Work Log: Esdeath (Akame Ga Kill) #5

The last thing for this cosplay was to make the black cuffs at the top of her boots.  I chose not to wear actual boots because I want to be able to take off the high heels and put on flats.  So instead I'm wearing thigh highs and these cuffs will just be tucked in.

The cuffs are just made from quilter's cotton, with 1" elastic inside so that it'll stay on by itself.  When I tested it, I put it on upside down, pulled the tight high up over the elastic, then folded the rest down over the outside and it seems secure.  I added two black eyelets to the front so that I could thread the ribbon through for the bow and done.

I'm so happy that I'm done with a day to spare, lol!!

Happy cosplay!!


(Added 8/17/15 - These worked beautifully.  They stayed up the whole day and so did the thigh highs.  I had planned to some how add Xs to the thigh highs so that it would looked like a laced up boot, but forgot.  I'll have to go back and do that later.)

Work Log: Princess of the Crystal (Mawaru Penguindrum) #5

The last thing I had to do for this cosplay was to make her fluffy arm cuffs.  It took me a while to figure out what to do, but I realized that they are similar to Elizabethan collars.  So I went on a search to find a tutorial for that and immediately found two easy ones on my favorite site, YouTube.


The first video by Sumikins was on How to Make an Easy Elizabethan Ruffle.  Hers was made as a collar.  Although the audio on this was a little low, it was indeed an easy tutorial.  She hand-sewed her ruffle and it was attached to a ribbon that was tied around her neck.  Since mine was to go on my arm, I machine-sewed a cuff that would fit my arm, with elastic in the middle to make it snug and keep it on.  The base cuff is 4" tall, because that's how tall I decided my ruffles would be, and is 10.5" around, but scrunches to 9.5 because that's the circumference of my upper arm.  I also machine-sewed on the same eyelet trim from the rest of this cosplay on the top and bottom of the cuff BEFORE hand-sewing on the ruffle.

I combined Sumikins tutorial with Axceleration Cosplay's Harley Quinn cuff tutorial.  What I liked about this one was that she pre-marked on her base ribbon where the ribbon for the cuff would be attached.  She marked increments of 3/8" on the base ribbon and then machine sewed her ruffle together. 

I, however, did the following:
1. I marked out the 3/8" increments on my already made cuffs at the top and bottom edges.

2. I marked the 4" increments on white 1.5" wide grograin ribbon.  This ribbon is used to make the ruffle.

3. Using Sumikins method, I hand-sewed the ribbon into a ruffle be matching each 4" mark on the ribbon, to one of the 3/8" marks on the base cuff.  Just like Sumikin, once I had attached the top to the base cuff, I then flipped it over, and did the same thing for the bottom of the cuff.

This was super easy, and I hope that my explanation was clear, lol.  If not, feel free to ask questions.

Happy cosplay!

(Added 8/17/15 - I LOVE how these turned out and they only took me about an hour to make from start to finish.  I got so many compliments on them, and no one believed that they were actually the easiest part of the cosplay.)

Work Log: Princess of the Crystal (Mawaru Penguindrum) #4

Today I made her very decorative penguin hat. I started with a basic fleece hat in all black.  I used the Fleece Beanie Hat tutorial from CrafyGemini on YouTube.  Not only was it super easy to make, but she includes a PDF pattern to make it even easier.  The only thing that I did differently was that I didn't add on the cuff like she does.  I used her pattern to get the circumference correct, but my cuff was not as tall as hers.  I also added a small triangle to the front so that when I sewed on the white trim, I could bring it down to form a point just like the Princess's hat.

For the "ears" on the hat I drew triangles to the shape that I wanted and cut 4 out of the black fleece (2 for each ear). I used a stiff iron-on interfacing, cut to the same size and shape as the ears and ironed that on before sewing the ears together on two sides (right sides together).  Then I flipped them right side out.  Using CraftyGemini's tutorial you would sew two separate halves of the hat, before putting the whole thing together, so I did that first step, then I sandwiched the ears between the two halves and sewed the hat together, that way the ears were easily part of the hat without me having to cut any holes.

The beak is two triangles of yellow gold cotton sewn together on two sides, then flipped right side out and stuffed with poly-fill. To close the back of it, I just cut a small rectangle out of some cardboard, pressed it down a little to cover the poly-fil and then hot glued the sides of the fabric to the cardboard making sure that all edges were attached and the poly-fill was totally covered.  Then I just used fabric glue to attach it to the hat.

The eyes are made of a light pink craft foam and then a glittery dark pink craft foam that I found at Walmart.  The glitter craft foam had a sticky back so I didn't need to use glue to attach it to the light pink.  Then I used fabric glue to attach them to the hat.

For the "wings" I cut the shape out of craft foam, and covered it front and back with Plasti-Dip to seal it and make it sturdy.  Because I only had white Plasti-Dip on hand, I painted the front and back with a couple of coats of yellow acrylic paint.  I used Velcro dots to attach this to the hat so that I could remove the wings during travel, since they stick out from the sides.

The green "jewel" is just a fake jewel I found in a pack from Michaels glue on to a piece of yellow fleece and the smaller yellow jewel is also from a different pack from Michaels.  I used Gem-Tac to attach those and since that takes 24 hours to dry well, I actually put them on last.
 
The white trim under the wings and around the back is the same eyelet that I used for the scarf and on the bottom of the bodice, sewn on with my machine.

 For the "tassels" on both sides here's what I did. . .
1. I cut four pieces of yellow cotton to 4" wide by 22" tall.  The length was what I estimated from it's placement on the hat, down to my natural waist.  I cut a curve at one end of each piece, because the bottom of hers are rounded.

2. I sewed two pieces together (right sides together) on three sides, which includes the curved end.

3. For the large white beads I actually used 2" round Styrofoam balls.  I had previously used 3-5 layers of Modge Podge to seal them before painting on 2-3 coats of white acrylic paint and then sealing one more time just for the shine.  The tear-drop bead at the bottom and gold beads are actual beads that I found I the jewelry-making section at Michaels.

4. I used a thick twine, also from the jewelry-making section at Michaels, to string all of those together, and then used a big-eyed needle and sewed that whole thing to the center of the curved end of the yellow "tassel".


5. Lastly I stuffed the "tassel" with a few inches of polyfill just to make it a little "3D" because hers wasn't flat and then sewed them onto the hat under the eyelet trim.

That took a lot of steps and planning, but I actually like the way it turned out and it fits!

The last things I need to do are make her fluffy arm cuffs, and then go back to my Esdeath cosplay and finish the thigh highs for that.  I'm so close to finished, whew.

I'm sorry I don't have more pictures of the process.  I get so focused on working that I don't think about it until the piece is completed.  I'm going to try to do better when I start working on my cosplays for my next convention.

Happy Cosplay!!

Work Log: Esdeath (Akame Ga Kill) #3

Last night, I made the tassels and cut out the template for the belt buckle.  After trying the tassels on they're like 2-3 inches too long in my opinion, but I probably won't worry about it too much.

I made the collar that holds the tassels 2 inches wide and 16 inches around. My neck circumference is 14", so I added 1" or comfort and then 1" more to accommodate snaps.

In my effort to be accurate I decided the "scarf" portion should stop just a little below my hip line, so I measured to the top of the back pocket on my jeans. From the base of my neck to that line is 25" and I added two more to the top to anchor the tassels securely to the collar. The fur part of the tassels is 21" in length, since Esdeath's are so ridiculously huge, and they're just stuffed with polyester filling. Mine aren't as round and fat as hers are because I didn't want them to be too heavy and after trying them on, they're actually more comfortable than I thought they'd be.

Today I'll hopefully finish everything that's left since I don't have anything else to do today.  I just have to make and attach the belt buckle, make the thigh highs and decorate the hat from Amazon. 

I'm getting so excited about wearing this.

Happy Cosplaying!

Work Log: Esdeath (Akame Ga Kill) #2

I didn't get a chance to go to the Hancock Fabrics yesterday, so unfortunately I couldn't get anything accomplished.  Today however, I did have time to make the arm warmers.  I don't want to start her tassels because it's so late.

The arm warmers of course were easy, they're just two tubes, with elastic at the top.  I measured my arm where I wanted them to go and my upper arm is 9 inches around.  The final arm warmer is 10 inches around to allow the fabric to bunch up when I bend my elbow.

Tomorrow I'm going to make the tassels, and hopefully start on the belt buckle.  I don't think I'm going to make the hat from scratch.  I ordered a white hat from Amazon and I will most likely just embellish it to save time.  I have 19 days until Otakon and I haven't even started on my second cosplay.  Gotta love working under pressure, lol.

Happy Cosplaying!

Work Log: Esdeath (Akame Ga Kill) #1

Before I started working on my cosplays for Otakon, I told myself that I would start making work log posts here, but of course as the procrastinator that I am I haven't done it daily like I should.  So... this is going to be a post to catch up, and I'll do it daily from now on :-)

I started with the dress as that is the largest item.  I modified a McCall's pattern #5847(pictured right). This was much easier to put together than my Kirigiri jacket; I was more successful getting the color on the first time.  Because of that, I may try to use more McCall's patterns in the future instead of other brands.
shirt dress pattern.  The directions were quite easy to follow and it was easy to modify. The first modification was to figure out how low the neckline would come and to add on 3.5" to make it a double breasted dress.  I also of course shortened the dress. Next, I figured out that the bottom of the dress has box pleats in a contrasting color, so before I assembled the dress, I added the black between the panels using this simple tutorial that I found on YouTube.

On the inside of the dress there are three small buttons keeping the inside panel from moving and shifting during wear.  Since, her dress has silver buttons on the lapels, I put in snaps to help keep the collar from moving.

Next, I'll be making the arm warmers.  Hopefully I'll have time to at least get that done tomorrow or Wednesday.

Happy Cosplaying!!

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!

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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!

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!