When my boyfriend mentioned that I reminded him a little bit of Gadget Hackwrench, from Chip N' Dale's Rescue Rangers I knew it would have to be my next costume. A great show from my childhood, plus a fun, smart female engineer? It's perfect!
Act I - Gadget
I got distracted and didn't take very many pictures of the process, so this will be a description heavy post, my apologies.
The first step was to make the ears. I wanted them to stand up, and also be bendable but hold their shape. To do this purchased some crochet mats and some mid gauge wire. I cut the shape of the ears, attached the wire to the mats by sewing around the wire through the holes in the crochet mat.
Next I made the outside of the ears out of felt, using a pink felt for one side and a light brown felt for the other. I traced the outline of the inner piece onto the felt, pinned the two pieces together, and cut just outside of the line.
With the pieces still pinned together I sewed along the traced line, along the sides and top, but not the bottom. You need to leave that open to turn it inside out. Turn the ear inside out, fold the inner piece and slide it up into the ear. Then you need to slip stitch closed the bottom. Although using a perfect slip stitch isn't that important, since nobody really sees the bottom of the ear once it's on your head, so close it however you like.
Finally, attach the ears to a headband of some sort. I used a combination of hot glue and a staple gun.
Next I got a pair of super cheap welding goggles from Amazon. It was actually listed in the description that they were great for steampunk cosplay, ha, I don't think too many people were buying these for actually welding, they were so cheap I would not trust my eyes to them. I spray painted them dark blue like Gadget's, and added a black elastic strap.
Alright, that's the end of the in-progress photos for Gadget, sorry. I got a pattern for a 70s eara jumpsuit off eBay for $2.50, but then I decided to just purchase some cheap $15 coveralls from Amazon an dye them violet. I tailored it a little bit, as it was fairly baggy, and then sewed on a tail, which was just a tapered tube of brown felt filled with stuffing. I made a belt out of some purple stretchy fabric I had left over from something else. I just made a basic tube a few inches longer than the circumference of my waist, hemmed the ends, and then put a strip of velcro on each end.
I also made an over-sized wrench out of cardboard. I drew the shape of my wrench onto a piece of cardboard and cut it out three times. On two of the pieces I cut out some teardrop shaped holes in the handle portion. This would give the wrench some 3-dimensional shape. I also cut a whole in each piece where the winder would be, and made a winder out of a toilet paper tube wrapped with thick thread. I glued the whole thing together and gave it a metallic look using the same technique as in my Yuffie post (spray painting silver and then brushing in different colours for texture.) Picture of the final costume after act II.
Act II - Bee Arthur
My boyfriend can't sew, but he does come up with good costume ideas, and when he does, I feel it's my duty to help them come into being. This year he wanted to be "Bee Arthur". No, not Bea Arthur the golden girl, Bee Arthur. As in, King Arthur as a bee. Well alright then.
I made a basic yellow tunic in the style of Monty Python's King Arthur, which I thought was the most appropriate inspiration for a silly pun costume. I also purchased a large grey waffleknit shirt at Burkes for $8, which gives the look of chainmail underneath.
I cut some strips of black felt and used it as a bias tape for the edges, and then made some black stripes. I was running short on time so I glued them on instead of sewing them. I found the crest for the "Bea" family online and printed that out onto an iron on transfer.
I made a crown out of glittery gold corrugated cardboard, and added antennae made from twisted pipe-cleaners with pom poms on top.
I made what I thought were some lovely wings for Bee Arthur out of shaped wire and old nylon pantyhose. I used felt for the edges and then added painted detail. They were a bit large though and we didn't want to be knocking people over at the crowded party, so I ended up buying some small childrens fairy dress up wings at Dollar Tree instead and spray painting them. Here's the larger ones though, we'll use them for something in the future.
Final step of this was making a scabbard for Ryan's plastic sword, which I made out of a bit of faux-leather I had left over from my Yuffie costume. It's basically just a loop at the top to go through his belt, and an angled sheath/loop attached to that.
Here's the two of us in all our glory at the party. I think it worked out quite well.
Epilogue - Wonder Woman
A coworker of mine casually mentioned that she was going to dress up as Wonder Woman for a party at her house this year, and that she was still trying to find bracers to go with the outfit she bought. I offered to make some for her instead.
It was pretty simple. I cut some yellow craft foam into a sort of trapezoidal shape and rolled it around my arms to make sure it was the right dimensions. Along the top and bottom of the trapezoid I glued some bendable wire (I forget what gauge it is, I just know what it looks like at Home Depot, this stuff is great for crafting anything that you want to hold shape but be poseable!) Then I glued another trapezoidal shape on top that was slightly larger in each dimension (as it will be the outer piece and have a slightly larger radius of curvature.)
Next I bent the wire until the cuffs were the shape I wanted them to be and I trimmed off the excess. I added a panel of craft foam a few inches side on the edge of one of the sides, that could cover the gap between where the two edges meet. This allows you to adjust how far open the bracers are, for different sized arms, without showing any arm underneath.
I spray painted both cuffs gold.
Next I cut out red sparkly stars out of craft foam and glued those onto the bracers. Finally I made holes along the edges of the bracers (not in the panel, on the edges of the main trapezoid) and threaded through some red yarn for lacing up the bracers.
And there you have it. Two full costumes and one accessory. Sorry for the lack of progress pictures related to Gadget, I hope it still makes sense.
