Work Log: Korra (Legend of Korra) #2

 

Yesterday I mostly completed the top of Korra.  I just need to add the trim to the
collar and arms and finish the hem. I was going to just hem it, but now I think I might also put bias tape on the bottom. It's probably inaccurate, but you can't see the bottom anyway, lol.

Today I make the blue "apron. It's a little difficult to tell from the photo, but it's navy blue. It was really easy to use the suggested method I found here on DeviantArt. 

I also ordered my wig today from EpicCosplay.com as usual. It's the pre-styled ponytail wig in Dark Brown. I love the customer service there, so much. Yesterday the site said that they were out of stock, so I contacted them to try to find out when they'd be back in stock. They emailed me back that they'd checked and actually had a few left.  Yet another reason that I'll keep buying their products.

  

I probably won't have time to work on this again until Saturday, but hopefully I'll finish the top, hem the pants, and get the two lower arm bracers, and the fur "skirt" done.  

Happy Cosplay!

Work Log: Korra (Legend of Korra) #1

I finally started working on my Korra cosplay for Nekocon in November. Last night I made the pants using a free and easy drawstring pant pattern by Martha Stewart, that I found on Pinterest. Yes, I could have just used some of my own pajama pants to make a pattern, but I'm always so nervous that that's not going to work out.

Please excuse the cat butt, lol

The fabric is a poly/cotton twill that I bought from Hancock during their half off sale.  I know the color isn't quite right, but I couldn't find any gray blue fabric that wasn't denim, and I'm still wary about buying fabric online.

Overall I think they turned out pretty good.  I just have to get some twill tape to use for my drawstring. I'm hoping to have time to make the top on Friday.

Happy Cosplay!

Nekocon Line-Up 2015

So I'm still not one of those hardcore cosplayers that wears two (or more) different cosplays in one day and I still can't bring myself to wear one on the Sunday of a con.  Especially not a convention like Nekocon that's in November.  I'm usually so cold while cosplaying that it's a treat to wear warm comfy clothes on that Sunday, lol.

Anyway, to get to the point, I am again only wearing two new cosplays for this convention.  My DH and a couple of our friends want to do a group cosplay and they chose The Last Airbender/ The Legend of Korra as our theme.  I'm, of course, going to be Korra, one friend will be Zuko, the other friend has decided he'll be Tenzin and my DH has decided to be a genderbent Toph. Actually, in the Ember Island Players episode of The Last Airbender, the team goes to see a play by the Ember Island Players about them, and Toph is portrayed as a man, lol.  So that's who my DH is going to cosplay.  (References pics from left to right: Korra, Zuko, Tenzin, Toph (as portrayed by a man).

So that'll be one of the days.  For the other day, I'm going to try to be Shinoa Hiragi from Owari no Seraph (Seraph of the End). I just loved these uniforms and I think she's a great character. Plus now I have a reason to have another giant weapon. I say try because it's usually difficult to find time to work on cosplay once school starts, but I definitely will work my hardest.

I'm so excited for these cosplays! I better get started, lol.

Happy cosplaying!

Otakon Review (2015)

This year for Otakon my DH finally agreed to just let fate lead us instead of trying to plan every minute and get to every panel.  I have to say, this was the best year yet.

Friday, I wore my Princess of the Crystal cosplay.  That one was so much fun and I got a ton of compliments because not many people have seen cosplayers do this character. Plus, it's just fun to wear a big flowing skirt.

This was my first time wearing circle lenses and I have to say that I'm hooked.  They were just as comfortable as my regular contacts and definitely put the final touch on the cosplay. These are the Vassen Cloud Nine Pink from PinkyParadise.com. You can't really see it in the picture, but in real life my eyes were obviously pink.

There is a garden terrace at the Baltimore Convention Center that is great for taking pictures and a lot of cosplayers hang out there, because photographers like to go there and just shoot.  While we were there the author of Cosplay in America, Ejen Chuang, took my picture!  Although I don't think he's posted it anywhere, it's still an honor to even be asked, since he's seen and worked with so many great cosplayers.

I also finally got a picture with Yaya Han on Friday.  Usually the line for her booth is hours long, but we walked up and were only the 3rd people in line.  It was glorious.  She's such an inspiration.

Saturday, I was Esdeath from Akame Ga Kill. Two awesome things happened on Saturday.  The first was that we were interviewed by a journalist from Vice Magazine for an article about cosplay and anime in the black community.  That was just a case of being in the right place at the right time.  We were early for my first professional photoshoot and were just waiting around, when we were approached by the journalist and her photographer.  How serendipitous was that!!  If you want to read the article I've linked it here.





For Esdeath I'm wearing the Vassen Cloud Nine Blue circle lenses also from PinkyParadise and they were just as comfortable and vivid as the pink ones.












The second awesome thing was my first professional photoshoot. I have to shoutout Ash B Images for the amazing photos that I've posted here..   If you like her work, you can check out her Facebook page, by clicking her name.

Registration was low this year for Otakon, which is of course bad for the convention, but it was great for us because it was much easier to get around and I just feel like I was able to pay more attention to cosplay since my line of sight wasn't being overloaded.  I do hope, however, that they are able to get the numbers that they want next year.  I love to see my favorite conventions succeed.

I also made two new friends at this convention, which is always a great thing and a few of us are planning a group cosplay.  There will be more about that in the next post though.

To see more pictures of my cosplays check out my DH's photography Facebook page at Tarou Studios. If you like s work, message him and maybe he'll take some pics for you at our next convention.

Happy cosplay!

Hey! That's me in that article!!

A journalist from VICE Magazine was writing a story about cosplay and anime in the black community and they interviewed me, my husband and our two friends.  It was absolutely exciting to just be interviewed, but they even used all of our interviews and published the article with pictures of us!  Out of the 30 people that she interviewed, she actually used all of us.  It's so exciting!  I wish it was in print so that I could buy a bunch of copies, but printing it out from online will have to do.

The article titled "What Black Anime Fans Can Teach Us About Race in America" was a really good read, and I'm so happy to have been able to contribute.  If you want to read it yourself, just click the link above.

Happy cosplay!

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.)