Blog Nine: Annual Cosplay Picnic

Hey everyone, I had a great time at the Annual Cosplay Picnic! Thanks to everyone who posed for my camera and took pictures of me too. Here are my best pictures from the day. Hope I can see you all again!

(click on the pictures for a bigger view)

 

 

PS. Big thanks to Val for teaching me how to do the invisible hem stitch!!

Blog Eight: Hogwarts Field Trip: McGonagall and Trelawney escort students to Honeydukes

 

(click on the pictures for a larger view)

My friend Val and I went along with other members of Cosplay NZ to The Candyman in Mt Eden... or was it, Professors McGonagall and Trelawney escorted Hogwarts students, including Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, on a trip to Honeydukes in Hogsmeade? Either way, it was a lot of fun!

My interpretation of Trelawney was youthful and summery, not movie accurate. There’s no way I could have worn a massive black dress like Val did! I guess I look like a generic mystic hippie or something. It was a closet cosplay mostly, with clothes and jewelry I normally wear. But I did make a small velvet pouch for my crystal ball, and the glasses chain that I made with copper wire and semi-precious stone beads which you can see in the pictures.

Hopefully Val will write something about the massive process she went through to arrive at her costume! It was a very epic costume.

Thanks so much to The Candyman in Mt Eden for letting us come in and putting up with all the noise we made in our excitement!

Please visit them, either physically or online: http://www.thecandyman.co.nz/

Blog Seven: Just for fun: Ba-ba-ba-bwaaaaa! Presenting the Earl of Lemongrab! (Adventuretime)

The second toy I made my brother for Christmas was the Earl of Lemongrab from Adventuretime! He was a lot harder than Oglethorpe and I really struggled with making his arms and legs.

 

Here’s the pattern I used:

I cut his body out of yellow fleece, and his clothes out of black leather-like material. His eyes and mouth are just cardboard!

Sew the two pieces of the body together and stuff it. The place I chose to stuff it was under the arm, a very small hole, then sewed that together. Then I sewed the legs of the suit up, slipped his legs in, and then sewed up the back of the suit. Then I sewed the sleeves into tubes, slid them on, and then attached them to the shoulders of the suit.

What I’m happy with: His expression. It freaks me out.

What I could improve on: the arms, legs, and the suit. Very hard to make and so I didn’t make them as well as I could have if I were a more patient person.

Now THREE HOURS DUNGEON! 

Blog Six: Just for fun: Oglethorpe of Aqua Teen Hunger Force

This was one of two presents I gave my brother for Christmas. One of our things is we watch the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie over and over again. We love it. I can’t tell you why, I can’t even explain. It’s completely stupid and we love it. And probably our favourite character from it is this guy, Oglethorpe. He’s an angry alien who speaks with an Austrian/German accent.

Oglethorpe: Aqua Teen Hunger Force

This was SERIOUSLY the easiest toy to make! All I did was made a simplified outline from a screenshot of him, choosing only the biggest triangles that jut in and out of his profile. And then I.... STICHED IT ALL TOGETHER! Soooooo easy, especially compared to the other toy I made my brother. And don’t forget the small band of white material for his ‘drool-band’. The hardest part was probably the face, to be honest. I tried to embroider it in, like I did with Kyo-chan’s mouth (see Blog Two). But it is impossible to embroider eyes... at least for me. So I cut all that off and just hot-glued cardboard eyes and a smile on.

“Yay!!!”

I’m happy with: How happy he looks!

I’m not happy with: How I fudged up on the embroidery experimentation. You can see some dirty black marks from where I used the sharpie. Bleh!

Blog Five: Just for fun: Cute but evil! Penguin from Wallace and Gromit

The Link: http://theflyingdachshund.deviantart.com/gallery/33912443#/d4h80xa

Hey guys, my boyfriend sent me a link to this cubeecraft by Deviant Art user The Flying Dachshund. It’s the evil penguin from Wallace and Gromit! You know you want this guy’s cold, black eyes staring at you as you go about your daily chores. So get this and make him! I thought I’d just link to this because it so cute.

AND EVIL.

Blog Four: Four costumes, four days: Cait Sith head

Okay! Here’s the first effort in my “Four costumes, four days” campaign. My one definite Armageddon costume for this year.

How to make a human-sized Cait Sith head, Final Fantasy VII (and expanded universe)

My sources: I actually got a heads-up (lol) from Deviant Art user cloudstrife597 and his Cait Sith plush pattern: http://cloudstrife597.deviantart.com/art/Cait-Sith-plush-pattern-Head-199708422 .But that was just my starting point. Obviously, this is for a human head, so the dimensions are a bit different.

Also, if you’re going to be a pedant about which version of Cait Sith I’m being, I took the ears from the original video game Cait, and I took the scruffy side-hair from Dirge of Cerberus Cait. Original Cait doesn’t have side scruffs, and Dirge Cait has straight sticky-up ears. I have combined the two, because I thought it would look cute.

Material: black felt, light pink thin cotton, cardboard painted gold

The pattern: 

 

I started with the back piece, fitting it to my head and then cutting and sewing together the two upper slits to make it more rounded (just so you know, the lower slit wasn’t inserted til the very last! This is because obviously I couldn’t tell if it was tight enough until the front part was done.)

Then I put the whole thing together with pins. And by the whole thing, I mean the whole thing, ears and all. You may be more comfortable if you insert the ears later, but I was confident enough to do them at the same time (the ears go between the back and side pieces, by the way). Also, it may help if you sew the forehead piece onto the side pieces at this time too. The reason why I have three separate piece here is because they conform better to the head than just one piece would. So, you sew it all in at once, both outlining the ears as well as attaching them to the rest of the headpiece. 

Once that’s all together, and you’ve made any more slits you need to in order to conform it to your head, stuff the ears and then close them off with small circles inside the headpiece. 

Then get your pink material, and cut it into triangles to conform to the ears. I chose to cut little hair details into them to make original Cait Sith. Note the corners nearest the crown.

As for the crown, I painted some cardboard gold and cut it according to the pattern. I then stapled it and stitched it together at the back with thick leather working thread, and used that same thread to sew it to the top of the headpiece itself, looping with wide gaps until I’d sewn around the whole bottom of the circle. 

With the same piece of cardboard, I made my golden megaphone!

I’m happy with: the fit! It fits comfortably whether it is secured on or not. I can wear it all day and not even notice XD

I’m not happy with: the ears being slightly floppier than I would like.

Blog Three: Just for fun: Twi’lek headdress

This one is just for fun. I would never DARE wear it to a convention. I’d probably be murdered by some hardcore fans who’d be disgusted by my use of fabric to create what should only be done with latex or whatever. I don’t care. If I do go as a Twi’lek in October, it’ll be with approved materials. But this is just for fun. I made my Twi’lek headgear because I have a bunch of mates that I play the Star Wars RPG with (you can laugh, but it’s a lot of fun!), and my character is a Twi’lek. I’m really into the character, so I wanted to do this, for laughs. Who knows, maybe I’ll wear it to the midnight release of Phantom Menace 3D next month XD

Twi’lek headgear, Star Wars (WARNING: STRICTLY NOT FOR CON!)

I just had some white fleece material and some black leather-like fabric lying around, so that’s what I used to make this.

Note that these measurements were taken directly off my head. For some reason, I have a head bigger than most women and probably a lot of men too. The best way to do this is measure on your own head like I did, using the material itself. First off, you should know that my concept came from this picture from the core rulebook of the Star Wars RPG. 

So what I was originally aiming for was a helmet that covered my ears. The reason why I had to change that concept was it was too loose. In the end the helmet became a wrap around arrangement, but at least I can hear properly now *_* And you should also know that, since I have a fringe, I don’t like hats that squish my fringe against my forehead. So I intentionally made this headwear to sit back off my fringe. And yes, my boyfriend did tell me off, because Twi’leks shouldn’t have hair.

So basically what I’m saying is, the pattern to make the lekku themselves is straightforward! Just cut them out, sew them together, and stuff them.

Now for the hard part, the helmet part. Read the following instructional diagram (and prepare to be VERY confused).

Sewing the lekku into the helmet requires a lot of dexterity, and a high pain threshold. Those leather piercing needles can really hurt, you know! But eventually I did get the lekku into the helmet without a single gap. Guess my measurements really did work out! 

Of course, you have to finish off the open end of the lekku. Measure the hole left once the lekku are inside, and then cover it up so the stuffing doesn’t escape.

Finally, I tried to fit a chain on to hold this on my head, but it was waaaay too loose. So I ended up making straps, as you can maybe see in the photo. Not the prettiest, but it does the job. I left the chain one for decoration, and it clips on with a metallic button. 

This actually wasn’t too hard to do! It’s just that my instructions are probably really confusing... sorry!

I was happy with: The fact that this actually worked! I had no idea if it would... And the stuffing actually looks all right!

I could improve on: I think this looks cute when the lekku rest on my shoulders, but when they hang behind my head not only do they give me a headache, but they don’t look completely right. So I keep them on my shoulders.