Saturday, January 23, 2016
We're going to Sakura-con
I intrupt this steady stream of blogs to announce we ARE going to Sakura-con! After discuss it we've realized since something pretty major is happening around Kumori-con its better to go to Sakura-con go to Kumori-con for a day. We've decided since we only have two months and half to get cosplays done we are going to make Lacie and Levi. I'm thrilled! It's going to be a great convention. Even better our friend is able to come. It'll be his last con before he gets ships out.
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Trinity Blood- Part one Abel (Pic heavy)
Looking through the blog I realized I have never written a blog about our crazy experience that was the making of two complex Trinity Blood cosplays. Now is better than never I suppose. This series will be split into three blogs, part one Abel, part two Seth and part three will be about our contest experience.
The beginning...
We decided in late 2013 we wanted to push ourselves with a big project. Trinity Blood is one of my all time favorite manga. Nicolas has watched the anime and has read most of the published manga. We both really enjoyed the characters and art-style. Trinity Blood is known in the cosplay community has being one of the harder, most detailed series you could cosplay from. It was a risk. I had only sewn four cosplays before this and they were all very simple. Even with that in mind, we took the risk.
I chose my favorite character, Empress Augusta (Seth Nightlord) And Nicolas decided on Abel Nightroad (Nightlord) The pictures below are the ones we went off of.
The goal was to have both cosplays done by Sakura-con 2014. This convention turned out to be very emotional and one of the best cons ever. But I'll go into that later. We had seven months to finish these cosplays. That includes Abel's cassock, cape, armor and to style his wig (plus props). Seth has a underskirt, dress, ballet shoes, wig and hat.
Supplies
Eleven yards of black broadcloth and two yards of firm interfacing made up Abel's cape and cassock. (Also pictured tulle for Seth's underskirt.)
I wound up having to get more black fabric as my first pattern for the cape didn't turn out as I had wanted.
What no one knows is the second fabric was more brown than black. But no one can see it or has never told me. It's my silly little mistake and I still find it funny.
Kona Broadcloth black 6 yards (I believe that includes my mix-matched fabric.)
Daphne poly/cotton 3 yards
Metallic gold trim 6 yards
Red broadcloth 4 yards
Casa Silver satin 5 yards (made into bias tape.)
This doesn't include all the prop supplies, beads, interfaceing, ect. I didn't keep track of those.
The cape: A bias tape nightmare.
Nicolas was in charge of making the bias tape. We used Simplicity's bias tape marker machine. Which worked pretty well. It made the bias tape making process faster.
The last picture is what almost five yards of bias tape looks like. This was used on the cape and cassock.
Cassock
The worst part was fitting in the zipper into the pattern and sewing bias tape near the zipper.
Note: I was working on a sewing machine that was older than me. I was around 21.
The cassock itself didn't take too long to create. It was all the details that took forever. I spent roughly...three months on Abel's outfit.
The awesome cuffs. I made the pattern myself. These turned out so good. The firm interfacing really helped hold the shape even during wear.
Accessories
As you can tell, Abel is a man of many accessories.
The best part of creating Abel was his accessories. This was the first time I had used muslin to make a pattern. This was the start of Abel's scarf. I hand drew the shape with a fabric pen.
The scarf turned out so well. The cross appliques, not so much but I know what to change next time.
The way I created the crosses was by using tape to create the shape. This worked out amazingly. I wish I had rotary cutter, it would had made the process a bit easier.
In total I made four cotton crosses. Two small for the gloves and the two for the scarf. Each cross was lined with gold pipping.
Next time I'll be sewing down the crosses as the glue soaked into the fabric a bit too much.
Daphne was the perfect fabric to create the scarf out of. It was soft and flowed nicely in the Seattle breeze.
I made these by casting my own mold and using hot glue to create the finished pieces. Overall we had about 150 of these bad boys. That's a lot hand painting....
The clip part (not pictured) were made out of wonderflex and worbla and were also all hand painted and primed.
My test pieces. The yellow part is a mold, created with something I bought at a local art store. The very first piece used to create the mold was made out of wonderflex (It is on the bottom left, slightly more blue than the others.)
Remember to always test your methods to make sure paint and primmer will stick to them!
Armor!
There are many different styles of Abel's armor. From the anime, to the novel and the manga. We decided on doing the manga version but took some inspiration from the novel as well. Nicolas made and pieced all the armor together himself. I painted all the armor.
The armor was made out of a variety of items. From Wonderflex to worba and hardware store installation foam.
To create the long strands that drape down from the back piece we used tubing you can find at any hardware store.
The armor process took the longest for Abel. We wound up working on it up until the week of Sakura-con. There was a lot of painting to do.
The bottom of the tubs are pointed, we used pen caps to create it!
Finished cuff plates. These were rather to make. We would heat the wonderflex then mold them around Nic's wrists. To make sure they fit over the cassock's cuffs, Nic would put his arm in the sleeve and we'd test the fit.
This was Nic's first armor piece. He did really well. This was also our first time using a thermoplastic. I was terrified of using the the mini heat gun (you can get these are Joanns.) that I didn't work with Worbla until the very end when I was working on Seth's hat.
Shoulder piece. Almost painted. We didn't take many pictures of the armor building process as Nic often did it while I was working on the costumes.
Although this isn't truly armor, Abel's rosary is a huge part of his character. You can find out more about that on the Wikia or read the manga.
This center piece was very tricky for me to make. I remade it three times, using different mediums. Finally decided on using model magic, which was covered in layers of Mod Podge. This means the center piece is still very soft but it lasted two cons. I'd love to remake it out of worba.
The rosary itself was made out of oven bake clay and model magic. And lots of hot glue and wire. Surprisingly the rosary wasn't as delicate as i thought it might be. Which was good.
The finished piece was painted in layers of gold acrylic and rub and buff.
By the way, rub and buff is REALLY hard to get off skin. What I did, especailly for small parts I used a Q-tip. It works so much better than a finger or paint brush. You will need a lot but you can get a pack at the dollar tree.
The finished piece is my pride and joy. I'm really excited to remake this some day and to improve it! The rosary really bought the cosplay together. And from making it I've found a love for making jewelry pieces.
Finished
Overall the creation of Abel was quite the process. We both learned a lot. Nicolas learned how to create armor out of plastics, while I learned how to sew on bias tape and to put in a larger zipper. Abel is one of those cosplays I may never be able to sell. I'm really proud of what we created. It was worth the hassle and stress, blood and tears. But it was just the first part on a very long road of creating two Trinity Blood cosplays. Part two will talk about Seth's process.
Thank you for reading. If you have any questions, I'd be more than willing to help you out the best I can. You can contact me by commenting below or posting on our Facebook page wall.
Equus Cosplay
Thanks for reading! Part two should be up soon!
-Jessica.
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Cosplay-Step one: Pre-planning. (Photo heavy)
Hello everyone! I've been meaning to blog the process of how I go into and finish making a cosplay. So since it's a new year and we're planning some pretty big stuff, I think I'll be finally blogging each step that goes into my method of planning and making a cosplay. My first cosplay of the year will be Sieglinde Sullivan from Black Butler. She'll be the featured character for my planning blog posts.
Sieglinde Sullivan: The Green Witch
Please remember this is how I plan out my husband and I's cosplays. If you ask a thousand people how they plan out a cosplay, I'm sure you'll get just as many different answers. Do what you feel works for you! Also these blog posts will be covering making your cosplay. There is nothing wrong with buying your cosplay.
Step one: What are we working with?
Gather pictures of your character. What are the small details you might have missed while excitedly reading that new chapter? This, honestly is one of the most important steps if you are trying to make the cosplay as accurate to the original as you can.
Note: It's also important to find different views. Example: Side, back (usually the hardest to find.), ect.
With these pictures take some time to look them through. Whether that means you're rewatching your favorite scenes with this character or flipping through a manga to find pictures of their outfit. I'm a huge fan of little details (beads, ruffles, lace.) so those are the type of details I often look for. Did you know she has little beads/pearls on her hair nets? I think that will make those tricky hair nets fun for me to make just due to that little detail. (check out the last pic, first row.)
Step Two: Figure out if you'll need props.
You don't need props in order to cosplay. But if you do decide to make some props look back through all those pictures you've collected for something the character might hold or use often enough that it would be something that would help people at a con recognize your character.
Sieglinde has a wand that is pictured a few times in the manga. I'd say this is really her only prop, but it isn't something many people would recognize. But that is okay! Not every character has a big blade that is easily noticed. In the second picture you'll notice she also has a small bottle that hangs off her belt. This could be a very fun prop to make. Just be careful how much it weighs as it might make the belt a big heavy.
Step Three: Accessories
Accessories can be seriously fun to make or buy, which ever you chose, one thing is for sure; accessories are important. They add the finishing touch to a costume.
Sieglinde's choker appears to made out of delicate black lace. I'll most likely be piecing this together using venice lace.Or by using lace fabric. If I have enough time I might even make it by tatting.
This is by far the most important accessory Sieglinde has as it crowns her head and gives her a unique look. Her headdress is very similar to that of a lolita headdress (pictured below.) The beaded hair nets cover Sieglinde's long hair and forms it into horns. It does not seem to have any type of strap or ribbon tying the headdress on. Which means it is either clipped on or stays on by the hairnets going over the horns.
The headdress features...
- Ruffles
- Beads (pearls?)
- Two bows under each "horn"
- Small lace trim (in front of ruffles.)
Next accessory is Sieglinde's mesh gloves/sleeves.
These are attached by her middle finger. Similar details like her choker (little knotted loops.) Not sure how far they go up, but I'm guessing to her elbows. I'll have to search for more pictures.
Step Four: Shoes
Most characters wear shoes. Not all do but when at a convention, it is most likely a rule that your feet must be covered. I usually buy our shoes as I'm no shoe-maker. However, I'm not sure if I'll be able to buy already made shoes for Sieglinde.
Sieglinde had her feet broken and bound (It's a ancient Chinese tradition.) limiting her walking to a few steps. There are two ways I'm thinking of making her shoes.
1. Wedges or heeled flats.
Wedges are very similar to the shape of her shoes but a bit blocky and might be too tall. However, heeled flats might be the perfect shoe for sieglinde. I've seen a few cosplayers use heeled flats already and I love how they look.
2. Rocking horse shoes
This could be the most expensive route. I would have to carve the back of the rocking horse shoes into the correct shape but I'm not sure if this would work properly.
(Optional) : Underclothes
Underclothes aren't always important. You don't even need to make them if you don't want to. You especially don't need to make them pretty as no one is really going to see them. They only are used to give shape to the outfit (mostly dresses/skirts)
For Sieglinde I've sketched out this simple petticoat and corset. Obviously there aren't any pictures of what her underclothes may look like so I'm basing it a bit off of Elizabeth's corset.
I haven't decided if I want to add a hoopskirt but I am most likely going to be making a very fully tulle petticoat instead in order to give the dress less strict shape.
The petticoat will be shorter. I drew it long. Oops.
Step Five: Parts of the outfit
Some outfits are in pieces. Others are one piece. Some include coats. By looking over a full body picture of the character you can figure out what makes up your character's outfit. You may not be able to make certain parts so this is when you can decide what you can skip and what you should make last.
- Dirndl style corset
- Green overskirt with large bow and train
- Layered skirt with lace
- Long sleeves with ruffles
- Green stockings
- Puff sleeves
The corset will not be boned as I'll be wearing a boned corset underneath. The ruffles on the bottom of the Dirndl style corset will have horsehair in the ruffles at the bottom. This stiffness should help keep the corset weighed down and in place.
My plan is to make the second layer of the skirt a under-dress which the bodice is attached to. This should help keep the skirt less bulky. I had that problem with NoFlutter's Pluto.
The tails of the bow on the back of the dress will be long and drag behind me. The bow will most likely be sewn onto the skirt in order to keep it from being torn off if stepped on.
The first thing I'll be sewing is the underthings (petticoat and corset.) then I'll be sewing the skirts. This will be to gauge how the corset will fit over it. The corset also has more details which I'll want to take my time on. The last part will be the bow and while I start on all the larger pieces I'll be working on the shoes, wig and accessories.
I hope this was (sort of ) helpful. Obviously every character will be different. This is just how I go about the early steps of planning out how I'm going to make a cosplay. Things may change during the process but that's to be expected with any project. After deciding how to make your cosplay and what is apart of the cosplay, the next step would be to start thinking about patterns, fabric and trim which is what the second part of this series will be about.
If you are interested in seeing a tutorial done for a certain part of this cosplay, comment below or on our FB page Equus Cosplay to tell us what you would like to see when I begin making Sieglinde Sullivan. I'd also love to hear what you think of this blog post and what you like to see int he next one!
-Jessica.
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