Cos-Blog

DERP.

(Ok like…right after I styled this and took these pics, I changed the ahoge 8D; It doesn’t look so straight up anymore and it’s closer to the front of the wig.)

Okay, I’ve been bad about actually keeping up with my COS-BLOG.

Making new cosplays is on the backburner for me until I get myself a new job. In the meantime, I am fixing up older cosplays and finishing up ones that I already have fabric for.

One of those in progress is my Sleeping Beauty!Ahiru cosplay. That picture is of the mock-up I have done. I usually don’t do mock-ups (I’m lazy) but this is so formfitting and I haven’t made a corset-like top before that I need to practice before I cut into the real fabric. The pattern I am using for the bodice is Butterick 4131. I have no pattern for the plate (skirt) so I am just kind of making it up as I go. Another reason making a mock-up has been useful!

This was supposed to be done for Fanime 2010 but due to personal issues and having to finish other cosplays, it was pushed off. (I didn’t want to rush it.)

Not sure when I am shooting to have this finished now! Let’s hope by Fanime 2011! xD;

The Tale of Drosselmeyer

For over a year, friends and I had wanted our friend Erik to cosplay as Drosselmeyer (from Princess Tutu). He’s much taller than all of us and he can make the best, toothiest grin! He hadn’t watched the show but we knew he could pull off the creepy old man. Drosselmeyer is rarely cosplayed. I was sure that anyone who watched Princess Tutu and would see Erik would be surprised. (And many where! It was fun seeing people’s reactions at the con.)

with Edel (Whitney) and Uzura (Kiyoko)

Erik was a good sport about it. Even though it was us who asked him to wear it, he offered to pay for materials. Plus, it’s a fairly cumbersome costume and he handled it well.

Finally by Fanime 2010, we had it finished. It was a team effort that spanned over a few months. Karen and I did the bulk of the sewing. We altered patterns for the big red cloak. (I HATE LINING. UGHHH.) To make it easier for Erik to wear and to cut down on the layers of fabric, the purple/pink sleeves are connected to the green tunic. For the hat, Karen came up with a pattern and worked from scratch.

Gecko design in progress

My dressform is too short for this costume! xD; But this shows off the gecko well.

The patterns we had used and altered for the outfit were: Simplicity 2517 (for the capelet), McCalls 5957 (cloak), Butterick 3072 (tunic+sleeves), and I forgot what pattern was used for the shoe covers. xD; I might have that written down somewhere.

The gecko-thing on the back was attached with iron-on adhesive heat n’ bond and then sewn in places to keep it from coming up.

Karen/Random Karen - hat, green tunic, cloak planning/measuring
Me - cloak, cravat, sleeves, beard/eyebrows
Leslie/Lee-buddy - wig
Whitney/Gowa - shoes
Caroline/Midnight Rocket - green gecko-thing design
Mark/Choco-kun - Lifesaver in helping with the feathers in the hat last minute. TEAMWORK!

Erik/StrongestShield - wore the costume

THE END.

THE MEAN FACE

Dumb Con Photos PART ONE

DAT SOUL

Sometimes, right before a con, a THEME will randomly pop up. A theme that Caitlin (aka datkate/Luo on Cosplay.com/Soyotome on DeviantART/My usual cosplay-partner-in-crime) and I will abuse throughout the course of a con by taking stupid pictures and then infecting others with it.

This year at Fanime it was all about: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dat-ass

This cos-picture theme extended to Anime Expo this year because it hadn’t gotten old yet. 8D

And even Comic Con!

Taking REALLY STUPID photos while in cosplay is probably my favorite cosplay past time. It’s just not a con or cosplay event if some stupid photo doesn’t come out of it.

Cosplay is srs bizness. 8E

(Photo by datkate)

One purpose of this blog is to go into detail about most of my cosplay projects, old and new ones alike.

So let’s randomly start with one I made in 2009—Maka from Soul Eater.

BACKSTORY: I first cosplayed as Patty at the request of a few friends—we cosplayed together as Kid’s group—and after watching more of the anime, I decided I really liked Maka. Book smarts + just plain awesome! After Death the Kid, she is my favorite. I also liked the prospect of wielding a scythe around. 8D; Maybe I’ll make a separate entry about Soul’s construction.

CONSTRUCTION DETAILS: Maka progress started off smoothly. I easily found short black boots I could modify, as well as fabric for the costume itself and a yellow sweater vest. I ordered a tie online that luckily got here in time before I headed out to the con, unlike my wig. D: (I will explain more of my wig angst later.) Making the pleated skirt wasn’t too hard. I used Simplicity 3689 for that. It wasn’t until I got to the actual coat part that I had problems. I made it way more difficult on myself than it needed to be. I’ve heard other cosplayers have had problems with it so it must be a Maka cosplayer curse. I messed up twice on two different parts and ran out of black fabric. Thankfully my friend Karen let me use extra black fabric she had lying around—it was the same fabric that I had bought. It’s times like these that I wish I made more mock-ups!

Finally that was all squared away. Then came the wig.

WIG: I found a really good one on eBay—already styled and everything. (At this point I didn’t want to style my own.) I ordered it way in advance since I wanted it for Fanime. A month goes by and nothing shows up. I gave it a little more time and then finally contacted the seller. We had correspondence back and forth and he finally says he’ll send another one at no charge since sometimes things get lost in transit. (The wig was coming in from China.) That second one never showed up. Frustratiiiing. Since the seller was good about returning messages I wasn’t really angry with him. It was just a nerve-racking ordeal.

I borrowed my friend Heather/Tseuq’s Maka wig for Fanime and I borrowed a friend of friend’s wig (Cindy/Evanae) for Anime Expo since I STILL didn’t have a wig.

By AX I had made my scythe, so I was pretty happy about that!

But so much wig angst! I had ordered another wig that came after the summer cons but it was way too light. I thought about dyeing it…but in the meantime I found a wig that was the perfect color. “Milktea ash blonde.” The problem was? I had to style it.

I bit the bullet and styled the wig into two pigtails.(Wig details here on my DeviantART: http://spwinkles.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2clp5s )

By Fanime of THIS year I had my own wig. xD; In the end it all worked out! In retrospect, that very first wig I ordered would have been too light anyway. I am happy with my current one. I just am sad by the loss of money…

REVISIONS: A few revisions were made on Maka since last year. I remade pleated skirt since I found better fabric and I fix up a few buttons after finding out some didn’t hold up so well in the washing machine. xD; BTW, the buttons are metal button covers I found out Jo-Ann. You can buy them in different sizes. I used larger ones for the front of the coat and medium-sized ones for the cuffs. I either used model magic or craftfoam for the big “x”s, hot glued them onto the button covers and then painted the whole thing light gray. I used velcro to keep the white straps in place on the boots instead of snaps, like I did originally. The snaps kept coming off but so far the velcro has held up pretty well.

To see more photos of my Maka cosplay, go here: http://www.acparadise.com/acp/display.php?c=28387

Back tracking to 2007! This post is for

Tohru Honda (Fruits Basket)!

BACKSTORY: Fruits Basket (the manga and anime) has always held a special little place in my heart. I kept up with the manga till the end and I’ve re-watched the anime a few times.

I absolutely LOVE Tohru. She’s just one of those characters who I’d love to have as a friend in real life. When I first got into cosplay, I really wanted to dress up as her but back in 2003/2004, I knew next to nothing about sewing. (I had a Momiji costume commissioned for me back in the day. I love Momiji too! xD)

By 2007, I decided it was time to make a Tohru cosplay! I made her winter uniform since it’s the most recognizable and it’s my favorite of hers. Someday I would still like to make what I call the “Yellow puffy marshmellow dress” that Ayame gave her to wear. I first wore my Tohru cosplay to ALA 2007 and friends joined me in their Furuba cosplays.

One awesome thing abot being Tohru is that I have a lot of friends to cosplay with! (So many people have Furuba cosplays.)

CONSTRUCTION DETAILS:

Even though I felt more confident in my sewing skills by 2007, Tohru is really not the best constructed costume in the world. xD; If I made it NOW, I would use a different pattern for the long-sleeved top and hopefully make a better pleated skirt. (This was the first time I made a pleated skirt.)

Patterns used: Butterick B4609 for the top

Simplicity 9806 for the pleated skirt

This tutorial by Lynleigh for sailor collars: http://www.lynleigh.com/cosplay/ (very helpful!)

DATE COMPLETED: January 2007

For more photos of my Tohru cosplay, go here: http://www.acparadise.com/acp/display.php?c=11677

BACKSTORY: Oh emotastic Roxas. I cosplayed as Sora first but at some point my friend Caitlin (datkate here on tumblr) and I decided we wanted to make Organization XIII coats. She cosplays as Riku so it was just another variation for her. Since I cosplay as Sora, I needed to pick an organization member. Roxas made the most sense! :D

CONSTRUCTION: Making the OrganizationXIII coat was waaay easier than I thought it was going to be. I remember getting about 75-80% of it done in a day. I think part of the reason it was easier for me was because Caitlin had already worked with the pattern before and knew how to alter it. So I just followed that example. It really helped!

The pattern used/altered slightly was Simplicity 5386. We found some really nice black pleather in the Los Angeles Fashion District, as well as long zippers that we connected together to make EXTRA long zippers. xD Black piping is sewed through some of the panels. The extra decals over the zippers near the top of the coat are made from painted wooden spools and model magic. They are all hooked together on a silver chain that’s kept on by snaps.

WIG: Caitlin styled it for me this time! Right before Fanime 2008.

DATE COMPLETED: May 2008

To see more pics of my Roxas cosplay, go here: http://www.acparadise.com/acp/display.php?c=19766

I am putting my Hinata and Kiba cosplays (from Naruto) together since they are very similar to each other—very little sewing was involved, both consist of jackets and they are both part of Team 8! xD

BACKSTORY: I started watching Naruto during my freshman year of college. My friends and I were really into it and that’s also around the time when I started taking cosplay more seriously (ish…) as a hobby. A few of us wanted to make a small group. My friends Ann and Caitlin were going to cosplay as Sakura and Sasuke respectively. My friend Victoria was going to be Iruka and I picked Hinata. I remember even considering Tenten at some point… I thought Hinata was adorable and I thought the byakugan was awesome. 8D (I LOVE Naruto—the character himself—but at the time I didn’t know how I’d make that jacket. I ended up cosplaying as him eventually! It was more as a gag but I ended up having so much fun dressing up as him…I’ll probably have a separate entry for him later.)

Anyway, our little group formed for AX 2005. It was a of fun! This was right when Naruto was REALLY popular but the anime wasn’t licensed in the States yet and no one was sick of Naruto cosplay at that point. Haha, okay maybe some people were.

I’ve cosplayed as Hinata to a number of conventions and photoshoots/cosplay events. This version is SEMI-retired since I used the wig as a part of my Toph wig. (Avatar: The Last Airbender) Maybe if I ever feel like it, I’ll resurrect this version of Hinata and buy a new wig.

At some point in…2006? I decided I wanted to cosplay as Kiba too. I LOVE Team 8. I don’t think they get much love. I even bought glasses to cosplay as Shino too! That…never happened.

Kiba was a ton of fun to cosplay as well! I freaked people out with my contacts and I just looked so different in that costume. Total 360 from Hinata. I also have an Akamaru plushie, which I eventually got signed by Kyle Hebert who voices Kiba in the Naruto dub. For the record—Kyle is an awesome and friendly guy. I guess I was one of the first Kiba cosplayers he had seen. He interviewed me back in 2006 and since then we’ve talked on and off. Every time I see him at a con nowadays we chat. We even happened to live in apartments near each other about a year ago. That was very coincidental and random! xD

I haven’t worn Kiba since AX 2007 (ugh SO HOT that day why did I do that) and I don’t really have plans to wear him again unless someone wants me too~

CONSTRUCTION: There’s not much to say here since I was lucky to find good jackets! Well, I had a flimsy one for Hinata at first but found a much better one later on. For Hinata I just made my own little patches and added fur. For Kiba, I bought two grey jackets because I needed to make a hood. (The jackets were only $5.) I added black fur to the hood and sleeves. The pants were all ones I had found and I added white fabric as “bandages” or whatever those are that all the ninja have on their pant legs. For the Inuzuka face marks I used red theater make-up. The contacts I ordered were from a site I don’t remember—actually, I don’t think it exists anymore. It was nice too because the SFX contacts were pretty cheap.

Oh! One thing I did make was the ninja shoes. I remember very well—my friends and I all stayed up late before Pacific Media Expo 2005 and made our ninja shoe covers. xDD We found REALLY cheap sandals at Payless—they were on sale for like, $2 or something ridiculous. They were actually awesomely comfortable and I still use the second pair I bought to this day. We made shoe covers that we sewed on at points to the shoe and painted the base of the shoes blue.

HAMMMMMMMMMMM

BACKSTORY: Back in October of 2009, I cosplayed as Ponyo from Miyazaki’s film Gake no Ue no Ponyo/Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. I’ve always wanted to cosplay from a Miyazaki film but just never did or got the chance. I fell in love with this movie instantly and decided pick Ponyo as my first Miyazaki cosplay. Though I knew I couldn’t really pull her off age-wise. She’s like…FIVE. And I am not. (She has to be the youngest character I’ve cosplayed ever. Haha.) This is one of my most comfortable cosplays. Hopefully I’ll make more Miyazaki cosplays someday. :D

I have so much fun my other Ponyo-peeps. <33

CONSTRUCTION: Pretty easy! My legs and torso are obviously longer than the character so the big thing I had to watch out for was keeping everything in proportion to my own body.

Patterns used: Simplicy 2777 (for the bloomers)

Dress pattern was Simplicity 8851 and I used the high collar from McCalls 4369.

To see more photos of my Ponyo cosplay, go here: http://www.acparadise.com/acp/display.php?c=31463

Orihime!

Okay, so I’ve done about 4 1/2ish versions of Inoue Orihime. I say 1/2 because I just had to add a sweatervest to make a different version. I am pretty sure she’s the character I have the most versions of, at least right now. Ahiru (from Princess Tutu) is in close second!

I am going to split the versions into 2 sections—the Orihime cosplays I was able to piece together from clothes I had/bought and ones I had to make parts of. This post is for the easy ones.

BACKSTORY: Like Naruto, I got into Bleach early on in my college career thanks to the anime club at my university. I really loved Orihime off the bat but I didn’t really think about cosplaying as her because I am not uhhh….as well endowed as she is. But in the end, I cosplayed as her anyway. For a long stretch of cons I would bring some version of Orihime. She was pretty much my IT cosplay between 2005-2007 because she was fun to cosplay and I had a good number of friends who cosplayed from Bleach too. The last time I wore a version of her was at Comic Con 2008 because of the Tite Kubo panel. That’s also when I met Orihime’s North American VA, Stephanie Sheh. (As well as Michelle Ruff—Rukia’s VA. They really liked the wig. 8D)

CONSTRUCTION: Easy for both of these versions because I just pieced clothes together. I used my real high school uniform skirt and just found a white shirt and added a small red tag for ACCURACY. For the casual!Soul Society version I found a pink shirt and used iron-ons to make the design. Found grey knit pants and sewed red lines to the side….painted some shoes yellow. Really simple!

I found the hairpins on eBay. The wig was bought from someone on Cosplay.com. My friend Ann was the one that found the wig and pointed me to it. It was REALLY hard to find a nice orange wig back in 2005. Nowadays there are a lot of eBay sellers and wig websites that sell great wigs for cosplay in all colors imaginable. I think cosplay has grown as a hobby since ‘05. Unfortunately I’ve just worn Orihime so much that my wig is getting ratty. I’ll buy another one someday if I get back into cosplaying as Orihime. I have at least one more version planned. xD;

For more Orihime photos go here~

School outfit: http://www.acparadise.com/acp/display.php?c=9993

Soul Society Casual: http://www.acparadise.com/acp/display.php?c=9992

So my last blog was about my easier Orihime costumes. This one is for the two that I had to put more effort in. xD

BUT even still, I was able to buy black and hakama (the pleated pants) so that saved a LOT of trouble.

CONSTRUCTION (shinigami!disguise): For the shinigami!disguise outfit I used the Simplicity 4080 pattern for the hakamashita and juban. I first wore it to Anime Expo 2006. When I first made the hakamashita (black top), I had used a really light cotton and sort of messed up on the collar. But! I found a much better, heavier, darker fabric later on and redid it. The armpit slit things look better as does the collar! I am much more pleased with it.

Now that I have a basic shinigami outfit, I can pretty much cosplay as any of the shinigami. I did cosplay as Hanatarou…er….once. I need to wear that again!

CONSTRUCTION (arrancar): The puffy sleeve top+cape thing was about two patterns fused together and altered a bit. I…can’t even remember what patterns I used so I fail. ._. It wasn’t too hard. I have a zipper going down the front so it is easier to put on. I need to fix the collar if I wear it again—it’s pretty messed up.

For the shirt, I knew I couldn’t accomplish that fitted-ness with the materials I chose for the top/cape and I was out of time so a white spandex-y underarmor shirt worked the best. (Got it at Wal-Mart. It can also be bought at any sporting goods store.)

The keyhole-apron thing was pretty much made from scratch. It took me a while to get it fitted right since I used no pattern for it. I had to factor in what my waist size was when wearing the hakama.
In the end I attached my apron to the white under armor so it would stay up. -_-; That is also something I’d re-do if I wore this again.
Arrancar have ungainly costumes!

For more shinigami!disguise photos, go here: http://www.acparadise.com/acp/display.php?c=9994

And for more arrancar ones: http://www.acparadise.com/acp/display.php?c=13501

This will always be one of my favorite cracktastic cosplay pictures. Taken at Anime Los Angeles 2010!

If Mytho can barely dress himself I highly doubt he’d remember to brush his teeth. Fakir has such burdens to bear.

This is what Caitlin and I do at night at a con when we have nothing else to do and have wigs to play with. 8D YUP YUP. We know how to party. (She’s wearing the Fakir wig I styled for Karen. I am wearing her Mythooooooooo wig.)

OK so like….right after I styled my America wig, the ahoge (AKA the hair sticking up! TV tropes I think? gave this style a name. Or at least I learned about the term on there. xD) or, if you will, Nantucket (why) didn’t look quite right to me so I fixed it the next day. xD; And after wearing the wig once to AX, I decided it really needed to be trimmed more and the bangs needed to be styled somemore too. So this is the fixed version! It bothered me that I still had a collage up of the old style. rauguughh.

I still think the layers could be blended better but I was using regular scissors—I don’t have snazzy hair dresser scissors! That would have helped a bunch, I think. Maybe.

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third…!

This is the newest costume I’ve finished before I went on cos-hiatus. I decided to get it done for Comic Con this year because I work better if I have a goal. xD

BACKSTORY: So, I really enjoyed How to Train Your Dragon. When I first saw it, I sort of played the idea of cosplaying from it but didn’t dwell on it too much. After seeing it a second time, I thought, “AH. OK. I DO want to cosplay from it!” And Hiccup was my choice because I think he is adorkable. (I saw the movie like, three more times in the theaters because there’s a theater near me that has$4 Tues./Thurs. Score!)

CONSTRUCTION: Wig from eBay seller wigmad. (With some very light styling/cutting by me.) Pattern used and altered for the top and pants - McCall’s 3789. All fabric was found in the Los Angeles fashion district. I MUST mention that my dad was awesome and bought just about all my fabric for Hiccup. I am not sure why he decided to buy it all for me that day but I will not question it~

I wanted this costume to be all about texture since there is so much of it in Hiccup’s clothes. The shirt is upholstery fabric. .___.; I had to wash it to make it easier to work with. Luuuckily that worked. The costume itself was fairly easy. I was dumb and made a mistake on the pants but I managed to fix it. After all this time, I still hate making pants…

The brown fur SHEDS LIKE CRAZY and when I was cutting it I inhaled so much fur. I know how cats must feel when they get a hairball. Seriously! It was…nasty. In retrospect, I should have made a mock-up before I worked with the brown fur because I kept having to take it in and shorting it and that was a pain.

I think I’ll be fixing the design on the sleeves a bit since I rushed them for Comic Con.

DATE COMPLETED: July 2010

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