Kurostuff

Hi there, it's been a while and it's finally time for a new update. So, firstly, I made a new header (what do you mean it looks just like the old one?) as you might have noticed, and damn, I'm impressed how bad I've gotten with these things, I used to be good at stuff like that but lolnope. 

Asides from my doubtful blog designing skills, I've made some Alois progress! I don't know if it's just me or people just do that in general, but I go long times without doing basically any progress, and then suddenly I decide to do a lot within a very concentrated amount of time. But I'm not going to start ranting on my procrastination issues, I'm here to provide you with progress pictures and text. 

 So I decided to start working on the shorts because I still didn't have fabric for the jacket (I still don't and the con is coming up sooner than I think it will, it's only a month left, shitshitshit.) and it went fairly well. I was, quite frankly, nervous as hell. I've never made pants before. Ever. And I didn't get how the pattern for those fucking pantalons worked, it freaked me the out. And I had no idea how I'd make the zipper. I also knew I'd have just enough fabric for one pair. In other words, no room for mistakes. Eventually I just got working on them, and everything went incredibly smoothly, I barely took any progress pictures as I just kept working and working, but before showing you the few pics I have I have to tell you about the awesome thing I found at home. Apparently my mom used to sew clothes when she was younger (really? where did those skills go, she's never been of any help to me...) and she had this book/folder with lots of info on how to sew various things and it also contained a couple of patterns, and it's really awesome, it helped me so much with sewing those goddamn shorts. 

It's like the bible of sewing, it has just everything.

So with that by my side while making the shorts, especially with the zipper, I found a really detailed description of how to sew zippers in pants in it, everything went along really smoothly. Awesomesauce. And now for some pictures of the pants, I don't have any real in progress pictures, just some of the almost completed pants and some of the completed pants, but oh well, here you go anyway;

At first I kind of managed to make them waay too long as you can see in the left picture, I've pinned one of the legs up into the length I want it to be, and in the second picture you can see how I taped around the legs to mark where I should cut the fabric. I made them about 10 cm too long. Whoops. It was really easy to fix though.

 Just some closeups of the zipper. I'm proud of myself haha, I 

actually like the result for once.

And the finished product after ironing and sewing on the waistband and button etc. I like them, they're totally legit for being the first pair of pants I've ever made. Even the buttonhole turned out good, even though I didn't have a buttonhole presser. I didn't even know those things existed until Hansku informed me about their glorious existence a couple of weeks ago. I need one it'd make my life easier.

I made the bow too. It's kinda funny how my cosplays always seem to include a bow somewhere on the costume. I think all the cosplays I've made except fem!Prussia have had a bow somewhere. But whatever, bows aren't very interesting creations, so I'll just slam up some pictures for you.

With and without the bowtails.

I had to work in our computer room because the kitchen where I usually work... But now I could be in front of the computer AND sew at the same time! Ultimate nerd satisfaction!

That'd be all for this update though. I've ordered a wig for Alois too, so I'll probably update when it arrives, and of course I'll update when I get to making the jacket, which I really really need to get starting on, so look forward to that~ 

/Amanda

I've never got so little done in so much time..

Ok so I just realized I haven't blogged in about a month, so I figured it'd be time to keep you guys updated on what I've been doing, which mostly is procrastinating really, unfortunately. However, I went over to Hanskus place for a couple of days during winter break and I managed to get started on Alois, not a day too early, Tampere Kuplii is closing in much faster than expected. But I will not fret, there is still time and I really do work better under pressure haha, and I'd like to get him over hand done with so I can start working more seriously on my cosplays for this summer. And as I start working more intensively on my cosplays I promise to keep this blog more updated too~


However, over to some pictures! I received my Gisen shoes I ordered quite a while ago, but I figured making an own post only about them would be a little unnecessary, so I'll squeeze them into this one instead.

 As you can see they look pretty much the same as in the pictures the seller had posted, which is nice, they were so cheap so I got a little suspicious. The quality is all over good, I've tried them on a couple of times and they are quite comfortable and well, they haven't broken or anything, so they're all fine in that category as well. They are a bit too big though, they are a 6 and my preferred shoe size is 5, but I'll be ok, I'll be wearing socks in them anyway, so if nothing else I can put on a couple of pairs underneath the actual Gisen pair of socks to make my feet a bit bigger or something, it'll work out. 

Also, the heel measures 13 cm or 5 inches, so I'll be super tall wearing these, which will be fun, I oddly enjoy being really tall for one day. The actual color of the shoes is a little darker than in the pictures btw, these ones were taking in quite poor lighting ~  

And as I'm already talking about shoes I might as well bring up this pair of shoes I bought for my Saya cosplay. She wears pretty much regular black leather shoes with her school uniform, so I figured these would be fine, they were my size and super cheap at a flea market, so I decided to buy them. I still have to make some modifications to them since Saya has these red straps over her shoes, but that will be a piece of cake. Other than that, this must seriously be the ugliest pair of shoes I own, they're absolutely horrible, but oh well, what will I not do for accuracy?

Moving on from shoes to clothing. I purchased fabric for my Alois vest and shorts a week ago, and I managed to almost completely finish the vest during winter break, and after a long and fierce battle with the buttonholes all I have left to do is to add the buttons and it'll be done. I significantly lack pictures of the actual progress of making this piece since I just didn't feel like taking out the camera and taking pictures, but I basically drafted my own pattern from scratch, which may or may not have been a good idea, I don't know, the final result fitted me perfectly and all, but making the pattern kind of took a billion years, but that's the price you have to pay I suppose. 

Firstly, some pics of the fabric I used. And the buttons, oh god I love those buttons, they were totally overpriced but so fancy I just had to get them. I think I paid 7 and something euros for four of those buttons, but I'm persuading myself that they were worth it...

And then a picture of the (almost) finished vest. That shit is in bad need of being ironed. And the color doesn't quite show up well in this pic, it is more green than in the picture, kind of an oliveish color. Heck I don't know, but something along those lines yeah. I figured it'd look better with a purple coat than a actual super green colored vest. And yeah, I was too lazy to rotate that last picture, deal with it.

I also got myself this shirt I'm going to wear underneath, and I modified the collar of it really quickly, it was quite simple to do so yeah, there isn't much to be said about that, it looks super unflattering on, but hopefully it'll look okay when I add the giant bow he has going on there.

That's all for this post, I'll be back soonish with more Alois and maybe something else, I dunno I'll wait and see ^^




/Amanda