Finished the jacket for my Halloween costume!
That took significantly less time than I thought it would, but there are still plenty of other parts to this costume that I need to make before the end of October. I’m still going to try to get as much done as possible before the quarter starts and class/rehearsal devours my time.
I’m going to do my darndest to actually be in San Francisco on Halloween this year.
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More progress! Halfway through that much embroidery, I realize I am insane for trying to make this whole thing from scratch.
So, I’ve decided which personified San Francisco thing will be this year’s Halloween costume. I hope to get this mostly finished before classes start, since I waited long last year and had to rush/kludge some things.
I realize it’s only August. However, given my schedule and my tendency to never do anything in a simple way, this is probably not irrationally early. Making a costume takes time, especially when I’m also, you know, working on a PhD.
Of course I’m going to go as one of my personified San Francisco landmark characters again. I really should try to be in San Francisco on Halloween, but that has not stopped me before. Last year, I was the lostest little Powell-Mason cable car in Los Angeles. The previous year, I was the Bay Bridge.
I’m trying to pick which landmark to do this year. I was initially thinking the Ferry Building. Pros to this are that this is one of my favorites among my character designs, it’s also one of my favorite landmarks in the City, and it’s pre-1906 to boot! Cons are that this is an incredibly detailed design, with a whole bunch of little pieces. The clock/watch alone would probably take forever! Plus there would end up being a makeup component to this one, both because wearing lots of light colors makes me look orange (this was a problem with Bay Bridge), and also because this character has a rather silly mustache.
But now I’m leaning toward Streetcar 1040. This is a brand new character design, but I already like it a lot. It’s still pretty detailed, but I don’t think it’s close to as fiddly as Ferry Building. This is probably a less insane goal for someone who really doesn’t sew very often. 1040 is also particularly cool because it was the last streetcar of its type constructed for any city, and it has served San Francisco exclusively since its construction in the early 1950s. I hesitate slightly because I had a public transit-related costume last year, but on the other hand, 2012 is Muni’s centennial. What would be extra awesome is if I could get a whole group of folks to be various other Muni personifications along with me. If not for Halloween, then maybe for Bay to Breakers! We could try for best group costume, even!
So, bleah. I dunno. I should decide very soon, knowing that both of these might take a while.
I just realized I didn’t post a picture of me actually wearing my Halloween costume, even though I posted pictures of the costume itself.
I was a personified cable car! …in Los Angeles. Quite a feat, really, for a cable car to get from Powell Street to Wilshire Boulevard…
It should probably come as no surprise that someone who draws personified San Francisco landmarks would go as something like that for Halloween.
Behold, my kludge-tastic personified cable car costume! Ding ding!
(There aren’t pics of me wearing it yet, but there will be.)
(Source: seismogenic)
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Julian. 28. Riverside. Seismology PhD student. Player of many musical instruments. Occasional camera wielder. Personifies places and things and draws comics about them. My heart is in San Francisco.
