windelina | About the costumes

This one will be just about how I built the costumes, to get it out of the way.

First up, Gir.
Gir was a big tube with limbs attached. I lined him with quilter's batting - two layers. Then stuffed more batting between the layers to make him rounder at the bottom. The arms were simple tubes, again lined with quilters batting to give them shape. First mistake - we sewed on the arms before the legs were on. Which meant that when we were putting the legs on, and I'm in the suit so it can be pinned properly, I have no hands. I can't talk without hands. Gamanda is down on her knees asking me to explain how I want the legs to work and I'm gesticulating wildly to no effect because I Have No Hands.

We also discovered that we needed something to help hold up the shoulders - so we put in an elastic strap across the back.

The body was hand stitched, as were the arms and legs. But the legs were handstitched on. As were the zipper and the Head Zippers. The legs were tubes that I shaped into a curve at the bottom. I knew it was important that the legs not show the shape of my feet, so I made the legs wide enough to encircle my feet, then stuffed batting in them to give them shape, and added elastic loops to go over my feet so they would move with my feet.

The tail was craft foam with wiring between the two layers. A small cut in the back and some hot glue and it was on.
The zipper I cut apart and glued piping in between the "teeth" to give it definition and then glued the whole thing to paper to hold it together, and then glued and stitched it on to the front.

The heads were all done similarly: we pinned the fabric on, Mom would sew it up and trim it. Turn it inside out, slip it over the head, and then whipstitch up the last seam.

For Gir, this was a bit more involved since his head shape was the weirdest and roundest. Then, I did the mouth. Cut a slit, glue back the fur, glue in the black fabric with the tongue sticking out (craft foam and wire again, with black ribbon to put the line down the middle). Ears were craft foam with wire again, attached the same way as the tail. The eyes were made of a styrofoam ball, covered with batting, and then fabric and glued and stitched on. They should have been even bigger, but I couldn't find a ball big enough.

Two zippers to attach head and body. And black yarn for the stitching.

Dib
Dib's costume was done first. Tshirt and coat were made of one piece, with the collar velcroing in place on one side. Boots were lycra over shoes, shaped by buckrum. Had the most fun putting the Gray Face on the blue tshirt.

The head was daunting. It was the first head we got and it had me worried because it took us so long to do - if all the heads took that long, we were in trouble. Of course, Dib's head was the most complex. Brandon cut out the nose and covered it with felt. Same for the ears, which I then soft-sculptured with a bit of stitching. Brandon and Monte did the eyes/glasses, which turned out GREAT. They also did the hair. The original plan was to do the hair out of screening wire, but it didn't have enough integrity. So, Monte cut out cardboard and put three sheets together to give it 3 dimensions.

The mouth had teeth - that was done with craft foam and wire again.

The coat had wire around the hem to shape it, and boning at the bottom of the tshirt (a bit more flexible than wire). The original collar was too small, so we took it off and cut a Much Bigger one and put it on.

Zim
We couldn't start on Zim until Brandon got here, but by the end of the day Saturday, we had alot done. First was the triangle shaped over-tunic. We couldnt' find just the right color until we found a satin. The backside of it was PERFECT. A quick tunic stitched up, with shoulder opened to get into it. Mom glued the black ribbons on. Eventually the shoulder triangles were made of craft foam and glued on to the shoulders. Boning in the bottom.

The boning kept wanting to curl, so I safety-pinned curtain weights to the bottom to hold it down.

There was a pale pink under-tunic with long sleeves. We made it extra long and folded it up and put batting around his middle to give more shape to the triangle, and so he wouldn't move around in it like it was a bell. And the black stitching on the arm was sewn onto him, so that the stretch would be right.

Black boots were lycra over shoes again. Black gloves made to fit.

The head:
Eyes were foam core. Pupils were felt, which Brandon cut out. No ears! No nose! Yay! The teeth were fun to make. The hair spike on Zim was foam instead of cardboard, which Brandon cut out. I got the hair on Zim late Wednesday night. By Thursday morning, he was done and sitting on our dining room table glaring out into the living room. Monte jumped when he walked out of the bedroom.

Membrane
Very fetishy: white and black vinyl! Gloves had boning in the cuffs to give shape, but I wanted them to slouch around the wrist so no buckrum. Boots were foam cut to shape over shoes and then covered with vinyl. The coat was lined with quilters batting so it wouldn't drape, with wire in the hem to keep it out. The collar had a slit on side that closed with velcro, so we could get the head on him. Mom put the cuffs on. Black ribbon down the front handstitched on (glue doesn't work on vinyl). Oversized black buttons (covered with the same vinyl fabric).

The head was relatively easy. Smaller in size. Only skin, goggles and hair-spike. But the hair spike was such a wild shape! Again, Monte made the hair spike. I attached it to the head the wrong way at first! And then we made the "hair sock" like we had for Dib and slid that over it. Then the skin - stiched and glued on. A viewport in the skin so Monte could see out - Membrane has no convenient mouth for looking out of. The goggles were foam core for the lenses and batting and cotton lycra stitched over and around.

There was alot of consulting the references to get the proportions right - how wide the glove cuffs were and the boot cuff shapes, for example.