State you name! Genterns!

Yep, Genterns baby. Direct to you from Repo! The Genetic Opera.

I used this costume for my friend and I at the Wellington Fetish Ball 2010.
It was a lot of fun and heaps of people recognised us.

Here's the finished product:

Firstly, look at how freaking pale my thighs are here, they're ACTUALLY lilac.
Secondly, yes I realise this is slightly different from the actual Gentern costume.
Obviously when working to a budget you have to work with what you've got and this is what I had.
You can buy the shoes the Genterns wear in Repo! TGO but they cost around $50 US which works out to be over $100 kiwi plus postage so bugger that.

The dress and gloves I bought on Trademe for $9.95 as part of a set. Yes they were originally an "adult nurse costume" but they work for my purpose. I'm sure you could find something similar on Ebay if you aren't in NZ.
The boots I also picked up second hand. These will come in handy later for my hentai Rei Ayanami costume.

There are only two parts of the costume which you will physically make yourself, the mask and the Zydrate. I have yet to perfect a consumable Zydrate which glows noticeably for any decent amount of time therefor DO NOT ACTUALLY ADMINISTER THE ZYDRATE it is poisonous and will most likely make you extremely ill

What you will need:
A see-thru red art folder or some other red bendable plastic the size of your face. Or paint a clear one.
A string of elastic long enough to stretch from ear to ear comfortably.
Hammer and a nail.
12 or so blue glow sticks.
Scissors and a removable marker.
A bowl.
Syringes without needles. These can easily be found at your local chemist or drug store. If you can't see 'em ask at the counter.

If you're using an old art folder as I did (they're made from the best type of plastic for this) then cut it up so each side is separate from the others.
First, hold the plastic up to your face and curve it around so it's shaped like the GenMask.
Find the part of your ear that meets your head, where the arms of your glasses sit, and mark it with a pen. Do this for both sides.
Make another mark about a centimeter in from this first mark.
Find the center of your mask and place another mark there.
Starting from the first mark you made draw down in a curve from this then back up to meet the mark in the center, repeat on the other side. This should make a bum like shape.

Over all the whole thing should look sorta like this.

The middle part will sit on your nose and the dots 1cm in will be where you put the elastic.

Take your scissors and cut from the top of the mask, straight down to the first dot,along your line, to the second dot, then straight back up to the top. You should be left with this:

Now you need your hammer and nail. 

For this step you will also need some surface that you can use to lean on while hammering because the nail will go through onto this surface. I happened to have a polystyrene block I leaned on. 

Take your nail and place it over one of the 1cm in holes. Hammer it through.

You can try pushing it through but the plastic is thick and you may slip and damage it so using a hammer helps you be more exact.

Repeat this on the other side. Now wipe off all traces of marker.
You will now have two holes in your mask ready to have elastic threaded through them. So do just that. Thread the elastic through and tie it in a knot so it wont come loose.

Zydrate!
This part takes awhile and needs to be left as late as possible so as to get the most amount of glow time.
Take a glow stick, crack it so the glow starts.Make sure all the glass inside is completely broken.
Cut both ends off over the bowl and let everything that's inside drain out. You may need to blow on one end to get the last off it out.
Do this with a few of the sticks then use one of your syringes to suck it all up.
To do this, push the plunger all the way into the syringe then place the end in the liquid, pull the plunger out slowly and stop when you start to see bubbles come through with the liquid.
Turn the syringe up so the end is in the air and tap it to separate the air fro the liquid.
Now push the plunger back into the syringe so all the air comes out but stop before the liquid comes out.
Don't completely fill each syringe, go for about 2/3 full.
Keep cracking and emptying your glow sticks until all the glow is used up.
Luckily gravity holds the liquid in place but if you're worried about accidentally pushing the plunger and covering yourself in glow, you can put some hot glue in the end of each syringe.

I didn't get a chance to get photos of this last step but the only way to truly complete this look is by covering yourself in blood.My friend and I had a lot of fun splashing blood on each other making us look post-op.

TADA! Genterns!

Genterns are very sassy and a lot of fun so don't be afraid to go wild.
I recommend wearing a strapless bra and 'good' panties, these dresses don't leave much to the imagination.

Masquerade on a Budget

Today I'm going to tell you how to make stunning masks for your next Masquerade ball without the stunning price tag.I'll be using my masks from this year's Burlesque Masquerade Ball as examples of the finished product.

What you will need:
Some basic masks from your local discount store. For us Kiwi's try $2 shop or Coin Save.
Feathers. I used left over feathers from my Burlesque bustle.
Glitter and glittery paint.
Sequin, rhinestones, other such embelishments.
Hot glue gun loaded with hot glue.
Gaffer tape or other strong tape, cellotape will not work for this as it isn't durable enough.
Newspaper to cover the area you are working on. Be warned, if you aren't careful, glitter goes EVERYWHERE!!!

These supplies will cost you around $10-$20 and can be used to make multiple masks, maybe go in with some friends to make a bulk buy.

Obviously you need to think about the colour of your costume. This will affect what colour glitter you buy. The colour of the mask doesn't matter because if any colours don't match your costume you can just cover them with one that does.

First example:

This mask was originally blue and red. My costume was black and red so I took the glittery paint, painted over the the blue. While the paint was still wet I took a handful of black glitter and sprinkled it over the paint.
When it was dry I simply held the masks upside-down over the newspaper and tapped the back to make sure any loose glitter fell away.
Next I lined one eye with sequins.
To do this, take your hot glue gun and place one drop of glue where you want your sequin, place your sequin over top and hold for a moment so the glue dries.

Do not do a line of glue around the eye and try to stick multiple sequins on at once because the glue will dry too fast and your sequins wont stick. Doing it one at a time takes longer but you can be more precise with placement and it ensures your sequins are secure.

Now for the feathers! You may want to play around with placement before you glue anything into place.
Again, you'll need your glue gun. I also recommend doing the feathers individually just to make sure the glue dries properly around each one.
As you can see, the feathers are glued onto the back of the mask. This ensures people don't see the stalks or lumpy glue.
Once you've attached your last feather, take your gaffer tape or whatever equivalent you have and place a strip over the stalks where you glued them into place. This has the double effect of stopping the stalks poking into your head and also providing extra stability for your feathers.
For my leaves I placed hot glue straight onto the feathers then put the leaves over top. These leaves are actually just woven fabric so the glue came through onto my fingers a little bit, I sprinkled more glitter over the top just to hide the glue slightly.

Second Example:

This mask was originally purple and green. You can still see a little bit of the purple under the red glitter.

Again, I painted over the colours I didn't want with the glittery paint then sprinkled a handful of red glitter over the top of the pant while it was still wet. 

For something different I chose to stick the feathers on sideways for this mask. This also hides the ribbon which holds the mask on.

For the leaves I glued the black one onto the red ones first and covered them in glitter then, once the glue was dry, I made a line of glue from the corner of the mask onto the feathers and stuck the leaves on top of that. 

So there you have it, your very on how-to on making a gorgeous masquerade mask with out the massive price tag!

"Burlesque is the Accidental Stripper" -Leda Petit

Today I'm going to tell you how to make your very own feather bustle for around $20 NZ.
This is a really simple project which can easily be done in an afternoon and it makes a very elegant addition to any burlesque/masquerade costume.

This is essentially what the finished product will look like. Yours may of course be a different colour/shape but that's up to you! I went with red because my dress was red, makes sense really.

What you will need:
Some cellotape.
Hot glue gun loaded with glue.
6 Ostrich feathers around 30 cms in length.I bought mine from an ostrich farm.
One jaw style hair clip with some form of decoration, the flower on mine worked well.
A large safety pin or kilt pin (the kind they use to keep the kilt closed)
Apologies for bad quality, took this shot on my cellphone.

The first thing you need to do is separate the hair clip, they come as two pieces connected by a spring but you only need one side.
Hold onto the other side and the spring, you can re-attached them later and make an outrageous head piece.

The first thing you need to do is line your feathers up between the jaws of the clip which looks something like this, I had to draw it as I forgot to take a picture.

Tape the stems in place and hold it against your butt to see if the feathers are in the right place, if not, adjust till you're happy with the placement. You may want to play around with layers of different colours.

Once you are happy with your feather placement, time to glue them in place.You may choose to go with the slimmer look like my finished product or wider as above. 

Don't be stingy with the glue, use plenty and make sure you hold the feathers in place while the glue dries, otherwise they pull away from the clip and wont be very stable.

Once the feathers are secured in place, time to attach your bustle!

For this step you will need your safety/kilt pin. You're going to slide it through the holes in the clip which were originally used for the spring. The pin needs to be quite large in order to reach all the way through.

Again, I forgot to take a picture so here is a rough drawing of what I mean:

When you actually put it on your dress/costume you will need to slide the pin through the first hole, then through your clothing, then through the second hole.

As for where to place you bustle, I find about an inch above where your butt crack (pardon the terminology) ends. Basically, where the curve of your bottom ends and the curve of your back begins, this makes the feathers stick out slightly instead of curling into your body, it also makes them sway and bounce as you walk.

Again, the finished product should look something like this:

Here is the lovely Leda Petit displaying her $300 feather bustle made by Wellington corsetier, Flo Foxworthy

Enjoy your new Burlesque feather bustle! Don't be afraid to get a little cheeky with it, shake your tailfeathers!

Getting under my skin.

I could spend forever trying to think of a clever way to introduce my blog then segue into actual content, but I am lazy and decided to just type whatever came to mind, so there you go.

I created this blog as a sort of creative outlet for myself.

Since leaving high school I discovered my love of cosplay and my ability to pull costumes together out of what other people would see as scraps and trash.

I chose the name "In Your Skin" because that is what really draws me to cosplay, the ability to step out of myself and become comfortable in someone else's skin for awhile. I've always felt more at ease in another person's skin so I used that idea to name the blog.

I should probably point out right now that while I love making costumes, I have very little actual skill. I hand sew almost everything because I'm terrified I'll screw it up beyond belief if I machine sew. I also very rarely make a costume from scratch. All of my costumes have come from re-using old clothes/material/items I had lying around.

With this in mind, my blog will still offer a form of "How to" guide on making your own costumes. The upside of this is that all of my costumes cost me less than $40 ($15ish US).

So if you are looking for tips and tricks and how-to's on costume making, I most certainly hope I can help you. Not so much in a start to finish guide but more of a here's how you can make something amazing out of what you have lying around.

I love a challenge, so if you have any costume ideas that you would like to see done then let me know. I'll see what I can come up with.

So  take my hand, if you dare, come with me on this journey In Your Skin.