Keeping busy

The first thing I noticed this morning after logging in on our blog account was that our reader count had reached 100! Thank you! I hope that you find and will find the content we create interesting and useful! We actually had something planned for this particular event, but the 200 kilometers between me and Yoki somewhat ruins it.  Instead I give you a photo of us in pants Yoki made for her next costume.

Last month was a busy one for me with visiting our brother and his family on the other side of Finland, birthday parties and my other hobby, theater. They consumed more time than I expected and naturally slowed down my progress with Amir. But I had made my timetable rather crazy to ensure that I keep my pace. I’m now back on track. I’ve actually made some stage props while I was at it.

I finished the hat with the cloth wrapping. Despite the amount of fabric on the back of the hat, it fits quite nicely without any fastenings.

I also forced myself to work on the undershirt, because the sleeves and front are quite crucial part of the overall look of the costume. I think I managed to replicate the design pretty well even if it always looks bit different in every frame. I’m currently embroidering the collar and the back of the shirt.

I baked some more jewelry. This time it was the bracelets.

I also styled the prettiest wig on Earth! I still need to braid it and add the accessories.

Note for Finnish cosplayers! Eurokangas has a campaign this week until Saturday . All fabrics -20% discount. I warmly recommend!

Peek-a-boots!

Few days ago I started to work with Amir’s footwear. I chose leather imitation for the boots. I bought three different colors: dark brown for the base and blue and white for the decorations. The blue was obviously too dark and I wanted the surface to remain textured, so I applied the light blue color on the pleather with a sponge. I used acrylic paint, because in thin layer it will not crack even if the pleather stretches a bit.

The progress itself was rather similar to crafting basic boot covers, but instead of base shoes I destroyed pair of old canvas ballerinas for their rubber soles. The “cover” I sew on a separate insole before gluing the rubber sole on. I also made another insole from thick felt, which is like a hidden heel inside the boot. This I thought to give not only few centimeters of height to match my proportions but also a better posture.

I had some problems with the fit of the boots on the ankles. I almost added zippers, but then I heard Yoki’s voice in my ears: “Authenticity! Remember authenticity!”

Seriously, after Yoki made her original costume design and after we discussed many times about functionality and authenticity, I’ve started to notice that I've been affected by Yoki’s way of thinking. I felt bit brainwashed when I took Amir’s finished underskirt and took apart the waistband, removed the zipper altered the fit more loose and added cord fastening. But I do like the skirt a lot better now and more than anything it resembles the reference pictures in more detail. Again, thanks go to Yoki!

Needless to say, I also skipped the zippers with the boots. It took some trimming and redrawing, but I got the fit and look right after a while.

The biggest problem ended up being the tips of the shoes. I never thought that finding the right shape for them would be the most time consuming part. It took me two evenings to get them right; everything else from patterns to sewing and details were done in one day. I finally sew the tips on yesterday after three different patterns and trials.

I’m quite happy with the results. I’m still going to darken the brown parts with black shoe polish and add the red details on the top of the boot. The next phase with the costume is to embroider the red undersuit and to continue with the jacket.

Journal for time travelling Doctor

When I was wearing my lady Doctor costume at Desucon last month, I got few questions regarding my Tardis journal and its construction. I realized that I had only posted one photo from the journal at its finished state but non from the crafting phase. This goes especially for that sweet girl who demanded me to teach her how the journal is made.

I found quite many tutorials of how to make the journal from binding the book to covering a readymade product. Of course I searched them up after I had almost finished my journal. The basics were the same, but I could have chosen a better material for the covers. I went with basic sheet cotton and it only came to my mind that it would probably not stretch enough to set neatly on all the small gaps and slots on the design when I had glued half of it on. So my journal represents the rugged type with water damages.

If I had read the internet tutorials before hand, I might have used a different material. For example tissue paper with decoupage technique. Just genius!

The base for my journal project was notebook I found from a local bookstore for few euros. With reference pictures of River Song’s journal I cut craft foam according the design and glued the pieces on the book. First I thought of using cardboard, but went with craft foam because it’s lot easier to cut. I added the “bindings” on the back and secured them with fabric before covering the whole thing.

I spread glue-water mixture on the cover and quickly worked the cotton on it. I used the end of my paintbrush to press the fabric on the slots. At this point I realized that I had chosen the wrong material, but decided to keep going as I could try to figure out how to fix the issue later.

After I had brushed glue also on the top of the fabric and the cover had dried, I took an exacto knife and sliced the slots that seemed too shallow. These slits I could easily fade away at the painting phase.

Then I glued the back and the back cover of the book. Before the glue set I made sure I can actually open the journal.

The seam allowances I glued on the inside of the covers. To hide the raw edges I glued the first paper page over the allowances and checking that the book can still be opened afterwards.

For painting the book I used blue, white and grey acrylics. I think I mixed four to five different shades to give the book three dimensional look, because of the shallow parts on the design. I used generous amounts of paint to seal the surface and to give the journal leathery look.

Fimo jewelry with push molds for Amir

With my current project I was faced with a part of costume making, which I didn’t have much experience with and that was jewelry making from polymer clay. I can’t believe what some crafty people can do with that stuff! I’ve only used Fimo one time on the tusk necklace I made for our troll costumes last year and that was basically rolling sausages and baking them.

With my second take with Fimo, I decided that instead of sculpting the pieces one by one I would use molds. I thought that it would be the best way to keep the jewelry identical. The items I made in the first bunch are Amir’s earrings and the coins found on the necklace, hairband and scarf fastener of some sort. The second lot will contain small cone shaped beads, trinkets and a tube like amulet on the long necklace.

I started by sculpting a positive mold for the earrings from air-dry clay. After sculpting I let the mold cure over night. The next day I brushed latex on the mold, let it set and repeated the steps over and over until I was satisfied with the wall thickness of the mold. I should have used gloss or varnish to seal the clay mold, since clay absorbs any moisture and turns soft. When I pulled the clay mold from the latex, I ended up breaking it. Gladly, the mold was as good as it could and I didn’t have to make another one.

For the coin molds I just brushed the latex straight on real coins. I made two sides, naturally.

I used Fimo Soft as the material for the jewelry. After cleaning and drying the molds I softened the clay on my hand, took a suitable piece to fit in the mold and just pressed it in. I placed the mold on the fridge for a while before pulling the piece out. It’s lot easier to get the clay out from the mold in one piece when it has cooled down and stiffened.

I baked the Fimo in 110 Celsius for 30 minutes. After the pieces cooled down I removed any irregularities with exacto knife.

I still need to glue on the loops, drill some holes, wet-sand the edges to get a nice, clean look, paint the pieces and finally glue on the jewels.

Towards EuroCosplay qualifiers

Last spring I made some costume plans EuroCosplay qualifiers in mind. But I was on the move too late and couldn’t arrange days off from work for Desucon, where the qualifiers have been arranged for three years now. Luckily, I hadn’t started the costume or anything else in that matter.

But having to skip the preliminaries bug me up to the point that last autumn I started to gather materials, fabrics and references for the second act. Last week I also confirmed from my employer that I could have the weekend off even if some of our staff members would be on summer vacation. From last August to this day I have been slowly making something here and there, but now I can say that the work has really begun!

Before I chose the character, I went through different aspects I wanted the cosplay to contain: The costume would suit my skills and knowledge about costume making and also have enough challenge so that I could really push myself to try my best. The character would have similar body type and personality if possible. I would have a rough plot sketched for the performance before constructing the costume and that the character, the story and the setting would fascinate me to the extent that I would be nearly obsessed about it.

Last year I totally fell in love with a certain manga and when I decided that EC it is, I didn’t think too long which character would be suitable for the preliminaries. The character I chose is Amir Halgal from manga Otoyomegatari or Bride stories by Kaoru Mori. I try to keep my calm now, because I could easily flip out from all the gorgeousness the manga embodies and just say that it is well worth reading if you are interested in historical setting and romance with beautiful art and leisured storytelling.

The base for the hat was one of the first things I made last year.

I really want to keep the costume as authentic as I could and also respect Mori’s design and art. The clothes I’m making from wool, silk, cotton and linen but with the shoes and jewelry I’m going to resort to more cosplay friendly and modern materials like pleather and polymer clays. Needless to say, there is lot of embroidery going on right now. I try to do it where ever I have the time to pick a needle in my hand.

For reference I chose cover art picture, where the design and decorations are clearly displayed. I had to use my own judgment on the back; it came together based on the front and how it's drawn on the manga.

What I’ve sewn this far is the skirt, the scarf and the vest. Decorations I’ve embroidered on the hat and on the vest, but there are still meters to go. Today I sculpted the positive mold for the earrings and tried to figure out how the scarf is wrapped on the hat. I swirled it and pinned it and I still got no idea. The top is quite alright, but the back is still a mystery.

There is still much to do, but I couldn’t be more excited about this project! Now that these plans are out, I’m going to write progress updates more often than once in five months.

Snufkin and Alicia at Desucon Frostbite 2013

I tried to write an entry from Desucon Frostbite, but it seems that there is too many diversions at the moment to actually finish it. Like new manga, reference pictures and embroidery to name a few.  I noticed that the first batch of photos was released from Frostbite, so here is photos from the costumes we wore on Saturday.

Big thanks and best wishes to Frostbite's photobooth crew!

Preview of Yoki's original costume design

Since my costumes are ready and packed away for Frostbite, the last two weekends we have focused on Yoki’s original character and her costume design. Fuyu Jaw're, the character Yoki chose is from the same storyverse as Sio Imano, a character she dressed as at last year’s Tracon and Neva Imano introduced at Desucon.

Yoki had a clear vision of the costume and the materials when she started the project. Everything had to be “real” looking, in sense on natural materials and no shortcut fastenings with Velcro. When we started to draft out the costume, it felt like making and planning a stage costume rather than a cosplay one. But naturally when there is no character sheet with visual appearance, it had to be created through a back story, personality and values.

Because Yoki has busy, busy study schedule before Frostbite, I'm writing this post from the costume construction on her behalf.

The costume Yoki had created in her mind has actually three to four layers, depending on how they are counted; an under suit with leather tabard, a full length robe, a belt with chain accessories and a capelet with a high collar. The components could be worn in different combinations, like tabard over the robe or the under suit with capelet etc.

The robe is drawn based on the pattern we made for our Snowtrooper dusters with few adjustments. The hem is long with an opening over the left leg. The sleeves are wider and few centimeters longer. The bust is the same, but it fastens with small buckles instead of Velcro. The material is off-white linen with pale blue viscose lining.

The capelet was drawn over basic pattern with two folds on the back. It’s made from dark blue velvet, blue viscose lining with silver pleather trimmings. The capelet fastens with similar buckles as the robe.

The belt has satin band with a metal ring on as a decoration and lacing on the back. The belt is supported with two layers of iron-on interfacing and plastic boning next to the eyelets.

The under suit is just a basic, sleeveless top with two piece “skirt” from dark grey linen. The skirt part is constructed from two separate rectangular shapes, front and back, which attach to each others with small buttons forming one sophisticated loincloth.

 

The tabard is made from silver fake leather with fabric interfacing and viscose lining. The front is constructed from over 30 individual strips. On the back is lacing with plastic boning. Connecting the front and the back is three bands of pleather on each side.  

The wig is silver grey, almost waist length beauty. It doesn’t need styling more than combing, some balsam spray to keep it from tangling and hairspray to set everything so that Yoki won’t have a mental breakdown with all the hovering hair strands.

The base make-up is rather basic; foundation, fixing powder, eye shadow, mascara and eye liner. The turquoise triangles on the temples were painted with Grimas water make-up and fixed with transparent powder. The eyebrows were our major concern. We were worried that we couldn’t get them light enough to match the wig. We thought of using the glue stick- acrylic paint method. because Yoki’s eyebrows are dark. But we had to give up the idea, because we wanted to keep the look natural.

In the end we went with white khol, which actually worked really well. Even if the real color is slightly visible, it fits to the darker shades on the wig. Or then we just happened to have a suitable lighting. At Frostbite the finishing touch will be turquoise contact lenses, which are the same brand as my green ones. So another lens color review coming next month with hopefully loads of photos from the costumes and from Frostbite in general!