Blog • Page 30 of 31 • Jessica Smith Creates

Clara Oswin Oswald is not possible. She’s a twice dead ordinary girl. And she is the Eleventh Doctor’s current companion.

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Each companion’s style is unique, and quirky. Rose was simple and clean, but would sometimes change into period costumes for special episodes. Martha was mostly in jeans and her leather jacket. Donna had her business attire, and her casual attire, but also wore some period costumes. Amy predominately wore casual clothing on the adventures. She had a few outfits that showed up again and again, but mostly they were all within the same theme.

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Clara’s not the average companion though. We’ve met three versions of her. One of them is in the future, where she is a junior entertainment manager on the Starship Alaska. She wore a short red jersey dress with high top wedges.

The next was the Victorian version, where she wore two fantastic outfits, one with a burgundy brocade look to the corset and overskirt combination, and the other was a stuffy looking blue outfit with a very large bustle.

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The current Clara has a very vintage-y style. Sometimes she looks like she popped out of the sixties, but much of the actual clothing she wears supposedly comes from very current stores. Likely because vintage trends are coming back in style, but it works out well for anyone who wants to dress like her.

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Clara is a perfect candidate for subtle cosplay as much of her modern looks are everyday looks.

At some point, I’ll be copying one of the looks. I’ve been thinking of getting a jacket like the one in the third picture anyway, which would work out. I’ll keep you posted!

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April 21, 2013August 25, 2022

Subtle Cosplay

Cosplay is a fantastic expression of creativity of dedicated and devoted fans.

I have yet to actually cosplay with the absolute intention of doing so, because I really don’t count high school Halloween costumes.

But what I’m really interested in starting up is devoting time to subtle cosplay.

The phrase “subtle cosplay” likely has different meanings to different people.

For me it means adapting a character’s style into my clothing choices, and buying choices, but only when it’s done on purpose. It also means that although copying an outfit exactly would be really cool, it’s better for me to emulate the look in a way that also looks good on me. It means making an character’s clothing and personality adapt to fit into the everyday of my life.

It means not deciding once I’m in the outfit that I feel like a certain character, because that isn’t the same process.

It means taking chances that I wouldn’t normally take, and trying out new things.

It also means that I will have to be more comfortable in my skin. If I’m going to put in the effort to model an outfit after someone, character-wise, then I’m going to go the full distance, and be willing to show that I am a fan of whatever I am cosplaying.

Even if no one else knows. Or agrees with my choices.

Just because I have red hair does not mean I’m limiting my choices of characters to just redheads! There are a lot to choose from, but I love characters of other hair colors equally. Mostly.

This is also an indirect way of becoming more comfortable wearing makeup. I’m typically too lazy to do so, but if I’m going to put special effort into my outfits, I’m going to put effort into my hair and makeup.

Polyvore is a site that allows people to create collages, and this has sprouted great ideas of subtle cosplay ideas. This site in particular is full of fantastic Doctor Who ideas.

Here’s another person’s take on the subject of everyday cosplay!

So here are some ideas for some characters that I have at the moment. Subsequent posts will explain and expand! Spaced out over time, of course.

Clara Oswin Oswald from Doctor Who

Claudia Donovan from Warehouse 13

Ziva David from NCIS

Penelope from the film of the same name

I’m also thinking any of the reboot Doctor Who companions, Kaylee and Zoe from Firefly, Belle and Red and Snow from Once Upon A Time, etc. I’m a big fan of a number of stuff, from movies to books to shows. I’ll have a lot of fodder to work with.

April 21, 2013

Beads and Necklaces

If you haven’t noticed from my previous posts on costume plans, I have a minor obsession with jewelry.

I’ve been beading my own jewelry for years now.

Remember the craft packs for creating your own daisy chain jewelry?

Perhaps you don’t, but that’s really what got me started with beading.

I have my own shop for my jewelry, BeadsAndQuotes, where I also sell hand drawn and illustrated quotes. It’s on a break for the moment, until I return stateside in June.

I started out simply making stranded jewelry, mostly just eclectic one stranded necklaces and bracelets.

My favorite by far of my older jewelry is this one, which is well worn. I made it in 10th grade, I think, and honestly I’m surprised it has not broken yet.

Then I graduated into working more with seed beads, the super small and fairly regular in size beads.

And then I became obsessed with beadwoven necklaces. They allow me to use my creativity in a three-dimensional medium. It also puts restraint on my creations, knowing that it should still be able to be worn on a person’s neck.

This one is my master creation. It is my one creation, potentially ever, that turned out nearly exactly as I pictured it. I’ve got the idea drafts to prove it, as well. I modeled it after the sunsets I could see from my dorm room. At the time, I had a room that looked out over a hill. It was partly obstructed by trees, but the magnificence of the sight shone through anyway.

I brought some of my beading supplies with me on my journey, and am planning on making one of the beadwoven necklaces soon to both reduce the number of beading supplies that will return with me, and to add to my collection of necklaces. I’m going to be creating a post to show you how my process of necklace creation works. Any week (or day or month) now, I promise!

April 15, 2013

Here, have some flowers, and a puppy, and some spying.

Isn’t progress great?

And honestly there is a bit of progress here. Not a lot, but it’s something!

I visited a wonderful multi-floor Forever 21, and bought a few colorful camisoles. One of these will likely end up in the costume.

The store not only had the largest section of colored camisoles and leggings that I have ever seen, but also was very bright and shiny. After about an hour I started to get a headache because it was so shiny.

Over my spring break, I traveled to London and Cardiff and picked up some adorable pins, or badges, whichever word floats your boat.

Claudia tends to wear a number of pins, if not on a jacket then on a purse or messenger bag. I’ve now got quite a few to choose from!

Claudia also tends to wear a bunch of thick rings, so I’ve started my collection. I love this flying owl ring, which is adorable and lovely, and one of the only pieces of jewelry I’ve seen that acknowledges that the owl is a flying bird.

They fly people. They don’t just look cute, standing there blinking at you.

I’ve also obtained an ear cuff that will likely not be part of the costume itself, but has definitely opened my mind to ear cuffs for my costume. Now just to look for a sale at Claire’s… Hmmm… That could be a while.

See, I don’t have pierced ears. It causes some minor problems.

Well, there you have it!

Progress!

April 15, 2013

It looks like… something?

Here is an update on my crochet project.

I’ve finished over half of the main sweater portion. It doesn’t quite look like much yet, and it is a little wonky in dimensions. But that is for blocking! And blocking can solve all problems!

My progress wasn’t quite as much as I had planned, as I only managed to finish about a half of the blocks I was meant to, but I promise I was working on homework instead. I promise!

I’ll see you next week for the next update! And there are some more posts in the works for this week, to make up for the radio silence that has been currently abounding.

April 7, 2013

Here we are again…

So I promised you an update.

And I told you that I planned to make three squares a day, but considering these can take me up to 45 minutes to make each, that isn’t always feasible for a homework night. AKA week night.

But I’m trying. I promise. And I think I’ve made up all of it this weekend!

Here’s what I’ve got so far! I have gotten one of the remaining sides of the back nearly done. Six more squares!

Progress on UFO#1.

I have done more work on this project in the past two weeks than I had since I started it last year.

Very good progress!

Though, I’m only planning on doing two squares per day now. And more when possible.

Wait for an update next weekend!

April 3, 2013

Parking Brake

One of my favorite parts about the Eleventh Doctor’s first TARDIS is the time rotor.

It’s the part in the center of the main console that is enclosed in a clear tube and moves up and down.

Its also the most gorgeous use of glass sculpture I have seen in a non-museum setting.

Granted, the show did commission said glass piece, but still…

It’s lovely.

And I want one.

You can see a video tour of the TARDIS here, which shows off the TARDIS and mentions the time rotor. It’s so cool!

But for my costume I really wanted to take the time rotor and make a necklace pendant inspired by it, so I’ve created a draft. I’m considering a few ways to do this, but I wanted to create a loose draft.

Then I realized I had only brought black beading thread with me on my study abroad excursion.

P.S. It’s not finished yet.

And looks so much better on a nearly black background.

I also thought I’d let you know, if you happen to care, that I plan on crocheting three blocks on my crochet sweater per day. By that method, I’ll finish the back in about two weeks if I just stay with the three per day. Then I’m over half done.

So far so good!

March 30, 2013August 25, 2022

And I can’t fly a plane! Can you?

Doctor Who is my new favorite show to crochet to.

Granted I never did have a favorite show to crochet to. I just crocheted whenever, but today is when I made actual progress.

Watching Doctor Who.

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And waiting for the next episode to premiere. Because I’m cool like that.

So remember this project?

I crocheted seven blocks more!

The point of the pattern I’m using, and the fabulous book it’s from, Blueprint Crochet, is that it’s a modular crochet garment, but instead of making up all the little pieces and then stringing them together, you make modular blocks, and then crochet them together as you go.

Today I decided exactly how the swatch I had already been working on was going to fit into the pattern, and then I built on it to further the pattern. I’m now keeping track of my progress by drawing around the blocks on my copy of the pattern, so I know where I’ve put which block, and where I’m supposed to be attaching each successive one.

I promise I do own the book, but dragging the book with me across the pond was not going to happen. I was conserving weight in my suitcase. Also I don’t feel bad about drawing on a copy in pen, where I would in an actual book.

The only time I’ve drawn in a book intentionally was in eleventh grade when I had to do a project on A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain. We were required to underline lines relating to our project theme, but because I hadn’t quite finished reading the book by the time we were supposed to prove that we had read by underlining, I went on an underlining frenzy. I did like the book. If you like the legend of King Arthur and want a rant by Twain, its a great read. Just don’t do a school project on it if you don’t like it already. Or don’t do a project on it at all.

And then there was that math textbook. But that’s another story.

March 24, 2013

I smell fudge!

So my final costume that I’ll be making for comic con is… drumroll please…

Miss Claudia Donovan from the lovely show Warehouse 13.

Claudia Donovan is a wise cracking and crafty tech-ofile who works at a secret government institution to track down objects imbued with powers from a certain moment and emotion and time, and she may or may not be my role model.

She’s probably my favorite female character on TV right now. And I’ve been waiting since October for this season to continue. Only one more month.

Here we go:

Vest: I can’t quite figure this one out exactly. It looks like she’s taken a sweatshirt, and layered it under a white vest, in which the vest looks to be made of relatively heavyweight fabric that is fairly stiff, stiff enough for the collar to stick up a bit. I’m thinking of making the vest, and flat-stitching it to a bought sweatshirt to achieve the look, without so much of the actual layering and heat involved with actually wearing the quantity of layers. I’ll possibly be stealing the zipper from the sweatshirt to make this, as I’ll have nothing else to do with it. Fairly easy peasy. And I’ve kinda got the sweatshirt that will work to cut apart for this project, and it even has bright white zipper! The “vest” will also be elbow-length sleeved, maybe a little shorter.

Shirts: In this outfit, she’s layered a peach camisole under a black three quarter sleeve henley. I’m probably going to go with peach camisole under a black tank, knowing that the heat would start to get to me… In the interest of my personal comfort, I’m taking every effort to make this comfy. Because I can. And if I’m going to be fairly uncomfortable in the interest of heat with my other costumes, I might as well acknowledge it this time.

Trousers: Claudia in this shot seems to be wearing black jeans, or some other type of black skinny trousers. Luckily I’ve got these already.

Shoes: I couldn’t get a good screencap of the shoes, but while she was moving, I was positive that they were boots, small black combat boot kind of boots. However, in the interest of saving space in my suitcase, I’m going to go with another type of shoe, possibly my TARDIS shoes… or if those didn’t work I would hijack another one of the shoes involved in my other costumes. ~~Because Claudia would totally wear t-strap heels.~~

Jewelry: The necklace that she wears in this scene appears to be some kind of robot or alien or something, which isn’t exactly up my alley. In another episode she wears a very cute dark metal bat-wing or angel wing necklace, which I’ll be much more on board with having. Because I don’t have pierced ears, and I’m not planning on doing so, I’ll be skipping earrings, but I’m perfectly good with wearing an ear cuff. She’s also wearing what seem to be black jelly bracelets on her wrists, but I might make get a thick leather cuff to replace them on one wrist. Claudia also wears a lot of buttons, so I’ll be getting some very cute ones for this.

Purse: Claudia gets a lot of messenger bags and canvas shoulder bags, but in the interest of space, I’ll be using one of the bags for the other costumes.

*All images used in the post were screenshots of Warehouse 13 Season 4 Episode 6.

** This costuming plan is subject to change based on the final episodes of season 4. Which could change everything.

Any other Warehouse fans out there?

March 21, 2013

Lookee here!

I’ve gotten some work done on some of my costumes already!

Aren’t you so proud of me!

I managed to pick up some fabric from a fancy dress shop, and it is just the right color fabric for the TARDIS bustled overskirt, and maybe could also be used as a bow for my Belle dress. It’s a deep golden color shiny material, and though it has some holes in it, it is gorgeous.

I also got fantastic t-strap heels, in a lovely brown, which would be fantastic with my planned Belle dress, as the Belle in OUAT’s Storybrooke has a vintage fashion sense, and I do too.