Starting a new CW Ventress

[Guest Anonymous]

Hello Flagship! We are starting on a CW Ventress in the Seattle area and would love to get some feedback. Picked up a dark blue spandex material for the top, along with a crushed velvet for the dress. On patterns, we are using an ice skating turtleneck longsleeve bodysuit that i'll add the cutout to. We were gonna use a harem girl pattern for the dress, but after making the mockup in muslin, I am not sure if I like all the seams (it was made from 8 panels).

 

Does anyone know a better pattern to use for the dress?

 

We have a bald cap and Ben Nye airbrush paint on the way, so not worried too much about that or the belt. The wraps we have covered for material with ace bandages. I am worried some about the saber bodies, but I'll save that for last.

 

Pictures to follow & thanks for listening everyone!

[Guest Anonymous]

ultrasabers.com have a nice saber hilt style that is based on the Ventress lightsabers. The hilt comes in solid colors, but it could easily be painted to match any pattern.

[Guest Anonymous]

Thanks! And thanks for the PMs too. I am probably going to pick up the FX ones, but have to make some now to get done for legion approval. We have a time line for an event in December, so I won't be able to submit with the FXs, but will have em for the event. The only reason I won't do Ultra is cause it's 3 weeks to get it. I have a saber guy here locally that mods sabers and am gonna see if he can mod the FXs safely. I just want the removable blade is all.

[Twi'lek Pam]

While I haven't seen the pattern, what you've described sounds like it might be a good place to start. An iceskater's pattern also has an advantage because they're specifically designed for use with stretch fabric. That always helps!

 

Remember, while lightsabers are a really great accessory to have with any Jedi or Sith costume... they're not required for the costume to be approved.

 

Pam

[Guest Anonymous]

Thanks for that Pam! We went ahead and picked up the new CW style Hasbro FX sabers today. After our event we are setting as our goal, we'll likely send them off to ultrasabers to get modded as removable blades.

 

Here is our progress. I took the muslin mockup of an 8 panel harem girl dress and chopped it in half to basically make a two half circle pattern instead. I could have done the eight panels, but didn't like all the seams. On top of that, it ended up saving me a ton of sewing! I then folded the top in on itself to make a slot to thread 2 inch thick elastic for a belt. Once I threaded the elastic in & sewn it together, I stitched it to the center back of the dress and closed the slot. Then I used the elastic band to gather the top of the dress. The material is a dark blue...unfortunately, the camera flash washes it out and makes it seem much brighter. You can still see the black that's caused by the texture of the crushed velvet, which looks nice.

 

 

 

 

The dress is pretty comfortable from what she says & as you can see, flows very well. It feels slightly heavy, but stayed on tight with the 2 inch elastic. All that's left on this part is hemming the bottom edge once she gets into her boots.

 

Last night we finished the shirt. I used an ice skating pattern & a dark blue spandex material. For those of you that have never used spandex, wow what a pain. I had to look on youtube for some hints and quickly discovered the trick is using pins to hold your folds in place as you sew. Otherwise, the machine will pull the top of the fold in and you will be all sorts of crooked. Anyways, the pattern has a hold in the back, so that was an easy mod to the hexagon shape. The front football shape I just had to eyeball. Luckily, this pattern has sleeves AND a turtleneck, so no weird mods there. Tonight I have to sew on the turtleneck and hem the edge of the sleeves once she tries it on, but this is done.

 

 

 

The pattern sortof tricked me. I thought it had the panty part attached to the bottom of the shirt, but after getting to the point of attaching the panty to the shirt, I found out otherwise. We wanted it to be a one piece in that way to keep the shirt from riding up, so I might do some ugly attaching of the two pieces for functionality. I figure the seam would be covered by the ab wraps, so it don't have to be pretty.

 

This evening I'll be bleaching some ace bandages to see how those work. If all goes well, tomorrow I'll be painting the purple edge and completing the belt & buckle. We have Ben Nye airbrush paint on the way. I still might make some PVC pipe saber bodies as an experiment. If they work, cool, if not, we have the Hasbros en-route.

 

Feedback?

[Guest Anonymous]

Tried on the shirt with the dress....I'm happy.

 

 

 

Will be sewing on the neck and hemming the sleeves tomorrow. Homework too priority most of this week so far. However, her sabers came in the mail today. Hasbro is really on the ball with shipping!

[Guest Anonymous]

Ok, outfit complete and did a test run at our local garrison's event. Better pictures to follow, these are from our gym later that night after being in the cold and trooping all day.

 

Well the costume was a fail, but in a good way.. We saw some things that need fixing and thats always good. First, the bald cap did bunch up on her a bit on the back and sides, but after we got liquid latex on, it sortof looked like wrinked skin, so I wasn't too worried. We also used the white woochie.

 

Our mishap (well main one) was the makeup. We bought Ben Nye airbrush liquid. As I hooked up the airbrush, I discovered it was gummed up with something from the last time I used it..and I suppose I forgot to clean it. So, we had to sponge apply the makeup. Three coats looked great, but in 30 minutes, it cracked and crumbed terrible & ruined the entire makeup job. That's what we need help with.

 

I determined we need a different belt. I made 10 segments of white leather and connected them underneath with velcro on a piece of black upholstery padding. A solid belt that has black lines on it giving the illusion of segments would work much better for us. I also painted the yellow of the loincloth on maroon cloth...but needs to be more layers or brighter yellow. Other than that, dress, top and buckle worked great. Her sabers were a hit as well.

 

 

 

[Guest Anonymous]

Ok, so we had some belt and bald cap issues. I rebuilt the belt so it's one piece and perfected the baldcap application.

 

Unfortunately, we applied and got denied. We were told the costume looked all good, except there were two wrinkles visible in the bald cap.

 

So after a few months more of practice with the baldcap, now I really have it mastered. Once again though, denied and this time it was for MANY reasons. I just wish I had been told these things before so we could have fixed them with this application, since it costs me about $75 bucks every time I put this thing on (bald cap, glue, removal stuff and Reel ink - Lisa is a darker skinned girl and it's the only thing that works)

 

Here were the pics:

 

 

 

 

 

It's a shame cause one ding was the tattoo. I didn't make the frown long enough and forgot a line in the back, plus it's a darker purple. The belt is actually segmented, just hard to see the black gaps. I would had wrapped the wrists tighter, but the last app had no issue with them (or the tats or belt). I do need to touch up the yellow on the sash, but I thought fading in spots was encouraged.

The open back is the real issue for us. She wore a white underarmor shirt that matched the skintone cause she needed to wear a bra. Again, there was no issue before and I didn't see anything strictly forbidding this. Is it even less of an evil to sew a white panel in the back area?

 

So as it stands, I dunno if we will be making the changes or not. If it were a matter of showing that we bought a strapless adhesive bra and that we picked up the lighter shade of purple paint for the tat and showed off a clearer picture of the segmented belt and repainted sash, then we would resubmit. But since it is a nightmare to do the makeup and baldcap and expensive every time to don it, we don't want to go through 3 or 4 attempts to approve what Lisa would wear once or twice a year.

 

So advice? (esp from you Pam as you critiqued it in the app process)

[Twi'lek Pam]

Hi,

 

I'm not certain of who gave you the critique and did not approve the costume the first time, but as far as I can tell this costume has never been formally submitted for approval before yesterday. I checked back through the LMO approval threads, and I could not find it. Nor do I recall ever giving it a formal critique before. (I apologize for not posting more in this thread back in October... let's just say that you posted during a rough patch in my life.) If I had seen this costume posted in the LMO Approval thread in the GML forum, which is the place where all EU costumes are approved, I would have given the same critique that I gave yesterday. My guess is that your GML at the time reviewed the costume, then waited for you to correct whatever they asked you to correct before they posted the costume for LMO approval in the GML forum. I feel confident in saying that if the costume had been posted for LMO approval, he would have pointed out many if not all of the same details that I pointed out as needing a bit more work. As it was, I don't think he was ever given a chance to review the costume.

 

Now, you also need to keep in mind that the costume has NOT been approved or deferred yet. The DL's are asked to give a critique, but we do not make any decisions about the approval. We offer our opinions, and then the LMO is the one who decides if the costume is ready for approval or not. At this time, the LMO hasn't posted a response yet.

 

 

My advice is, keep working on the costume if you want to. If getting it approved is a goal, then make any upgrades that the LMO asks for. If you want to leave it as is and continue using it for conventions or informal events where your garrison is okay with it being worn, then that's fine. Sometimes with very complicated costumes, you just have to decide where your priorities fall. I would suggest doing some research on other options for supplies if it is costing you $75 for each wearing of this costume. I've been buying Reel Creations and bald caps for years, and it shouldn't cost even half that much.

 

 

Personally, I think you should keep working on it and see how wonderful you can make this creation with some more dedication and time. As with all costumes, they get better with time as we learn more and upgrade them. I thought my first Aayla costume was awesome, but now I look back at it and cringe. I know a lot more about what I'm doing now, and I'm glad I kept working on it to make it better. Aayla has come a long way....

 

 

 

 

These are the suggestions that I made for improving the costume:

 

 

 

This costume needs a bit more work before I would consider it ready for approval. She has a fine start (and either she got brave enough to shave her head, or somebody did an amazing job on the bald cap application); she just needs a bit more accuracy on some of the details.

 

Please invite her to share her work on the Flagship forum; she can get a lot of advice and encouragement there, as well as the support of other girls who have made this costume.

 

From the top:

 

The tattoo patterns need to be correctly shaped, lightly colored, and evenly placed. A template would be a great help for this.

 

 

 

Shirt: Looks great!

 

Torso and arm wraps: Need to be neatly and tightly fitted, not sagging loosely.

 

 

 

Belts: Need to be properly segmented all the way around:

 

 

To me the belt doesn't have enough of an X shape, and I really can't tell what is segmented, and what is hanging open. Perhaps part of the problem is the bright direct sunlight washing out some of the details.

 

 

Skirt: Very nice! (I want one...)

 

Sash belt: The overall design is good, though it could use a bit more finishing work. Some areas look considerably more complete than others, and the paint occasionally appears mismatched.

 

 

Torso and arm body paint: It appears that she's wearing a white shirt instead of body paint on her torso and arms. I know of a single instance where a body suit was approved instead of body paint on a female character (Darth Maladi), and a single instance of a male character having fabric covered arms (Sith Stalker Starkiller.) In the case of Starkiller, the fabric is somewhat necessary because of the "torn skin" look that has to be replicated on his damaged arm.... but I do not advise (nor would I want to approve) any female using a bodysuit instead of body paint on her arms or torso. I'm not especially happy that the precedence was set, and I hope it does not continue. You can see the wrinkles, it doesn't look like skin, and I don't consider it a 501st-quality technique. As a Twi'lek costumer, I know how big a job body paint is, but I also know how much it improves the look of a costume when body paint is used instead of shortcutting with fabric. Also concerning the white coloring of the skin, Ventress doesn't have a "clown/mime white" coloring... it's more of a whiteish tint. A light application of a slightly gray toned makeup will give a more natural look than a solid coat of pure white.

 

Pam

[Guest Aysel]

I do hope you continue to work on this costume. Please don't let having to make minor changes stop you from improving this costume to be the shinning example of what 501st level costuming is. What Pam has suggested you do should be pretty simple with what I know you and Beskad are capable of achieving.

 

Please stick with it

 

() Katie

[Guest Anonymous]

Yeah I mean really beyond the exposed back issue, all of this stuff is easily fixed and the only real pain is getting her back in her gear. And don't think we have hard feeling for the judging itself, since it is accurate except maybe the belt, which I need to just re-adjust (similar to the wraps). But see this is where i'm kindof miffed. I was told by my old GML, who is still co-GML, after asking a couple of times what the status was when I hit a few weeks that the LMO said everything was great that she just needed to fix the bald cap. So basically what I am understanding is that my GML basically didn't do his job and screwed us over.

 

Lisa said she is willing to give it one more go so Look for this to be resubmitted soon if the LMO says it's not up to par. Really it's just buying and painting ACE bandages and getting lighter paint and following the pattern better. Body paint isn't an issue as she is use to it for her Aayla...just the baldcap sucks, LOL.

 

I'm PMing you also Pam about this GML madness..

[Twi'lek Pam]

Hi,

 

I'd say to just take a breather and wait for the needed information to come in. Find out what the current LMO says, and go from there. At this point his opinion is the only one that will influence what you need to do. As for the past issues, we don't know all the facts so there is no good that can come from being miffed. Nobody likes to hear that things have gone wrong, from either end of the equation, but everyone appreciates a calm resolution. The GML may have dropped the ball, or they might not have understood how the EU approval process works. It has changed multiple times over the years, afterall. There's also a chance that I missed a post in one of the EU approval threads, considering that it's approaching a year now and that's a whole lot of posts to search through. I did say "As far as I can tell" to show that I am not 100% certain. Or, the GML may have had a private conversation with the LMO, which I wouldn't have known about. There are a lot of possiblities, but I know that your current officers are concerned, and people do care about getting it resolved.

 

It'll work out. Just be patient.

 

Pam