Blog Thirteen: ... wish me luck?!?!

Okay, so now that we've caught up again, time to talk about how things have changed since January. Obviously, teaching is a really hard job, and I have had nowhere near the time or energy I expected to have for sewing this year. But when I look back at my goals from the start of the year, I haven't done that bad! 
- I went to the cosplay picnic, and the Hogwarts trip.
- I didn't do the Steampunk festival, and to be honest, I don't have the technical ability or the right mind at the moment to design Steampunk. I guess I don't get it properly? But the genre really appeals to me.
- I may not have done the "Four days four costumes" challenge that I set myself, and school production isn't even an excuse - I just would not have had time to make four costumes. NZLARPS have a booth at Armageddon and I wish I could join them there, but with only being able to do one day of Armagaddon this year, I REALLY need to go as Cait Sith. I'm nowhere near finished, and I have less than three weeks. But I am determined.

So my goals have changed now...
1. Have Cait Sith ready for October 22nd.
2. Have my Teonn (LARP) costume ready for November 30th.
3. Events to attend next year: Cosplay Picnic, Hydra and Chimera (Hydra being Wellington's version of Chimera), Auckland Armageddon, and possibly, if time allows, the Hamilton and/or Wellington Armageddons. Oh, and let's not forget Battlecry either! It's a tabletop gaming con and they had a Steampunk day earlier in February this year, but not having a Steampunk imagination, I couldn't dress appropriately. But it was good fun, I highly recommend it to any gamers!

With all those events, I guess I really don't have any definite ideas yet of what costumes I will wear. Obviously with the LARPs I have to wait to find out, but in terms of Armageddon, I guess half the problem this year for me was that last year, after cosplaying for the first time, I was so excited that I started planning all sorts of costumes based on things I was really into at the moment (eg. Codex from The Guild). But when my interest in those things waned a little (simply because there weren't any new episodes of The Guild or Doctor Who to keep me going) my enthusiasm waned also. And yet, because I started working on Cait Sith so early, I have decided to keep going with him. Maybe it would have been different if I hadn't started? Hmm. Who can say?

Anyway, I'm sure I'm boring you. What I really wanted to show you was what I've done since January on Cait Sith. I don't expect you to be wowed, because honestly, it's not much. Just the head of the moogle. I'm currently working on the body, and then after that the arms, the feet, the wings, and then putting it all together. Why do I do this to myself???

I won't bother with a diagram, but this is how I did it: essentially it's a tube of fleece with a light fabric lining on the inside, stuffed, made to measure on my waist so it sits above my hips (not easy to wear for guys!). The ears aren't right yet, I'm going to do them again. The eyes are black felt, and the  mouth I made by drawing it on with pencil, sewing around the outline, and then actually colouring in between the lines with sharpie. You absolutely cannot touch it for a couple of hours after having done that! I'm pretty happy with this, it's actually a really comfy cushion, so it's multi-purpose!

Also, I thought I might show off Cyril the snake, just for the benefit of my friends who were in Ophelia Thinks Harder, a feminist Hamlet by Jean Betts. The season is already finished sorry, but it was a lot of fun. Poor Cyril had to put up with a lot every night (eg. being used as a whip) but he became the mascot for the show. Sorry I don't have a better picture of him... For more info about this show and others, please visit www.mairangiplayers.co.nz

Cyril materials: green fur (he's about 1.5 metres long!), red ribbon, oversized black buttons, and 500 grams of stuffing!!!