subtle Archives • Jessica Smith Creates

December 16, 2015August 19, 2018

Halloween Week – 2015

If Halloween was an Olympic sport, I think I’d qualify to compete for the national team. I wouldn’t win, but I would probably be invited back for the next year!

That’s probably not how the Olympics works… Moving on!

I upped my Halloween game this year. For almost each day the week before, I subtle-cosplayed. I was so close to making it each of the 5 days, but that Tuesday was unseasonably cold, and the chosen outfit wasn’t finished and wasn’t warm enough. And I got out of bed too late. So there’s room for improvement, right?

Also, coincidentally, all of my outfits this were Disney princess themed. So next year I should try to diversify…

One of my fellow grad students figured out what I was doing on Wednesday, so for Thursday and Friday she made guesses, though my Belle outfit does have a dead giveaway component. I’m not sure if she knows about me making clothing, and if she knows about the blog I’d be very surprised (but hi, if so!), but its nice when something like this gets noticed.

Monday – Briar Rose

Shirt: RTW thrifted / Cardigan: Primark upcycled / Skirt: Me-Made

Tuesday – supposed to be Merida, with a second choice of Kaylee, and neither happened…

Wednesday – Ariel Day Dress

Top: Me-Made / Skirt: Me-Made

Thursday – Merida (Epilogue outfit) – More on this one soon

Top: Me Made / Skirt: Me Made (and not yet blogged)

Friday – Belle

=Dress: Me-made / Cape: Me-made

And then Peggy Carter for real Halloween! But I’ll save that for another post… After the holidays. Stay tuned!

October 16, 2014

Subtle Cosplay Thursday

I’ve missed a few weeks now, and so I had to make up for it this week…

This week was full of cool days and jeans weather. And I had a test on the day I wore this outfit. So I was looking for comfort and cuteness.

Frozen’s Anna came to mind. So I grabbed my pink Anna sweater, a blue button up and black skinny jeans.

Since I was thinking comfort I actually wore my comfy walking sandals, but when it came to picture taking those had been taken off. If I had cared about accessories I would have worn a snowflake necklace and a Celtic leather wristband.

Not exactly Norwegian, but it’s always felt right for that situation.

Comfy Anna outfit, check!

September 4, 2014

Subtle Cosplay Thursday – Briar Rose

Introducing a new Thursday installation!

I’m planning that every other Thursday I will be posting a subtle cosplay outfit. Of closet cosplay. Or whatever you would like to call it.

I realized recently that I have more or less neglected my subtle cosplay page, though I’ve definitely worn some inspired outfits. And, being completely honest, my momentum of the moment in posting is mostly due to a large backlog… That will run out at some point.

Since I started grad school, my project-ing has mostly been relegated to work avoidance… like the math homework I’ve got due tomorrow…

But one thing I can do regularly is subtle cosplay.

So I’ve decided to alternate between Design Donnerstag and Subtle Cosplay Thursday.

Presenting the first cosplay:

Aurora, or to be more specific Briar Rose, from The Sleeping Beauty

I handily used my new grey circle skirt, topped it with a cream knit shirt. I added a black cardigan, to simulate her black corset.

In my hair there is a thin black headband, but honestly it somehow blends with my hair. I also used my Claudia owl ring, and wore an ivory necklace which has a rose carved in it. My grandmother gave it to me, and it is the most delicate and lovely vintage necklace I own. Or rather, second to the first necklace she gave me.

Will this continue? I don’t know, but I certainly like the idea of Subtle Cosplay Thursday!

November 23, 2013

Welcome to the Day of the Doctor!

In honor of the occasion I decided to subtly cosplay Donna!

Keep in mind I just woke up, and I’m not in any proper mood to take pictures. I was even too lazy to pull up the blinds. But I am dutifully celebrating the occasion, and I can’t wait to see the show!

And of course I put on my good ol’ TARDIS shoes!

By the way I’ve been doing a good bit of stuff, and have accumulated fabric and I have all sorts of stuff to share, but I currently am letting life get in the way for a bit. Too many projects and stuff due right before finals, and graduate school applications to work on.

But I will catch you up soon!

October 31, 2013August 19, 2018

Everything’s shiny, Cap’n!

I love my captain!

And my new Kaylee inspired dress!

Both The Patchwork Pirate and Dianne from Dianne’s Costumes and Research have wonderful recreations of Kaylee’s Prairie Harpy dress.

Dianne had found this fabric from Fabric Tales that matches the original very nearly.

But I don’t have that fabric, or the money to obtain it at the steep price.

I do, however, have this fabric! Not perfect, but I think Kaylee would have definitely worn this fabric if she had the chance. It’s playful and colorful enough. Or maybe that’s just me.

And I have a lot of it. It being the same fabric I used for my culottes. And I have some left over still.

It also wrinkles all over the place. It’ll crease just by lightly folding, even without ironing or pressing it.

I draped the bodice on a borrowed dress form, though it seems I’m a bit chestier than then form is.

At that point I didn’t care much about the direction of the grain of the fabric, since I was using scraps for all of it.

Aren’t scraps lovely?

So then I let it sit around awhile as I was thinking on a skirt plan. Or rather, while I was doing that homework and classes thing…

I lined it in the meantime, which brought about it’s own challenges, but worked out well in the end.

And then I got to work on the skirt. I knew it needed to be at least a little bit full, and I knew that my dress needed to be lined.

In the end I cut out a few rectangles and sewed it all up.

And then it was too tight. Pencil skirt tight.

So I unpicked all of that and added another identically sized rectangle, which brought the fullness I had wanted.

Sewed the waistband to the bodice, and tried it on.

At this point I realized that the bodice was big around my actual waist, in order to get it over my head.

Looking at the inspiration photos of Jewel Staite as Kaylee, I saw that she had an attached belt. So I set about making some belt-like strips. I didn’t want to make one that would actually tie around me, as I often find them uncomfortable, so I had them attach with hooks and eyes.

And finally success!

It matches really well with the jacket I made for my Halloween costume, since the blue is mirrored in the dress fabric.

So all in all, a happy Halloween!

September 23, 2013August 19, 2018

We are not the B-Team fool, we are the second A-Team.

So. I have finally finished the vest for my Claudia costume. And today I’m subtle cosplaying her.

I know I told you I was done before, but I found that wonderfully neon fabric I told you about, so I did create a lining.

There’s nothing like handsewing a lining into a garment that makes you miss your sewing machine.

After an additional eight or so hours of sewing, my vest is absolutely complete!

And now I’m off to class!

May 27, 2013August 25, 2022

She just wanted to be free.

I first watched the film Penelope on a big flat screen television in a little vacation home after my parents and brother had gone to bed. They didn’t want to watch an obviously childish chick flick about a girl who had a pig nose.

I still think they missed out.

link (ETA – this link is now broken)

Penelope is a lovely movie, and it has a great message.

link (ETA – this link is now broken)

But she has the coolest style! Its equal parts quirky and colorful!

The best thing she owns, it seems, next to the incredibly beautiful wedding dress, is her scarf that she uses to hide her nose while she’s out on the run. I found two websites that had wonderful recreations of the scarf, which I’m planning on making at some point. Probably in the distant future.

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Here’s one of them…

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And here’s the other, and she was lovely enough to provide a pattern!

penelope costume link

I also really love this gal’s Penelope cosplay. I think she looks awesome!

When I cosplay her, it will likely be a much subtler cosplay. Like tricking out my coat, when and if the buttons go, and using the blue dress with green and black striped shirt route. That kind of subtle.

May 18, 2013August 25, 2022

The Day We Went to Trenzalore

So I told you on Thursday that I was spending Friday doing a subtle cosplay of Clara Oswald from Doctor Who.

The final episode of Series 7 Part 2 came out earlier today, and I can’t wait to watch it! I’m currently unable to get to a TV, as I’m visiting family and this post is actually being prepared early and will be posted by the magical post-faeries.

I was working on the fly for this subtlety, as I’ve been packed for a week or two now, and only left this morning.

And voila!

jacket: Penneys/Primark; dress: Charlotte Russe; leggings: Forever 21; shoes: Penneys/Primark; purse: creation

I’ve been thinking about this one since I wrote up the original subtle cosplay post.

I loved Clara’s outfit in the Rings of Akhaten! It’s so simple and everyday, yet classic.

Then I saw Clara’s hair in Nightmare in Silver, and decided to copy that one.

See, my hair is long, and at the moment I don’t have the means of cutting it, even though it’ll be summer very soon, negative time really, so leaving it out and long will work sometimes, but I wanted to put it up.

I can’t wait to see the new episode later! It’s going to be fantastic!

April 23, 2013August 25, 2022

Snog Box

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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.

link

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!

link

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.