Sakura-con 2013 check list

This check list will only be for cosplay items, not food or personal items.

Wigs

~Caterina's wig

~Abel's wig

~Sharon's wig (Plus ponytail)

~Break's wig

Jessica

Sharon:

~Dress

~Back "butt" bow

~Neck bow

~Shoes (Pink low heels)

Caterina:

~Dress

~Collar

~Petticoat

~Boots

~Three armor plates

~Rosary

~Gloves

Extras:

~Hoop skirt

~Stockings

Nico

Break:

~Outfit (Shirt w/ coat, pants)

~Boots

~Cane

~Emily doll

Abel:

~Coat

~Shirt, pants

~Gloves

~Boots

~Glasses

~Hair ribbon

~Two armor plates

Magic box of cosplay:

~Make up (Everything from eye lashes to lip stick)

~Contacts, contact solution

~Hair gel (Works great on Break's wig)

~Hair spray

~Wig caps 

~Wig tape

~Hair ties

~Bobby pins

~Safety pins

~Skin lotion

~Eye lash curlers

~Eye drops

Things to get:

Abel's hair ribbon

Turtleneck shirt (Abel)

Smaller safety pins

Three days left

Three days until we leave to Seattle. I have a lot of thoughts racing through my mind. I'm in between oh-shit-oh-shit-is-everything-done and is-it-here-yet-I-want-to-go-now. Normal pre-con madness. I've been working on getting the rosary for Caterina done and so far it's turning out okay.

The gold part shown is the "metal" plate that will be attached onto the collar of my dress. The pearl strand (which I attached a little bit ago) will be connected to the smaller cross. I've also decorated and painted that and the white middle piece on the pearl strand. Both are drying right now and may not be worked on tomorrow as the clay is getting too soft. I might just go ahead and pour resin over them but it depends on how much I still have left. The larger cross is coated in resin so it's very stable.

I've finished most of the extra (back-up) armor plates today as well. I decided to make these because my fiance isn't...well....uh...the carefullest. So between him and brats (shall I remind you all of my horror story where some kid kept taking Break's cane, a prop I worked my ass off to get it looking nice, broke it in two and didn't even bother saying sorry?) Yeah....extras are good.

Any who, the only main thing we need besides Abel's chain is the turtleneck for Abel. Hopefully we can find one. We'll have two days to search for one so hopefully my fiance's mom can help with that. This year is going to be very different and exciting. We are entered in the costume contest, this will be the first time we'll be wearing costumes I made, and we'll have a different friend with us.

I do have my worries too. If that chain doesn't come on time I wont be able to add on many details to Abel's rosary which will suck because we're in the contest. (My fiance just called and told me the lady just shipped it last night).

The next few days we'll focus on tying lose ends, finishing props, packing, buying food for the trip, and writing up check lists. One Thursday my fiance will come over about eight/nine and we'll pack everything up. Then drive over to our friend's parent's house and pick her up, help her pack and will be on our way. The drive takes about three-four hours on a good day but if there is traffic or construction like last time it could take up to six hours to drive up to Seattle.

Check in isn't until three. But I really want to go to the bay (in the years we've gone we never have gone down there) and get some salt and pepper shakers for my dad. At five that day we have a private photo shoot for our Trinity Blood costumes. I'm super excited for that. The photographer has picked a great spot for the shoot. Hopefully we get some amazing pictures. We better...I'm paying for it after all.

Before that of course we'll go pick up our badges!

Day one we'll be in our Pandora Hearts costumes and have two shoots, as well as the judging for the cosplay contest that day.

Day two is when the cosplay contest takes place. We'll be in our Trinity Blood costumes that day.


Everything else is not yet planned. But whatever comes will be fun and exciting. I'm starting on making a check list today I may post that later. To show you how I make it and what I'll be bringing.

To-do list

Gosh this list sure has become short. Today just before going out to do some chores a package arrived! I've been getting a ton of packages lately, so many that the UPS guy asked "Hey, Jessica. Another pair of shoes?" He's great and was right. Another pair of shoes. My white Victorian boots for Caterina's outfit. They are a bit snug around my caffs but the leather/fake leather whatever they are made out of is finally stretching now that I've re-laced them and have started to break them in. I'm wearing them right now as I type this to get my feet used to them. They are pretty comfortable minus the fact they are a bit snug around the caff. They'll work for now but I think once I have more money I'll just buy a better pair.

Days until con (Or day zero when we are leaving): 7

~Finish armor plates for Caterina + extras
Should be done within two-three days. Decided to make extras just in case. Foam is flexible but you can never be too careful. Especially since we are in the cosplay costume contest.

~Finish belts for Abel
Just bought the second belt today, as well as the belt for Caterina. This will be tricky as you can't use a sewing machine to sew together two thick belts together. My mother's sewing machine is old and I'm too afraid I'll break it, so I have yet to figure out how to piece them together.

~Finish rosaries
Waiting on chains to come. Seriously am pissed about how long its taking for the chain for Abel to ship. Its from Canada and shouldn't take more than a few days. This one will have the most work to be done to it and it is taking the longest. Caterina's chain was just bought, shouldn't take too long to arrive. I still have to make the smaller pieces and cross for her's as well. This is the bulk of the work that needs to be finished.

And....that's about it really. Not much to do. A lot less than I had thought I would be left with so I'm pretty pleased where I am at right now. I've been doing all this work alone, my mom luckily has been helping out with the costumes as they were my first and I needed to learn a lot. But all the props I've done myself. And they've caused me a great amount of stress. But I've made it. I can't wait to start on the next projects because boy am I bored.

Props

Feeling a bit down today so I'm going to make this a short post. Now that the costumes are almost 100% done I've been working on the props, trying to quickly get them done. The main props are the armor plates and rosaries.

Theses are (Well some are) extra armor plates just in case anything goes wrong with the finished pieces. Since we're in the contest I don't want us to be left in the dust if something goes wrong so I'm making one set of extra for each pair of plates. 

Made out of:

~Craft foam

~Mod Podge

~Acrylic paint

~Steel pin back

The finished armor plates. The longer ones are for Abel's cuffs and the shorter ones are for Abel's collar. I was going to sew these on but realized that I couldn't wash the costumes with them on. And since they are white, they will most likely need to be washed after the con so I remembered I bought these a while back and just hot glued them on. They work nicely. 

The two rosaries. Abel's is the golden one, which is flipped over on its back to dry. It's a bit thick but it'll do for now. I'm not that great at making jewelry, its something I want to learn more about. The silver one is for Caterina. Both will be attached by chains and will be a big piece of our cosplays. 

 Abel's is made out of:
~Craft foam
~Model Magic clay
~Wire armature
~Thick floral wire
~Mode Podge
~Acrylic paint

Caterina's is made out of:
~Model Magic clay
~Wire armature
~Varnish
~ Acrylic paint
~Resin
~Pearls and gems (Fake)

12 days

I am in high spirits. So excited yet nervous. The dress and coat are basically done. I have a few details to do but besides that I'm mainly focusing on props. I'm very nervous about finding the right types of belts for Abel's outfit and the two rosaries make me nervous as hell. I'm not good with working with jewelry its something I want to learn more about, but have little experience with working on. I have the main pieces almost done, just touching them up a bit.

The chains should be coming soon, hopefully I have enough time to work on them. That really is the only thing I'm worried about besides my boots. We haven't ordered them. I don't even know if they'll come on time when we do. For my birthday my mom is taking me to the mall to get a few things I badly need and while I'm out I'll be looking for boots. Hopefully I can find some just in case.

I'm feel good about the con. I wish I could bring our xxxHolic cosplays so badly! I was so excited to play sexy Yuuko. But I just don't have the money for the corset I needed to replace the short obi. As well as the tights and shoes I needed for her. I'm very disappointed but I can't do anything about it just like I can't do anything about my JSK not coming on time but oh well. I'll focus on the two cosplays we do have.

Caterina's dress and Abel's wig

That title sounds like some sort of a soap opera. Anyway I got a ton of work done today. And I'm dead tired after all it. But with only 13 days left I'm glad so much has been accomplished. I thought this dress would be a lot tougher but its wound up being fairly easy. Maybe that is because my skills are improving and I'm finally comfortable with sewing on my own. The only issue is when I start I can't stop. Its very calming for me. 

  The dress is just about done. I ran out of pearl buttons and have to buy another pack later this week for the four buttons that go on the cuffs. Today I sewed on all the buttons, expect the ones on the bodice those I did last night. I did the trim on the skirt and across the bottom of the bodice. The trim on the front was fairly easy but takes forever. I can tell already I messed up a bit on the bottom but I can redo that later. 

The bottom is hemmed nicely so all the lace shows. The trim on the bottom was super easy because I could remove the dress from the dress form and put it on the ironing board. I did it within ten minutes. The skirt is slightly longer in the front and short in the back. I did this because of the bow in the back. With the bow it appears it holds up the skirt, lifting it nicely. 

The bow I added on in order to gather the extra fabric so it is more form fitting around my waist. Otherwise it looks like a nightgown. I guess I lost more weight than I was aware of. Awesome! I added a larger version of the pearl button that I have on front and sewed it onto the middle of the bow. It may not seem like much but it sure does look good. Gives you something to look at on the back. The bottom of the ribbon tails have lace, the same lace that is on the cuffs. I always add my own personal touches to my cosplays and adding the extra lace and bow is my own touch and it really brings it together. 

 The cuff and lace. The pearl buttons are so cute. I love how they add a girly-ness to it. The trim is the same I used for Abel's coat. Since we are mainly basing our costumes off the artbook version which I will post at the very end, the trim was a darker color so I skipped doing the blue as seen on the manga version of the dress. I love black and white. Simple and clean, plus with the pearls and lace it really looks quite mature and innocent. 

The back of the dress has two strips of velcro that closes off the back. Originally the pattern had it opened with a drawstring on the top (As seen in the picture) and around the bottom of the bodice but my mom and talked it over and saw no reason to have the bottom drawstring (Now we know it would  have made the waist thinner, oh well! I wound up cutting the seam too short anyway.) So I hand sewed the velcro in so it would show my undershirt and bra. 

Overall I'm very pleased with the dress. It feel great while wearing it and I can't wait to see how it feels with the wig and contacts...all put together. It'll be great. We have a private photo shoot for these costumes so I should have a ton of great pictures to show you guys later on.

While I was working my bum off on the dress package after package came. We got four packages today. My fiance's Watanuki costume, Abel's boots and Abel's wig and glasses all arrived today. I was super excited about it all. I love tearing into a package. We still have the contacts, chains for the rosaries and my boots to come.

The wig is amazing! So soft and the color is perfect. Not white and not dark gray. Spot on. The wig we were going to buy was out of stock so I found this one and it works much better. Very glad with the site, I think we'll be buying from them again and again for our cosplay wig needs. 

 

And the glasses! Oh gosh. We had a cow with these. So dorky. We love them. I put them on and warned my fiance that I will be stealing these from him during the con. They are too much fun! Perfectly awesome.

2014 cosplay ideas

2014 will be a year full of had made cosplays and rare, unseen cosplays. I am still thinking about if I want to do new outfits for our Pandora Hearts characters or not. I may wind up picking one of these if I have a job and the money to create one. These are my main three cosplays I want to try to do for the year 2014.

Ozma from Return To Oz.

My favorite movie and favorite character from the Oz series. The dress would be fairly simple with two layers of soft green. The front details would be the hardest to do as well as the long flow shoulder sleeves. Otherwise it'll be a very simple cosplay. I've tried talking my fiance into doing his own cosplay from something he wants to do but I think he'll make a great Jack the Pumpkin king.

How cool would that look!

Dinah and Vincent from Bizenghast. One of my favorite American mangas. I've always wanted to do these cosplays but it will take a lot of time and effort to create these masterpieces.

I may use Dinah's dress to get married in as well. Why not, right?

Most likely our only bought costumes for 2014. I'll be Undertaker (My first crossplay) and my fiance will be Grell. A fair more simpler cosplay for us to enjoy during fall.

Plus I'm pretty sure I'll need a break from all these big dresses.












Maybe (Wishful thinking)

Seth (Trinity Blood) will take a long time. Perhaps a full year to finish. This is the outfit I want to create. It's very detailed. Luckily I'm getting really good at working with details. I have my secret weapon, iron on stuff for appliques.

The details and props would be hard and would take lots of time and patience. Lots of details....lots and lots....of details.....If the Trinity Blood cosplays I'm working on has taken about four-five months. This one will take a full year and will be super challenging.