Anime Expo 2008 was by far the most fun that I have had at a convention since 2003. I decided to go it alone that year figuring I would run into someone eventually, which was apparently the right decision. Fluffy was there working as Merch Manager and I was able to crash with him and hang out for a bit (although not as much as I would have liked, but oh wells... he was busy). I ended up running into some old friends from Sacramento that I hadn't seen in ages. I also had the chance to meet up with some new friends that I had previously only known online.
I entered the karaoke contest this year, but was *totally* unprepared. I ended up having no time to memorize lyrics so tried speed memorizing them and surprised myself by remembering more of Love Hina than Noir, but I digress. For the preliminary round I sang "Broken My Heart" from DDR dressed as Alice. For the semifinals I sang "Copellia No Hitsugi" from Noir dressed as Mirielle Bouquet. This song I ended up faking 1/2 the lyrics cause I went completely RETARDED on stage, but apparently it was enough to advance me to finals where I sang "Sakura Saku" from Love Hina dressed in an original design. I was shocked that I nailed all of these lyrics considering that I didn't know them much at all 24 hours prior. Aaaaaaaaaand (drum roll please) I placed 4th and took home about 5 DVDs, a CD, shirt, hat, and some Naruto figurines that I gave to the 1st well dressed Narutard that I saw. XD
LACC was probably the best venue for AX. I *know* that all of the Anaheim Nostalgia Junkies will be stomping their feet at this, but it's true. There was no need to travel to multiple buildings for different events as LACC is large enough to accommodate ALL AX activities. The after con entertainment around that area is fantastic seeing as it is Downtown LA not to mention the great selection of places to eat. Since the hotels were a bit of a walk they provided a shuttle service to the surrounding hotels all weekend. All in all I rate the LACC as a 9. My only gripe is the seeming unavailability of shooting locations. Ho hum. Maybe I didn't look hard enough. But OMFG *so* many good cosplayers this year. I was blown away by the overall quality of the cosplayers this year. Well done everyone!
The San Diego Comic Con is in a few days and I cannot wait to go! It will be a record breaking year for TGG attendees as well as the epic debut of season 2 of GGTV. This is my 1st year at Comic Con where I will be free to run amok and I have the best people to do it with. Each day will feature a different costume. My cosplay line up looks a bit like this:
- Thursday: Cammy White (Delta Red Version) - Street Fighter
- Friday: Faye Valentine - Cowboy Bebop
- Saturday: Cammy White (Alpha Version) - Street Fighter
- Sunday: Mirielle Bouquet - Noir
Thursday is going to be a pretty big day for me. From 3pm-7pm I will be with G4TV and starting at 9pm is a party with G4 and The Wonder Women of America, whose cosplay book is being released this year. My friend, Ivy, and I are in it so I can't wait to check it out! We got to invite one guest and I chose Heather, who will be making her cosplay debut as Kirika of Noir. Woo hoo!
My one major disappointment is not being able to finish my Tandem Twin catgirl in time, which means I will not be cosplaying with Annisse. T_T Oh well. Maybe next year. I also had to push back my Emma Frost, but next year it is happening for real!
ANYONE GOING TO COMIC CON FEEL FREE TO HIT ME UP SO WE CAN HANGOUT. :)
Wow... so.... a DOUBLE tragedy has occurred. First and foremost while cleaning my newest skirt design with my generally handy steamer, I melted the vinyl panels of the skirt. T_T It has this gnarly faded white patchwork on it now, which is totally lame in every regard. I *would* post pictures of this, but tragedy number *two* occurred when taking a picture of a prop for reference at work and my flash bulb EXPLODED! My camera is pretty much useless now. Oh wells, it was pretty cheap to begin with. -_-
Unfortunately, these pics are a little small and not the clearest shots of the skirt, but the photographer who shot it when I last posted has STILL not given me the pics from that shoot. XD Bah! There is a 2nd skirt that goes in this set which has yet to be shot and a 3rd soon to follow. :) The skirt has an asymmetrical front with pleated vinyl paneling and a gradient base with diagonal hook & eye closures.
And *still* I lack the internet. XD So fuggin frustrating. In any event, progress with Quistis has come to a grinding halt since the hunt for a black 14" dual separating zipper is at a stand still. I think at this point I just need to get a custom zipper made. Who knew it would be so hard to find? Since I ended up not being able to go to ALA, I sort of lost steam on Rei as well. Feh.
I *have* been making my original designs though with much success. I need to shoot one outfit, 2 skirts and one jacket that are completed. Also in the works is a men's shirt. Hoping to be able to get pictures of these on Friday, but we'll see. I'm very pleased with the outcome and am eager to share them with you. :)
Remaining Tasks
- kimono (50%)
- obi
- accessories (10%)
contacts (100%)- wig
- mask
- plugs
- socks
- shoes
I started this costume sort of on a whim. I had finished as much as I could on Quistis for the time being and still wanted to sew. I had been meaning to do this cosplay and always envisioned waring it for some sor of New Year's thing cause it is her Festival Kimono so I chose to wear it for Anime LA in the first week of January. I went to see what fabric I had and shock & elation (!) I had *all* the fabric I needed. I will finish this costume without spending over $50.
First I stitched the lining to the outer layer with the right sides facing together all the way around save for a good 2"-3" to turn it right side out. Iron flat your seams and secure with a top stitch for a cleaner look. This is the point where you sew closed the opening that you had left; make sure the raw edges are inside the garment. The main three pieces of the kimono took a little bit of time, but nothing too long. These were then sewn together and the sleeves were then begun.
The design on the sleeves and the red band at the top I decided to do in vinyl to keep to the plugsuit sort of feel. It also makes a nice contrast to the kimono fabric. First time around I measured out the fabric and forgot to add the seam allowance so they turned out a 1/2 size too small so these will need to be redone. Boo. I left those and moved on to the neck band with was a simple rectangle of ed vinyl "ditch stitched" into the top stitching of the kimono so it looks like it is peeking out from a 2nd layer underneath. Since the sleeves are the only thing left for the kimono I will be finishing these up and then starting on the obi and accessories.
Remaining Tasks
sleeves (100%)pants (100%)- skirt (85%)
- shirt (75%)
- accessories (95%)
glassescontactshair clipshoesgloves- hip chains
- whip
Wow... that went petty fast! I got the majority of this done in two days.
The shirt took a bit of altering at about the shoulder points after the final fabric had been cut. I marked it with a water soluble pen, made my cuts and re hemmed it. This time it came out very well. Next I cut strips for my seam lining around the armholes and outer shape of the garment. These are to be added later as I cannot entirely assemble the garment until after the embroidery has taken place. Hopefully I will be able to do that sometime this weekend. However, the are ready on stand-by. I have a temporary zipper in place, but it is too log by a good 8" or so. Bleh. I plan on picking up a 10"-12" reversible black zipper at the fashion district soon. I also ended up redoing the collar. I made it thinner and taller to differentiate it from the Mandarin Collar look that it had going for it. It was very successful in the end and I am pleased with the outcome.
Since there was nothing left to do with the bulk of the costume, I worked on gathering the accessories and found that I already was in possession of most of the items I needed for this. Awesome! All that is left on his from are the hip chains (a cinch to get) and her whip (which will be super easy to make after a trip to Home Depot). I next focused on making the sleeves with fabric I found that fit perfectly. I am very glad I have a collection of such extras now for such on occasion. Anyways I started out making maroon pleather sleeves because I dug the weight and look. The fabric was initially for a Kula Diamond cosplay that I have since abandoned. I later found a canvas type of fabric which I thought would be better suited so I scrapped the first set and made the new set with no trouble. My suspicions were right; the new sleeves came out looking much better. They moved better, had less shine, and just *fit* over all. I will be attaching them to the shirt with a hidden hook-eye clasp under the shirt so the sleeves will be removable and I can thusly incorporate them into my day to day attire as I see fit. :D
That's pretty much it for Quistis right now. She is looking fabulous thus far and I'm sure I will be even more pleased after embroidering it all and piecing the last of it together. Gleeee. Cannot wait for Heather to be my Rinoa!
I'll be getting better pics at a later date. For now all I have are some snapshots from a party. Anyways, Halloween is long since past and the secret has yet to be revealed! So here it is, from Metalocalypse, Dr.Rock the rock & roll klown and a dethklown dancer.
/elation
My boyfriend is a breakup artist for Metalocalypse so I had been watching a lot of it as of late. While I love all the characters, Dr.Rockso never fails to leave me in a fit of giggles. The first time I saw him and heard him speak I felt a massive grin spreading on my face. I knew immediately that I wanted to make my friend, Phil, a Dr.Rockso costume at some point because he was just to perfect for the roll.
Remaining Tasks
skirt (100%)belt (100%)studded accessories (100%)leg/arm warmers (100%)boots (100%)- top (99.99%)
- prosthetics (20%)
- wig
- prop
I started out my night by tackling the leg and arm warmers. My plan was to use my hentai socks as reference since they are basically the right size, etc. Much to my glee it worked! I had the elastic sewn around the top and the toes closed off in no time at all. The arm warmers were going to be easier. Less fabric equals less sewing time. The process was essentially the same as making a sleeve minus the bell curve of the shoulder. Lucky for me the fabric was pretty much self finishing so there was no need to hem the edges. METAL!
After placing everything on my dress form I realized the only other thing really left to do was the other boot cover so I set to work. I was very pleased to discover that I had already drawn out the measurements on the back of the fabric from my initial boot cover so it was only a matter of cutting, adding elastic, and sewing it closed. The only irritation during this was having to cut the loose fur out of my feed dogs and presser foot. XD It happen though. No bigs.
Lastly I reattached one of the spikes that was clipped from making my wrist bands and chocker. I needed a band of three and only had a pair and a single left over from it. Gorilla Glue fixed this. :D I need to paint those spikes and add them to the top and it is all done. Awesome!
Only thing left from here on out id some minor additions to the prosthetic piece, styling the wig, airbrushing some finishing touches on the outfit, and the makeup the day of. SO EXCITED!!!! Now I just have to *start*and*finish* the other one.
Remaining Tasks
- top (90%)
- skirt (80%)??
- boots (50%)
- studded accessories (50%)
- prosthetics (20%)
- leg/arm warmers
- wig
- prop
I first went about tackling resizing my studded accessories. I bought two overly large studded rubber collars at a Halloween shop, both of which were to large to suit their purpose. I needed one choker and two wrist bands. This was accomplished by a quick snip of my scissors and some sticky back Velcro. All that is left to do with these is to paint them purple. Rock.
Next I went to tackle the skirt, which *seemed* easy enough. But I was soon distracted with visions of an original design so I drafted a pattern for that while it was in my head. Simple, but cute. :) I also, was a complete nub and forgot to include seam allowances so it is TOO SMALL and will have to be redone. I though I could fudge the design a bit and wasted much time trying to accommodate this, but in the end... it will just have to be re-done. Gah! At least I have a surplus of fabric and it is a very simple skirt to make. It would be faster if I had my serger, but alas...... /cry
The last part I worked on was the fur coverings for the boots. Lime green faux fur! I love it! Simple enough process for these. I laid the boot down on the fabric and measured the length and width in the necessary places and got to cutting. It turned out great. :) My only gripe is that the boots I have are white and they, too should be lime green. I have seen them around Hollywood Blvd and will probably just break down and buy a pair for it.
I am officially reviving this blog. It has been entirely too long since I have posted here and I am seeking to change that. :) Following Halloween I will be finishing my EVA (MGS3) and Starting to hit hard on Quitis Trepe (FFVIII). In the mean time I am busting my ass to finish my secret project for Halloween that I promise is going to be hilarious and way rad. GuhguhguhYEAH! You'll have to wait and see what it is.
While working on said secret project yesterday (which I will start blogging about tomorrow) I accidentally made a skirt pattern for a design I came up with on a whim. Go muslin mock ups. XD It's going to take me no time at all to make so I may do that one of these weekends assuming that I don't fall prey to procrastination and video games again. Oh my.
