Yuuko.

Yes! We just got one of the final touches for Yuuko. The obi. The obi I got with the kimonos was too small to tie properly around my waist (I don't think it would tie around anyone's waist neatly) so we had to find a new one. At first I couldn't find one that would work with the kimonos and Yuuko's personality so I thought about getting a underbust corset but all the cheap ones I found looked awesome and the nicer ones were way too much. Why should a underbust corset be as much as a full corset? That's just dumb. With a underbust corset your using less materials. It's a rip off to have them the same price.

So I finally found a great obi on a wonderful site I found a while back.

http://www.ichiroya.com/index.php

This site has everything from kimonos to obis. Some are new and some are very old. I don't think I saw anything that was in bad condition. Some have tears and stains but nothing that can't be fixed. Things on the site price range from $10 into the thousands. Most items range from $18 to $60 and that is a great deal! I wish I would have ordered a kimono from them but maybe next time. They are wonderful to work with too.


I got...

I love it! Purple and it has roses. Two bonuses for me. As I'm fond of both. It should be here in seven to fourteen days so I'll post a little something about it with pictures once it comes. It has a few tears but I can fix it.

(Update) The company just told us it shipped and oh my gosh. They are so kind. They gave us a personalized written thank you email and they are such kind, sweet people. I really can't wait to buy from them again. I've never had such friendly, caring service before. I truly love this site and those who run it.


Anyway I'll also be ordering a bunch of make-up for Yuuko. I'll be doing reviews on these as well once we order. We wont be ordering them for a while but when I do I'll do reviews on each.

Here are some products I'm going to get.

Medusa's make-up:

100% mineral theatrical foundation: geisha
Lipstick- Red square

Maybe

Lime crime: Velvetine (Red velvet)

Dolluxe lashes (Top: Harajuku Honey, Bottom: Underlash A.)

Sorry for such a short post, I'm currently writing a much larger one that is taking up a lot of my time. It's filled with sites, resources for people interested in starting to cosplay. So I'm trying my best to make it fun, detailed and filled with lots of helpful sites for those of you who want to start cosplaying but aren't sure where to start.

Coming soon!

So you wanna cosplay, tips, resources and sites.

-A post for those who are thinking about starting to cosplay. This will be a long post with lots of pictures, sites and resources to get you started.

All my props (Sounds like a drama series!)

-How I make my props, what products I use, what props I've made and what props I've bought. Sites and resources about make props, where to commission and buy your props.

All my wigs

-Guide for where to buy wigs, where not to buy wigs, what wigs I own and where I bought them, how to take care of wigs, what products can be used on them, storing info and how to restore a damage wig.

My cosplay closet.

-Showcase of my cosplay outfits, what I use with them, what I do to make sure they stay clean and last long. Costume care tips, stain removal advice and horror stories. As well as how I make my cosplays.

Make-up, the face of cosplay.

-Post about what brands I use and like, how to pick out cheap make-up that lasts, what brushes help, everything from eyelashes to fake nails, Places to buy, good indie brands.


Pandora Hearts Alice's scythe tutorial

-Coming late July/early August

Cosplay FaceBook page link? (Maybe? Maybe not.)



And much, much more. Thanks for viewing. Please check back soon for these updates.

Today's list

• I have to fix one of the sleeves. When I tired it on last night it turns out one sleeves needs to be either moved forward or back. It feels really odd when I when I wear it.

• Fix a spot on the back that I had "fixed" but made too tight and the zipper has trouble going all the way up because of that. 

• I need to hot glue the bottom of the zipper so the one strand stops coming apart when the zipper is all the way down. 

• Hem sleeves and bottom of the skirt

Most likely wont get past that today as I'm in the mood to write rather than sew. But I do want to fix some mistakes so when I'm finished the all of the above I can start on the ruffles. Which will take a good chunk of time to do. I'm not able to take pictures today. So I will do that when I have time. The camera is not charged and mine has no batteries. :(

I may start on the choker today too but I may just hold that off longer so I know if I'll have enough left over chiffon to add to that or not. Kumori-con is about three months away (not counting the week left of May.) and I'm still feeling pretty good about having enough time to finish both Alice and Oz plus the scythe for the con.

I've decided after a long and unsuccessful search for a cheap underbust corset that I'll just wear an obi for Yuuko's outfit. The obi is wonderful. It's purple with roses and its very bold and the colors fit well with the color theme of my kimonos. I'm still nervous about having the inner kimono flying open so I'm going to buy a cami to wear underneath. I might even add a snap button to the kimono so I have extra closer. Hopefully the obi is still on sale when we can buy it later tonight.

Yuuko's props are also coming along great. I'll do a whole post about those later on.

For now I need to go and get started on all these tasks for the day so I can go write. Thanks for reading! Remember to share and watch this blog! I'm almost at 5,000 views! If we can get to 5k I'll do something extra special!

Sleeves! It has sleeves!

Both, yes both sleeves are on! My mom is a genius. She came up with how to put them on and it worked. The sleeves are now sewn onto Alice's dress. Tomorrow I have to hem the bottom of the sleeves (To make the edges look nice.), start hemming the bottom of the skirt then start cutting out the ruffles.

I did I test ruffle today and it was pretty easy. Just gathering really. I just need to find out what size I want to do for each section. I'll be doing it in sections to make it easier as gathering can be very hard to do in large sections.

I'll be uploading some pictures tomorrow!

Today I broke the last needle (Stupid pins!) so we went out to buy some more (got two packages this time!) and got some more Modge Podge while we were out, my Podge levels were low. But while we were out I stopped to look at the embroidery hoops. My mom owns a bunch luckily so when I start up embroidery for Seth I'll have most of the supplies I need already. But looking at all that stuff really makes me excited to start up. I like challenges and learning new things and I've always admired embroidery and am pretty excited to make a costume which a lot of details. Alice's and Caterina's dresses have been pretty simple, detailed wise and I'm sort of longing for a more detailed project.

I'm going to do a lot more research on embroidery so I can get ready and figure out what I need so I can start practicing. I don't have the money for a embroidery machine so I'm going to do it all by hand. I think doing it this way will be a lot more fun. When someone asks about it I can say I did it by hand. Not that is something wrong with using a machine, I think using it by hand will be better for me.

But anyway! I'll talk more about that later on when I start.

Ta-ta for now. I'm tired. Time for some gaming!

Last round of hand sewing

Tonight I am finishing up the last round of hand sewing the lining onto the inside of Alice's dress. It's pretty tricky and very frustrating but has to be done otherwise I have to re-do the lining and that would mean taking apart the whole dress. So I'm sucking it up and doing it. I don't have much to do and will finish tonight. That means tomorrow I can finally get back to work on finishing the dress.

The next steps are...

• Sew the sleeves on
• Start cutting chiffon for the ruffles
• Start and maybe finish the matching necklace
• Start on sewing the ruffles onto dress (Bodice, sleeves and around the skirt.)

There is still a lot to do so I'm guessing it'll take about....a week or so to finish. Not much more time than that. It'll go quickly once I figure out the sleeves and ruffle size. The necklace I can basically finish tomorrow (I wont be adding the chiffon ruffles on that until I can buy some or buy some pre-made ruffles.)

Here are some helpful tutorials for ruffles and chokers.

http://bijouscosplay.deviantart.com/art/How-to-make-ruffles-93221433    

http://foayasha.deviantart.com/art/Ruffled-Choker-Tutorial-259346569

I'm so happy I found the link about ruffles because I was worried I didn't have enough chiffon and since the pattern I have is for large ruffles that must be cut on a fold and the fabric I have isn't even wide enough to support that pattern (Plus the ruffles would be too long) So this will work perfectly! I can start on that with confidence now. So I'm so happy and excited to get this done.  

Video game cosplays

Cosplaying is no longer just for anime/manga. Video games are huge these days as well as movie cosplays. I am a HUGE gamer. I may not look it or even seem like it but I am. My fiance who is in a game major at his college, is who I find out about most of my favorite games from. The two games that are my favorites from my childhood are The Sims and American Mcgee's Alice.

My fiance and I both would like to go to Comic-con some day or even PAX (Seattle). So here are some characters I would like to cosplay someday that belong to video games.


Guild Wars 2,  Cabalist female light armor (Left)

Freaking love this outfit. It's my favorite outfit out of all of the light armor. It's girly and fun. I love the lace and details on the bodice. It's rare to see a armor set for a female in a rpg that doesn't show off boobs or isn't overly sexualized. It sort of have a lolita feeling to it and I guess that's why I like it so much. I would love to wear this and plan on making it someday. I forgot to add this one to my future cosplay list!

American Mcgee's Alice, Madness Returns. Elizabeth "Lizzie" Liddell "Queen of Hearts"

 I loved this twist in the game. She's ghastly beautiful and I guess that's why I like this outfit. Alice's sister is a big role in Alice's life and it's mentioned throughout the game. Her character isn't shown often but within the little time she is, you can tell she is a strong person. And those hands! I love that grotesque feel of the hands. The dress is very typical for a Queen of Hearts but I like the gold and dark red together. The patterns are pretty simple. I don't quite feel ready to make it because of those hands. So maybe some day.

American Mcgee's Alice, Madness Returns. Alice

I love Alice. And I love dark characters. I love how they twisted Alice. And madness just works so well. I don't see many Alice cosplayers anymore and would love to bring her back! I want to make both outfits. Maybe use the town outfit for down time since it looks pretty simple and comfortable. Both are simple and I'm pretty sure I could easily make both.

Guild Wars 2, Twilight Arbor Female (Left)

Another favorite of mine from Guild Wars 2. It's enchanting! I'd love to make this. I can see myself working with a lot of different fabrics and trying out new techniques. It'd be a challenge that's for sure!

Those are my top choices. Soon I'll go over some of my movie/tv cosplays I want to do someday as well as a post about my 2014 goals and plans.

Thanks for viewing!

Hand sewing

Right now I have a bunch of little tasks to hand sew on Alice's dress before I can really do much more to it. The lining must be hand sewed onto the dress so there wont be any weird and random lines showing on it. There is a part on the back that must be hand sewn. That shouldn't take me too long. I'm pretty good with hand sewing as it was what I did before I learned how to use the machine. Before I start I've been working on more editing on my novel to catch up on that.


There are so many cons going on this weekend it's crazy. A part of me wishes I had one to go to but I'm glad I don't. With all this work to be done I'd rather sit at home, listening to Marina and the Diamonds and hand sew than romp around at a con that I'm not prepared to go to. Seeing as we only have one costume that is con ready right now.

As soon as I get the last few pieces of Yuuko's outfit and the make-up I'll be doing a make-up test, show you guys the props we're bringing this year, how our xxxHolic costumes will be different from most and what pieces are included in the outfits. I want to try and do this to each cosplay but it depends on when we get them ready. If it's too close to con there is no way I can do it. We'll be getting the rest of stuff for Yuuko soon as well as some of the needed items for Oz and Alice.

I really cannot wait. I'm so excited to be bringing all these new cosplays. And I'm overly excited to be cosplaying Yuuko. I love black hair (I've dyed my hair black once before) and it looks really good with my skin tone. I'll be using make-up to make me slightly more pale which I think will make the wig only look better. I really can't wait to show you guys.

So I better get going as today is flying by already and there is much to be done!