cry" pic.

[Twi'lek Pam]

It was wonderful to meet you at Celebration, and to get a chance to see your costume with all of the upgrades. You did a fine job with it! (Now I'll need to start bugging you about getting some high-res photos of the updated costume, won't I? )

 

Thanks for sharing more of your photos. I love to see how costumes evolve over time.

 

Pam

[kathgruben]

Thank you for all the compliments. I had another opportunity to wear the costume again at Toronto's FanExpo, and while the makeup is very time consuming I really love wearing Ventress

 

Yes Pam, I need to start taking some pics for you. I did take some of the makeup, I need to take the individual component ones next.

[Twi'lek Pam]

Yes Pam, I need to start taking some pics for you. I did take some of the makeup, I need to take the individual component ones next.

 

You're awesome. Thank you!!

 

Pam