As with all Costume-Cons, the focus is on costuming in all of its varieties — SciFi, Historical, Anime, Cosplay, etc. The Friday night social is an opportunity to see old friends and make new ones, as well as see the Single Pattern Contest. The Single Pattern contest is a variety of people making their version of a specified pattern (usually one of 3-4), and showing it off to the crowd. This year’s patterns included a 3-piece suit, a bathrobe, and a jumpsuit. 17 folks showed off outfits made from one (or even two!) of these patterns.

Saturday focuses on SciFi and Fantasy, and 37 entries crossed the stage. The entries ranged from a 10 foot tall Tom Servo (from MST3K), to fairy princesses, to anime characters, you name it, it was there! Sunday focuses on the Historical costumes, with 13 entries ranging from the 2nd century to the 1960s.

There will be separate posts for each day, just because the number of photos is large. And the photos also include a variety of hall costuming.

Friday Single Pattern photos

Saturday Science Fiction & Fantasy photos

Sunday Historical photos

Hall Costume photos

What is the purpose of a mask (or gloves, or cover gowns)? It depends a bit on context. Masks can be used to protect you, or can be used to protect others, or both.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) can be rated depending on the context. Are you looking for protection from fire/burns/electrical? Or protection from biohazards? It totally changes what recommendations are made.

PPE for biohazards typically includes respiratory protection (a variety of masks and respirators), eye protection (goggles and face shields), and skin/hand protection (gloves and gowns).

Masks also have different levels of protection, based on how fine they are and what can get in (or out). Any mask made of fabric or a paper-type product will freely allow oxygen and carbon dioxide to pass; hard plastic masks like scuba or others require a source of fresh air.

The shape of the mask and the way it’s secured also has a role to play in how effective the mask is. Masks can be pleated, cone-shaped, duck-bill, or contoured. They can have an ear loop, an elastic strap, or ties. Each has issues related to fit and efficacy.

I strongly suggest you view this video from Sewstine (also an anesthesiologist), as she makes 4 different types of masks and formally fit tests them. And provides the research behind it all.

Mask Ratings:

Masks are rated by either NIOSH (in the US) or the European Safety Federation (ESF). They will be rated for Particle Filtration Efficiency (PFE) and may also be rated for Bacterial Filtration Efficiency (BFE). They are considered Air-Purifying Respirators because they protect by filtering particles out of the air you breathe.

Both ratings organizations classify masks based on the percentage of airborne particles that are filtered. For NIOSH, the number of the mask is approximately the percentage of the PFE. NIOSH approved masks also have a letter, which has to do with how the mask deals with oil.

• N – solid and liquid aerosols that do not contain oil (Non-oil)
• R – solid and liquid aerosols that may contain oil (Resistant to oil)
• P – solid and liquid aerosols that may contain oil (Protective to oil)

The European P2 mask or FFP2 filter is equivalent to the NIOSH N95. The P3 or FFP3 is equivalent to the NIOSH P99.

Dust Masks aka “nuisance” masks, that you might get at the hardware store, are good for things like gardening, and some tasks like painting or light sanding, but are not adequate for pandemic protection, particularly not in close or indoor situations.

Gaiters will depend on the fabric that was used to make them. Fleece as a whole provides warmth but no filtration efficacy. Many performance fabrics are designed to “breathe” and may protect you, but not protect others.

What about Powered devices?

Powered Air-Purifying Respirators (PAPRs) are types of hoods which have a battery-operated blower that sends purified (filtered) air from a device on a belt or backpack up to the hood so you are breathing clean air. Controlled Air-Purifying Respirators (CAPRs) are a proprietary variant, where the filtration all happens in the helmet portion of the hood. Ortho-hoods, used to protect surgeons during orthopedic surgery, are not filtering the air, so are inadequate alone (but may be used in conjunction with an N-95 mask).

Closing Thoughts

If your goal is a secure fit to prevent aerosol transmission, the mask or other device will need to be very tight to the face. And it will probably be uncomfortable in some way because of that fit. But it will *not* adversely affect your ability to breathe in oxygen or exhale carbon dioxide.

Other resources & reading:

• https://www.sciencealert.com/simple-low-cost-experiment-reveals-which-face-masks-are-best-at-blocking-droplets The way they did the testing is actually more useful than the actual masks they were using.
• I sewed and fit tested four different masks…

I started with a pattern that had been used for the Single Pattern competition at Costume-Con. McCalls 2233 is a set of pieces designed for kitchen staff — chef’s jacket, shirt, pants, apron, and toque. While the folks using this for the Single Pattern competition were very creative (klingon chef anyone?!), only one person actually made the shirt. It looked awfully big on her, with sleeves at least to her elbows. I decided to make it using some leftover fabric from the stash — the pink camo.

The pattern is actually pretty straight forward, but it’s not a true camp shirt, as the collar is not designed for the open and flat spread. It has an interesting trick of double-folding the front facing and not needing interfacing. And the shoulders are dropped *significantly* — 3″ on me — which is part of why the sleeves end up so long. And it’s really long.

Next up: McCalls 2149. This is a men’s shirt set, with collar options (camp vs band, but no stand collar style) and sleeve options (short vs long). It was interesting to see how this men’s pattern differed from the women’s patterns. It was “old-fashioned” one-size only, instead of the multi-size patterns that have become the norm for most women’s patterns. One of our friends used this for her husband’s geek shirts.

This one used the leftover purple camo, although I was short fabric for the sleeves. I got some plain purple to use for the sleeves, collar, and pocket. The assembly was interesting, as they had you attach the collar, then attach the facing, then clip deep into the collar seam to be able to close it off. It worked far better than I expected. The shoulder seam is forward of center by about an inch (which I top-stitched). The finished sleeves are still nearly elbow length.

Third time: New Look 6197. This one has both men’s and women’s multisized patterns in the same packet. The difference is in the fit of the body (with darts or not) and hem (straight vs curved). This has a back yoke in addition to the camp-style collar. Both the yoke and collar are cut cross-grain.

I grabbed some fabric from the stash – a green linen that I had picked up for Faire years ago and never used. After assembling the yoke and lower back piece, the assembly is fairly typical. This also used the collar construction as in the McCalls pattern above. However, if you want to have the yoke with two layers (as in most commercial shirts), better to cut a second yoke piece, and attach the inner yoke layer to the front facings at the shoulder seams, and then sew the entire collar down in a single seam – no clip specifically to be able to put in a hem as in the instructions (but you still will need to clip the seam so it lies flat). Then close the shoulder seams and the bottom of the yoke with a fine top-stitch just off of the seamline.
The only problem with this pattern is that there is no indication for where the pocket should be set. I used one of the other patterns for the basic location.
Total time was about 4 hours, from layout/cutting to buttonholes. And the only thing done by hand was the actual buttons.

I had gotten a 4th pattern to try, but the New Look pattern was definitely the winner. So far I’ve done 4 shirts and have 2 more on the list.

As is usually the case, I needed to alter the pattern. The kicker is that the waist and skirt are not symmetrical, so you can’t just add something to both sides and have it work. Plastic sheeting to the rescue. (Admittedly, I “copy” nearly every pattern this way, and leave the original intact.)

All of the alternations needed to be on the right-side of the dress, because the angle on the left was critical for the look, with the tiers “falling” off a specific point.

The skirt pieces were easy — just add extend the pattern lines the necessary width/length. But the tops (the under dress and the blouse) required a bit more attention. I started by tracing the existing bottom line and left side lines (side seam, arm scye, shoulder, neckline to the center front). Then I shifted the pattern over and started to do the same thing on the right, just with the alteration. But I forgot that I had to use the seam marking diamond to match up the height where it would be on the new seam, not where it was on the original. This totally changed how the upper part of the pattern needed to be traced. See the silver vs black lines in the image.

I cut the test from an old sheet, tried it on, and it fit right the first time. Whew. Time to do the adjustments on the blouse and on the tiers. Calculated the angle (28º), then calculated how much I needed to add to the tier. This was easy as the pattern actually comes in two pieces that you need to tape together. The tiers are identical, but because you have to cut two with the same orientation, and everything else is on a single layer (unfolded) fabric, there are two pattern pieces.

I considered cutting the pattern cross-grain, but the tiers are well over 60″ so this would work only if you wanted to have a seam at the side. You need to have a large flat work surface to layout all of the fabric and the pattern pieces. And you need a fashion fabric that is not too one-sided (the back will show on the tiers)… so off to the store I went again…

The one that that wasn’t really clear on the initial read of the instructions was that there are two different types of bias used — one is the fashion fabric, and one is a contrasting fabric. The necklines and armholes are all fashion fabric bias. If you lay out your pattern pieces correctly, you will have a rectangular remnant to use to make the bias. I was able to just cut 4 pieces and used the two longer ones (about 42″) for the necklines and the two shorter (about 34″) for the arms with plenty leftover for the overlap seam. For the contrast bias you can either make some or buy it. If you purchase it, you will need 3 packs of double-fold wide bias.

Otherwise, the instructions are quite easy to follow. I tried to sew everything that didn’t involve the contrast bias first, just so I didn’t have to keep switching my threads. The one thing I did differently was put the lower tier on with top-stitching. I did it as instructed, and found it extremely difficult to accurately place the tier upside down. I also found that my tier was a bit short (thanks to the alterations). The drop on the tiers seems like a lot until you get all of the pieces together, and then it aligns perfectly.

After finishing all of the hand work (hems and tacking down the facings on the top), while sitting at the airport and in a hotel room, I made it to the event.