Costuming & Conventions

As a child I always loved costuming. When I was 5 my mom made me the Little Orphan Annie dress & it was my absolute favorite thing in the world to wear. Then she made me the blue dress with the white pinafore apron from Alice In Wonderland. I would do a few Halloween costumes but we didn't celebrate it much as a kid. One costume that really sticks out in my mind was when I dressed up as Jeannie from I Dream Of Jeannie.

Then I grew up & as The Doctor says...You never want to do that. As a teenager I was a closet geek & wished for the guts to dress up again. I had very few friends & I was afraid of what people would think it they knew. (Yes I say that a lot.)

Once I was in my 20s I started dressing up again but just for Halloween. It started out mild as Wednesday Addams, then Morticia. I had fun making costumes & had to work really hard to make Ariel, The Little Mermaid costume. I wanted to do more complex costumes so I turned to the best & most talented seamstress I have ever met, my Mom.

She would sew the really hard items while explaining to me what she was doing while I watched her every move. Or she would stand over my shoulder & tell me what to do step by step teaching me as I went. It makes me nervous when she does that but it really does teach me a lot.

Together we made Bat Girl one year then we did Harley Quinn. Mys sister & I got the idea to dress up together & our mom agreed to help us make the costumes if we would make special appearances in them for the kids at church. It was such a small price to pay that we readily agreed. My sister is blond so she went as Rainbow Bright & I was original Strawberry Shortcake with my lovely red hair. We had a blast & had professional pictures done just for our mom.

I got very ill for a few years & was unable to do much of anything. When God healed me I came back full force stronger than ever. I wanted to do everything & finally sat down to make a costume I had thought about for years but had not yet done. I made my own Poison Ivy costume. It was one of those tedious projects that was made fun by knowing how awesome it would look in the end. I walked around with various friends on Halloween & discovered that not many non-geeks really understood who I was dressed as. Too many people thought I was Eve with out my Adam or just some tree/plant lady. I had the same experience with the Harley Quinn costume being called a jester or just a Harlequin. Silly me thought that since Poison Ivy had been around longer & had greater exposure to the normals out there that she would be a little more popular. Once again the normals of the world disappointed me. That is part of what made me decide to try out going to a convention.

I had heard that the local fandom conventions were just drunk fests for geeks to gather & grope one another. I had even been told my those close to me that I wouldn't like conventions, but I wanted to give them a try for myself. I did a bit of research & got word that a newer multi-fandom con in the area was better than the others. I went in with fairly low expectations but I wore my Poison Ivy costume anyways & barely in the door when people were wanting my picture.

We walked all over & saw multiple vendors with lots of cool toys & collectible stuff. Which is great but even better, I found a group of people that I can call MY people. One guy ran 3 panel discussions all relating to my unhealthy obsession Doctor Who. There was really a place for me here! People didn't judge me & I met those that knew even more about The Doctor than I did.
My best friend & I went to many other panels but the ones that I remember the most were the Harry Potter discussions & the Whoniverse related talks. Oh & there was a great B movie Fistful of Brains- A western zombie film. I met so many wonderful people & for once, didn't feel like an outsider. There were room parties but for most people, that was where the drinking stayed & wasn't excessive.

All of us dressed in various costumes, you never knew what you were going to see next from The Cult of Snuggie to a group of Stormtroopers marching through the parking lot. Some costumes were store bought but many were hand made. Some were cheap & simple & some had spent hundreds of dollars & so complex that I had to wonder how much time it had taken to make them.

One year later I'm helping run the Doctor Who panels & volunteering to work the convention. We told the man who put ConNooga together how a small group of us had formed into a Doctor Who "fan club" because of the 2009 con. We had a fan table to help promote the love of all things T.A.R.D.I.S. related in the Tennessee Who Authority. For 2010I didn't have a Doctor Who costume so I wore my older costumes. One day I was Strawberry Shortcake & the next Bellatrix Lestrange costume that I do for the Harry Potter movies. I enjoyed being polar opposites from one day to the next.

My enjoyment of the convention grew so much that I decided to branch out & go with friends to TimeGate 2010. I felt as though someone had made a convention just for me. It was Doctor Who, Stargate, with a splash of Joss Whedon thrown in. Lets take my favorite sci-fi shows & spend a weekend of talking about just those shows. I was such a happy little fangirl!

It felt surreal meeting Carmen Argenziano who played Jacob Carter on Stargate SG-1. He just sat across the table & chilling out with us. At one point in time I actually thought to myself "Holy crap Jacob Carter is joking around with us". At that time I thought I was going to cry because when I was sick watched a lot of SG-1 & I would joke that a Tok'ra symbiote would blend with me to heal me or that The Doctor would pick me up in his TARDIS & take me into the future where they could cure my disease. I told Carmen about my time of watching him while I was in the hospital & how we would joke about the cures. The man stood up & hugged me, thanked me for sharing my story with him. He then complimented me on how healthy I look today & my excellent costume. Which by the way is my newest, & most awesome costume of them all. My mom & I spent well over 50 hours making it but she made me the red Miss Hartigan dress. I am hoping to make the Cyber Kind head piece by Dragon*Con but we shall see how that turns out.

This will be my first year at Dragon*Con. Once again I am being told I will hate it but I want to experience it for myself at least once. I know I love small conventions but at least once I want to attend a large one. There are only a handful of stars or famous people that I would want to meet. Anyone with a hand in anything Doctor Who related of course so I'll try to get in to see some of the Torchwood people. Mainly I just want to have the experience of being in that large of a group. I will be with a group called Girls of the Con since I have a small picture in their calendar.

I love costuming & having been found by GOTC I have finally made it into a calendar! I have those model friends that are gorgeous with their store bought boobs, fancy clothes, & never have a moment when they're imperfect in any way & always cool. Now I can finally tell them that I made it into a calendar & all I had to do was be nerdy self.