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!!!

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.