Ten Years After!

I had to take my title from my favorite Gundam ending theme. xD

So officially, it will be ten years of cosplay for me in January of Anime LA 2014! I did however want to take this time to post and commemorate that Fanime's skit will be our expression of appreciation for ten years of hard work! It's not the end, only the beginning! We also have something special coming up for Anime LA 2014, hopefully this will be the stepping stone.

However, Fanime has been one of the old school conventions of the West, and severa nostalgia has hit me right now. I'm so happy to say that I was fortunate enough to meet the right people along the way who have graciously helped me nurture my hobby, craft, and art.

Last night I mixed my masquerade audio for Fanime. It's finally kicked in...it is a celebration of ten years of cons and cosplay, the laughs, sweat, blood, tears, glomps, and smiles shared. We got our acceptance letter about a week and a half ago and our craftsmanship appointment. It's so crazy!

Shii and I picked xxxholic as our series to cosplay from because we felt like it embodies a lot of our creative strengths and what we love about the characters. Here's really hoping this is all pulled nicely together!

 I've met so many wonderful people throughout this journey as I continue. It's such a wonderful experience and it feels amazing now to look back and see the beginning and see how much work my friends and I have done. I'm so happy and grateful. To many, many more years in this hobby, art, and way of life!

And there's also an update for Mari. I took the picture one night after I received her new headband, and so I put on the whole otufit. Since the last time I had worked on her, the tie arrived and the wig has be cut and styled.

Cosplay - The Making of Slayers Epic! - Amelia and Zelgadis

My biggest apologizes for a lack of updating! It's been massively crazy with school and designing and all things in between. I currently am finishing up all of my final projects for the semester, and then I have some reprieve with Fanime! It's got so much work left though!

Pants Your Goonies Cosplay has been accepted to participate in the Masquerade!! Shii and I will be representing, and it'll be a duo skit this time! So far, there's been so much work, sweat, blood, and tears placed into this. It'll be such an amazing experience to see the final product. Everyone has been absolutely supportive and wonderful to us.

So in the spirit of convention season and masquerades, I wanted to post about the journey towards making our Slayers skit come together for Anime LA 2013. It was a fun experience, and we got to learn a lot from it!

Ever since I was a kid, I was a huge fan of Slayers. My parennts bought me the Sound Bibles as a kid, and I was a huge fan of Lina and Sylphiel. It was part of my favorite shows of the time, and I even collected some of the comics, novels, and of course, the anime and films! So when I met Shii and the others in high school, we ususally bonded by sharing what other anime we liked. According to Shii, she said that I suggested for her to watch Slayers, and when she moved away, she started watching the show and got really into it.

 When she returned, our group has basically begun to form with my friend Charizard and our mutual friend and Amanda's best friend Frye. We started getting out own ideas together and the very first idea we all thought of for a group cosplay was Slayers. We did other cosplays to get our feet wet because despite having cosplayed for quite some time already, I still have never been quite accustomed to the whole group environment. It's proven to be quite fun!!

So after a year of cosplaying together and had hit past the AX 2012 point, we made the consensus that Slayers had to be done. We all just fit the right personalities, and it's such a flawless fit for all us. The only unfortunate thing was Charizard has moved away up north (we're spending Fanime with him!) and so we were short one person. Shii is a natural Lina, and Frye is Gourry since their interactions together are so classic. Personality wise, I am like the Amelia of our group, so it seemed like I wouldn't be that far away from my own personality. We planned for a skit that actually all four of the original group members of Pants Your Goonies approved of.

Our friend Justin ended up joining the group after we searched for a Zelgadis. Shii and I split up the responsibilities of making all of the costumes, and the boys were in charge of props and the armor. 

This is my favorite picture of the two capes together. I had way too much fun choosing the colors, and it's a special thanks to my good friend Kureno for also helping out to source materials. We didn't do anything too fancy, since Slayers seems to focus itself more on the lovely colors and designs of the costumes than the material. I ended up using Kona Cotton for both outfits, and both were a combination of modified base patterns and some of my own previously drafted items like Amelia's sleeves and Zelgadis' capelet-cape-extravaganza. I have to admit, I'm still a constant learner when it comes to lining. I ended up choosing a cotton however for the inside because of the color and to keep the similar textures.

Amelia was the easier of the two, and more reliant on just making sure the base patterns were all fitting. She was crafted from a tunic pattern I originally had used and modified for Daphne and my Bespin Leia costumes, and then I drafted the sleeves on my own. It's french seamed on the inside as well, and the trimming is made out of a light cotton. In hindsight, I love the color but it is still a bit too light as it can be confused for a really off-white color. Nonetheless, the costume is sumer comfortable and cooler than other cosplays. The cape was also self-drafted, and lined in the back with lavender lightweight cotton. The sash is from a previous belt I had and I attached the jewels and the little pin puff ball, which was cut and shaped from a feather boa. The jewels are also present there and were attached to her cuffs and a matching pink choker.

Also, I rarely ever make pants for cosplays since I almost exclusive wear skirts or dresses in cosplay, so this was a grea experience! They fit pretty nicely and are french seamed on the inside so it is nice and clean. 

 There are a lot of things to be honest that still need to be edited, though at the time, they worked just right. The armor is the biggest part that needs improvement, because we ran out of time in making the armor. Essentially, it is craft form with fabric that was wrapped taut arund it. The jewels as well weren't casted in time, s I wound up having to use premade jewels that I painted with blue nail polish. I plan to recast the jewels and remake the armor entirely.

 Zelgadis was a whole new experience too. The original tunic was crafted from a pre-bought pattern, though it didn't work out quite well the first time. So then I took another pattern and modified the bought one to make the top tunic, which came out much better cut and finished than the others. Like Amelia, he is entirely french seamed. The pants were the first thing I constructed for him, which I was really proud of, and   then finally, the cape is a mixture of pre-made capelet patterns that were modified and a hand-drafted hood and full cale. The entire cosplay is actually heavier than expected not ecause of the fabric, but because of how many layers this is.

The hardest parts for me was making sure the top collar wasn't too wide or obnoxious, as it isn't featured here and hiding under the cape. The cape itself to me is what maes the entire cosplay and I am absolutely in love with it. The only major fix I would like it that the sleeves are about a inch or so too short. I didn't have the time to fix them properly ue to the crunch time, but it's definitely in my plans.

I just realized that they both look like Amelia and Zelgadis got raptured in this picture. ^_^;

  Although I can't speak for Frye and Justin's portion of the armor and props, I did get some great pictures of their progress work with the frames for them. Here's a picture of Shii modeling her pauldrons for Lina.

So for the skit, the idea was to blend Conan the Barbarian's amazing soundtrack with Slayers, and the skit primarily chronicles the storyline for NEXT more than anything else. We wanted to have the story surrounded by the Claire Bible.

 I ended up mixing all of the dialog myself, which I spent hours scouring for and remixing them. After AX 2012's crazy audio issues, we ended up trying to see if we could work better with the spells and the scene clips from the series. This worked ut better for this skit in particular, which focuses more on the series' plot than anything else. I am still bummed that I couldn't rip a decent quality NEXT version of Dragon Slave, so we ended up choosing one of the Revolution versions. The audio for the sit is called, The Anvil of Crom, and is featured as the main theme to the film, Conan the Barbaria, and written by Basil Pouledoris. I highly reccommend his music! I managed to find this version that had stronger brass and an extended reprise to the theme, and it was all perfectly timed to be under 2 minutes. I cut the length myself, and finally layered the rest of the audio with sound clips for each of the character's magical spells.

After finishing the audio, we then began practicing and figuring our the steps and choreography. At the end, we had wanted for everyone to be with Lina when she performs Dragon Slave, and it was Frye who came up with the amazing idea to use these tiny little LED light rings. We began practicing with them to make them look like they were spells, and there's several light tests we did to make sure that we looked like we were holding these crazy balls of light!

 So this to me is the funniest part of the skit: The Claire Bible. As we were on a crunch time and we're usually trying to reuse resources, we figured that the Claire Bible could be a edited version of a book that we have lying around or something. As all of us are big readers, we kind of felt bad to be defacing a book with paint and whatnot, so we initially opted to go to a secondhand bookshop to see if we could find a quick book. Instead however, Frye remembered that he had a extra copy of Breaking Dawn that no one used in his house, and considering that none of us are big Twilight fans, we ended up painting over the book.

The book was painted over with metallic coper paint, and using a guide from the series, Charizard actually finished the yellow details in the hotel room. He did the front and back, and the craftsmanship judges were laughing when we told them the story about the book. I actually still have the book in my bookcase, and people who visit always give me a confused look. xD

So this is just a quick picture of the car ride to Anime LA. On the left is Shii and on the right is Frye being the awesome co-pilot. Sitting next to me in the back seats are Charizard and Kureno. It's my tradition to get a picture of the road on the way to a convention.

    
  For limited time and resources, Shii styled Zelgadis' wig in the hotel room at a lightning fast pace. It's actually a pretty interesting hair style! She also worked on the prosthetics for his face, which was a new challenge as well.

 I took this picture of Justin after we finished our skit. I was so happy with his cosplay considering all of the crazy layers and work we had done with, and the fact that he just looked absolutely complete. Kureno is in the back, having volunteered to be our awesome ninja.

And here's the skit! So many new experiences. It wasn't the first time doing a skit before; I did some vew few skits about five or so years ago for a friend and planned another that never got finished. As I have said before, I've never cosplayed with a group until now, so it's fueld my interest in being able to compete and enjoy that aspect for conventions. Our team entered under the novice division, since all of us are greenhorns in the aspects of competing.Credits to AC Paradise for filming all the amazing skits.

The judges praised my craftsmanship for being very cleanly sewn, which made me feel so honored and flattered. I worked absolutely hard on these cosplays because of how exciting it was to be able to channel one of my favorite shows. 

Everyone in the group was absolutely wonderful too, and although admittedly it was a stressful experience due to time limitations and life being as crazy as it is, it was totally worth it.  We finished the skit and were so nervous during the waiting times. This was also coupled with a severe lack of sleep that Shii was practically dazed by the end of the entire event. We even barely wore these costumes towards the last few hours of the night since we were holed up in the room for most of the con working on these!

 So we all woke up from our lethargy once the people backstage started asking if we were all there in the room, to which gave us the hope that we had won something. It was crazy to receive not only the Judge's Award, but also the Best Group Synergy award in the Novice Presentation category!

 We're all tired and I look like a mess by now (and my wig flopped after the skit, which was pretty hilarious!) we were so tired but happy about this skit! I've been attending every Anime LA since its inception and it's such an honor to get our first award from that convention! The other winners were also amazing!!

  

In the room, our group assembled and you can see the awesome lights that Frye provided us. Frye is Gourry, Shii is Lina, I'm Amelia, and Justin is Zelgadis.After heading out back into the con, a lot of peple congratulated us and several Slayers fans got our picture. One of them was so happy and told us that we made her con since it was her favorite show. We definitely understood her love for it!

And then we finished the convention with some awesome Denny's and a huge mess to clean up. The aftermath has never seemed to beautiful.

So the next post will be some new progress and event shots from other awesome stuff that has been going on cosplay-wise during these months!

Currently I am bracing myself for the xxxholic goodness that Fanime is promising us!   

Cosplay - Asuka Langley Soryu/Shikinami

So it's been some time, almost a month since an update post and it's going to be separated into different cosplays I have been mutitasking on instead of one enormous and overwhelming post. It's probably only going to get busier for the next few months, so here's a kick off update for everything!

My friends and I are planning on Fanime for out next big trip, and it's quite exciting so far. We have a great set of plans, a wonderful circle of friends we want to meet up with including one who recently moved to San Jose, and just overall celebrate a good spring convention! We also have been talking plans for Anime Expo, Japan Expo, and Wonder Con.

I went yesterday to a small gathering in Little Tokyo with my best friend Shii, which was quite fun. I made a quick cosplay that has turned out to be extremely fun to wear and pays homage to my love for VNs. I wore Miori from Alice Parade, and I'll be wearing her to another convention. After that, I'm currently working on some new cosplay plans, and progress for Madoka (I am almost there with the top!), Dr. Shaw from Prometheus, and then working on all of my other Evangelion ideas.

I got started early in February in my whole Evangelion kick after finishing my Mari remake for Anime LA. I didn't even get to wear her, and more recently have ordered the proper tie and headset/headband for her. It should be here by next week with some other cosplay items for the next planned projects! I actually have a plan to get more Asuka designs out in the coming year, possibly one for Fanime, but some ages ago after the con I wanted to get another simple project going. I figured the Evangelion uniforms would be a comfortable and pretty choice, since they're quite classic and can double up for not just Asuka, but Rei and Hikari. I wouldn't mind cosplaying as them either.

I purchased around January the materials and kept everything simple, and after finishing Enishi's pants, and Madoka's skirt, I got started on it.

 This is Rei's image, but it's identical to Asuka and Hikari's uniforms as well.

I didn't make a standard pattern or modified a pattern for Asuka's skirt, and rather just worked off measuring and doing some math between adding waist and hips length, and adding room for darts in the back and pleats in the front. Ironically, I initially freehanded the pleats just by eyeballing and pinning to take them to the mirror to get an idea of the final product. When I went back to measure it, it was not that far from the real pleats placement.

The pleats are box pleats on the skirt, which are folded to meet the other pleat on the opposite side, coming together and forming a larger, whole pleat. This is what is going to give the flair of the bottom "triangles" of the skirt.  It's not very hard at all to do box pleats or knife pleats, and they're always lovely whenever you get the end result. It takes measuring and making sure you're pleating in the same amount on fabric on both sides so that can you get that ideal, equal pleat. 

So that's the measuring and pinning process right there, and then once I had all the measurements figured out and continuously kept checking to see that it would properly fit, I went ahead and pleated the back with a single box pleat in the center and added a dart on each side to add some tapering to the back.

After that, I stitched down the pleats and secured them, and proceeded to iron the bottom half of the skirt down to create that space from the pleats. As you can see, the ironing makes a huge difference since it creates those crisp angles that you want from the pleats.

I then did the same for the back pleat, and as I had already stitched down my darts, all I needed to do was sew the two panels together from the left side, leaving the right side open to add the zipper.

I added the zipper and pardon my pajamas since I sew at night, I went ahead and tested the skirt. It fits extremely well and I'm actually really happy that the pleats have such a nice crispness to them.

I did a small test with the old wig I have for Asuka, and then the clips are in the mail with my Mari and other cosplay stuff, so I used a large red clip of my mother's to simulate the clip.

Finally, I added the straps, which are two long rectangles with a little angling up top and were sewn together along the back. My original idea was to attach the straps permenently, and then I got the idea of being able to make them detachable with snaps because the skirt without the straps can be used for my Mikuru cosplay in place of the older, quickly made one from some two years back.

Here it is with the Mikuru uniform top! I haven't worn this cosplay in about two years after making it for a cosplay picnic. I wasn't too happy with the skirt however because it was actually thinner material and I made it literally in a half an hour because of the huge time crunch we had. I love the look and feel of this skirt with the uniform too, so it's being cost-effective and multi-functional without compromising the cosplay's accuracy too much!

Cosplay - Yukishiro Enishi Pants

So my first project on my new Pfaff 360 certainly had to be Yukishiro Enishi's pants. The cosplay will be worn by my friend Kureno, who also was kind enough to give me this machine as a gift. Our group has decided for Fanime 2013 to make a fun Rurouni Kenshin group, and initially I was supposed to be Kaoru until our plans changed and I selected Tomoe instead. I actually am really excited about being Tomoe since I love the simplistic design of her kimono. I admit however, I've never made a kimono but there's a first for everything!

I made the plan to work on Enishi first since he is much more straightforward and I actually really enjoyed the color blocking design in the pants. These pants personally feel like they are tempting to make out of athletic knits, but in keeping this cosplay a bit more accurate to its time period, I stuck with more cotton-based fabrics. We wound up finding a nice, thick cotton and slightly thinner cotton that I could double up for the blue stripes. I also purchased some elastic for the top, and I actually had the thread already at home for a number of other projects that were blue and orange.

Warning! Image heavy! 

 This is Yukishiro Enishi. He's actually a character I didn't know too much about from Kenshin until I read more about him and got a great explanation from Kureno about him. There's alternate designs for him, but Kureno wanted this one since it is more athletic-looking and easy to move around with. AND THOSE PANTS. Those colors!

We didn't buy yet for the shirt, but that's the next project on this!

I began by using a medical pants pattern that I added some more length to since Kureno wants to capture that similar baggyness along the bottom hem of the pants. It was a really straightforward process.

 And here I just basically cut the strips.  I kept them to about 2 1/4 and then a bit for seam allowance, once again it bing a straight process. I made sure to add the extra length to the strips as well. 

  
Sewing! And it was my first time sewing on the Pfaff, which is an absolute dream! I began by sewing the crotch seams first and then proceeded to work on sewing and attaching the stripes in order to fully sew the leg seams. I absolutely lovce this image because you can already see the beautiful clorblocking of these two colors. In order to experiment first off to make sure I had the proper size for the stripes, I began with a smaller stitch and then wanted to go back and see if I could add or remove from it to make it look nice. I intend on cleaning all these seams out properly at the end of this process! 

And after a little sewing, I got the stripes attached and thus the legs were completed! This definitely needs to be ironed by a lot all over again to make everything look as pristine as I want it to be, but so far the concept is there! Now to add the waistband elastic, which now ironically is one of my favorite parts. 

I follow the standard elastic guide, which admittedly took me some time to really get good at. First, I create a casing by folding down to the desired length and creating the clean little casing. I measure out my waistband length (which in this case was Kureno's) and a tiny bit more just in case, and then fasten a safety pin to one of the ends. I then guide the pin and elastic through the waistband casing until the reach the end and stitch the ends together. I then continue to adjust until I get the proper amount of ruching in between and seal up the casing. 

 
 And presto! I love how lovely the colors look together, and I definitely need to iron this out and clean out little ends and the inside of it. Thankfully, it is already ridiculously clean on its own! 

 And here's a picture of the full length of the pants (despite my towels in the back ^^;). Now all it needs is some last minute work and it's good! I also made the band that isn't featured here, but it is made of the same orange material and we will be attaching it on its own on top of the pants so that it is form fitted to his waist but not stretched out. It was made by large remnant pieces, and it's great to say that these pants were very cost effective! The cotton is also really thick and durable, easy to handle, and the machine's new stitching is actually really taut and study! 

I can't wait to finish the shirt for Enishi to get the whole final look! Kureno already has purchased the wig for this, and is shopping for glasses. I will be starting on Tomoe within the week after I finish getting some more materials for her! 

New Sewing Machine!

So I have not updated in a little while, mainly due to the fact that I was pretty sick (and still am) with the flu. I've been getting proper rest and also resting my back since I haven't been the best with it as of Anime LA. I am happy to say that I am doing loads better with my back! 

My first update is the blessed news of a new sewing machine!

 It is a (new) Pfaff 360 machine, and it is the most awesome present from my close friend and fellow cosplayer, Kureno! We went a few weeks ago to shop for our new Rurouni Kenshin materials for Fanime, and my friends have long known my woes about my poor other machine, which has been severely overused throughout all these years. I hold such a sentimental attachment to it as well, so I wouldn't want to get rid of it even if it was ever broken, but we did need something sturdier to get the job done. We looked around the fabric store for some models they had, but then we went to a repair shop and found a lovely set of different older models. I took a liking to this Pfaff and a Kenmore, and it was the Pfaff that became the final choice! I have since been using this since and it works like an absolute dream! 

I think it opens up a great deal of opportunities in being able to sew more and get more out of cosplay and design. I look forward to the great events tis machine will contribute to, as well as I owe my friends and family for the greatest amount of support in this hobby and generally anything I have decided to do! 

Cosplay - Kaname Madoka Skirt

This is a cosplay I wanted to make last year but I simply didn't have the time to do it. Ironically, I didn't think I had enough materials either back then until I this year while unpacking my Anime LA items, I discovered to my surprise that I had more than enough fabric to make Madoka's uniform top (and naturally, all the others girls' uniforms) and if I could find a nice plaid to work with, I'd make the skirt for it. I had been considering to be Homura/Moemura for quite some time, so I loved the idea. 

I went to the fabric store and discovered to my surprise that they had 1.25 yards of this plaid that resembles her uniform skirt closely. It's not exact, and I didn't think of spending the time to custom order it, so I went with this lovely plaid. I have seen some doujinshi designs for Madoka with this kind of plaid, and it's a much better alternative than using an old Persona 4 Yukiko skirt. 

Usually I assumed that I required more fabric than usual, but I figured I'd somehow make this work. To my surprise, the length is absolutely perfect and I even had a little extra. I started out by cutting my pieces in half and matched them up, sewed them together in a clean, French seam, and then hemmed the bottom. 

  

 

Then I had this awesome long and hemmed piece of cloth. It usually doesn't take me very long, but today I sat on it a little longer since my machine's been a little touchy lately. This is just supposed to be a calm crafting project! 

So after that, I set some of the extra bit aside for my waistband and ironed the ends together to make that nice, clean look. I pleated my skirt by using an measured index card as my guide, and then pinned the pleats, made sure they were to my liking, and finally ironed them taut. I then added the waistband and topstitched everything and added the zipper and I have yet to add the button, but it virtually fits like a glove!

And here's the end result!  

 

I admit I'm not the same size as my dress form, but I put her up on Ema Heshire, my mannequin just to see the overall balance of the skirt. It looks really nice and I'm actually happy that it's quite wearable for other occasions. I also a finnicky about length, so I usually make my skirts long enough to make sure I sit properly! 

I'll be making the jacket soon once I get my pattern for it completely done! 

Cosplay - Tsukino Usagi - Sailormoon

This is a cosplay from 2012, although I've finally had a place to put the few progress shots I took. I had recently gotten a smart phone after hiding from technology for ages, but the best plus is having a camera on me nowadays while I work. It was planned and finished (the new before, of course!) for Comikaze 2012, in Los Angeles, California. I went with my friend Kureno after deciding to just go for the day and then meet up with some wonderful friends afterwards for dinner.

Originally since it was a comic book convention, I wanted to respect the whole trend and considered a superhero cosplay around August. My instant choice was a Batman Beyond design, although I sat and sifted through a number of possible ways I could do this. I felt though that it'd be a tough decision considering what I wanted was more complex. Somewhere there, I settled in going with something classic. I love Usagi and Sailormoon, so I figured it'd be a wonderful time to work on her uniform. 

I started out with the skirt first, as I usually get to the skirts. I ended up finding some great remnants I had left over of some nice cotton, so I got to working like the week before. 

 

 Here's what it looked like on my floor. You can see the iron there! I pleated everything, which took about twenty minutes or so, and no pattern was needed. I always use an index card measured to the pleat size for accuracy, and I stuck with bigger pleats this time around since Usagi's are rather wide. 

 

  

The skirt at this point is basically coming together. The waistband is sewn in, and you can see the pretty blue color this skirt has. 

 

  

I am terrible at props and shame on me for not sealing my craft foam, I am sorry! I did however make this rather quickly since it was about thirty minutes before going to sleep, and I think it was probably something around 5AM at this point. The piece is made of craft foam, painted, and the little circles are actually painted hole punching circles, the little excess you get after you've punched the hole. They were the perfect size! 

  

 

Here's the completed top minus a few details here and there. The bow is also made of cotton, and I used muslin the uniform top. Not featured on this picture, but I also made matching cutts in the same color as the collar. The collar's detailed with white bias tape. 

The final result! I will have better pictures up soon and have styled my wig. I literally opened this thing in Kureno's car! Like a lifesaver, we last minute shipped this lovely wig overnight after one I purchased came with a really awkward back. This one from Five Wits is absolutely comfortable and also really great with the tangling since the tails usually are a pain. 

I definitely will be re-wearing this for another convention to properly wear it out. I got to wear it only for a couple of hours, but it was a very wonderful convention. It also holds up together nicely so I really look forward to another event for this cosplay!

Till next time!