Terry and Terri

This was from a set of Monsters University costumes that I made for a family who wanted matching Halloween costumes. This is a child-sized costume. The character in the movie is 2 headed, so naturally the wearer was one of the heads, and I made a puppet head for the other one. The puppet head is made of foam, and covered in fleece. I painted the eye onto the inside of a large clear round ball, and built it into the puppet. The head affixes onto a shoulder harness that I made by molding thermo plastic over a body form, and adding straps and a pole for the neck of the puppet. I also made a set of faux arms, and a 4-armed, 2-necked sweater. The sweater was custom dyed. The tentacles are made of polyfil-stuffed fleece, with heavy duty wire on the inside to shape them. They are all bound on the top by an elastic waistband. I airbrushed the stripes onto them, and made matching fleece pants to wear underneath. Finally, I made a horned headband for the wearer, that matched the horn style of the puppet head.

Squishy Squibbles

This was from a set of Monsters University costumes that I made for a family who wanted matching Halloween costumes. This is a child-sized costume. I made the sweater by altering an adult-sized sweater down to a child-sized one. I then custom dyed it, and silk-screened the symbol and the neck stripes onto the front and hems. I made the pants out of fleece, with matching fleece mittens. I custom dyed a child-sized baseball hat to complete the ensemble.

Monster Cheerleader

This was from a set of Monsters University costumes that I made for a family who wanted matching Halloween costumes. I purchased a sweater for this costume, and then silk screened the design onto the front and sleeves. I made the shorts and the legwarmers out of plush faux fur. The legwarmers had elastic casings at the tops to hold them in place.

Eleena Daru

This costume is a recreation of a character from a Star Wars video game. The bodysuit is made of spandex, which I custom dyed to achieve the correct color. I created the front and back chest padding by layering spacer spandex underneath the faux leather spandex panels, and stitching everything in place to hold it. The pockets on the gloves, upper arms, and outer thighs are made of Ultrasuede. I altered the boots by adding Ultrasuede caps onto the toes, and also by adding cuffs. The silver accents on the top of the boots are made of leather. The belt is made of cotton webbing, which I custom dyed. I created the belt boxes and the belt buckle out of cast resin. The bombs are made of epoxy resin over a foam base. I embedded super strong magnets into the bombs to hold them in place on the leather belt holsters.

Lekku and Headband

I made these lekku to go with the Eleena Daru costume, which is also listed in my gallery. They are made of silicone over a base of foam and spandex. My client requested that they be relatively lightweight, and able to stretch to accommodate multiple head sizes. Therefore, I started by making a spandex cap similar to a swim cap. I added some foam padding to the back of the cap, and then covered it in another layer of spandex. I made the L-shaped portions that connect to the head out of high density foam, which I sculpted with a hot wire tool. Then, I made sleeves to go over the tentacle pieces, and filled the ends of the sleeves with styrofoam micro beads. I added some cast silicone end caps onto each tentacle, and then sewed each to the head cap. Finally, I built up colored silicone by brushing it on layer by layer, until I was happy with the results. This was my first attempt at using silicone, and I learned a lot during the process. The final lekku weighed about 1 ¾ lbs. The headband is made of tooling leather, with cast resin accents. The ear nubs are made of silicone. I also added a padded roll of leather underneath the headband to hide the gap that is caused by the wearer's real ears.

This is a reproduction of Princess Leia's classic costume from Star Wars. It's made of Jet Set knit, and is self lined. There is an elasticized waist channel under the belt, to help everything stay in place. The belt is made of leather, with aluminum accent plates, and metal buttons. It fastens with large snaps that are hidden under one of the plates. I also made removable hair buns to match her iconic hairstyle in the movie. They're made of synthetic hair, which I straightened before I attached it to molded buckrum base pieces.

Shadowcat

This costume is a reproduction of one of Kitty Pryde's from the X-Men comic books. It's made of moleskin spandex. I custom dyed the yellow parts of this costume. It was tricky to make the shoulder caps part of the front and back panels, and still have the sleeves underlap them. My client provided her own boots and belt for this costume.

Princess Buttercup

This dress is a reproduction of Princess Buttercup's from the movie The Princess Bride. It's made of silk noil, which I custom dyed. I cartridge pleated the sleeves by hand into the sleeve cuffs. The back laces up through threaded eyelets. I scoured the internet looking for clear reference for the belt, but to no avail. I could tell that it was beaded, and the overall shape of it, but that was about it. So, I did my best to achieve the proper “feel” of the belt, without knowing exactly what it looked like in the movie. The belt is made of silk trim from India, over a band of the silk noil that the dress is made from. I sewed glass pearls to the trim to add elegance. It attaches by way of large snaps underneath the front overlap.

I made this costume for a Star Wars fan who wanted to dress as a female 1940's era Han Solo. She explained what pieces she wanted, and I created them using the same color scheme as Han's original outfit. The skirt is made of stretch suiting, with embroidered Corellian bloodstripes down the sides. The blouse is made of cotton twill, and has an interesting lapel. The sleeves fold up with button tabs. The bolero vest is made of self-lined cotton twill.

Saruman (Black Version)

This costume was a challenge, as the original in the Lord of the Rings movies was very complicated and beautifully made. My client requested a black and silver version, instead of the white movie version. It consists of 4 pieces- trousers that are not seen, a double-sleeved under robe, a sleeveless over robe, and a decorative belt. The trousers were made from cotton twill. The body of the under robe was made from wool flannel, with a silk brocade yoke with attached collar. I custom-made the frog closures on the yoke from flat silver ribbon. The fitted under sleeves were made of a diamond-patterned chenille jacquard, which I hand decorated with hundreds of small silver studs. The wrists were finished with silk dupioni piping. The huge over sleeves were made of silk brocade, and were self-lined, so that the cuff could be turned back at the wrist. This under robe laced up the back with grommets. The over robe was made of wool flannel, and consisted of many pieces, which were defined by silk dupioni piping in the seams. The front trim was made of silk brocade, which I first stenciled with a silver textile paint, and then hand-applied silver satin cord to achieve the correct look. The belt was made of silk brocade, with silver embroidered appliques on the front, and silver cord for the front “lacing”. I unwound and braided the silver cord to mimic the original. The belt laced up the back with grommets.

This dress is Elsa's from the movie Frozen. It's made of polyester fabric with silver metallic threads running through it. The bodice of the gown is heavily boned with spring steel boning. I hand-applied more than 1300 hand cut sequins to the bodice. I airbrushed the bottom hem of the gown to give it a gradient effect, and lined the skirt with a blue satin. The cape is made of polyester organza, which I custom dyed and custom stenciled with glitter textile paint. The sleeves are made from glittery sheer spandex which I custom dyed, and decorated with white glittery textile paint.