First Ever Cosplay - How Did I End Up in This Mess?

My friend convinced me in the beginning of May to attend Fan Expo 2013 in Toronto with her. I went for the first time last year and had a good time, but had decided to just drive the 1.5 hr trip every day to Toronto which sucked. After purchasing my ticket and confirming that I was sharing a hotel room with my friend and 2 more of her friends I was set. 

And then an announcement happened: The Doctor Who Society of Canada - Toronto Branch created a Fan Expo event. They planned to break the Guinness World Record for the Largest Gathering of Daleks [the record was set in the UK with a mix of 95 people dressed up and actual Dalek models].

I was hooked. It was a one day cosplay, on the Saturday of the con, and I decided I could come up with a costume in time for the event at minimal cost/effort. There are still a few lingering concerns about possibly missing exciting panels or other events I really want to go to during the Record-breaking event [and all the time to set up and take down the event], but unless something major happens I will be participating. 

I immediately decided to be a red dalek. BBC recently came out with a red Dalek beanie that could work and Hot Topic had a red Dalek t-shirt dress on sale. Awesome, relatively cheap [between $40-50], and easy [aka minimal work involved].

Two days later the group posted the requirements. Crap.

"Daleks costumes must, at a minimum, adhere to the following requirements:

a. The base of the costume must be a decahedron.

b. Panels rising from the base to the middle must have a minimum of 4

hemispherical protrusions. 

c. The costume must contain an eyestalk mounted on the dome at the head

of the costume. 

d. The costume must contain a gun mount and telescopic manipulator, or

recognisable representations thereof." 

Well there's goes my pre-made dress and beanie idea.

I contacted the event coordinators to find out if a skirt could still be used. Happily they said it could and they re-posted the requirements with the addition that "skirts may be used but panels must be represented, e.g. sewn on as seams, sewn on ribbons or other material, or even drawn by markers." I was back in business, but decided to build from scratch instead of ruining a t-shirt dress [didn't have enough balls or any lines].

I went to various craft shops and was shocked by the price: I needed at least 20 styrofoam balls to cut in half for the skirt [4 balls/panel x 10 panels = 40 half balls]. A bag of 6 balls was $8; a cost of about $32. Ribbon was also pricy starting at $8 a spool - I bought 1 black and 1 red and almost immediately regretted it. I also bought 3 rolls of thread [black, red, and white] for $1. I bought a curtain from Value Village for $6 at the suggestion of my dad and then headed to the Dollar Store for the rest of my materials. I got 3 bags of 8 styrofoam balls and 1 bag of plastic shot glasses [for Dalek head "anntenna"] for $4 total. I also saw the same ribbon from the craft store [just a shorter length] for a buck a piece. Sigh. My mom gave me a small whisk [gun mount] she picked up for a buck at Wal-Mart and I got a mini-plunger [telescopic manipulator] at Canadian Tire for about $3-something. My total so far was about $40 dollars [including a red tank top from Value Village in case the curtain didn't have enough fabric and $5 can of black spray paint].

I ended up purchasing a Dalek Eye Stalk flashlight from Amazon for $25 for a couple reasons: it was fast [even with suggestions online I didn't feel like I had time/materials to build even the most basic eye stalk] and the shipping was fast and free. Bonus: it makes Dalek noises that freak my sister out.

Not including gas $ to travel to various stores and then back to make some returns I spent about $65 [not including tax] on this 1 day cosplay. Hopefully I can reuse bits or the whole thing at Halloween or future Doctor Who-related events.

Now for the hard part: actually making the costume.

Update: The event will be at 11am on the Saturday of Fan Expo in the North building and the first 100 Daleks get a special Guiness and Fan Expo prize pack/goodie bag and as people who know me would know I always try for the freebies, so I will be there bright and early with my Kindle to register, get my Guiness record attempt pin, and watch all other participants arrive while reading some of the 50th anniversary Doctor stories. Hopefully, there's no important events I want to attend before lunch. 
Colin Baker [the 6th Doctor] will be there and will turn our 15 minute mandatory gathering [to break the record] into a special Dalek-only forum.