Category: Star Trek

Posted on

The Voyager Project

A few months ago, I made some simple costume versions of the Star Trek: Voyager uniform for Halloween for my oldest daughter and myself.  We also wore them to the Star Wars Fandays convention.  My second oldest wanted a Star Trek uniform as well, but I did not have time to make her one, so she went as a Raven Claw student from Hogwarts.  However, this did give me an idea.  One that would occupy me for many hours over 5 months.  The girls and me in Voyager uniforms for DCC 2013.  If your interested in the details, they can be found at the Starfleet1701st forums.  Suffice it to say, I took great pains to make sure these were a little more than just simple costumes.  I tried to get an accurate fit, shape and color for each.  I even went so far as to hand dye the division colors of the yoke and shoulder caps and have proportionatly sized comm badges made for the girls.

Coloring fabric
All cut and ready to assemble

The project was fun and rewarding, but very challenging.  I had to learn a few new skills and techniques to get the uniforms put together and look right.  I don’t anticipate doing anything quite so grand again.  I want to give special thanks to Andy, Katswell and Sparky from the forum for their help in making this project possible.  Their support made an impossible task possible.

The Girls & Me on the red carpet

The Girls & Me at the USS Joshua Stargate.

Fun with phasers

Who you calling nerd?

Posted on

Star Trek: Voyager Uniforms

My current prokect at the moment is creating Voyager uniforms for the girls and I for the upcoming Dallas Comic Con.  The task is proving to be quite a challenge.  Although there are commercial patterns for adult, such as the one at Roddenberry.com or from Joseph Kerezman, no one currently makes one for kids.  After making one for myself and understanding how it all fit together, I decided to use McCall’s M5952 as my base pattern and modify it to work.  The good folks at Starfleet1701st have been an amazing resourse through this project.  I am only finished with the first mockup of the pattern for my oldest, but I am hopeful the others will go quicker once I have the patter down.

Comm badges and rank pips are another item required to make the uniform complete.  They are easy to find for adults, but I wanted some that would be proportional to kids.  I happen to work in a place that has CADD designer so I asked if he could model the badge I had purchased.  He did and scaled it down to both 75% and 50% of the original.  I uploaded the OBJ files to Shapeways.com  and now I am awaiting the 3D printed versions in white plastic.  With any luck, these will have the look I am after.

Update: the badges came in and they are AMAZING!  Exactly what I wanted.  The patterns for two of the jumpers are cut out.  I love it when a plan comes together.

Posted on

Days like these

I went out dancing wit my beautiful bride last night at Pearl’s Dancehall & Saloon in the Fort Worth Stockyards.  I drank just enough to loosen up and get out on the dance floor.  After a few false starts, we were able to get around the dance floor without hurting ourselves or those around us.  I had a lot of fun and look forward to future trips.  I got to bed about midnight and a few hours later one of those famous Texas thunderstorms passed through.  Kids and pets got stirred up, so sleeping locations were rearranged.  I got up to get a drink of water when I found my nutball mut in the window, four foot off the ground.  She was pretty stirred up.  Tried to sleep, bot woken up by one of the cats.  Went to sleep, woke up at 5am, no reason.  Went back to sleep and got up at 6:45 to get out to Dallas for the Texas Lottery event releasing the new Star Trek scratch off.

I was there about four hours, got to see some great costumes, meet some lovely and interesting people and be counted in an attempt to break the Guinness record for most costumed Star Trek characters in a room.  We missed the record, 1064, by half.  May have had something to do with being on Easter weekend.

I got home, made lunch and went to work in the garden for a few hours.  I just finished dinner and I’m completely wiped out.  Need to find some energy to help dye eggs with the kiddos then I may call it an early night.

Posted on

Sci-Fi Expo 2013

I volunteered for the Official Pix team again for their Sci-Fi Expo.  It was a great show.  I got to meet many wonderful celebraties who were all too happy to take time with each fan and even engage my kiddos in coversation about who they were and if they were enjoying the show.  I got a few signed photos and a picture with Mr. Avery Brooks, Capt. Sisko of Star Trek: Deep Space 9.  Such a great guy, and the second Star Trek captain on my wall.  William Shatner is scheduled to be in town for hte May show, so I am hoping to make that number three.

Posted on

Halloween 2012

This year my oldest daughter wanted to be Captain Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager.  I thought that was a great idea, so I decided to make her the uniform and one for me with the science officer colors.  I purchased two patterns.  One was off eBay designed by Joseph Kerezman and the other was one from Roddenberry.com.  As usual, I got started late and had to polish my skills on the fly.  The patterns were challenging in that the sizing was a little off and the instructions were vague.  I did find a LOT of help from the community at starfleet1701st.yuku.com.  Many there had already been through many of the challenges I was having.

I started with my daughters using the Rodenbuerry.com pattern.  Besides the vague instructions, I also had to deal with pieces not being quite the right size.  As seen here, the yoke at the top and the front panels did not match.  There was a serious gap in the front panels.

So I redrew the piece I needed:

 

Next problem was needing to resize the whole outfit to her.  You have to take it out of the middle or the whole thing looks wrong.

I got all the pieces cut and reassembled:

Mine went together much faster since I had to do very few modifications (and I was running out of time).  It was a little snug, but otherwise fit well.  The under shirt for me was a Champion running shirt while my daughter wore my attempt at making one.  The badges were a bit gaudy and I could not work out how to add the rank pips on the collar.  Overall, I was pleased with the result and got the bug to make more costumes.