#ajconstantinecosplay

[ajconstantine]

@neil-gaiman I was lucky enough to watch episode 1 of Good Omens Season 2 at San Diego Comic Con. It was glorious. A packed room full of fans who laughed, cheered, and reveled in the joy of it right along with me.

I tip my hat to you sir, you’ve knocked it out of the park once again. Thank you. (Also, thank you for Muriel. I love them!)

More cosplay photos on Instagram.

#good omens #good omens cosplay #goodomensmurielcosplay #san diego comic con #good omens season 2 #neil gaiman #ajconstantinecosplay

[ajconstantine]

Upon request, I put together a presentation on my three Good Omens cosplays that will be presented at the virtual Ineffable Con 4, on October 22, 2023.

Come to the con, it's a lot of fun (and raises money for Alzheimer's research), and wave your pom-poms at me during my presentation!

#ajconstantinecosplay #the ineffable con 4 #ineffable con #good omens cosplay

[ajconstantine]

May 21st marks the day of Saint Constantine, and so in honor of my name day I present to you the Gentleman Pirate cocktail.

The ingredients include gin which was wildly popular in the 1700’s, Orange Curacao as a nod to the oranges in the show, lime to ward off scurvy, and simple syrup for Ed’s  love of seven sugars. The combination results in the gorgeous signature teal color that Stede favors.

Fresh squeezed lime is essential to this cocktail; not only for superior taste, but also for the clarity of the teal color.

For the gin, I recommend a London Dry gin. My favorite gin to use with this cocktail is Mermaid Gin by the Isle of Wight Distillery in the UK. It's gentle on the juniper and an utterly lovely, well-rounded smoothness to the palate.

Cheers on St. Constantine’s day to all of you Constantine's out there. 

#ajconstantinecosplay #ofmd #stconstantine #ofmd cosplay #stede bonnet cosplay

[ajconstantine]

My female Stede Bonnet cosplay from Our Flag Means Death. It is marvelous fun to swan around in; there is something about wearing fancy swishy clothes that is utterly fabulous. 

#our flag means death #our flag means death cosplay #stede bonnet cosplay #ajconstantinecosplay

[ajconstantine]

The stylized button loops on the coat took a bit of staring at screenshots to figure out how they did it. Historically, this detail was either open loops or twisted into a ball at the end, and they had used the latter method. I dyed narrow metallic gold trim brown to match the wider trim, rolled one end over several times to form a ball, tucked the other end under the ball, and then hand sewed all 13 of them onto the coat.

Yes, Stede has these ridiculously darling epaulettes on the shoulders of his jacket. I have small shoulders, so my epaulettes are fairly small at 2.5" wide. To make them, I cut strips of fabric 4" wide x 10" long, ironed it in half lengthwise, sewed the ends together to form a circle, then ran a basting stitch through the inside and pulled the threads taut to form the ruffled shape. I used a similar technique with the coat trim for the center. There's a round teal detail in the middle of Stede's epaulettes that were likely created by forming a ball from the teal soutache trim threaded through the dark gold trim on his coat. To recreate the look, I superglued ribbon around a pony bead, leaving a length of ribbon free that I used to thread through the center of the epaulette to hold everything together. Ridiculously darling epaulettes.

#our flag means death #our flag means death cosplay #stede bonnet cosplay #ajconstantinecosplay

[ajconstantine]

Stede has these utterly ridiculous embellishments to his pockets. Five little bows, three of which are so long they dangle past the hem of his coat.

To recreate this look, I used a small bit of the trim I used for the coat edge at the top with teal ribbon threaded through it. Then I dyed beige twill ribbon tape a darker brown to use for the vertical trim and bows.

I am a firm believer in the concept that everything must have pockets, so I added a welt pocket underneath the flap so it has fully functional pockets.

Voila! Ridiculousness achieved. 😍

#stedebonnetcosplay #stedebonnetcostume #ourflagmeansdeath #ourflagmeansdeathcosplay #cosplayinprogress #ajconstantinecosplay

[ajconstantine]

The most important piece of the entire cosplay-- the frock coat. I used the digital Stede Bonnet Jacket Cosplay Pattern from Cospayton.com as a base for the pattern. I did have to modify it a fair bit, but I'm an experienced seamstress and it gave me a good starting point. One of the biggest changes I made to the pattern was adding the full pleats to the back of the coat to provide the full skirt look Stede has in the show. That was a bit tricky to get it to hang just right, but I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

www.instagram.com/aj_constantine

#ourflagmeansdeath #ourflagmeansdeathcosplay #stedebonnetcosplay #cosplayinprogress #18thcenturycostume #stedebonnetcostume #ajconstantinecosplay

[ajconstantine]

Two different methods to construct Stede Bonnet’s necktie.

How Stede’s necktie was tied confounded me, because it’s not tied in a traditional knot. So at first I created it using a cheater method, and then later figured out how to recreated it using the correct knotting technique. So I present both methods to you.  Method 1: Cut out two lengths of black polyester fabric, sew them into tubes, then turn them inside out and iron them flat with the seam at the back. The finished size of the long piece is 2" wide by 30" long, with 1" angled points at the ends. The short piece is 1" wide by 6" long, open at the ends so it's a tube. I have a fairly small neck, so for a larger neck it would need to b longer.  To put it together: Step 1: Attach a safety pin to each end of the long necktie. Slide one end through the short fabric tube and pull it through. Step 2: Slide the other end of the necktie with the safety pin through the opposite end of the fabric tube. Step 3: Remove the safety pins and tug on each end of the necktie to pull it taut around the neck and adjust to hang the ends down equally. The fabric tube will bunched up in the middle. Voila, necktie accomplished! Method 2: Follow the knotting tutorial in the image above to tie it historically accurately. I actually prefer the Method 1 way as it’s less complicated than remembering how to tie it, and easier to make the ends hang down equally.

#our flag means death cosplay #stede bonnet cosplay #ajconstantinecosplay #cosplay in progress

[ajconstantine]

My goal for my Stede Bonnet cosplay was to create it as close to screen accurate as posible. I knew from the onset that finding the right trim for the coat would be the hardest part.

After analyzing zoomed in screenshots, it appears that Stede's coat has brown metallic lace trim in a geometric diamond pattern that's wider at the cuffs and back than the front.

It also has teal Soutache cording woven through on one edge on the front trim, and on both edges on the cuffs.

I searched for AGES to try to find the right trim (and really, the entire cosplay hinged on this part!), and just about sang with joy when I finally found an absolutely marvelous version on aliexpress.com: "Vintage Gold Metallic Embroidered Lace Crochet Trim". It was a steal at $29 for 10 yards-- which sounds like a lot, but I ended up using 8 yards of it. It shipped from China, so took a month to ship to me.

It's a lovely antique gold, but was too light of a color for the cosplay. I first dyed a test piece using All Purpose Rit dye, which only darkened it a little bit. The trim is polyester, so then I tried dying it using iDye Poly Brown polyester dye, which darkened it to a very nice shade. I cut off the scalloped edge on one sice, then wove in teal ribbon on the edge.

I couldn't find or order teal Soutache cording that was used in the show in time to finish the cosplay by my deadline, so I used ribbon instead.

I narrowed the 2.75" trim by folding it under to be 1.5" wide for the front of the coat, and 2" wide for the cuffs and back.

It was a bit tricky curving it around the neckline and the curve at the back, but I managed to do with pleats, hand sewing them into place.

I'm utterly delighted with how well it turned out. #ourflagmeansdeath #ourflagmeansdeathcosplay #stedebonnetcosplay #cosplayinprogress https://www.instagram.com/p/CgkrEf_Pc7K/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#ourflagmeansdeath #ourflagmeansdeathcosplay #stedebonnetcosplay #cosplayinprogress #ajconstantinecosplay

[ajconstantine]

Shoes. In the show, Stede wears a 18th century style tongue and tie shoe. The shoes are black with red heels, tied with wide white ribbon.

I tried out a darling pair of antique recreation tongue and tie shoes by Darcy Clothing that looked perfect, but sadly my toes were a bit too wide for the pointed toe box for them to be comfortable to wear all day.

So I ended up using shoes by DwarvesShoes, called "Retro Leather Shoes Handmade Square Toe Chunky Heel" that are wonderfully comfortable.

I swapped out the laces for white satin ribbon, and they look close enough to the ones in the show to make me happy. I seriously considered painting the heels red, and still might someday, but decided to leave them black for now.

www.instagram.com/aj_constantine

#ourflagmeansdeathcosplay #ourflagmeansdeath #stedebonnetcosplay #cosplayinprogress #ajconstantinecosplay

[ajconstantine]

And so I embark on a journey to create a Stede Bonnet cosplay from Our Flag Means Death. I'm a historical costumer at heart, so when I realized how accurately detailed Stede's clothing was in the show I felt compelled recreate that level of detail. I was regretting that decision several times as I embarked on sewing historically accurate fall front breeches, which was one of the most complicated sewing projects I've ever done.

The end result is fabulous though, and matches the breeches from the show, with the exception of the odd little flaps they had put just under the buckles. Those just didn't look right to me so I left those off.

To my surprise, these breeches have pockets on the sides, that I access by unbuttoning the top side buttons. It annoys me endlessly that men had pockets in the 1700's whereas as women are struggling to this day with pocketless clothing!

I used the pattern 131 Men's Regency Trousers from Laughing Moon Mercantile. The buckles at the cuffs were Flower Patterned Breeches Buckles from Burnley & Trowbridge. I couldn't bear to push the buckle tines through the fabric, so I cut those off and sewed it into place.

#ourflagmeansdeath #ourflagmeansdeathcosplay #stedebonnetcosplay #cosplayinprogress #historicalcostuming #fallfrontbreeches #ajconstantinecosplay

[ajconstantine]

Stede has gloriously lacey cuffs, that Ed twirls around with such abundant flair when they exchange clothes.

The lace goes all the way down to his middle knuckles when hanging straight. I used a simple gathering stitch for the pleats and attached them to the cuffs using a combination of machine and hand sewing.

Stede wears three rings with this outfit. The most noticeable is the one on the right hand, a rectangular gold framed turquoise ring. (zooming in on screenshots shows the dark veining typical for turquoise). I picked up an inexpensive version on Ebay.

On his left hand, he's wearing a wide band gold ring with an inset dark red cabochon stone on his pointer finger, and a smaller gold ring on his middle finger with a dark green cabochon style stone.

I considered finding rings to match the ones on Stede's left hand, but decided that was overkill since the only one people would identify as from the show is the turquoise ring. (if they noticed the rings at all, especially since they're covered by the lace much of the time anyway.) Aside from the ring I bought on Ebay, for the cosplay I also wore a vintage gold and garnet ring I inherited from my grandmother and left it at that.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cgc21q7PNk_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#ourflagmeansdeath #ourflagmeansdeathcosplay #stedebonnetcosplay #cosplayinprogress #ajconstantinecosplay

[ajconstantine]

Stede’s neckwear initially confounded me. As near as I can tell, historically lace jabots were traditionally fastened to a collar that was buttoned in the back, which is not how Stede’s was constructed.

At first I thought maybe his jabot had a loop at the top that a fabric strip went through, but then I compared screenshots and realized that the exposed length of the top of the jabot before the lace starts varied, which means that it was tied. So it seems to be a cross between a cravat and a jabot.

I used cotton fabric and cut out a rectangle approximately 8.5” wide x 46” long that I sewed into a tube. After turning it inside out and ironing flat, positioning the seam at the back, I had a finished rectangle that was 4” wide by 45” long.

Finding the right lace was challenging, as I needed wide lace that had a crochet type look to it, and a non-floral design, as Stede's has a geometric circular pattern. After searching all over, I finally found utterly marvelous 5.5” wide lace trim for a steal at a little fabric store a couple of hours from my house.

In the show, Stede’s ruffle on the jabot was achieved by a gathering stitch, but my lace was too heavy for that to look right, so I used box pleats to create a similar look. Also, Stede’s had four rows of lace, but because my lace is very wide and my torso is shorter than the Stede's, I only did three rows of lace.

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CgPgz-EJaMV/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#ourflagmeansdeath #ourflagmeansdeathcosplay #stedebonnetcosplay #cosplayinprogress #ajconstantinecosplay

[ajconstantine]

Shoes. In the show, Stede wears a 18th century style tongue and tie shoe. The shoes are black with red heels, tied with wide white ribbon.

I tried out a darling pair of antique recreation tongue and tie shoes by Darcy Clothing that looked perfect, but sadly my toes were a bit too wide for the pointed toe box for them to be comfortable to wear all day.

So I ended up using shoes by DwarvesShoes, called "Retro Leather Shoes Handmade Square Toe Chunky Heel" that are wonderfully comfortable.

I swapped out the laces for white satin ribbon, and they look close enough to the ones in the show to make me happy. I seriously considered painting the heels red, and still might someday, but decided to leave them black for now.

Here they are paired with my drop front breeches.

#ourflagmeansdeathcosplay #ourflagmeansdeath #stedebonnetcosplay #cosplayinprogress #ajconstantinecosplay

[ajconstantine]

In Our Flag Means Death, Stede wears a pocketwatch with a lovely antique watch fob. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything that looked remotely like the original.

(If anyone is clever enough to create a 3D print file of the show's watch fob for a resin printer please do so and send it to me. I will love you forever for it. ❤️)

So, I decided to go with a nautical themed watch fob. Not being able to find a charm large enough, I created one out of buttons. I had to get plastic ones, because after cutting off the loops on the backs, I carved out recesses at the top with a hobby knife for a jump ring to set in between them, and then glued them together.

After it dried, I filled in any side gaps with putty and painted it antique gold.

I don't think we ever got to see what Stede's watch looked like, so I decided to buy one with the fun theme of the Kraken, because it makes me smile.

#ourflagmeansdeath #ourflagmeansdeathcosplay #stedebonnetcosplay #cosplayinprogress #ajconstantinecosplay

[ajconstantine]

Finding a good waistcoat fabric was annoyingly difficult. In the show Our Flag Means Death, Stede is wearing a silk upholstery fabric a little bit darker teal than his coat that has a geometric design . I drove a two hour radius from my house visiting every fabric store possible, and simply could not find anything close to it. So I settled for using teal silk dupioni, which is at least a gorgeous fabric. I seriously considered machine stitching the geometric design onto the fabric, but thankfully talked myself out of that insanity. 😆 #ourflagmeansdeath #ourflagmeansdeathcosplay #stedebonnetcosplay #cosplayinprogress #historicalcostuming #eighteenthcenturywaistcoat https://www.instagram.com/p/CgFJEZNrGdE/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#ourflagmeansdeath #ourflagmeansdeathcosplay #stedebonnetcosplay #cosplayinprogress #historicalcostuming #eighteenthcenturywaistcoat #ajconstantinecosplay