Saya progress part x

What, I update two days in a row? How cool isn't that? I'll tell you the reason why. Frostbite is closing in, and I'm not done with my cosplays yet. Fuck. And I haven't worked seriously on Saya since I don't know when. Double fuck. But hope is not yet lost! Today I got my lazy ass out of the couch and onto the chair in front of my fancy sewing machine from the mid 80's.
I decided to finish the sleeves on Sayas shirt (they should have been done two weeks ago according to my fancy work schedule I made for myself, ahahah. No.), and it wasn't as difficult as I had imagined, everything went along quite smoothly actually, even though sleeves have always been my sworn enemy, I never get them right. I think this was the first time I've actually manages to make the sleeve and the sleevehole on the actual shirt match in size on the first try. I figured out that hey, you can actually MEASURE the parts and see if they'll fit before trying to sew the sleeve on. 10 points to me, good job figuring that out after those.. 4? cosplays I made earlier. 
After I got the two sleeves in place I figured I could treat myself with a little working on Kanaya, so I made the actual belt part and attached the symbol to it. I also ordered a wig for her from this new wig site, and I'm excited to see how it looks like. Whenever I get it, that is.

The left sleeve which has that fancy black thing

around the arm below the sleeve itself. I still need to iron

both the sleeves and the shirt itself...

Kanaya belt, sorry for the blurry pic on the left, my hand

got really shaky o__o I shouldn't enjoy making

this cosplay so much, it's taking over the time I should

use for my main projects.

I did try to take some pictures of the entire Saya outfit, but they got blurry due to my shaky hands... But you'll get some pics of the whole thing someday, eventually. 

EDIT: I just remembered, I was going to ask your opinion on what color I should make my skin when cosplaying Kanaya. There is the option to make it the regular troll gray, all the cosplayers I've seen who have done her red dress version have done that. But I could also make it white, due to certain things happening quite recently in the comic (I'm not spoiling anything~) that led to a change in her skin tone. So, which one do you think I should go with? ^^

/Amanda

Trolls, Christmas and Cameras

Firstly, Merry Christmas to all of you, even if I'm a bit late with wishing you that haha.  I've had a good Christmas so far, and I hope you all have eaten lots of tasty foods and gotten lots of nice presents, I know for sure I did. My main Christmas gift would be a new camera (seriously, thank you mom and dad, now I won't have to use that shitty compact camera from 2008 anymore at cons). It's a Nikon Coolpix P500, if anyone is interested, it kinda looks like a mix between a fancy DSLR and a regular compact camera, and it's pretty damn good, I can't wait until I get to try it out for real, I've just been taking some pics at home so far. ^^

                                          Just two pics I took with it when trying it out~


In other news, I just added another cosplay to my plans, Kanaya from Homestuck. I am not sure of what specific version yet, but I'm aiming for her red dress version, I just love that one, it matches her overall classiness. Red dresses are just fabulous too~ And she has a chainsaw, I've always wanted to do a cosplay with a chainsaw.

  Hey sexy lady~

As there has been lots of Christmas dinners and family reunions and whatnot these past days I haven't been able to work too many hours, so rather than continuing working on Saya, who I like to spend lots of time on once I start, I've made some small details for Kanaya instead, I've worked on the horns and the sign on her belt.

The horns while I was sanding them. Not the smartest

thing to do when you've just cleaned your floor, the dust is

getting everywhere, but oh well, what wouldn't I do for cosplay?

I still have to attach these to a headband and paint them, obviously.

The belt symbol, before I cut it out and and after cutting and painting. 

Tomorrow is the first day of the huge Christmas sale too, and I might be going into town if I feel like it to see if I can find something usable for upcoming cosplays now that I've got money after Christmas too.


/Amanda

Yes, I'm still alive

I've been up to quite a lot lately, but unfortunately not many cosplay related things. But my updates should be more frequent as Christmas holiday comes around, as I'll have tons of time to finish Saya up, and maybe even start some new projects, I do have some simpler ones in mind, that I haven't yet posted anything about because I'm not too sure they will happen. One thing that's for sure is that most of these yet not mentioned projects involve Homestuck~


I did attempt to style the wig I'm going to use for Saya this past weekend though, but I haven't posted anything about is because I don't know if I like the result or plainly hate it, but now I figured that some feedback would be good, so I'm going to post said pics anyway, and I'd love to have some feedback on the wig, especially on the bangs, I tried for a little more cartoony look this time, and as previously stated, I don't know what I think about it...

 

I'm sorry for the crappy picture, it's the only one I could find..

Now that I've gotten that out of the world I'll talk about something completely different. I saw on another cosplay blog that the blogger had made this review kind of thing of her cosplay year 2011, and I figured it'd be fun to do something similar, especially as I feel really in the writing mood today. ^^

So, I guess I'll just start then!

It all begun in January 2011, when me and this awesome person decided to go to a con together.  It was my first time ever to go to a con, but I knew quite a bit about cosplay already, as I had been interested in it for over a year, but I had just never actually gotten as far as doing it. But that'd soon change. I started working on my very first cosplay, Bernkastel from Uminkeo no Naku Koro ni. I figured it'd be quite a challenge, but ironically it turned out to be much simpler to make than I thought it'd be. In fact, it's still one of my favorite cosplays, if not my most favorite, construction wise. I debuted it at Bakacon in May and I had lots of fun wearing it, and lots of people wanted photos of me and my friend cosplaying Lambdadelta from the same series. I also got a lot of compliments on my costume, and it truly was an awesome experience throughout. Now I knew for real that cosplay was something I wanted to devote my time to. 

                  

 
Just a couple of pics of my Bernkastel~




I decided that I'd go to another con as soon as possible, and it ended up being Animecon in July, as I couldn't go to Desucon as I was in Scotland that exact weekend..
For Animecon I decided to cosplay something from Hetalia, as it was one of my absolute favorite series at the moment, and I had adored the Fem!Prussia design ever since the day it was released sometime in April. I don't have much to say about the costume making process itself, as it wasn't very challenging or something. But it was really fun to wear. Those boots, I cannot express enough of my love for them. At Animecon I also for the first time encountered the horror of long wigs. Mine tangled so badly I had to braid it, and keep it like that for the entire con. o__o This time I interacted more with the people around me, as I went alone, and I met so many awesome people, including person who'd drag me into the Homestuck fandom (thank you Linda for telling me about it 8D). Those three rainy days in Turku sure were awesome~

These pictures are from Tracon though, the ones

from Animecon AND all the progress pictures seem

to have disappeared? o___o I probably have them on a 

different USB somewhere, so these two will have to do~

And then for my final con 2011, Tracon. Needless to say, that was an awesome experience too! I had my first photoshoot with Hansku as photographer. (I should credit her for the two pictures above and the upcoming ones of my WoA cosplay~) I also ended up hanging out with her and Naru for basically all of Saturday haha ^^. And for the cosplay itself then, I made my most challenging cosplay so far, Will of Abyss from Pandora Hearts. The entire costume was done in two weeks, and I never want to experience that stress again lol. But it turned out okay in the end,  the costume didn't break or anything, so I guess I can say I succeeded in making it, even though I'm not 100% happy about the result. And then there was the wig, oh god, the wig. It was over knee length, I think it was something like 140cm long, and I had to be super careful all the time. (Or I should have been, I can't say I actually was, I'm a badass like that) 

                                                     

 

I barely have any progress pics of this cosplay as 

I was in suck a hurry to finish it orz

For Tracon I also made my little sister a cosplay, Rika Furude from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, because it was a simple outfit and I had the socks, shoes and wig from my Bernkastel cosplay, and a somewhat similar shirt to the one Rika wears. All I had to make was the skirt. It wasn't the most accurate cosplay, lot's of details were kinda off, but I think she looked adorable anyway.

         

I kinda love that picture on the right haha :D

So, that'd be about it, my cosplay year 2011, and also my first cosplay year ever. Next year I'll get more serious about cosplaying and make much more costumes now that I've got the basics of sewing down. I'll try to gain lots of sewing experience, and also experience with propmaking. And go to more than only three cons. 
So, to finish this ridiculously long post I'd like to say to all you people reading this who I have cosplayed with, or just spent time in general at a con, you are all awesome, also you who I haven't mentioned yet in this post. I can't wait to see you and hang out with you all again in next years cons, you people made my first year of cosplay the awesomeness it was! ^^
And all the people who I haven't yet met, I wont bite, I love to talk to people, so don't be afraid to say hi if you see me and want to haha 8D


/Amanda

Saya Progress part 3

More Saya progress! I don't know if I should post less often and instead make longer posts containing progress pictures of different pieces of my cosplay progress rather than making short posts focusing entirely on a specific part I've made progress on. If you have any opinions on that, please feel free to share them with me. ^^

This time I decided to get going with the shirt. I went and bough a zipper and suddenly my motivation for sewing came back with full force. Awesomeness. How to make the pattern was quite something to figure out with all those seams, and I only had crappy patterns looking nothing like the sort I needed, but I was so motivated I decided to modify the living hell out of a pattern I already had at home rather than wait and get a better base pattern. Legit.

When I had modified that pattern until it was no longer recognizable as the cute frilly loose t-shirt it originally was I cut the pieces for the main part of the top out. I knew from experience that if I make it too big I'll have a hell of a time making it fit perfectly later, so I decided that I'd go all out with the pattern and make sure that it wouldn't turn out too wide, hence all those weird curves,

   

After sewing the pieces together, and adding the zipper in the front (I'm starting to get the hang of zippers, they no longer frighten me. Fuck yeah) I ended up with something like this;

I'm sorry for the crappy picture, it doesn't show off all the seams very well, the mirror I took it in was apparently very dusty, my room is one hell of a mess and it was like, 2 am so I just wanted to get to sleep. The whole thing seems to have turned around a little too, it might be because I'm holding my arm up, but the zipper appears crooked in this photo, which it's not. God the more I look at that pic the more I hate it.  But it does show off the general fit very well, I'm quite pleased actually. The next thing I'll do to this cosplay is to add the red stripes to the shoulders and the collar. Or eventually I'll make the sleeves before I make the collar. Whatever.




/Amanda

Saya Progress Part 2

Striking title there, utterly creative. However, that's just what the following post will be about. This specific post is going to include the progress of my katana for Saya, and also the wig. 
So, I've never really done anything of a prop or something like that before, so this is my very first time, and before I had worked on this project for long I realized that dealing with wood and powertools may not be one of my strongest aspects. I really don't think propmaking in general is really... As I lack any kind of explanation skills whatsoever, I'll just post a few pictures of my progress and explain around those instead, yayz.

What is pictured in those two photos above is a pattern for the katana I found on the internet, scaled and printed out. I figured just drawing a katana by free hand on a piece of wood wouldn't be the best way to go about this, hence the pattern.

 Then I cut the general shape out of my piece of wood, and I kinda started shaping the edges of the blade to get the sharp look, but I quickly realized that the whole piece of wood was too thick, and I have to make it thinner. Luckily my dad had lots of tools for there kind of things, otherwise I'd be screwed. So my project of the week will be to make the whole thing thinner and to sharpen the edges even more.
And if it wasn' obvious already, I will of course add wood to the handle, I won't leave it like that, I just figured it'd be nice to have some kind of foundation and start shaping the handle around it lol.




That would be it for the katana so far, now moving on to the wig business~
The wig just arrived today, and I of course threw it on and snapped some pics of it. I like the softness of the fibers, but I would have liked a little more poof in the pigtails. But you can't have everything, right? I'll now stop rambling and post the pictures. Oh, and just on a sidenote, I'll have to trim the bangs later, they're way too long atm.

 Do not ask why I'm holding my arm like that on both pics.. I'd like to know that myself, god it looks retarded, I need to practice posing, even if it's just for fast pics like these. I'm seriously starting to doubt I'll be able to do Saya some justice, she has this cool but yet kinda cute look, and I have no friggin idea how to do that.
There's not too much else to say really, you can see for yourselves how it looks like.






Bonus pics whoop whoop;


Pics. Of cats. Of my cats being annoying when I try to work on my cosplays, I have so many pics of situations like that, I could make an entire wall of photos with those two being annoying.

Feed us.

I even had to use some decoy paper so they wouldn't ruin the real pattern....

Wood sure seems to be fun...

Fucking hell I love my cats, but sometimes they're just too much. Especially when they team up. And when they're hungry hell is unleashed. Just sayin.

/Amanda

And it's finished!

Or at least mostly finished, I have some details I'll still fix, but overall, I'm finaly done! I'm talking about my Rei cosplay in case you didn't know. And I'm so. happy. I managed to sew on that godforsaken zipper. Zippers and I are no good match, I always manage to fuck them up, and this time I had to sew one onto the front of the shirt. I thought it'd be one hell of a battle, but I got it right on the first try. Good job, me. 
I could go on forever about how awesome I feel at the moment, but I'll shut up and provide you with some pictures of this miracle, behold the glory of my HOTD uniform~

Please excuse the lack of good looking poses, I just wanted some fast pictures of it. And yes, I'm only wearing one sock in the top right picture, it looks like I have only one foot orz... Oh, this time you can see the light green side part too, that one sure gave me a headache, as no actual sideseam existed, which made the pattern drafting harder than usual, but I solved it somehow. And I'll remake the bow in the front, that one is just too small, it looks ridiculous. And just look at the miracle in the front, no zipper is visible! I think a booyeah would be suitable in a situation like this.
Of course there are things I'm not too happy with about this cosplay too, like the skirt for an example, but I have time to fix them, as the con is in January. I do have the right socks and wig too, I just didn't bother to put them on for these pictures, I might upload some pictures when I'm wearing all of it later though~




Otherwise I've not been up to much, I've purchased some fabric for my Meredy cape (or possibly Saya skirt, if I decide to remake it, I'm not sure yet), and I'll hopefully start working on in somewhat soon, I want it to become awesome. I have suffered of an enormous lack of motivation lately, but I'm slowly getting it back. 

Meredy cape fabric, it feels really good and has a nice flow to it, so 

I think it'll look great as a cape. The color in the picture is a little

off though, it's a little darker and not as vibrant in real life. I think.

I'm also looking for a wig for my Saya cosplay atm, but I'll post more about that later ^^

/Amanda

Saya Progress

As I didn't really have everything I needed to finish my Rei cosplay, I decided to start making the skirt for Saya. As I mentioned in my earlier post, my original plan was to dye some blue lace black and use it for the lower edge of the skirt, but the dye apperantly didn't work at all on the lace I had, so I had to rethink the process, and after taking a good look at some pictures of her, I figured making ruffles on the lower edge would work just as well, if not even better. Sometimes, things failing can apperantly be a good thing.

Looks more like ruffles than lace to me. The picture I posted 

of her a while ago in my Plans for 2012 post implies the same thing.

So I began sewing, starting out with the black underskirt. Things weren't exactly coming along smoothly, but I can blame a horrible headache, a cold and an obnoxious cat for that one. Eventually I ended up with something looking like this;

It doesn't look much in the picture like in real life, but oh well, this is the

 only picture I have, as my camera was running out of battery. 

Also, my cat apperantly was of the opinion that she had conquered my 

fabric, and that I no longer was allowed to touch it, which resulted in cutting

things out became way harder than it should have been....

After finishing the underskirt part, I started to work on the red part. I don't have much to say about that one, it was fairly simple, basically a pleated skirt. Some changes have been made since the following picture, but my camera died, so this is the last picture I have of it. I didn't do much after this picture though, I ironed it to make the pleats look better, moved the red part a little so the black would show less and sewed the two skirts together, they're only pinned together in the pic.

I still have to make some sort of waistband and add the zipper, but after that it should be done.

/Amanda

Unnecessary update ahead~

Just as already stated in the title, I'll now post a completely unnecessary update. Why? Because I can, that's why.


I went to Eurokangas yesterday to purchase some fabric for my Saya skirt. I went there with high hopes, since well, her skirt is dark red, shouldn't be too hard to find, no? But nope, no such fabric could be found, and on top of it all, I was also going to buy the cheapest black cotton fabric the kind that costs like, 5 euro per meter I could find for the under layer of the skirt, but again, nope, there was no such thing as a cheap, black cotton fabric, so I ended up purchasing some kind of polyester blend, because my brain went into money saving mode, and it was the cheapest black I could find and it was 8 euro per meter... 8, I mean come on... But well, it's just for the under layer, I'll survive this major crisis in my life.

But now, back to the story of the red fabric. I couldn't find an accurate blood red fabric for Saya, so I decided to go with the closest shade I could find, which was a lighter red than I intended to buy, but still not that kind of creepy super vibrant red, and I took a serious look at my fabric today, and I came to the conclusion that it could have been worse, I actually like the red I ended up with, it's a nice color. And I also looked up some other people that have cosplayed her, and most of them seem to have used a lighter shade of red than what's accurate. What's up with this apparently worldwide shortage of blood red fabric?


And as for a beautiful ending of a glorious trip to the fabric store, black lace is apparently a completely unknown concept for Eurokangas. I ended up with a dark blue lace that I'll attempt to dye black, since I figured if I tried to make a white lace black, I'd probably end up with some grey inbetween shade, and making a dark blue black would be easier. I might be wrong though, I'll have to experiment a bit with that.


But something that actually was great about my shopping trip was that I was able to get hold of a couple of black knee socks, also for Saya, for as little as 3.45e. Awesome. I also bought some Got2b Glued hairspray and styling gel/glue/whatever, for the styling of my Rei wig, more on that later.

The socks and fabric I purchased. The red is actually a little darker than in this picture,

but it's still not as dark as I'd have preferred it, but oh well. Oh, and there's also the creepy

black fabric, just look at it, see how creepy it is? And the dark blue lace that I'll have 

to dye, Dylon dye, we meet again,

And as I previously stated, there will now be some info on my Rei wig. As soon as I got home I unpacked my Got2b stuff and hairdryer and started working on the antennas. I already knew that I wouldn't make them quite as long and thick as the ones in the manga and anime, because I generally like the more natural look with smaller antennas. Because having chunks of hair standing right up from your head is completely natural.
Things went along great, for a change, with the first antenna, it was surprisingly easy as I've never done any actual styling before, but the second antenna decided to be a total bully, and just didn't want to look alright.

Just look at that bastard, not wanting to stand up straight, just sagging down. 

But apparently, when it comes to wigs, there is nothing a little more hairspray and heat can't do, so a little hairspraying, heating and antenna taming later, it turned out alright.

Wohoo, antenna problem is now kinda solved! It even looked okay when

I tried it on! Score! Yes, I'm using a glass jar as wighead, and yes, 

my room is a complete mess.

I guess that'll be it for this rather text heavy update. Nothing major, basically just me ranting about various things, I hope I didn't scare anyone away haha~

I didn't get as much done this weekend as I had hoped for, but I'll work harder next weekend instead. I'm a master of procrastinating like that.

/Amanda