So, it's been a while and a lot's happened.
I've lost 23lbs, and would kinda like to lose about 5 more. But I'm close enough that I can start sewing, which is a damn good thing because I've got about 3 months until Sakuracon. How did that even happen? Oh well.
But I've been busy with more than exercise.
I have purchased:
criss-crossed pantyhose
fake silver hoop earrings, 2"
64" of belt blank, 2" wide
64" of folded silver pleather, 1 3/4" wide
1yd of remnant ivory satin
2yd black suiting
black & white thread
1 gathering foot for a Viking sewing machine
1 hemming foot for a Viking sewing machine
1 strapless Le Mystere bra, nude (because it was cheap)
1 pair black Sanita mary janes w/ buckles
I still need to purchase black satiny cloth for the skirt, smoke-colored chiffon for the skirt, and black velvet rope for varying bits of the top. I may also purchase corsetry boning to stiffen up the top, if necessary.
So as you can see, I'm pretty close to being able to start. My first task will be to fashion a pencil skirt out of muslin and then black suiting. It will probably be about 20" long. I'll be cutting it down from there to the low-rise v-front of the skirt and raising the hem so that it doesn't show under the ruffles. I may look for biker's shorts to put underneath, but until I make the skirt I don't know what I need them to look like.
More updates and pictures when I have them! I promise not so long this time.
~Raiphin
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
sketching, a dream of what may be.
I have currently lost 13 lbs, and none of my clothes fit. Go me! I'm aiming for 15-20 now, we'll see how that goes. It almost means I can't quite start sewing yet, which is a shame. But it gives me time for planning, which is good!
I've been looking around the internet recently, seeing how other people have attempted this costume. I'm kind of worried because while some people have done really well, no one has 100% NAILED this costume. When I did Lina Inverse, there were 3 or so people on DeviantArt who had done an AMAZING job, and what I wanted to do most was catch up to them. When I looked at Daitenshi Finn (which I still want to do) there was a girl in...france, possibly? Who just looked phenominal. I'm not sure what that says about the Rock Star Haruhi costume, but it's worrying.
I've started doing sketches so I can figure out the best proportions of things for my body.
The top I can kinda figure out, the bottom...well, that's a bit more haphazard at the moment. In reference pictures the sheer layer is half as long as the top layer and the bottom layer is shorter in the front and longer in the back. That looks weird to me. I'm thinking about doing a skirt that looks more like this:
in terms of proportion, I think having all the tiers longer in the back will look more flattering to my ass. It will also make it harder. See the things I do for cosplay?
I'm studying up on ruffles too, for the skirt. I haven't done much (read: ANY) gathering/ruffling in previous costumes so this is all new territory for me. Horrifying, really. I think I need to make a double (at least) circle skirt for all the layers. That will make ruffles. I am worried about making them bounce and lay right and have volume....perhaps some kind of stealth tulle petticoat/crinoline between each layer. But how do I make it invisible? Or will it just look weird? I don't know yet.
The good news is that I managed to find a cheap honest-to-god Italia guitar. Victory! But it's like, really heavy. Much heavier than I can carry around on a bare shoulder for any length of time. I'll talk more about how I intend to deal with that next time. This weekend my boyfriend's out of town, so I've got a whole weekend to work on this!
(naturally I'll probably do something else entirely.)
~Raiphin
I've been looking around the internet recently, seeing how other people have attempted this costume. I'm kind of worried because while some people have done really well, no one has 100% NAILED this costume. When I did Lina Inverse, there were 3 or so people on DeviantArt who had done an AMAZING job, and what I wanted to do most was catch up to them. When I looked at Daitenshi Finn (which I still want to do) there was a girl in...france, possibly? Who just looked phenominal. I'm not sure what that says about the Rock Star Haruhi costume, but it's worrying.
I've started doing sketches so I can figure out the best proportions of things for my body.
The top I can kinda figure out, the bottom...well, that's a bit more haphazard at the moment. In reference pictures the sheer layer is half as long as the top layer and the bottom layer is shorter in the front and longer in the back. That looks weird to me. I'm thinking about doing a skirt that looks more like this:
in terms of proportion, I think having all the tiers longer in the back will look more flattering to my ass. It will also make it harder. See the things I do for cosplay?
I'm studying up on ruffles too, for the skirt. I haven't done much (read: ANY) gathering/ruffling in previous costumes so this is all new territory for me. Horrifying, really. I think I need to make a double (at least) circle skirt for all the layers. That will make ruffles. I am worried about making them bounce and lay right and have volume....perhaps some kind of stealth tulle petticoat/crinoline between each layer. But how do I make it invisible? Or will it just look weird? I don't know yet.
The good news is that I managed to find a cheap honest-to-god Italia guitar. Victory! But it's like, really heavy. Much heavier than I can carry around on a bare shoulder for any length of time. I'll talk more about how I intend to deal with that next time. This weekend my boyfriend's out of town, so I've got a whole weekend to work on this!
(naturally I'll probably do something else entirely.)
~Raiphin
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Afternoon in Fabric, a photostory.
Today was something of a reconnaissance mission. I've lost 9 pounds since I started this fun, but still have 6-11 to my goal weight. I'm having visible changes now, and need to buy all new pants. Sigh. But while I can't start patterning or cutting fabric quite yet, it does give me time to research what fabric I want to use for the costume.
If you scroll down and stare at Haruhi's costume, you'll see I've got several different kinds of fabric I need to work with, and I need the colors (shades of black, mostly) to be friendly with each other.
There's the bra part of the top, which is white and needs to be gathered top and bottom and be able to have little buttonholes where the black rope will pass through in the top. I'm thinking white suiting for this, and basing it all on a white bra I need to buy but again can't until I'm the right size and all.
There's the base black fabric for the top and the part of the skirt which is not a ruffle. I think these should be the same fabric to sync the two pieces together. I was thinking of thick swimsuit fabric--slick and with a bit of stretch--for the skirt but I realized I don't want that much stretch in the top--I need to get that to fit right and stay put. I want a little 2-way stretch, but I don't want to play with much I found this today, but it was WAY too stretchy...
I may end up just using black suiting for these portions...it's thick and 8$/yard, has a bit of stretch and irons like a dream. We'll see.
I knew what I wanted to use as the top fluffy transparent layer for the skirt, and that's smoky chiffon. I'd like to find one that's brown/black but smoky seems to be what's available. I found this but wasn't sure how much I needed. I just get a foot for my sewing machine last week that finishes chiffon and other things nice and neatly which I'm kind of exciting about getting to break out when the time comes.
Snap, I lied, this is organza. But I'll probably end up with chiffon.
I'm torn on the big ruffly part of the skirt. I looked at duchess satin, (more structured but heavier) and taffeta (lighter and stiff, but too light? would it look silly?) but couldn't pick one to be really good. I'm considering the possibility of doubling the taffeta, and putting a stichery row along the edge of the ruffles and running cord or wire through it to make the ends heavier and maybe sway when I walk....not sure.
I also found satin taffeta at another store, which looked pretty good:
this was a cheap black satin that was 50% off, but there wasn't enough to get to play with. For 3.50/yrd I'd just like to have seen how it did, you know?
in the end I bought 10 yrds of the cheapest muslin I could find and will be playing with draping that on my dress form when I can get the right dimensions on it. I'll take pictures of that amateur hilarity when it happens.
So, the other part of the costume which I've been thinking about is the belt. It looks like an impossibly wide belt that will probably need to be in 2 pieces and glued together to get the angles right. It's got two layers, a gunmetal gray or silver layer on the bottom and a slightly smaller black layer on top that has diamond cut-outs every few inches along the middle. Those are going to be a bitch.
I looked at 2 helpful things today, a thick cord thing that vinyl in the right colors cold be wrapped around, and a thick silver belt-looking thing that is probably too thin, but looks really cool.
The last thing I found may actually be super cool. I found it in the fabric store closest to me which is awesome, but there were a million people in the store and didn't want to deal with it twice (once for the muslin before I found this.)
One of the things that worried me was that on the top there's black that goes up in between her boobs. What the hell is that? How does it attach?
So what I fould was a black velvet...tube. I'm thinking of ransacking an old bra for the underwire, sliding the underwire through the velvet tube, and then hand-sewing it to the top.
Should I mention now how very VERY bad I am at hand-sewing? well, it's all a learning process.
So that's what I've been up to. I'm also working on the guitar, but there's a thing in the works that will very probably fall through but would be super-awesome dance around crazy good.
That's why it probably won't happen.
~Raiphin
If you scroll down and stare at Haruhi's costume, you'll see I've got several different kinds of fabric I need to work with, and I need the colors (shades of black, mostly) to be friendly with each other.
There's the bra part of the top, which is white and needs to be gathered top and bottom and be able to have little buttonholes where the black rope will pass through in the top. I'm thinking white suiting for this, and basing it all on a white bra I need to buy but again can't until I'm the right size and all.
There's the base black fabric for the top and the part of the skirt which is not a ruffle. I think these should be the same fabric to sync the two pieces together. I was thinking of thick swimsuit fabric--slick and with a bit of stretch--for the skirt but I realized I don't want that much stretch in the top--I need to get that to fit right and stay put. I want a little 2-way stretch, but I don't want to play with much I found this today, but it was WAY too stretchy...
I may end up just using black suiting for these portions...it's thick and 8$/yard, has a bit of stretch and irons like a dream. We'll see.
I knew what I wanted to use as the top fluffy transparent layer for the skirt, and that's smoky chiffon. I'd like to find one that's brown/black but smoky seems to be what's available. I found this but wasn't sure how much I needed. I just get a foot for my sewing machine last week that finishes chiffon and other things nice and neatly which I'm kind of exciting about getting to break out when the time comes.
Snap, I lied, this is organza. But I'll probably end up with chiffon.
I'm torn on the big ruffly part of the skirt. I looked at duchess satin, (more structured but heavier) and taffeta (lighter and stiff, but too light? would it look silly?) but couldn't pick one to be really good. I'm considering the possibility of doubling the taffeta, and putting a stichery row along the edge of the ruffles and running cord or wire through it to make the ends heavier and maybe sway when I walk....not sure.
I also found satin taffeta at another store, which looked pretty good:
this was a cheap black satin that was 50% off, but there wasn't enough to get to play with. For 3.50/yrd I'd just like to have seen how it did, you know?
in the end I bought 10 yrds of the cheapest muslin I could find and will be playing with draping that on my dress form when I can get the right dimensions on it. I'll take pictures of that amateur hilarity when it happens.
So, the other part of the costume which I've been thinking about is the belt. It looks like an impossibly wide belt that will probably need to be in 2 pieces and glued together to get the angles right. It's got two layers, a gunmetal gray or silver layer on the bottom and a slightly smaller black layer on top that has diamond cut-outs every few inches along the middle. Those are going to be a bitch.
I looked at 2 helpful things today, a thick cord thing that vinyl in the right colors cold be wrapped around, and a thick silver belt-looking thing that is probably too thin, but looks really cool.
The last thing I found may actually be super cool. I found it in the fabric store closest to me which is awesome, but there were a million people in the store and didn't want to deal with it twice (once for the muslin before I found this.)
One of the things that worried me was that on the top there's black that goes up in between her boobs. What the hell is that? How does it attach?
So what I fould was a black velvet...tube. I'm thinking of ransacking an old bra for the underwire, sliding the underwire through the velvet tube, and then hand-sewing it to the top.
Should I mention now how very VERY bad I am at hand-sewing? well, it's all a learning process.
So that's what I've been up to. I'm also working on the guitar, but there's a thing in the works that will very probably fall through but would be super-awesome dance around crazy good.
That's why it probably won't happen.
~Raiphin
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Rock Star(t) Haruhi
So you get to come with me through my next big project, which I'll try to write about as it's in progress and not just at the end. There may be a lot of swearing.
So as I mentioned, for Sakuracon 2010, my big new costume will be Rock Star Haruhi:
I'm starting now for several reasons. The first is that I'm working on losing 10 to 15lbs for this costume. It's the first midrif-baring costume I've worn since Black Rose which was a BAD decision at the time. I want to do this RIGHT and that means flatter tummy that jiggles less.
It also means I have to lose the weight, make the costume, and then STAY that weight for at least as long as I want to wear the costume. Sounds easy, right?
I'm in the losing-weight part right now, in addition to gathering supplies and searching for the right guitar componants. The guitar is an Italia Mondial Classic and she uses both a red version and one called "Tobacco Sunburst." They look pretty much like this:
Only, y'know, red and/or brownish black. The problem? That's a $600+ guitar there. For the record, I cannot play the guitar. So that's good! It means I lose nothing by having a guitar that doesn't actually play. Which is good since I think I'm going to jimmy the hell out of the thing anyway.
My plan right now is to buy a guitar neck that has that shiny inlay (or something that mimics it, like reflective tape maybe...?) and attach it to a guitar body. Now, I've discovered that NO OTHER MAKERS have that exact style of body, but some look like this:
Now, that pink one instead of having two horns, one on each side, has the complete curve o the left side. BUT I've got friends with powertools, and I'm thinking we could just slice on through that bit (carefully) and get something about the right shape. Guitars are mostly made of wood because that's the only thing that can withstand the stress of the strings, so I know more or less what I'll be working with. I'll talk about that more when I have the actual guitar to work with.
More on skirts and fabric and belt options later!
~Raiphin
So as I mentioned, for Sakuracon 2010, my big new costume will be Rock Star Haruhi:
I'm starting now for several reasons. The first is that I'm working on losing 10 to 15lbs for this costume. It's the first midrif-baring costume I've worn since Black Rose which was a BAD decision at the time. I want to do this RIGHT and that means flatter tummy that jiggles less.
It also means I have to lose the weight, make the costume, and then STAY that weight for at least as long as I want to wear the costume. Sounds easy, right?
I'm in the losing-weight part right now, in addition to gathering supplies and searching for the right guitar componants. The guitar is an Italia Mondial Classic and she uses both a red version and one called "Tobacco Sunburst." They look pretty much like this:
Only, y'know, red and/or brownish black. The problem? That's a $600+ guitar there. For the record, I cannot play the guitar. So that's good! It means I lose nothing by having a guitar that doesn't actually play. Which is good since I think I'm going to jimmy the hell out of the thing anyway.
My plan right now is to buy a guitar neck that has that shiny inlay (or something that mimics it, like reflective tape maybe...?) and attach it to a guitar body. Now, I've discovered that NO OTHER MAKERS have that exact style of body, but some look like this:
Now, that pink one instead of having two horns, one on each side, has the complete curve o the left side. BUT I've got friends with powertools, and I'm thinking we could just slice on through that bit (carefully) and get something about the right shape. Guitars are mostly made of wood because that's the only thing that can withstand the stress of the strings, so I know more or less what I'll be working with. I'll talk about that more when I have the actual guitar to work with.
More on skirts and fabric and belt options later!
~Raiphin
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Cardboard Tube Samurai v2: Work in Progress
The costume I'm working on at the moment is for PAX 2009. It's actually a revisit of a costume I did in 2006, but it was so popular (and comfortable and fun) I just had to do it again...
The costume is Cardboard Tube Samurai from Penny Arcade. Appropriately, PAX is the Penny Arcade Expo. I've been reading Penny Arcade (penny-arcade.com if you're amazingly oblivious) since I was 16. For anyone who's counting that's about to be 10 years.
reference pic:
my 2006 iteration:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2504/3695750031_bec1bfd835_o.jpg (hint: I'm not the Gundam.)
It's a simple costume--I'm using a basic karate gi pattern right now with gold ponte for the main. I'd bought black ponte knit for the bands and pacman(s) but it somehow looked really cheap so I've cut out JUST BARELY enough from the black suiting material I used for Lina Inverse's cape. The good news is if it's not enough, black suiting fabric is easy to come by.
I bought an L/XL pattern and have cut out all the fabric. I sewed the gold part of the pants together yesterday, and then discovered that somehow it was not only weirdly short (and I'd added an inch or two to the bottom anyway.) but the CROTCH was INSANE and yes I want Project Runway, shut up. If I haul the crotch up to where it should be the top of the pants is, like, under my boobs. WTF?
So I took the sides in tonight, and tomorrow I'll either cut the waistband down or sew the shirt instead and wait to figure out what I'm going to do about the pants. I think I can cut down the waistband and that'll make them a bit short on the bottom but I'm attaching huge black cuffs anyway, it'll be easy to add an inch or two to the bottom and no one will ever know.
Except you, but you'll keep my secret, right?
~Raiphin
The costume is Cardboard Tube Samurai from Penny Arcade. Appropriately, PAX is the Penny Arcade Expo. I've been reading Penny Arcade (penny-arcade.com if you're amazingly oblivious) since I was 16. For anyone who's counting that's about to be 10 years.
reference pic:
my 2006 iteration:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2504/3695750031_bec1bfd835_o.jpg (hint: I'm not the Gundam.)
It's a simple costume--I'm using a basic karate gi pattern right now with gold ponte for the main. I'd bought black ponte knit for the bands and pacman(s) but it somehow looked really cheap so I've cut out JUST BARELY enough from the black suiting material I used for Lina Inverse's cape. The good news is if it's not enough, black suiting fabric is easy to come by.
I bought an L/XL pattern and have cut out all the fabric. I sewed the gold part of the pants together yesterday, and then discovered that somehow it was not only weirdly short (and I'd added an inch or two to the bottom anyway.) but the CROTCH was INSANE and yes I want Project Runway, shut up. If I haul the crotch up to where it should be the top of the pants is, like, under my boobs. WTF?
So I took the sides in tonight, and tomorrow I'll either cut the waistband down or sew the shirt instead and wait to figure out what I'm going to do about the pants. I think I can cut down the waistband and that'll make them a bit short on the bottom but I'm attaching huge black cuffs anyway, it'll be easy to add an inch or two to the bottom and no one will ever know.
Except you, but you'll keep my secret, right?
~Raiphin
Monday, August 3, 2009
Where to Begin: Rock Star Haruhi
posting about my old costumes got kinda hung up on the one I'm least proud of. We'll get there.
But I'm starting to brainstorm how I'm going to do Rock Star Haruhi for Sakuracon 2010....yes, that's a while from now, and it's a whole lot of design work I'm not familiar with at all. YAY.
The costume looks like this:
I'm using the figure as my reference because it's got the best, most consistant 360 degree view.
Hard parts:
making the guitar look realistic
getting the top to fit right, and possibly comfortably.
making sure the skirt has volume, bounces, and possibly lets me sit down.
finding the perfect tights
finding the perfect jewelry
Hardest part:
keeping enough track of my weight/exercise to minimize belly jiggle.
Already accomplished:
got the wig! looks awesome! But a bit long in the back.
Got the shoes! Need to be red-ified, maybe not as comfy as I need. Look cute though.
more as I think about it!
But I'm starting to brainstorm how I'm going to do Rock Star Haruhi for Sakuracon 2010....yes, that's a while from now, and it's a whole lot of design work I'm not familiar with at all. YAY.
The costume looks like this:
I'm using the figure as my reference because it's got the best, most consistant 360 degree view.
Hard parts:
making the guitar look realistic
getting the top to fit right, and possibly comfortably.
making sure the skirt has volume, bounces, and possibly lets me sit down.
finding the perfect tights
finding the perfect jewelry
Hardest part:
keeping enough track of my weight/exercise to minimize belly jiggle.
Already accomplished:
got the wig! looks awesome! But a bit long in the back.
Got the shoes! Need to be red-ified, maybe not as comfy as I need. Look cute though.
more as I think about it!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Meroko Yui & the Top Hat of Doom
Costume: Meroko Yui, Full Moon wo Sagashite
Cons: Sakuracon 2003, Sakuracon 2004
Pictures: Yes! See end of post.
I started watching Full Moon wo Sagashite the spring/summer of 2002 when the anime came out in Japan. My best friend Robin and I would watch it and giggle. Arina Tanemura! This was my first introduction to her as an artist, and I LOVED her costumes--Especially Meroko's. I'm not always the girliest of girls but a bunny girl with red and ruffles and a top hat AND wings?
Sign me UP.
Meroko's anime costume looks like this:
(I chose the anime because I thought it translated better to real life and my body type.)
Adorable, no? I thought it would be fairly easy for my friend who could sew to construct, and I could concentrate on the wings and hat and making THAT work.
I was kind of new at this thing.
The top hat started out black and came from ebay. I bought the bunny ears during easter, sliced off the head-band, and hot glued them to the hat. I actually still have this hat, although the ears are pretty wilted by now. But that hat?
Oooh boy, I'm wearing that hat for the apocalypse.
To turn the hat red--and I don't reccamend this at all--I took acryllic paint and just went to town. Coat after coat, bottle after bottle, I painted and waited and dried and repeated. And now? You can knock on it and have oit make a satisfying noise. Terrifying. But effective.
As for the hair...wigs squicked me out at the time, and my hair WAS long enough, so I opted to just wear it down and go with it. I think it worked for the color combinations, I've always been kind of leery of the combination of red-and-pink in terms of clothes and hair...but now I'm kinda sorry I didn't--because I LOVE pink hair. But that's a topic for an entry down the line.
I got the lace trim from Wal-mart, because I saw it there and it was PERFECT--white and shiny just a little crinkly for texture. It went well with the crepe satin I got for the red parts of the outft.
I know, I know--shiny satin is SOOOO tweenage amatuer bad choice fabric. But for this costume it seemed....fitting. I did make sure not to get just CHEAP satin or plain dress satin, I got something with-again-a bit of texture. I loved the way it turned out.
Now, remember when I talked about the sewing portion being easy? That was a lie, a bad bad lie. I had the idea to make a bra-base and sew the the red satin to it, but apparently trying to get that to work and stretch was hell on earth. (Don't try and sew stretch to not stretch and then expect it to stretch, I've learned...at least, not unless you're very VERY good.)
So at about 10pm the night before the convention my friend who sews comes in and says, 'I'm done. It's not happening.' And hell, she's doing this because I asked real nice, right?
So I say, "Fine, good, get some sleep or something." And I break out the two most important tools in my cosplay arsenal.
Know them, love them: hot glue and hope.
I'm still a skinny girl at this point, right? mostly. So I got glue elastic to satin, lace to satin, anything and everything to something else. This costume really WAS held together by hot glue, to the point where I'm less ashamed than I am ruefully impressed with what I accomplished. Around midnight I pulled the whole thing together--including my extremely stylish elastic-band-and-staple garter belt for the thigh highs--and put it on for the first time.
It worked, it was wonderful. And I swore to never cut it that close time-wise again. And I'm succeeded. How many cosplayers can say that!
At the conventions...Meroko was very well received, although I always got asked why I didn't have Takuto (Meroko's partner and love interest) with me! I hate that question! If he's not there, there's a reason! Way to rub it in. ~_~ But ANYWAYS.....the other thing about the costume was the....well, the amount of skin, really. I never wear strapless things, and I'll wear things for conventions that I'd never wear normally--and a tube top and mini skirt is the least I've ever worn, and probably ever will.
I got ogled.
A lot.
...and it made me kinda nervous.
Which is silly, isn't it? I chose to wear the stupid thing, getting dressed up like a big red lacy dessert and getting weirded out for getting looked at? I dug my own grave. But it still squicked me out, and I took Meroko off by Friday afternoon in 2003 just to get a break from it all.
I entered the costume contest that year too, which was silly in retrospect because there were much, much more complicated costumes out there but I can say I've done it now, which is something. It took almost all of my Saturday but I really enjoyed the people I was in line with, everyone was awesome and it was a positive group experience. But I still won't do it again--I like my saturdays!
Okay, I've rambled on enough about this costume. I loved it, and I felt I owned it more than I had Tohru because of all the work that went into it. I figured that for the following year I should pick something more props-oriented, since that was my area of expertise and I felt bad for making my friend sew all my costumes.
It sounded like a good idea at the time.
Moment of Win:
There's a guy who goes to every Sakuracon. I think his name is Chris. On Friday he was briefly crossplaying as a Ganguro girl and he hunted me down and together we clasped hands and kicked up a leg and giggled for the camera. Priceless. I'd do anything to get that picture.
Pictures:
Cons: Sakuracon 2003, Sakuracon 2004
Pictures: Yes! See end of post.
I started watching Full Moon wo Sagashite the spring/summer of 2002 when the anime came out in Japan. My best friend Robin and I would watch it and giggle. Arina Tanemura! This was my first introduction to her as an artist, and I LOVED her costumes--Especially Meroko's. I'm not always the girliest of girls but a bunny girl with red and ruffles and a top hat AND wings?
Sign me UP.
Meroko's anime costume looks like this:
(I chose the anime because I thought it translated better to real life and my body type.)
Adorable, no? I thought it would be fairly easy for my friend who could sew to construct, and I could concentrate on the wings and hat and making THAT work.
I was kind of new at this thing.
The top hat started out black and came from ebay. I bought the bunny ears during easter, sliced off the head-band, and hot glued them to the hat. I actually still have this hat, although the ears are pretty wilted by now. But that hat?
Oooh boy, I'm wearing that hat for the apocalypse.
To turn the hat red--and I don't reccamend this at all--I took acryllic paint and just went to town. Coat after coat, bottle after bottle, I painted and waited and dried and repeated. And now? You can knock on it and have oit make a satisfying noise. Terrifying. But effective.
As for the hair...wigs squicked me out at the time, and my hair WAS long enough, so I opted to just wear it down and go with it. I think it worked for the color combinations, I've always been kind of leery of the combination of red-and-pink in terms of clothes and hair...but now I'm kinda sorry I didn't--because I LOVE pink hair. But that's a topic for an entry down the line.
I got the lace trim from Wal-mart, because I saw it there and it was PERFECT--white and shiny just a little crinkly for texture. It went well with the crepe satin I got for the red parts of the outft.
I know, I know--shiny satin is SOOOO tweenage amatuer bad choice fabric. But for this costume it seemed....fitting. I did make sure not to get just CHEAP satin or plain dress satin, I got something with-again-a bit of texture. I loved the way it turned out.
Now, remember when I talked about the sewing portion being easy? That was a lie, a bad bad lie. I had the idea to make a bra-base and sew the the red satin to it, but apparently trying to get that to work and stretch was hell on earth. (Don't try and sew stretch to not stretch and then expect it to stretch, I've learned...at least, not unless you're very VERY good.)
So at about 10pm the night before the convention my friend who sews comes in and says, 'I'm done. It's not happening.' And hell, she's doing this because I asked real nice, right?
So I say, "Fine, good, get some sleep or something." And I break out the two most important tools in my cosplay arsenal.
Know them, love them: hot glue and hope.
I'm still a skinny girl at this point, right? mostly. So I got glue elastic to satin, lace to satin, anything and everything to something else. This costume really WAS held together by hot glue, to the point where I'm less ashamed than I am ruefully impressed with what I accomplished. Around midnight I pulled the whole thing together--including my extremely stylish elastic-band-and-staple garter belt for the thigh highs--and put it on for the first time.
It worked, it was wonderful. And I swore to never cut it that close time-wise again. And I'm succeeded. How many cosplayers can say that!
At the conventions...Meroko was very well received, although I always got asked why I didn't have Takuto (Meroko's partner and love interest) with me! I hate that question! If he's not there, there's a reason! Way to rub it in. ~_~ But ANYWAYS.....the other thing about the costume was the....well, the amount of skin, really. I never wear strapless things, and I'll wear things for conventions that I'd never wear normally--and a tube top and mini skirt is the least I've ever worn, and probably ever will.
I got ogled.
A lot.
...and it made me kinda nervous.
Which is silly, isn't it? I chose to wear the stupid thing, getting dressed up like a big red lacy dessert and getting weirded out for getting looked at? I dug my own grave. But it still squicked me out, and I took Meroko off by Friday afternoon in 2003 just to get a break from it all.
I entered the costume contest that year too, which was silly in retrospect because there were much, much more complicated costumes out there but I can say I've done it now, which is something. It took almost all of my Saturday but I really enjoyed the people I was in line with, everyone was awesome and it was a positive group experience. But I still won't do it again--I like my saturdays!
Okay, I've rambled on enough about this costume. I loved it, and I felt I owned it more than I had Tohru because of all the work that went into it. I figured that for the following year I should pick something more props-oriented, since that was my area of expertise and I felt bad for making my friend sew all my costumes.
It sounded like a good idea at the time.
Moment of Win:
There's a guy who goes to every Sakuracon. I think his name is Chris. On Friday he was briefly crossplaying as a Ganguro girl and he hunted me down and together we clasped hands and kicked up a leg and giggled for the camera. Priceless. I'd do anything to get that picture.
Pictures:
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Honda Tohru & My First Convention-Sakuracon 2002
Costume: Honda Tohru, Fruits Basket
Cons: Sakuracon 2002, A-kon 2002
Pictures: None, sadly.
I cosplayed to my first convention, and a damned good job it was for someone with no access to a sewing machine and too poor to buy much of...anything, really. Hail college! I'm just sad I have no pictures of it and the con was so long ago that any online pictures are long since lost to the interweb.
I decided on Honda Tohru from Fruits Basket. The anime had come out during my freshman year, and it was one of the first series that I watched together with the people who became my best friends in college. It was a good series, and good moments to remember. And Kyou was HAWT let's not forget.
Tohru in her school uniform looks like this:
Now, considering I was a stick-thin 18 year old with waist-length dark brown hair, you can see how this outfit would appeal to me. And actually, making this costume was almost ridiculously easy--but only because I got really lucky at Goodwill.
What I found for the base garments were darker than the source pictures, but when you've found a tennis skirt and blazer the right size and length you just kinda roll with it. They were perfect--except her outfit's got white on it.
This was where one of my good friends who could sew came in. In a stunningly selfless move, she sewed all the white parts out of white fabric by hand and attached them to the blazer just because I asked real nice. Friends are cool.
The blue lines on Tohru's cuffs and whatnot were from the fabric store, I think they're used to bind edges or something but they were the perfect color and length. I think we iron them on.
I got blue ribbon for my hair from Wal-Mart if I recall, and the shoes from Goodwill. Knee-high socks came from my closet.
It was a simple, adorable outfit but it came out great. Only problem was that Fruits Basket was so new, and torrenting so unknown, that almost no one knew who I was! I had maybe 5 or 6 pictures taken, but by then it was too late. I was hooked.
I loved it. Cosplay was like being able to wear a sign that said, "Look how clever I am!" while at the same time advertising for other people with shared interests. Sign me UP.
Moment of Win:
I took this costume to A-kon 2002. I'm from Texas but when to Seattle for college and never came back--except for summers. My parents let me drag them up to Dallas, but I had to get to and from the convention on my own. Fortunately there were shuttles.
After the dance on Saturday night, I tropped back to the shuttle pick-up spot to wait for the one that went to my hotel. I'm still dressed as Tohru, and looked about 12. It's about 11pm.
As I'm sitting there, one of the hotel shuttles--not mine--pulls over. I'm kind of freaked out by this. A man sticks his head out the van's door and calls out, "Are you okay, young lady? Do you have a ride coming?"
I realize he's bought it, hook line and sinker. My first real cosplay.
Cons: Sakuracon 2002, A-kon 2002
Pictures: None, sadly.
I cosplayed to my first convention, and a damned good job it was for someone with no access to a sewing machine and too poor to buy much of...anything, really. Hail college! I'm just sad I have no pictures of it and the con was so long ago that any online pictures are long since lost to the interweb.
I decided on Honda Tohru from Fruits Basket. The anime had come out during my freshman year, and it was one of the first series that I watched together with the people who became my best friends in college. It was a good series, and good moments to remember. And Kyou was HAWT let's not forget.
Tohru in her school uniform looks like this:
Now, considering I was a stick-thin 18 year old with waist-length dark brown hair, you can see how this outfit would appeal to me. And actually, making this costume was almost ridiculously easy--but only because I got really lucky at Goodwill.
What I found for the base garments were darker than the source pictures, but when you've found a tennis skirt and blazer the right size and length you just kinda roll with it. They were perfect--except her outfit's got white on it.
This was where one of my good friends who could sew came in. In a stunningly selfless move, she sewed all the white parts out of white fabric by hand and attached them to the blazer just because I asked real nice. Friends are cool.
The blue lines on Tohru's cuffs and whatnot were from the fabric store, I think they're used to bind edges or something but they were the perfect color and length. I think we iron them on.
I got blue ribbon for my hair from Wal-Mart if I recall, and the shoes from Goodwill. Knee-high socks came from my closet.
It was a simple, adorable outfit but it came out great. Only problem was that Fruits Basket was so new, and torrenting so unknown, that almost no one knew who I was! I had maybe 5 or 6 pictures taken, but by then it was too late. I was hooked.
I loved it. Cosplay was like being able to wear a sign that said, "Look how clever I am!" while at the same time advertising for other people with shared interests. Sign me UP.
Moment of Win:
I took this costume to A-kon 2002. I'm from Texas but when to Seattle for college and never came back--except for summers. My parents let me drag them up to Dallas, but I had to get to and from the convention on my own. Fortunately there were shuttles.
After the dance on Saturday night, I tropped back to the shuttle pick-up spot to wait for the one that went to my hotel. I'm still dressed as Tohru, and looked about 12. It's about 11pm.
As I'm sitting there, one of the hotel shuttles--not mine--pulls over. I'm kind of freaked out by this. A man sticks his head out the van's door and calls out, "Are you okay, young lady? Do you have a ride coming?"
I realize he's bought it, hook line and sinker. My first real cosplay.
A cosplayer remembers: The beginning.
Technically, Honda Tohru wasn't first time I cosplayed. In 2001--my freshman year in college (yes, I'm old, shut UP.)--my anime club had a Halloween cosplay contest and I dressed up as Shampoo from Ranma 1/2. My hair was long enough and I faked her hair buns with squares of cloth, scrunchies, and a pair of socks. I wore what I called my 'oriental hooker dress' which was a cheongsam in orange...It wasn't bad, for an afternoon's hectic attempt.
I didn't win though--one of the girls there in addition to being SUPER HOT had a fantastic Mireille from Noir. But it was a start.
It was thinking, "I can do better than this."
Looking back, I guess it was pretty gutsy to prance up to the front of a room of people I barely knew in nothing much and say, 'lookit me!!' but I was pretty impressed with myself at age barely 18.
To be fair, weird outfits and attention-whoring always came pretty natural to me, I just got subtler and better at it as I got older.
I'm going to blame my parents though. They started it. Well no, it may have been me, but they made it so much worse.
It started with skating--roller skating, but the competitive kind. How early '90s is that? Don't answer. Anyway, I wasn't too bad at it so for a good span of years every couple of months I got tarted up in some little sparkly spandex thing and smeared with stage make-up and sent out to have a rink full of people watch me try and hit my loops and axles. I did a mean shoot the duck too.
While the skating scene palled after a while (I wasn't dedicated enough to go state level) I had been stripped of something important--a fear of spandex and looking ridiculous in front of crowds. Have you seen a 7 year old girl in full stage make-up from the '90s? Ooh, tiny hooker, where has your tiny brothell gone?
It's really all downhill from there, I suppose.
~Raiphin
I didn't win though--one of the girls there in addition to being SUPER HOT had a fantastic Mireille from Noir. But it was a start.
It was thinking, "I can do better than this."
Looking back, I guess it was pretty gutsy to prance up to the front of a room of people I barely knew in nothing much and say, 'lookit me!!' but I was pretty impressed with myself at age barely 18.
To be fair, weird outfits and attention-whoring always came pretty natural to me, I just got subtler and better at it as I got older.
I'm going to blame my parents though. They started it. Well no, it may have been me, but they made it so much worse.
It started with skating--roller skating, but the competitive kind. How early '90s is that? Don't answer. Anyway, I wasn't too bad at it so for a good span of years every couple of months I got tarted up in some little sparkly spandex thing and smeared with stage make-up and sent out to have a rink full of people watch me try and hit my loops and axles. I did a mean shoot the duck too.
While the skating scene palled after a while (I wasn't dedicated enough to go state level) I had been stripped of something important--a fear of spandex and looking ridiculous in front of crowds. Have you seen a 7 year old girl in full stage make-up from the '90s? Ooh, tiny hooker, where has your tiny brothell gone?
It's really all downhill from there, I suppose.
~Raiphin
Saturday, June 20, 2009
A list of Successes, sometimes for a given definition of "Success."
Here's my cosplay resume, if you will. Descriptions will arrive in reverse order, and pictures where I have them!
First Costume:
Honda Tohru, Fruits Basket (2002, Sakuracon)
Second Costume:
Meroko Yui, Full Moon wo Sagashite (2003/2004, Sakuracon)
Third Costume:
Black Rise, .Hack the game (2004, Sakuracon)
Fourth Costume:
Kaitou Jeanne, Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne (2005, Sakuracon)
Fifth Costume:
Cardboard Tube Samurai, Penny Arcade (2006, Sakuracon)
Sixth Costume:
Yuuko, XXXHolic (2007, Sakuracon)
Seventh Costume:
Hinamori Amu, Shugo Chara (2007 Kumoricon, 2008 Sakuracon)
Eighth Costume:
Lina Inverse, Slayers NEXT version (2008/2009 Sakuracon, 2008 Kumoricon)
Ninth Costume:
Hinamori Amu blue version, Shugo Chara (2008 Kumoricon, 2009 Sakuracon)
Tenth Costume:
Time Stranger Kyoko, Time Stranger Kyoko (2009 Sakuracon)
Ten costumes....I know it's so many fewer than some people do, but they meant a great deal to me anyway. *sniff*
Good memories, good times.
~Raiphin
First Costume:
Honda Tohru, Fruits Basket (2002, Sakuracon)
Second Costume:
Meroko Yui, Full Moon wo Sagashite (2003/2004, Sakuracon)
Third Costume:
Black Rise, .Hack the game (2004, Sakuracon)
Fourth Costume:
Kaitou Jeanne, Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne (2005, Sakuracon)
Fifth Costume:
Cardboard Tube Samurai, Penny Arcade (2006, Sakuracon)
Sixth Costume:
Yuuko, XXXHolic (2007, Sakuracon)
Seventh Costume:
Hinamori Amu, Shugo Chara (2007 Kumoricon, 2008 Sakuracon)
Eighth Costume:
Lina Inverse, Slayers NEXT version (2008/2009 Sakuracon, 2008 Kumoricon)
Ninth Costume:
Hinamori Amu blue version, Shugo Chara (2008 Kumoricon, 2009 Sakuracon)
Tenth Costume:
Time Stranger Kyoko, Time Stranger Kyoko (2009 Sakuracon)
Ten costumes....I know it's so many fewer than some people do, but they meant a great deal to me anyway. *sniff*
Good memories, good times.
~Raiphin
Introduction to Surviving Cosplay
I recognise that sometimes what holds my costumes and props together is hope and hot glue.
It is my goal then, that everything I learn though screwing up, breaking things, and getting more burns than seem really necessary can hopefully be of use to someone else and they can skip to the fun part at the end.
I've been cosplaying since 2002, but didn't get really hardcore about it until 2006. The next entry is a list of my costumes, and I'm intending to do little bios about each one and include pictures where I can. After that I'm going to start entries about my upcoming costumes, so that the in depth screwy process of making them come together can be seen. Will there be magic or mayhem?
Both, duh, this is cosplay.
All you can do is prepare for the worst.
And that's why this is my guide to surviving cosplay.
~Raiphin
6/20/09
It is my goal then, that everything I learn though screwing up, breaking things, and getting more burns than seem really necessary can hopefully be of use to someone else and they can skip to the fun part at the end.
I've been cosplaying since 2002, but didn't get really hardcore about it until 2006. The next entry is a list of my costumes, and I'm intending to do little bios about each one and include pictures where I can. After that I'm going to start entries about my upcoming costumes, so that the in depth screwy process of making them come together can be seen. Will there be magic or mayhem?
Both, duh, this is cosplay.
All you can do is prepare for the worst.
And that's why this is my guide to surviving cosplay.
~Raiphin
6/20/09
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