The End of the Summer

It's official everyone. Tomorrow I'm back in school therefor today is the last day of summer. I've done a lot and I hope you all have as well. Now let's see what I've actually accomplished. Master list time!

THE SUMMER OF COSPLAY!

• FINISHING MY FRACKING ALOIS TRANCY COSPLAY ONCE AND FOR ALL! This involves:

1. Finish the pain in the butt Jacket.
2. Complete the vest.
3. Make some booty shorts.
4. Acquire thigh-high socks.
5. Buy a wig.

• Completing either my C.C. or Homura Akemi (both of which I have already begun).

For Homura:

1. Finish skirt.
2. Make boots.
3. Make blouse (undershirt?).
4. Make "outershirt." (yeah, not sure what to call it)
5. Make headband.
6. Make gem hand piece.
7. Buy wig.

Or for C.C.:

1. Make boots.
2. Make shorts.
3. Make crop top.
4. Make arm things.
5. Make main uniform.
6. Make belt.

• Making my Senior Dress-Up Day costume (which I thought was going to be Zelda but now that I've taken on Hajime she may be off the table. I dunno--we'll see).

1. Figure out what my costume will be.
2. Skirt.
3. Undershirt.
4. Top.
5. Armor.
6. Wig.
7. Shoes.
8. Dragon.

• Starting both a 833 M17UN4 C4P70R (Bee Mituna Captor from Homestuck) and a Trickster Dirk Strider (also from Homestuck).

4 M17UN4 C4P70R:

1. Striped shirt.
2. Long-sleeved black t-shirt.
3. Black pants.
4. Yellow boots.
5. Antenna. (Note: Didn't want to wear two headbands.) Flower crown instead.
6. Wings.
7. Horns.
8. Black wig.

And for Dirk Strider:

1. Blue shirt.
2. Orange suspenders.
3. Yellow bow tie.
4. Anime shades.
5. Orange pants with pinstripes. 
6. Blue Chucks.
7. Striped arm warmers.
8. Heavily-styled red wig.
9. Orange soda head piece.

• Designing and making the shoes, legs, and bodice of my Hajime Ichinose. (Preferably the arms as well but saving the wig, head piece, and skirt for later.)

So what do I have to say about this ridiculous checklist I made at the beginning of the summer.
Well for one, it was a completely impractical list of goals money-wise. You're probably wondering how I managed to not do any work on Hajime the whole summer and that's because her complex outfit was too expensive. Not too far into the summer I realized that I could either use my money on Hajime and do nothing else all summer (just part of what I wanted to do for Hajime) or use my money on about half of the things I wanted to get done. I chose the latter because it gave me more of a variety of things to accomplish and helped me accomplish things that I needed sooner than Hajime. Hajime is a dream cosplay that is going to be made over the course of a long period of time.
Two, this list was completely impractical time-wise. I actually was able to acquire more materials than I had anticipated and most of things on this giant list (excluding Hajime) are sitting in my cellar waiting to be transformed into articles of clothing or otherwise specified. However, although it was THE SUMMER OF COSPLAY! I still had a ton of other things I needed to do before my hobby of making cosplay.
So taking these two things into consideration, I feel that I accomplished a great deal this summer and present to you now a revised list (which includes what materials I have for the items not completed):

THE SUMMER OF COSPLAY!

• FINISHING MY FRACKING ALOIS TRANCY COSPLAY ONCE AND FOR ALL! This involves:

1. Finish the pain in the butt Jacket.
2. Complete the vest.
3. Make some booty shorts. (Materials.)
4. Acquire thigh-high socks.
5. Buy a wig.

• Completing C.C.

1. Make boots. (Materials.)
2. Make shorts. (Materials.)
3. Make crop top. (Materials.)
4. Make arm things. (Materials.)
5. Make main uniform.
6. Make belts. (Materials.)

• Make my Senior Dress-Up Day costume:

1. Figure out what my costume will be.
2. Skirt. (Materials.)
3. Undershirt. (Materials.)
4. Top. (In progress.)
5. Armor. (In progress.)
6. Wig.
7. Shoes. (May paint them brown though.)
   
8. Dragon? (Materials.)

• Start my Mituna Captor bee outfit:

1. Striped shirt.
2. Long-sleeved black t-shirt.
3. Black pants.
4. Yellow boots.
5. Flower crown.
6. Wings.
7. Horns.
8. Black wig.

BONUS ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

• Finished my Homura Akemi skirt.
• Made my Trickster Dirk Strider t-shirt.
• Pulled costumes out of thin air for an entire cast. 
• Did nerdy things in Britain.
• Threw together a last minute Gamzee cosplay.
• Went to Boston Comic Con.
• Made some anime shades for Dirk.
• Started making automail for a way in the future cosplay as a fun activity with a friend.

So there you have it. If you, like me, made an entirely impractical list of cosplay tasks for the summer, I recommend for you to not beat yourself up over not accomplishing every little thing but celebrate what you were able to accomplish. You did a ton of work on top of all those other activities and you should be proud of what you achieved. Now it's time to say goodbye to THE SUMMER OF COSPLAY! so take a little break (this could be an hour, a day, a week, a month without cosplay--for me prolly an hour) and then get back into the swing of things doing what you love to do: cosplay.



And now a few last minute notes about upcoming progress and events. If you're wondering why I suddenly took an interest in my Mituna outfit, it's because hopefully I will be attending Sunday of Another Anime Con (AAC) and dressing up as Mituna then. The next closest event after AAC is Senior Dress-Up Day so along with Mituna, Dany will also be taking priority in the progress schedule. After that I'll probably go back to C.C. and other Homestuck cosplays while trying to find or make shorts for my Alois cosplay. This is obviously subject to change due to money issues. For example: I know my Dany wig is going to cost a small fortune so I may go back to working on C.C. while I save money for more Dany simply because I already have the materials. Yep. That's all for upcoming progress really. As for events other than AAC and Senior Dress-Up Day, unless I'm already busy (do to play rehearsals or something) you can count on me attending Anime Boston 2015. I'll let you know if other things pop up. You can always check the countdowns in the sidebar to see what's in my radar but none of those are for certain until I "formally" bring them up in a post. One other thing about conventions. I really love Homestuck and the Homestuck fandom itself is so much fun to just be with so for conventions in the future you can pretty much count on at least one Homestuck cosplay. (I'm sorry if you don't like Homestuck as much as I but this is the way it is.) I hope you enjoyed THE SUMMER OF COSPLAY! and are looking forward to upcoming progress and events but for now, MadDog out!

Mituna Bonus Progress

Well, over the course of the last now many weeks (with a two week break in the middle for Britain) that I have been working on C.C. I have also been slowly gathering materials and doing things for my Mituna Captor bee outfit. I still need yellow shoes of some ilk (hopefully boots), wings, and a wig to complete this cosplay but it's coming along pretty great so I thought I'd show you what I have so far.

Instead of making antenna and having to wear two headbands, I decided to make a flower crown instead. To make one I was lazy and just looked up a tutorial. I used the first one I found on Youtube (This One Here) and it was pretty quick and simple. That's about all for Mituna.

Bonus Bonus! I also made some anime shades for Dirk. I made them in ten minutes with random stuff I had lying around my house (i.e. plexiglass, a Sharpie, glasses frames, and hot glue). I can see out of them which is good but this means that in the light they look really crappy (like you can see all the Sharpie lines on the plastic). Anyway they were a fast, fun project. MadDog out!

THE SUMMER OF COSPLAY!

• FINISHING MY FRACKING ALOIS TRANCY COSPLAY ONCE AND FOR ALL!
• Completing either my C.C. or Homura Akemi (both of which I have already begun).
• Making my Senior Dress-Up Day costume (which I thought was going to be Zelda but now that I've taken on Hajime she may be off the table. I dunno--we'll see).
• Starting both a 833 M17UN4 C4P70R (Bee Mituna Captor from Homestuck) and a Trickster Dirk Strider (also from Homestuck).

4 M17UN4 C4P70R:

1. Striped shirt.
2. Long-sleeved black t-shirt.
3. Black pants.
4. Yellow boots.
5. Antenna. (Note: Didn't wanna wear two headbands.) Flower crown instead.
6. Wings.
7. Horns.
8. Black wig.

And for Dirk Strider:

1. Blue shirt.
2. Orange suspenders.
3. Yellow bow tie.
4. Anime shades.
5. Orange pants with pinstripes. 
6. Blue Chucks.
7. Striped arm warmers.
8. Heavily-styled red wig.
9. Orange soda head piece.

• Designing and making the shoes, legs, and bodice of my Hajime Ichinose. (Preferably the arms as well but saving the wig, head piece, and skirt for later.)

C.C. Main Uniform

FINALLY, the progress post you've been waiting for. I did most of this before I left but basically I never got around to sewing it all together. I thought it was kind of worthless posting a photo of all the patterning work I had done (i.e. a bunch of pieces of fabric), so I waited until after I was finished to post this. But anyway, I have now completed the main part of my C.C. uniform. Here are some mediocre pictures.

Construction Notes: 

I took the pattern I used for my Alois jack and modified it to create my C.C. Uniform pattern. The reason i chose this pattern in particular was because it has two pieces to each of it's four main sections (front right, front left, back right, back left). This way i could lengthen it easier and have the center of each section (the seam between the two pieces) be the point on the end of each of the four sections of the uniform. I completely patterned out my own overlay to make the top part of the uniform which took a lot of trial and error until i figured out the right look. I also bought a bunch of gold fabric in order to keep each of the gold parts accurate. Clearly some parts are just strips of gold fabric and other times the gold is piping (like around the collar area). Making my own piping from the gold fabric was interesting as I had up until this point never made piping before. It's always fun learning new stuff though, so it was tedious yet fulfilling. Because i got a bunch of gold fabric, hopefully I'll be able to use it for the boots i have to make as well. Other stuff to be posted soon. (And don't worry, I'm not taking another trip to some far away from my computer place.) MadDog out!


THE SUMMER OF COSPLAY!

• FINISHING MY FRACKING ALOIS TRANCY COSPLAY ONCE AND FOR ALL!
• Completing either my C.C. or Homura Akemi (both of which I have already begun).

For Homura:

1. Finish skirt.
2. Make boots.
3. Make blouse (undershirt?).
4. Make "outershirt." (yeah, not sure what to call it)
5. Make headband.
6. Make gem hand piece.
7. Buy wig.

Or for C.C.:

1. Make boots.
2. Make shorts.
3. Make crop top.
4. Make arm things.
5. Make main uniform.
6. Make belt.

• Making my Senior Dress-Up Day costume (which I thought was going to be Zelda but now that I've taken on Hajime she may be off the table. I dunno--we'll see).
• Starting both a 833 M17UN4 C4P70R (Bee Mituna Captor from Homestuck) and a Trickster Dirk Strider (also from Homestuck).
• Designing and making the shoes, legs, and bodice of my Hajime Ichinose. (Preferably the arms as well but saving the wig, head piece, and skirt for later.)

Surprise Convention! Boston Comic Con 2014

 Yeah, I know--I was surprised too! Well here you go the third and final post for today. Basically I didn't think I was going to be going to this convention at all because I was going to be getting back from Britain at the end of the week but while in London, my moirail (best friend) messaged me with an idea. She said she could get my ticket early and I could go with her Sunday. My mother (bless her) agreed that I could go so on Sunday we appeared in Boston as Gamzee Makara (me) and Roxy Lalonde (Ana-tama) from Homestuck. The reason we chose these costumes was because they were simple pair (instead of for example, Levi from SnK and Roxy from Homestuck). Now, I personally don't have a lot of floor pictures or Homestcuk meetup and photoshoot pictures so those will appear soon on The Underwater Hemisphere photo creds Ana-tama. My job however was to get pictures of the Costume Contest hosted by Ivy Doomkitty herself so I present them to you now.

And this Warhammer group won best in show. They were incredible but it was really hard to get good pictures of them because they couldn't get onto the stage in their costumes.

This costume was my personal favorite though. "This is Ghostbustas--whadaya want?"

Well, that's it for today. Progress coming soon. MadDog out!

RANDOM UPDATE ON TUESDAY BECAUSE ANA-TAMA UPLOADED THIS VID:

Daenerys Started!

Well, as you already know, I've started work on my Dany armor. Although she appears to have a sort of leather breastplate, I will be attempting to create it from craft foam and hoping it looks how I want it to. I'm doing this because for my Hajime Ichinose cosplay I will be using craft foam and worbla, and I want to have at least a little bit of knowledge of how to use craft foam before I start attempting her complex outfit. So, all last week I struggled trying to learn the ins and outs of craft foam and now this week things are going by smoothly (mostly because the addition of Phyllis). Here is what I have so far. I'm hoping that over the next few days I can finish the base and get a coat of Gesso on and if all goes well, maybe I'll be painting soon. Wish me luck! MadDog out!

THE SUMMER OF COSPLAY!

• FINISHING MY FRACKING ALOIS TRANCY COSPLAY ONCE AND FOR ALL!
• Completing either my C.C. or Homura Akemi (both of which I have already begun).
• Making my Senior Dress-Up Day costume (which I thought was going to be Zelda but now that I've taken on Hajime she may be off the table. I dunno--we'll see).

1. Figure out what my costume will be.
2. Skirt.
3. Undershirt.
4. Top.
5. Armor.
6. Wig.
7. Shoes.
8. Dragon?

• Starting both a 833 M17UN4 C4P70R (Bee Mituna Captor from Homestuck) and a Trickster Dirk Strider (also from Homestuck).
• Designing and making the shoes, legs, and bodice of my Hajime Ichinose. (Preferably the arms as well but saving the wig, head piece, and skirt for later.)

Just an Update

All last week I struggled with craft foam trying to make armor for Daenerys. My struggle however, proved futile as I didn't have a dress form and it's really hard to see what shapes will actually look like on me without a form simply because I am not a master pattern-maker. Through a series of events I learned that my grandmother had a dress form and no need of it so I picked it up yesterday and now have one. Yay! I'm hoping my armor-making will go by much faster now that I have a form. (Her name is Phyllis. Expect an armor post soonish if all goes well.) And since I feel I must have some actual progress in this seemingly unimportant post... I found some old knee-high socks in my dresser that have these big holes in the bottom. Pretty useless right? WRONG! I stuck my feet though the holes and now have the allusion of thigh-high socks for my Alois. One more thing off my list! MadDog out!

P.S. Anime Boston's 2015 theme is "Kaiju vs. Mecha"--I'M SO EXCITED!!!

THE SUMMER OF COSPLAY!

• FINISHING MY FRACKING ALOIS TRANCY COSPLAY ONCE AND FOR ALL! This involves:

1. Finish the pain in the butt Jacket.
2. Complete the vest.
3. Make some booty shorts.
4. Acquire black, thigh-high socks.
5. Buy a wig.

• Completing either my C.C. or Homura Akemi (both of which I have already begun).
• Making my Senior Dress-Up Day costume (which I thought was going to be Zelda but now that I've taken on Hajime she may be off the table. I dunno--we'll see).
• Starting both a 833 M17UN4 C4P70R (Bee Mituna Captor from Homestuck) and a Trickster Dirk Strider (also from Homestuck).
• Designing and making the shoes, legs, and bodice of my Hajime Ichinose. (Preferably the arms as well but saving the wig, head piece, and skirt for later.)

Homura Akemi Skirt Finished

Another half-finished project piece done! I hemmed and sewed ruffles onto the bottom of my Homura Akemi skirt thus completing it. Here are a few pictures. MadDog out!

THE SUMMER OF COSPLAY!

• FINISHING MY FRACKING ALOIS TRANCY COSPLAY ONCE AND FOR ALL!
• Completing either my C.C. or Homura Akemi (both of which I have already begun).

For Homura:

1. Finish skirt.
2. Make boots.
3. Make blouse (undershirt?).
4. Make "outershirt." (yeah, not sure what to call it)
5. Make headband.
6. Make gem hand piece.
7. Buy wig.

Or for C.C.:

1. Make boots.
2. Make shorts.
3. Make crop top.
4. Make arm things.
5. Make main uniform.
6. Make belt.

• Making my Senior Dress-Up Day costume (which I thought was going to be Zelda but now that I've taken on Hajime she may be off the table. I dunno--we'll see).
• Starting both a 833 M17UN4 C4P70R (Bee Mituna Captor from Homestuck) and a Trickster Dirk Strider (also from Homestuck).
• Designing and making the shoes, legs, and bodice of my Hajime Ichinose. (Preferably the arms as well but saving the wig, head piece, and skirt for later.)

Alois Trancy Part Five: Vest

I definitely would've preferred to be starting something big and new this post but my most recent trip to the fabric store did not prove to be as fruitful as I might have hoped and I have had this fabric lying around for a while. I basically took the day Friday to whip it into a (heavily modified to actually fit me) almost finished vest and completed it over the weekend. Here is the final product. I got the lines down the front just by using a fabric marker and a ruler. MadDog out!

THE SUMMER OF COSPLAY!

• FINISHING MY FRACKING ALOIS TRANCY COSPLAY ONCE AND FOR ALL! This involves:

1. Finish the pain in the butt Jacket.
2. Complete the vest.
3. Make some booty shorts.
4. Acquire black, thigh-high socks.
5. Buy a wig.

• Completing either my C.C. or Homura Akemi (both of which I have already begun).
• Making my Senior Dress-Up Day costume (which I thought was going to be Zelda but now that I've taken on Hajime she may be off the table. I dunno--we'll see).
• Starting both a 833 M17UN4 C4P70R (Bee Mituna Captor from Homestuck) and a Trickster Dirk Strider (also from Homestuck).
• Designing and making the shoes, legs, and bodice of my Hajime Ichinose. (Preferably the arms as well but saving the wig, head piece, and skirt for later.)

Trickster Dirk Strider Started

I've started my Dirk cosplay by making his T-shirt which means I can technically cross of the Mituna/Dirk bullet point (as I have horns for Mituna done already). However, if I have the chance, I would love to make more progress on these two. Here's a picture. You should know the deal by now--fabric paint. MadDog out!

THE SUMMER OF COSPLAY!

• FINISHING MY FRACKING ALOIS TRANCY COSPLAY ONCE AND FOR ALL!
• Completing either my C.C. or Homura Akemi (both of which I have already begun).
• Making my Senior Dress-Up Day costume (which I thought was going to be Zelda but now that I've taken on Hajime she may be off the table. I dunno--we'll see).
• Starting both a 833 M17UN4 C4P70R (Bee Mituna Captor from Homestuck) and a Trickster Dirk Strider (also from Homestuck).

4 M17UN4 C4P70R:

1. Striped shirt.
2. Long-sleeved black t-shirt.
   
3. Black pants.
4. Yellow boots.
5. Antenna.
6. Wings.
7. Horns.
8. Black wig.

And for Dirk Strider:

1. Blue shirt.
2. Orange suspenders.
3. Yellow bow tie.
4. Anime shades.
5. Orange pants with pinstripes. 
6. Blue Chucks.
7. Striped arm warmers.
8. Heavily-styled red wig.
9. Orange soda head piece.

• Designing and making the shoes, legs, and bodice of my Hajime Ichinose. (Preferably the arms as well but saving the wig, head piece, and skirt for later.)

Alois Trancy Part Four: Jacket (COMPLETE!)

I wasn't able to get to Promstuck and I'm really bummed about that as it looked like it was a great time but...

Yay! It's finally done! My Alois jacket is finished once and for all. Okay well maybe not "once and for all." I am not against redoing it at some point as it isn't my best work. This is because when I started making this jacket, I wasn't sewing everyday and only had mediocre sewing skills and the fabric I chose to work with was really just awful to sew. This means that by the time I got around to finishing the jacket, I had developed much better skills and now the jacket is kind of awkwardly terrible looking in some places but quite nice in others. (Also the pleats aren't accurate because I really just wanted it done--especially after three and a half hours of ripping out old basting stitches yesterday.) But it's done. So for now, I'll take it! Now on to the vest. Here's a picture of me in my completed Alois Jacket. Sorry about the wet hair and how disgusting my bro let's his mirror become. Hope you enjoyed this long awaited post. MadDog out!





THE SUMMER OF COSPLAY!

• FINISHING MY FRACKING ALOIS TRANCY COSPLAY ONCE AND FOR ALL! This involves:

1. Finish the pain in the butt Jacket.
2. Complete the vest.
3. Make some booty shorts.
4. Acquire black, thigh-high socks.
5. Buy a wig.

• Completing either my C.C. or Homura Akemi (both of which I have already begun).
• Making my Senior Dress-Up Day costume (which I thought was going to be Zelda but now that I've taken on Hajime she may be off the table. I dunno--we'll see).
• Starting both a 833 M17UN4 C4P70R (Bee Mituna Captor from Homestuck) and a Trickster Dirk Strider (also from Homestuck).
• Designing and making the shoes, legs, and bodice of my Hajime Ichinose. (Preferably the arms as well but saving the wig, head piece, and skirt for later.)

Dare I Say Daenerys?

I love A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. I love reading it and watching Game of Thrones and looking at hundreds of cosplays inspired from it and it's well past time I made a cosplay from it of my own. Although she is a character that is cosplayed frequently (you will find one at virtually every convention), I will be making a Daenerys Targaryen. I have decided to veto Zelda for the moment (although I will indubitably make her eventually) and make a slightly easier outfit (i. e. easier armor, less details like embroidery, etc.).

This is going to be the costume I make for my Senior Dress-Up Day. The big part of this cosplay though is that I hope to make a dragon prop with it. This may or may not happen in time for the event itself (but will happen eventually if not now). I like this outfit because she is a little more "put together" but is still with her baby dragons at this point in time which means that the dragon prop can also be smaller (hopefully it will wrap around my shoulder). Should be fun. I hope. MadDog out!

Bonus Notes:

• I would prefer to be making an Arya Stark as she is my favorite character in A Song of Ice and Fire however the purpose of this cosplay is to help me learn how craft foam works before I start making my craft foam and worbla Hajime Ichinose cosplay.
• My moirail (best friend), Ana-tama, will be making a BA Arya Stark to go with my Daenerys. 

THE SUMMER OF COSPLAY!

• FINISHING MY FRACKING ALOIS TRANCY COSPLAY ONCE AND FOR ALL!
• Completing either my C.C. or Homura Akemi (both of which I have already begun).
• Making my Senior Dress-Up Day costume (which I thought was going to be Zelda but now that I've taken on Hajime she may be off the table. I dunno--we'll see).

1. Figure out what my costume will be.
2. Skirt.
3. Undershirt.
4. Top.
5. Armor.
6. Wig.
7. Shoes.
8. Dragon?

• Starting both a 833 M17UN4 C4P70R (Bee Mituna Captor from Homestuck) and a Trickster Dirk Strider (also from Homestuck).
• Designing and making the shoes, legs, and bodice of my Hajime Ichinose. (Preferably the arms as well but saving the wig, head piece, and skirt for later.)