The whole reason I was basically missing the last two months was the huge number of cosplay projects I was working on before Anime Expo! Lots of commissions, and three brand-new costumes for myself.
Here are just a few of the things I worked on--I wish that I had taken more progress photos like I did with Utena, but everything was such a whirlwind getting ready that I ended up sewing for hours at a time and completing entire projects in a day!
Angel Panty (left) and Angel Stocking (right) commissions! From the series "Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt". I had a ton of fun working on these ones. Since I'm a fan of the series myself, I felt like I could live vicariously through my commissionees, and put a lot of heart into them.
They are made with the same fabrics so that they match--cotton-poly blend lightweight twill, cotton-spandex knit, bridal tulle, and metallic satin. The heart brooches are Christmas ornaments filled with expanding foam and finished with spray paint and felt backing. The accessories are stiffened with buckram and/or craft foam. The wings are also craft foam.
Some more commissions--Battle Lover Vesta (left) from "Binan Highschool Earth Defense Club" and Izaya Orihara's jacket (right) from "Durarara", both for friends. The magical boy outfit was particularly fun to make, especially since I hope to make my own at some point. The jacket was interesting because of the fur. My cats thought the fur was fun (maybe a little too much fun...).
Battle Lover Vesta is made with my favorite poly-cotton twill, with Kona & Imperial cotton for the colors. The trim is black bias tape. The pattern was adapted from a couple of different Aristocrat designs from the GosuRori mooks. It looks a little funny on my dressform since the proportions are for a guy, oh well. I particularly love how the shorts turned out, and will be making a similar pair for myself (for ouji) soon...
Izaya's jacket is made with a thick knit (sweatshirt style) with fully lined and usable pockets and a front zipper. The faux fur is quite thick--I actually went through and thinned it with a razor to make it look more accurate! The majority of the jacket is not lined, so the edges are all serged or otherwise cleanly finished.
For myself, I made Assassin (Sasaki Kojiro) from Fate/stay night for my friend's Unlimited Blade Works group! This was a fun one to make, much like Kikyo with all of the traditional Japanese parts. I also made the sword myself, which I'm pretty proud of! I'll share more pictures of the finished cosplay in my Anime Expo post-con review.
The kimono top is made with polyester poplin, and the hakama are a poly-cotton blend heavier weight poplin. The kimono is fully lined with faux silk lining, as is the vest. The vest is made with cotton blend sateens, with gold lame bias tape edging that I attached with iron-on adhesive. (Now that the con is over, I plan to go back and hand-tack the bias tape to make it more durable, but before I was in a hurry, oops.) I also made the tabi myself, out of the same fabric as the kimono. The patterns are taken from tutorials for traditional Japanese clothing, or as in the case of the vest, self-drafted.
The sandals are made in the same way as my Kikyo sandals--foam flip-flop base with braided twine. The sword is high-density insulation foam, with a flexible metal core. I carved and sanded it in to shape, and then coated it with Bondo. I kind of messed up on the Bondo and made it too lumpy/thick since it was my first time using it, so it took two hours of sanding to make it smooth enough to paint! Again, because I was finishing things the week before con, there are some things I plan to go back and fix before the next con I wear Assassin to.
Last but not least for this update, the second new cosplay I made for myself: Homura Akemi from Madoka Magica! I went with a mini-group (we had Madoka and Sayaka as well as myself) on Saturday of the convention, which was a lot of fun.
The overshirt is made with 100% cotton brushed twill, with black bias tape trim. The collar and skirt fabric was a pale lavender cotton that I dyed with gray dye to give it that odd gray-purple shade from the anime (I'm pretty damn proud of myself for that part, haha). The white underskirt is actually a separate piece, since my main piece of reference that I used (the GSC 1/8th scale figure) showed it separate.
The undershirt is a polyester poplin, again with white bias tape trim, and matching cuff edging. The bows are actually made with heavily-interfaced spandex, since I wanted them to be the same color as the diamonds on the tights. They are both on pin backs.
The tights (which I will try to add a picture of later) are made out of a thick black matte spandex, with milliskin purple diamonds that I used Heat 'n Bond to attach, and then carefully tacked down around the edge with a tiny zig-zag stitch.
Now that all of the personal cosplay stuff is over for now, it's back to taking normal commissions and working on a few Lolita projects that I have planned. Next up for blog posts, con reviews!
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