Next up: Stocking Anarchy of Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt

My next cosplay will be Stocking Anarchy.  I've been trying to decide since the day after Nekocon, but couldn't settle on anything.  I've been watching Panty and Stocking for a couple of weeks, and I am so loving Stocking.  She is a bada** with a sword, black and blue are my fave colors, and my sweet tooth is just as bad as hers.  (Yeah, I know that will be a major problem when I hit middle age, lol).

What solidified the decision for me was that yesterday, the Stocking wig on Epic Cosplay, was out of stock and when I emailed them about it, not only did I get a response today, but they're already back in stock!  So, I figured it was meant to be!

I will admit that I'm kind of hoping for a friend to cosplay Panty, because I know my BF will cosplay Garterbelt, but I don't really have any female friends who are into cosplay.  Oh, well.

Happy cosplaying!

Panty                                Stocking                               Garterbelt                                 Chuck

Gogo Yubari Weapon Tutorial

Who would think that something that seems like so few pieces would require so much thought?  Well this took a lot more planning than I originally realized, but it was TOTALLY worth it.

So here I'm going to do my best to describe for you what I did and what everything is so that you can make your own.  Forgive me for not remembering the exact names of some of the items, I wasn't thinking to keep the package at the time.

The ball itself is a 6" Smoothfoam ball, that I got from Michael's.  It is basically like the styrofoam that electronics are packaged in, inside the box.  I used the advice that I got from Katsumiyo on her "Working with Porous Styrofoam Tutorial" and did the following...

I would paint 2-3 layers of gesso all around the ball (I used the cheap stuff from Walmart) letting each layer dry before painting another.  After the 2nd or 3rd, I'd gently sand the ball smooth.  Because the ball naturally had a few small divets, I would put a little extra gesso in those.  I repeated this process I had about 10-12 layers.  After the last sanding the ball wasn't completely smooth, but it looked really close.  (According to Katsumiyo you have to make sure that you have covered all of the foam because you don't want any paint to get onto it.)

At the same time that I was doing that, I was painting gesso onto a sheet of regular craft foam.  That's what you see wrapped around the ball, that the spikes are pressed into.  There are only about 4 layers of gesso on the craft foam.

Next comes the silver metallic acrylic paint.  There are about 8-10 coats of paint on the ball and 5-6 on the craft foam.  I basically painted until I was happy with it.  Acrylic paint dries pretty quickly so this only took about an hour.

The small diameter chain was bought in a 3 foot length and then cut at home to the size we liked.  I used just a regular hot glue gun to glue it down.  (We had tested the hot glue on a fast food cup first and it held up beautifully.)    The small chain does not connect anywhere on the ball because it does not connect on hers.  They are two separate circles.

The "spikes" are on a background of painted craft foam.  On hers it is of course metal, and to try to get a little accuracy I cut four strips of craft foam 1" wide.  Each strip was half the diameter of the ball so that they would lay down more smoothly.  They were also hot glued down.

The "spikes" are actually the tops of Papermate Profile Elite pens.  I filled each with some leftover Model Magic I had to make more surface area at the bottom.  I pushed a toothpick into the ball, leaving a bit sticking out, put a small drop of hot glue on the Model Magic and the rim of the pen top, then pressed the whole thing onto the toothpick.  I made sure the Model Magic and toothpick didn't poke out of the top.  It took about 16 of these.

 The top of the ball, the part that the chain "comes out of" is made of three items.  The circle that is glued to the ball is a plumbing fixture.  I basically stood in the plumbing aisle of Home Depot until I found something that I liked.  It was originally white, but my BF sanded it rough and it took acrylic paint brilliantly after that.  He semi-closed the opening with the painted craft foam.

The part sticking out of that, that attaches the chain to the top is a large screw eye hook.  My BF, just screwed it in by hand, then unscrewed it, I put hot glue into the hole, and he screwed it back in again.

Lastly, the handle started out as a long thick dowel that we purchased from Home Depot.  My BF used a hand saw to cut it down to 6" and he gessoed and painted it for me.  He used a drill to a hole in the end, and then screwed in a second large screw eye hook.

The large chain was purchased in a length of 3 feet because when I checked the weapons policies of most of the cons around me, they either didn't mention how long it could be, or that was the limit.  It is attached to the ball and the handle with Quick Links.

 
Overall I think that this was a great success, and I was super proud of it!

Happy cosplaying!

.

Nekocon 2012 Wrap-Up

So, I think both cosplays went well.  Gogo Yubari was a pretty big hit for those who recognized her.  My BF decided at the last minute to cosplay a Crazy 88 so that made it even more fun.  Since it was just before Halloween, easily found his mask and tie at an Halloween superstore, he got the jacket from the Goodwill and the sword from an import store.

People mostly loved Gogo's meteor hammer.  I got quite a few looks when people realized that I used real chain.  Don't worry the ball itself was foam.

Maka was a hit too and I got a lot of compliments on my boots. 

The pic is a before and after.

Since I'm still relatively new to sewing, I didn't try to make her coat.  I'll mostly likely attempt that in the future and then make a scythe as well.

If you're interested in how I did the boots, there really isn't much to say.  I cut the straps off of the original boots.  My white straps started out as white men's leather belts that I found on Amazon.com.  I bought four of the longest available because I knew I needed four buckles and I wanted as much leather as possible.

With my BF's help, we basically would measure the strap, mark with a pencil where we needed to cut, and cut.  Leather belt cuts really easily with regular scissors and I glued the belt on with Fabri-Tac. 

To create the hole she has along the side and back of her boots, I used a leather punch (the red-handled item pictured above) and large grommets that I bought from Joanns.

In the end we had plenty of belt without having to use the portion that has the pre-punched holes.

If you're interested in how I did the meteor hammer, that's a separate post.

Happy cosplaying!

4 days to Nekocon 2012

With only 4 days to go, I finally conquered my procrastination.  My boyfriend helped me put the straps on my Maka Albarn boots.  I did the two around the upper part, and put in the grommets, but he put on the rest of the straps and painted the soles.  They look awesome!

Thanks to a friend who just bought a club, we went to a Halloween party Friday night, which forced me to finish modifying Gogo's jacket and cut the bangs.  I've started working on her weapon and will definitely be finished in a couple of days.

Now, other than Gogo's weapon, I only have bits and pieces left.  I have to sew on the clasp for my Maka skirt, sew on the gold buttons that go on Gogo's sleeves, and then knit the trim onto Maka's sweater vest.

Since I took Thursday off from work, I should definitely be able to get everything done with time to spare.

Happy cosplaying!

Gogo Yubari update

 

 Gogo is coming along nicely!  I was having trouble finding fabric for the skirt and hadn't planned to make the jacket since I don't think my sewing skills are there yet, so this cosplay has tested my ability to scour the internet and thrift stores.  Here are my finds:

1. Navy blue jacket - Ebay - $10.25 (including shipping).  All I have to do is change the buttons to gold, sew or iron on the patch and I'm going to shorten the bottom by about 1 1/2".

2. Gogo Yubari Patch - Ebay - $10.50 (including shipping).  This came from a seller in the UK, who apparently makes these and other patched.

3. White Nike Air Force Ones - Ebay - $19 (including shipping).  I watched just the fight scene between her and the bride, and I swear she's wearing these shoes, lol.

4. Gray/white plaid skirt - Etsy - $20 (including shipping).  I'm impressed with how close this looks.

5.    I also bought the  20" Dark Brown wig from Epic Cosplay.  I'll just need to cut some bangs.

I also need to make her mace ball.  I already have quite a few ideas for this prop and I think it'll be fairly easy.  I'll probably do a post about how I do it.  Less than 2 weeks to go.  Time to conquer my procrastination

Happy cosplaying!!

Next up: Maka Albarn and Gogo Yubari

Our next Con is Nekcon in Hampton, VA on Nov 2-4.  That gives me about 70 days to get my next two cosplays together.   

 Gogo Yubari (Kill Bill Vol. 1)

and

Maka Albarn (Soul Eater)

I've already started acquiring and scouting items.  It looks like I may have to buy more Gogo stuff than I would like but I haven't given up yet.  I really want to get the fabric for her skirt as accurate as possible, so I'm still looking for a plaid I can use to make my own before, I just buy a pre-made skirt.

I was also surprised to notice in her fight with the bride (Uma Thurman) that her sneakers are most likely Nike Air Force Ones.  That's hilarious to me, so I will definitely be scouting around Ebay for a pre-worn pair of those in my size.

As for Maka, I'm already working on her sweater vest.  I'm knitting it myself using the Academia pattern from Twist Collective.  I'm using the Cascade 220 Superwash Sport on the Lemon (#820) colorway.  The original pattern as a fair-isle section, but I'm obviously just going to knit the vest plain.

My local fabric store has a cute red/black plaid twill that I'll be buying to make her skirt.  I would like to make the tie if I can find some striped fabric even if it's cotton.  And if I'm feeling brave and still have a few weeks time, I'll attempt her coat and make a scythe.  Otherwise I'll just re-cover some used books and make my own creative and Soul Eater related titles and carry those.

Overall, I'm just hoping that I don't get so involved in work that I run out of time to finish these cosplays.  The beginning of the school year is such a crunch time, that I usually come how and crash.  Wish me luck and . . .

Happy Cosplaying!!

How I made my Yoko Boots

I'm not really labeling this as a tutorial b/c it's totally up to you what info you use and don't.  My method was actually a hodge-podge of info I researched from the internet.  I just combined ideas and added a few of my own to get what worked for me.  I'm posting this in case someone finds something here that helps them.

The hardest part for me was finding a pair of boots that I really liked for this cosplay.  I spent weeks researching online for boots, and was even suggested a great pair by a fellow cosplayer from Cosplay.com, only to find that they didn't come in my size.

Anyway, I found these great boots at Sears.com on sale.  Cutting the buckles and other bits off was really easy.  I took pics of them after, but don't think you need to see that, lol.  After cutting off the unnecessary decorations, I used pure Acetone (bought in the paint dept at Walmart) and took off the layer of finish that's on the boots.  This took off a little bit of the color, but that didn't matter because I was changing the color anyway.  You should be careful with the Acetone, use it in a well-ventilated area and wear gloves to protect your hands.  It won't burn your skin, but will remove the color from carpet and clothing so be careful.  I would put a few cotton balls in a glass jar (Acetone can eat some plastics), and pour enough Acetone to wet the cotton balls without them being drippy.  Then I'd just wipe away.  When the cotton ball had too much gunk on it, I'd get another one. 

 

My BF found these amazing oversized zippers at OrgXIIIOrg.  They are fellow cosplayers who specialize in making huge zippers.  If you just search "large zippers" or any derivative of that, what you get are zippers that are extra long. Instead I now have zippers with HUGE teeth.  Look how huge that zipper pull is compared to my hand!

Yoko's zippers don't go all the way down, so it was decided that mine would only go 7 inches down my boots.  I measured the zippers to 9 inches to have enough zipper tape to attach and cut them from the bottom.  This ensured that I had the top zipper stop intact.As you can also see I cut the extra zipper tape from the top.  I then used Fray Check on the top and bottom edges.    I'm not sure how well you can see it, but for the extra 2 inches of zipper, I put gorilla glue in the teeth to ensure that they wouldn't split during wear.

The zipper teeth were 2cm wide, so from the outside of the boots I cut out an area that was 7 inches long, and slightly wider than 2 cm.  

I hand-sewed the zippers into the boots.  My right index finger and thumb were not happy about that.  The zippers are even still functional.

Here are the boots after 4 coats for paint.  I mentally divided the boot into sections, would paint a section and then use my blowdryer on low before painting the next section.  (Please ignore the disaster that was my living room at the time.  Lol, didn't notice the BF in the corner of the pic until later)

It took 9 coats of the white Angelus leather paint to completely cover the boots.  I could have stopped at 8, but did one more just for good measure.  My BF drew an outline of the flames on in pencil for me.  He used actual pics of Yoko's boots and made sure that the patterns faced opposite directions.  It took 3 coats of the red paint for that level of brightness and then I used one coat of the finisher.

 I forgot to take pics before I wore them so what you're seeing is them after a day of wear.  They held up really well; no chipping, no peeling, and no rubbing off.  I forgot to mention, the zipper pulls are just two layers of the craft foam, cut in a zipper pull shape and glued together.  They're attached to the zipper by small key rings.

Honestly at this point after seeing how well my boots held up to wearing them all day I would swear by Angelus paint and thin layers.  Even after 9 layers of that white paint and 3 layers of red, those boots are totally flexible.  They don't move like they were painted at all. 

So this is basically what I did.  I may have forgotten something, or not explained it well.  Feel free to ask questions and. . .

Happy Cosplaying!

Otakon 2012

First, isn't my new banner amazing!  THANKS BF!

Otakon was pretty fun.  There were TONS of people there as expected.  We only got into 4 of the panels we wanted to get into, but still had a good time.  I got tons of compliments on my Yoko cosplay, and I was happy about that b/c I worked super hard on that.  One girl even asked me if I bought it ^_^ !!  I'll do a post about how I made my boots later. (And I know I'm missing a bracelet.  I hadn't finished sewing on the buttons yet, but I did and put it on later that day.)

I really loved my Lucy cosplay.  It was super comfortable, but I kept forgetting about the horns and bumping them, lol.  There were a bunch of other Lucys there and I took pics with almost all of them.   Being that the dress is the first item of clothing I've ever made I think I did a pretty good job.  I bought the shirt from Amazon.com, the socks from Sockdreams.com, the shoes from Target, and wig from Epic Cosplay, and made the music box.  Well. . .

I bought a pre-made wooden box from Michael's, stained it, lined the inside with some burgundy felt I bought on clearance from Hancock Fabrics.  The lines on the top front and back on the box that would be done with a woodburner "in real life", were just drawn on by my BF with a Sharpie before I stained.  That was totally his idea, and really helped the box looked authentic.  I made the inner and outer "plates" from craft foam and acrylic paint.  At some point I'll have a real gold plate engraved for the inside, but I didn't have time this year.  For the inner plate, I printed Lilium out on some cardstock, glued that onto the craft foam and them painted it.  The box also plays Lilium, with a mechanism I found on Amazon ^_^. 


Cosplaying turned out to be more fun that I thought it would be.  I've already started on my next cosplay which will be, Maka Albarn from Soul Eater; I'll be wearing that for Nekocon in November.  I'm knitting the sweater vest myself.  I'm using the Academia pattern.  It's from Twist Collective, but I found it on Ravelry.  I'm hoping to be finished with that before I have to go back to work in September.  Wish me luck!!

Happy Cosplaying!

Lucy (Elfen Lied) so far...

This cosplay has been easier to get together, because there are just less parts.  I already have the wig, ribbon, pink shirt, socks and shoes.  I just need to make the dress and horns.

 I also plan to make a music box.  I ordered a little "box" that plays the song, you can see it in the pic, and just need to stain the wooden box I got from Michael's, then cover the inside with velvet and make a shelf to cover the music mechanism.  The hardest part of that will be cutting a hole in the bottom so that I can actually wind it, lol. (Oh and finding someone to make the engraved plate for the inside, lmbo.)

The "to-do" list for this cosplay is
1. make dress
2. make horns
3. cut ribbon (for neck)
4. figure out how to attach horns to wig
5. sand/stain music box
6. cut hole in music box for winding mechanism
7. find place to make engraved plate


If I pretend that I didn't decide to make the music box (don't know what came over me in the first place, lol) that list is easy-peasy!

Happy Cosplaying!

Yoko Littner Cosplay (so far)

So far, I've gathered almost everything that I could for my Yoko cosplay.  Currently I've gathered, a belt, chopsticks, black fingerless gloves, pink thigh high socks and boots.   My BF has made her skull barrette for me out of model magic and it is currently sitting high on a bookshelf (away from the cats, lol) drying. 

I ordered the  20" Red Straight Long and the 50" Red Straight Ponytail Clipon wigs from Epic Cosplay.  I'm going to style the 20" into a ponytail and then put on the clipon after.  Since the clipon is 50", I might shorten it, but we'll see after I try it on. 

I've also already ordered some orange glasses that look a lot like hers, but they haven't arrived and according to USPS they were never actually mailed.  I'm still waiting to hear from the company I ordered them from.  USPS said if I don't hear from them by Tuesday, to file a formal complaint.  I'd rather just get the glasses or my money back.

My BF found some awesomely large zippers for me.  Those should be on the way so that I can use them for the boots.  It's a small company though and now that I am having trouble with the glasses, I'm nervous about these zippers not coming in.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed on both.

My list of things left to do for this cosplay are as follows:
1. Paint the boots
2. Paint the chopsticks
3. Style the wigs
4. Make the shorts
5. Make the top
6. Make the armwarmer
7. Paint the skull barrette and glue to hairclip
8. Make the bracelets

When I write it all out like that it really doesn't seem like much, lol.  I love how writing a list just makes everything seem achievable.

Happy Cosplaying!!

The adventure begins...

Although I've been watching anime for years, Nekocon 2011 was my first convention ever.  Honestly, other than ComicCon, I had never even heard of other cons b/c I had very few friends who like anime or anything that I'd call "nerd-related."  So, not only was Nekocon my first con, but it was my first venture into the world of cosplayers and i immediately fell in LOVE! 

I've always loved wearing costumes, really not needing much of a reason to put one on, so I was just naturally drawn into the cosplayer's world. So, with some self-motivation (and quite a bit of prodding from my BF, lol) I started working on two cosplays for Otakon:

Lucy from Elfen Lied

and Yoko Littner from Gurren Lagann

The biggest issue for me will be sewing for the first time.  My BF bought me a sewing machine (basically for cosplay) for my birthday in April and has been freaking out anytime I act the slightest bit nervous about my possible sewing abilities.  I've always been crafty, but I'm realistic and the idea of making clothes that are actually wearable does make me nervous.  Oh well, I'll find out soon, lmbo.

I'll post pics of what I have so far and what my plans are for these cosplays soon.

Happy Cosplaying!