Thursday, October 3, 2013

The Biggest Head Start in History!

As we all know, my super awesome cosplay of choice for D*C 2014 is this awesome lady:


I am sooo excited for everything about this costume, and I think I have it planned out pretty well so far.


With Worbla, and LED lights / EL wire, and craft foam, and a whole lot of sewing, this is definitely a project where my notebook is full of more taking notes and writing instructions rather than just jotting down lists and sketches.

Since the Worbla and lights part will need a bit more planning (and purchasing) and will have to happen at the same time, I thought I'd start off easy.


Craft foam is like, $.60 at Joann.

Now there are a lot of tiny details in this costume, and I dunno what material the game is trying to make the gold pieces all over the fabric look like, but they match the metal of the mask and other armor pieces.


But I really don't want to use the same material in the armor as I do in the fabric. I have to sit in it and things. And also fabric likes to move around. And also that would be expensive. And embroidery / fabric markers are 'ugghhh' and 'mehhhh' respectively.

I read a lot of tutorials on different ways to make different armor, and after reading that the craft foam route is super flexible and can often be sewn onto fabric, I think that that is the perfect way to go.

Well, I hope so anyway. That is why I'm starting out my test piece.


I'm really not sure if the front piece on the bodice should be made out of this material, but I thought that this was a fine enough shape to try out these techniques. 

I'm following this tutorial to seal and paint it, and I figure if these can be used for an entire suit of armor, it can be used for a few of the smaller pieces.

So far painting it with watered down glue to seal it is working pretty well. I gotta say I'm not doing the one-coat-every-day-for-a-week thing with this diamond, but I will do another test piece where I do do that and then we shall compare them and see which works best for... all of those small pieces all over the outfit.


The moral of this story--if I don't make tremendous progress over the next year and finish super super early, then I am a horrible failure.

Monday, September 9, 2013

2013 Wrap-Up

D*C 2013 was good.

I finished my costumes every so slightly earlier than usual and they were a tremendous success!


First up: Steampunk-Pokemon-Trainer-Generic



The corset was a little warm, but I was okay with it open or closed. It fit very well so I was super pleased with my first ever vest! Aw yeah.



Ignore the wrinkles--it spent the night on the floor...

I'm glad that the bag / leg holster thingy allowed me to walk. I'm also glad that my red socks worked out! I was worried about introducing too much color, but I think it looked just fine. Especially with the gloves. 

Everyone else seemed to love it, so yeah!


Next up: Kelari!


I was sooo nervous about painting my face. I was worried about it melting off or looking splotchy, or not matching my arms, but somehow it all worked out!

I ended up mixing the two paint colors I bought with my sponge while applying it. I don't know why it came out even, since I barely practiced. But it's good that it did!

 
Wearing ears was also a lot of fun! First time doing that.

I was supposed to do all of this last year, but we didn't wake up in time for me to do it.
Also I had no plans or any knowledge of how to do it properly with setting powder and such. I also didn't have the right paint color. Or armsocks. Or anything at all.
So I'm glad I waited.

I'm very happy with my armsocks as well. Whoever came up with this was a genius. It's so much better than trying to paint my entire body, which would have been the worst thing ever in the whole world.



Super pumped that the paint color was just right and barely rubbed off at all!
The neck was really the only problem area, but it wasn't that bad. Also I had to touch up under my nose, so that was fun to do in the corner of Darkmoon Faire.

The only drawback to this excellently accurate Rift costume was that everyone thought I was a Night Elf while we were at the World of Warcraft party. I let them take pictures and stuff because whatever.


I shall rate the success of my weekend based on how many people asked to take pictures of both of my costumes, which was about 10 million. So hooray!

Sunday, August 25, 2013

One Costume Down!!

First up, this vest.
Action shot!


Then came the gym badges. 
Drawn in Illustrator, printed and mounted onto mount board, layer of resin on top, ready to go!



The vest finally got finished up with some awesome buckles and such. I'll probably fasten those straps down a little.


I've also got my fingerless gloves freshly fingerless. We'll see how it all looks together later.
Now: bedtime.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Dragon*Con 2014

Welp. I think I want to know what I want to do next year.

I've been waiting to be able to do a super amazing kick-ass costume for a long time. And finally after doing all of my practice costumes up to this point, and after watching some videos about Worbla, I think I can make my dream a reality.

I want to make a costume that has a lot of details and armor and glowing bits and fitted bits and flowy bits, and I think I found just the thing.

Rift's awesome mage robes! 

I love Rift, but I didn't love my character I'd been playing. Deciding on one at first was really really really hard. I played a Cleric for a little bit a few weeks ago, but a Cleric just isn't me. And my old Kelari Rogue isn't me either.

That's when I realized that Mages are what I like to play best. Sure huge hammers are awesome, and tanking is awesome, but using fire magic is the awesomest of all. 
I've done it the longest and in the most games, and I just can't escape it.

So I shall make my favorite mage armor.


Figuring out that helmet will be fun.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Trying to Get Things Done

On May 21, I had to special order the fabric I need because they were out of it. They said it would be in in 2 weeks and that they would call me.

Yesterday, June 17 (4 weeks later) I hadn't gotten any calls so I went in to ask them what the heck they were doing over there with the fabric I'd paid for.

Well they had no idea where it was so they said they were going to get someone who would come in the next day to track it down.

Well he just called and said that the fabric that I bought had been discontinued.
BUT there was some in Massachusetts and it was on it's way.

It should be here in 10 business days.

I have no idea how long it will take me to make my garment with it, so... this is all stupid. Especially since I'd ordered it so early.



In other news, I'm working on the rest of my costume in the meantime...

Including my Pokeballs!

I was wondering how I was going to make these and attach them to a belt. They need to be light, and fairly round and perfect, easy to color / paint, and not fall off.

And then I saw online someone had made them out of wooden balls. 
So I went to Hobby Lobby and found the perfect sized balls with a flat side. So I bought myself some paint and superglue and won the day!


Superglue holds WELL
I got a little bit of superglue on my fingers, but the moral of this story is that if something bumps up against these, the buckle will break before these fall off.

Now I'm running out of things to work on without my fabric...