Who Knew? A Steampunk Cheshire Cat Is Kinda Creepy

Ok, you've seen my costume for this year's Dragon Con, so now it's John's turn!

John initially planned to cosplay as Gepetto, but when our Steampunk Disney group's Cheshire Cat dropped out, I jumped at the chance to have John in a coordinating Wonderland costume. "We'll be a matched set!" I said. "Only one that totally clashes."

Here's my first scribbled sketch, which I used to sell John on the idea:

I figured it would end up pretty creepy, to be honest, but the creep-factor still took John by surprise when he finally put everything on. Ha! At least he's a really bright-and-cheerful kind of creepy, though:

 "We're all mad here. 

In a dapper, gentlemanly-type fashion."

John made almost everything you see, including the top hat, vest, ascot, and pants. (We found the shirt online.) For the vest he even had to make his own striped fabric, so you can see he's still the superior sewing wizard. I made the half-mask, which is leather with fiber optic whiskers (woot!), plus his leather pouch (since neither of us have pockets), and his hat band decoration and pin. Oh, and I painted his vest buttons. :)

Less than two weeks out from DC John decided he wanted a flamingo cane. I told him we had PLENTY to do still and to stop being ridiculous. So he went out to the garage ... and carved himself a flamingo cane.

I was so impressed that of course I couldn't say no when he asked me to paint it. I've never painted anything like this before, but then, he'd never carved anything, either, so it was fun new ground for both of us. Quick, too, since it was done in less than two days, including all the drying time.

Plus, look how fabulous:

John's ears were a convention purchase - from a convention I'll have to fill you guys in on later, since it was during my Sabbatical - but the fur was so long that they looked like giant purple tribbles. So I trimmed them way down and used hairspray to sculpt them into shape: 

 

 (John's mask started out a bit wider on the sides; I went back and trimmed it after this photo.)

 

The ears don't show up too well on his black hat, but I really love them with the colorful gear-and-springs decoration I added on the side. (Those gears are yet another gift from Sharyn, who cut them for us special with her embossing machine.) I plan to make another hat stand so we can display this  later in John's man cave/game room.

I had so much fun making that hat band piece that I made a second one for John to wear as a pin:

 It's made from an old Disney button, spray-painted black with a hole drilled through the middle. I added the gears and stuck a bunch of wire springs and curly Qs through the hole, securing them on the back with packing tape.

Another detail you can't really see here (but that should look great in the dark rooms of Dragon Con) are John's purple fiber optic whiskers:

They were a pain and a half to install, but work pretty well. I used a $5 fiber optic hair clip-in, which has a battery case small enough (once we dremeled off the clip part) to fit under the mask against John's chin.

 

I'd like to do a tutorial on John's leather satchel soon, since it was surprisingly easy and only took me a few hours to finish, just making things up as I went along. It's a perfect first project for anyone interested in leather working, and useful, too, since I get a new belt pouch out of it:

We singed it a little in the oven, so the stain is a bit grungier than intended, but I really did throw this together in about three hours, so I'm looking forward to making another one. John's going to wear it mostly behind him and out of sight since it doesn't quite "go" with his outfit, but we do need some kind of carrier for our phones and IDs.

And there you have it!

Hope you enjoyed John's creepy Cheshire! Again, look for us at the Mechanical Masquerade at Dragon Con this Sunday night, or just keep watching here for my gads of DC coverage, coming soon!