"Restac", the Leader of the Silurian Warrior Class

The challenge with this one was that there were no patterns!  As Lisa can tell you, I'm usually lost without a pattern, but I finally got to put those draping classes to work. Here you exchange the discomfort of a corset for the discomfort of neck rings where the paint never dried.

I ordered the cowls from Decimated Designs. This is just your garden-variety latex house paint. I don't own a spray gun, so all this is by hand.

You can see a photo of Restac here :Restac photo

 For the makeup, it is better to put on a bald cap first, so you don't end up gluing you hair, but my boyfriend is not skilled and putting one on yourself takes waaay too much effort, so I opted for some glued hair strands.  The cowl fit me much better than it fit Roger, probably because of the mass of hair stuffed in the top of it. I had to put the costume on first because I couldn't make the opening big enough for the head AND have it stay on my shoulders,

 I made a shift out of double-sided quilted material, which I bound with quilt binding. This didn't have the flexibility I'd envisioned and I felt as if I were wearing a giant pot-holder.

I draped some material over the dummy for the jacket.  The first time I did it, it was too small because I draped it over just the dummy without the rest of the costume under it! The "potholder" dress added so much bulk that the coast had to be much larger. The "armor" is craft foam with gold scrapbooking paper glued to it.  Then I slit and laced the shapes together, then glued those down. I wore it as a sort of apron, just pinned inside the jacket, as the jacket would never be removed.

The only problem with the gold paper is that it bounces light.
For the sleeves, I did a test crochet for chain mail, but decided on just a straight garter stitch for the sleeves.  Had to do those twice - the first time they were too skinny, the second time, a little large.

The neck and arm rings are just plastic tubing, painted.  The paint wouldn't dry, so I doused them in baby powder. That helped a bit, but they ended up in the trash the next day. Gonna have to find a better paint for those rings!

All in all, I'm happy with these costumes.

Silurian Eldane makeup

 The cowl was a one-size-fits-most, but Roger's head is small, so I put scrap fabric in between his head and the cowl to take up space. I glued down the cowl with spirit gum, then painted his face with green grease paint. To break up the monotony of all green, I stippled yellow in highlight areas, added the hand-drawn scales, then added a few purple discoloration marks. After powdering thoroughly - TWICE - he was ready.

Silurian Eldane for a Dr. Who-Dunnit Murder Mystery.

"Eldane" and "Restac" at the Murder Mystery

For the Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild Dr. Who-Dunnit murder Mystery, I went to Cosplay for the first time. There are no patterns for these things, so I just made it up as I went along.
For Eldane, I bought a graduation robe from Amazon, made a stole, then added purchased ribbon in stripes to simulate the Eldane look.
Couldn't get wide enough cream ribbon, so I bonded two pieces together, then laid the red one on top.

You can see the original Eldane here: Eldane pic

The cowls were fun to paint.  I ordered these from Decimated Designs, a wonderful site that has latex costume supplies. These were unpainted, so I got to play with stippling and breaking up the colors. Then I outlined the scales to give it depth.

There is a separate post for the makeup.

Here's my sweetie in his final costume.  The neck rings were problematic as the paint would not cure. I finally doused them in baby powder, but ended up throwing them away after the evening was over.  Wrong match of materials, so if I use these costumes again, I'll have to rework the rings.