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