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