Tomorrow's plan.

Oh boy. I am beat. Been playing a lot of Sims City (The new one) and been playing lots of badminton out back. I'm really tired but ready to sew again. Tomorrow since my fiance works I'll be starting to sew Alice's dress. I have the fabric and chiffon for ruffles. I have five yards of lining and need about three more. But I have enough to start. After all sleeves don't need lining. The main focus is so the top part isn't too thin so I think I have enough.

I am in love with the chiffon I got for the ruffles. It's soft and moves like water. It feels great on my skin. It will be used on the sleeves, the bottom of the skirts and on the top of the bodice. As well as the matching necklace. I'll be sewing most of the day while taking breaks to start writing my novel.

Like many I'm super excited about this up-coming con in August. Since it'll just be me and my fiance we'll be planning a lot of photo shoots to keep us busy. Hopefully the panel for Pandora Hearts goes through alright. I have a feeling if we don't have many photo shoots and the panel doesn't go through (which I doubt. It's the only one of its kind.) we might be a tad bit bored. So hopefully we can find a third activity to do. If my camera is up and working and I get an arse load of batteries I may do free shoots but until then I don't know. I most likely wont be able to do offer free shoots because of how fickle my camera has been lately.

I'll post some picture tomorrow if I can steal my dad's camera.

Sewing plan

I'll be starting on Alice's dress this weekend after I get lining for the dress. I forgot to get it at the time when I first got the fabric for the dress. I'm also going to get chiffon for the bottom ruffles and stuff for the matching necklace. The chiffon will be used for the necklace ruffles, the bodice ruffles and the ruffles around the shorter part of the skirt as well as the longer part, and the bottom of the sleeves.


I won't be making the bunnies like I wanted to. It turns out making bunnies are a lot harder than I had thought. So in less I find a great and easy pattern I wont be making them. Instead I'll be making Alice's scythe since that will do much better in the contest for Sakura-con.

I'm hoping it will go soothingly and quickly but I am not used to sewing boning so it may be a bit tricky at first. I'll be posting a lot more pictures of this process later on. Sorry for such a short post but I'm busy trying to figure out an issues with my novel.

But before I go I have one other thing to talk about and I will write a longer post covering the topic later on. Besides my new Sporadic Sunday, I'll do a Topics Tuesday which I'll start next week.

Petticoat

Today I finished the petticoat for Alice's outfit. IT turned out very fluffy, perfect for the dress. I did mess up on the waist band a bit but my mom came up with the great idea of buying wide ribbon to sew over my booboos. So I'll be sewing that on later.

As you can see it's huge! It's tulle monster. It fits very nicely I may have to tighten it a bit but for now its fine. As shown on the second picture, I put it on under my Angelic Pretty JSK so show just how fluffy it is. It's huge! I wont be wearing it with my AP dress but I'm glad it gives a heavy dress (AP dress has two layers) this much volume. It'll work perfectly.

I'm going to start cutting fabric tonight for Alice's dress and start on that tomorrow or the next day depending if it's cooled down or not. It's been very hot and humid lately (even though its only May!) and I get very sick from heat so I can only work on my sewing little by little each day since the sewing machine is upstairs on the table.

I'll update that more tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

Sporadic Sunday

What? What's Sporadic Sunday? It's basically a random post with a random topic. Most likely nothing to do with cosplay. But fun all the least. Most topics will be random, pulled off the internet or about other hobbies I like. So for the very first Sporadic Sunday the topic will be....



MOVIES!

My top three favorite movies are....

Listed in no order.

                                                              MirrorMask 

"In a fantasy world of opposing kingdoms, a 15-year old girl must find the fabled MirrorMask in order to save the kingdom and get home."

2005

I first watched this movie when I was around fifteenth and it instantly became my favorite. The plot, the characters, it all is wonderfully crafted. Even the music is beautiful. It's one of a kind. There is nothing out there like this movie. It is very inspiring. I've watched this movie at least ten times. It never gets old.

The Secret of Moonacre

"When 13 year old Maria Merryweather's father dies, leaving her orphaned and homeless, she is forced to leave her luxurious London life to go and live with Sir Benjamin, an eccentric uncle she didn't know she had, at the mysterious Moonacre Manor. Soon Maria finds herself in a crumbling moonlit world torn apart by the hatred of an ancient feud with the dark and sinister De Noir family. Maria discovers that she is the last Moon Princess and, guided by an unlikely mix of allies, she must overcome her family's pride in order to unearth the secrets of the past before the 5000th moon rises and Moonacre disappears into the sea forever."

2008

Another one of a kind movie with heart. This movie like MirrorMask inspires me over and over again. The costumes, the characters, the plot. Everything is like a dream. And it's very enchanting. It's just a shame people aren't making more fantasy movies like these.  I've watched this movie at least three times. And now I want to watch it again.

Return to Oz

"Dorothy, saved from a psychiatric experiment by a mysterious girl, is somehow called back to Oz when a vain witch and the Nome King destroy everything that makes the magical land beautiful."

1985

My all time favorite movie. I've loved this movie since I was young and it has never left my memory. When I was older I found it again and fell back in love with it. This is how OZ should be. It's goes off the books (expect the ruby slippers, though are supposed to be silver.) A lot of people complain about the darker side of this movie and yes, that is how the books were. There is this depression hidden throughout it. And they did a great job mixing both fantasy and darkness. I love it. Plus it is the ONLY Oz movie that has Oz's true royal heir, Ozma. My favorite character. I have to say Dorthy is perfect too. She was never supposed to be a older teen/early adult.  And Tick tock. How could you not love Tick Tock?

Next Sunday's topic will be...

My top three most played video games.

Yuuko's hair pieces

I've been working on a small project trying to make a hair piece for my Yuuko cosplay that will be debuted at Kumori-con 2013, this August. Since I wasn't able to bring her to Sakura-con I'm trying to add a few pieces to the costume to really make it something special  I'm also going to work my arse off on finding good photographers so I finally get some updated pictures on this blog and my DA.  Last time I wasn't able to meet up with any of them so I didn't get a single picture. Which I'm okay with. Sharon's dress was just....ugh.


Any who.


I'm still trying to decide which (Water lily VS Butterfly wing) I'm going to use so I'm going to make both. The other night I started on the butterfly wing. At first I was going to just make two separate wings then I was going to make one big butterfly and then I finally did this...

I added both pieces together making a 3D effect. I'm still trimming, painting and figuring out how I'm going to put the hair pin on it, although I'm pretty sure I'll add it onto the point which is shown on the left side. Then just hid that under the hair of the wig.

Template made by LINK

I started by using this template that I found on DA, I posted the link for you to use as well. I traced it by taping tracing paper onto my computer screen then carefully tracing the template with pencil.

This wasn't my original, I made a smaller version that I have yet to use. Once traced I taped it onto a piece of craft foam and cut that out. I tried many things and some (most) failed so I decided to go ahead and do it a different way in order to get those details. So I took the tracing paper, cut the little pieces out and came up with this.

Sorry for the mess, this piece has been used. Once it was cut I taped it on and carefully cut into the foam. This took a long time since I had re-sized the wings and made them smaller. I had to re-do this piece to make it smaller as well. Once that was done I started playing around with the pieces and came up with the 3D model. Yuuko wears something similar shown here....

                                        I may add chains later. Just cause I love how they look.


For the water lily I'm still not sure how I'm going to make it or get the petals to curve upwards but I wont start on that until I'm done with the butterfly wings. I may use the butterfly wing and not the water lily but I sort of want to test my skills and try new things with craft foam so I may just do it for fun and to keep my hands busy at night.


So that's about it for now. I'm going to go write my novel for a bit then start working on my petticoat which is almost done! I will be coming up with on more post today. It'll be something new and fun that I'll be starting and doing every weekend.

What is it?

Sporadic Sunday!

Petticoat and Yuuko's hair piece

The petticoat is coming along great! I have the first layer of tulle gathered and ready to be sewn onto the yoke (waistband) and am waking up early to work on it tomorrow. I'm hoping to get it done or almost done by tomorrow. We got a ton more coupons to the local fabric store so we'll be picking up more fabric later on the following weeks.


Last night I was being a dork and was trying on my kimonos for my Yuuko cosplay and the more I see the outfit and think about cosplaying her this summer, I find myself wanting to make a hair piece for her. I've searched all over online and just can't see to find something I like that would suit her character. So I'm thinking of making one out of craft foam.

I've been doing some research on what pieces she wears and I've seen three symbols used over and over again so here are the three main ones that I'm thinking about making.


                                                          Butterfly wing/ full butterfly

Water Lilly 

Roses

I've been thinking about doing both the water lilly and a full butterfly. I'll be making them out of craft foam and will start tonight. It may take a while but it'll be fun to do. I'll post pictures when I start and they are looking like what I'm trying to make.

The plan for Alice and Kumori-con

The plan for Alice

I started on the petticoat for Alice's dress today. Although Alice's dress is only my third cosplay to be made by hand I'm finding the petticoat really easy to make. I had the yoke (Waist band) sewn together already, the first eight pieces of tulle sewn together in a huge circle of tulle (That was really hard to do. Tulle doesn't like to stay in place.) but I got it done! The first layer of tulle is made out of eight pieces, I had sixteen pieces in total.

Once I'm done with gathering the top part of the first layer of tulle (I have the first line of gathering done.) I have to sew it onto the yoke and start on the second layer of tulle. That's basically repeating what I did for the first one. That step wont take long so once that is done I have only the inner layer of lining to do and then all I need to do is put in the elastic band in the yoke. I'm pretty sure I can finish it within two more days. I'm really proud of myself because I've done it all on my own so far. Last time my mom helped a ton but I'm really trying to do it myself to prove to myself I can sew and read patterns without much help.

This way I'll have more confidence when I start on our big project next year. The only thing I'm really nervous about on the dress are the sleeves, lining and corset boning. The sleeves are from another pattern. I'll be making them a bit longer for my comfort. I still need a lot for this outfit luckily we have a bunch of coupons. Hopefully the dress goes as smoothly as the petticoat.

 For the dress I still need...

~Lining (Either going with taffeta or silk which ever is cheaper/ on sale)
~Chiffon for ruffles
~Hook and eye set

I'll post pictures when I can. Sadly my camera is having issues. It likes to think it all batteries are dead and isn't letting me upload my pictures to my computer. Sadly I can't get a new one and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to do free shoots at Kumori-con like I wanted to. It's depressing but not much I can do. We just recently booked our room for Kumori-con and will be buying the tickets soon as well. I love the hotel we're staying at but am sort of sad we wont have roomies but oh well. More room for our cosplay stuff I guess. I have to say I've learned a lot the last few cons and made some huge mistakes, friend wise. I've realized cosplay is a lot more fun with friends to hang out with and when your alone it's...well. Lonely. I'm glad I have my fiance but I will miss having friends with us 24/7. Especially at night. Oh the laughs we had. Great fun.

I am still very excited for this con. I'm trying to focus on the good, the panel (hopefully it gets accepted) and our new costumes. I'm really looking forward to Yuuko's costume. It's going to be very comfy. I'm going to get a clip so I can just clip the wig up when I'm walking around so it wont tangle. Hopefully I have fun and enjoy the con to the fullest. I can't wait to see my friend and walk around in our matching outfits. It'll be a lot of fun.