More Costuming & The Luggage

I'd been checking around to see about getting a red wizard robe for the Rincewind costume, but wasn't coming up with much. Too bad I don't sew, at least not enough to want to tackle making a whole robe. I was also looking into getting fabric dye or paint to color and existing grey robe I got in 2007 for my second time at Faerieworlds and my first as a wizard. I was also considering dyeing or coloring the Harry Potter Sorting Hat red.

It turns out the old robe is 100% polyester, and from what I was seeing on dye packages, that material comes out light. The hat is also mostly polyester. After a trip down to the Craft Warehouse and Jo-Ann's in Gresham earlier, during which I got a few things - X-Acto knife, blades, gold glitter glue to spell out WIZZARD on the hat (yep, the ZZ is not a typo), and some glow-in-the-dark stars, I got on the internet to look up robes.

I first spotted the Jedi robe shown above on a page Yahoo pulled up. The price was $46 and change. Might've been shipping involved too. So then I checked on Amazon. Their price was $38.53 with free shipping (not super saver - their supplier ships free). This time I was smart enough to remember to order through one of my Squidoo lenses where I split commission with Squidoo. That'll save me about $1.63 (better than nothing). I also used reward points connected to my Amazon credit card, saving another $6.96. So the robe will end up costing me just shy of $30 - not bad. If I'd bought both dye and fabric paint, I might've ended up spending about half of that, so I'm ending up with probably a much better robe, a lot less work, but Rincewind will be clad in brown instead of red. The robe should arrive in about a week.

As for The Luggage, I haven't actually started work on modifications, but I have gotten more material. The best thing for transporting The Luggage on the uneven ground of the Faerieworlds Realm is wheels, preferably bigger wheels than found on typical luggage.

Getting the wheels was more of an adventure than I thought it would be. I checked Harbor Freight, where the website showed a store within easy walking distance of the end of the MAX line in Gresham. Except, the store moved several years ago but they never updated the website. I did a lot of walking several days ago, but there was no store where the website indicated. That was frustrating.

Later I remembered there was a store about a mile or more North of where I'd looked, so I took a bus to the shopping area where the store is really located. On the way to Harbor Freight, where I was contemplating getting four 5" caster wheels at $5.99 each, I had to pass a Salvation Army store. I thought I should check inside for tropical shirts for when I dress as Twoflower, the Discworld's first tourist and original owner of The Luggage.

I found a couple of shirts, then started checking around to see what they had that might have wheels on it. Tucked away in a small hidden section I found a few strollers. One looked quite promising. Instead of just having four wheels, there were four sets of two wheels. The front wheels are on casters so it's steered much like a grocery cart. The wheels were 5", just about right. The stroller was $7.49, far less than the $23.96 I would've paid at Harbor Freight for caster wheels. The shirts were only $7 for both. I did go next door to Harbor Freight, but all I needed was a hacksaw to attack the stroller for the wheels. That was only $3.99.

I also recently made a trip to Fabric Depot where I wanted to see if they had webbing similar to what's used for duffel bag handles. There was some red 1 1/2" webbing on the shelf, but not enough. I asked if they had any more in stock. The clerk came out with a fresh roll of 10 yards. She said if I wanted the whole roll, I could get it at the wholesale price of 40% off the $1.59/yd. or about 95 cents a yard. Considering how I plan to use the webbing, I'll need enough so getting the whole roll at wholesale is a good deal. I also got some decorative upholstery nails.

The wizard hat I've been wearing since 2007 will get some new butterflies, the Flitter Faerie and the Wendy Froud faerie along with little lights. I hadn't planned on taking a picture of the hat, but when the faeries saw me taking other pictures, they were rather insistent that they get their picture taken as well. You may notice there aren't too many butterflies on the hat just now. They kind of got smooshed last November on the flight back from New York. Wendy's faerie is perched atop the Star Trek shuttle model/radio with new butterflies almost covering her up, and the Flitter faerie is in front of a couple of the new butterflies. The hat sits right behind me when I'm at the computer, so the faeries keep an eye on stuff.