Everything for Katsucon is done, including the items for my friends. Holy cow. Our Katsucon weekend is going to be craaaaaaazy. We have so many shoots lined up, especially on Saturday, but I'm hoping that it'll be fun! I will definitely be updating our adventures on the weekend!
and built it anyway. I had to reinforce it with some wood.. sooooo.. I'm hoping the paint job will save it and I'm hoping it won't fall apart! I've also finished the bracers, kneepad, and started the chest piece. ^_^ I'm not quite sure how I'm going to do the strange hip-armor-thingies without it looking silly. We'll see. Trial and error - I have enough time! I'm drowning in scales.
0 Comments
If you have been following my cosplay adventures, or know me AT ALL, you should know how much I cannot sew. It's a mixture between being scared of messing up, not having the patience, and getting easily overwhelmed by the whole sewing process. One of my goals for 2018 is to make a cosplay 100% in it's entirety - that means all armor and all fabric, including pants, leggings, shirts, etc. In order to meet this goal, I've gotta have enough courage to sew, so I've been sewing and I wanted to share my progress. A MIRACLE HAS HAPPENED. I have ALL of my cosplays for Katsucon DONE - and with a little over a month to spare. Of course, I still have to work on the commission stuff for my other group members, but they are going to come to finish that stuff up on their own, so I'm not too worried about it (plus, all that's left is to make belts, paint, and resize the tunics). Because I have my stuff done, I decided to go ahead and start working on my other cosplays for this convention season - namely, my DnD Flareon for Tekko (in April) and my Magical Girl Mei (design by Shourca) for Colossalcon (in June).
I've done it. I've finished all of my cosplays for Katsucon (aside from a wig that I'm still waiting for, but that's easy). Somehow, though, no matter how prepared I am for a convention, I always end up crunching for someone else. I did it to myself, but I'm still frustrated.
I have to plastidip two sets of armor, paint the armor, resize the tunics, and weather everything. I'm bribing the people I'm making the armor for to come down and help with the painting, so I can narrow my list down to just plastidipping. I can't resize tunics until they are here so I'm just going to plastidip the armor and put it on the back burner until they come. Phew. I think I'm going to start my Tekko cosplay today. I already sort of started with the prop, but I think I'm going to try to cut out some foam today and get it assembled. I might do some sewing for my Colossalcon cosplay, too. A trip to Jo Ann's may be in my future. It's been too long since my last blog post - about a month. Sorry for that. Between working, building, and getting really sick - I haven't really been on my computer much to update things! In short, I took a little hiatus from my Moltres build (it's almost done, I just have to make the thigh pieces and bracers before painting everything) to work on my Gijinka Haunter.
Holy guacamole - not to toot my own horn, but it looks SO FREAKIN' GOOD. It's my largest armor build to date and the one I am the most proud of.. plus it's PURPLE. PURPLE. ~~t-minus 119 days until Katsucon 2018~~
shiny-side-up, scribble on it with the color of sharpie you want your gems to be. After doing this, you use the super clear hot glue and make hot glue dots over the colored area. I was skeptical at first, but the hot glue will settle so you don't have pieces jutting out in weird places. Once it dries, you just cut it out and BOOM! - gems. Honestly, I love doing this so our Pokémon-Jedi will probably have a lot of them.
I love doing original characters because it lets me be as creative as I wish with the designs. I suppose that's the artist in me. HOWEVER, with creative freedom comes the constant anxiety that you could've designed something better than you originally had. Man, am I finding myself anxietied (because that's a word now, I declare it) over this Moltres-Jedi mashup. I decided to scrap the entire armor build that I ALREADY did because it was too bulky. I'll for sure use it in the future for another cosplay and I plan on recycling some of my feather pieces into both Zapdos and Artincuno, SO IT'S ALL GOOD. I wanted to make the armor part of the cosplay thinner, more feminine, and streamlined. I started with the shoes - and actually ended up doing them twice before I was happy with the design. I only have one done right now. Hahah. I currently have that and the headpiece done - ready to prime and paint - and the cloak pretty much finished, aside from a few details and weathering. Does anyone else deal with constantly wanting to change their designs?!?!I seriously have anxiety attacks over these things and I don't know why. I'll sit and obsess about pieces until my stomach hurts and my heart races, and then I have to change it. I have a hard time like the decisions I make and I'm constantly seeking validation for my work. I don't like that. I'd like to be confident in my abilities... You see, I'm having this problem now with the headpiece. I think it looks to Native American.. and I'm sure there's no way to tell until I have it done and secured and I'm wearing it for a bit. I'll probably end up changing it.. it's starting to give me an attack. Things in red haven't been started, things in purple have been started, and things in green are done.
Originally, I was going to do Sora on Friday, Sinon on Saturday, and Umaru on Sunday. Over the last couple of days, that lineup has changed and changed again. I've settled on four cosplays for three days: Sith, Sinon, Umaru, and Casual D.Va. I may to Sinon on Friday and Sith on Saturday. It's still in the air and I probably won't decide until the drive up to Erie. One of the driving factors of this change in lineup is the fact that I will be part of a television interview on Saturday morning and I have to be there at 8:30 am. I'm not a morning person. Especially during the weekend. So. I decided that I would pick a super casual and quick/easy to get into cosplay to wear for Saturday morning. Now, those two options are Umaru and Casual D.Va. I haven't decided which one will be my Saturday morning cosplay and which one will be my Sunday cosplay. I'm almost leaning towards Umaru for Saturday and D.Va for Sunday because the cosplay contest (that I am a judge of) is on Sunday and I kind of want to wear a cosplay that I at least crafted a little bit of. Speaking of. Silly me.
I thought I was done. I had a cute hoodie. I had the headset. Then my husband chirped up and mentioned that I should do the gun, too. I have never made a gun before, so.. you know.. why not try to build one with four days until a convention.. and for a casual cosplay? SURE!
done before ComiCon Erie, I'm not going to sweat it. I have a Chi plush that I got at Otakon that I can use in it's place and do a Super Casual D.Va with Kitty cosplay instead... and then I'll have the gun for later cosplay use. The goal is, as I've said, to get it done and ready to paint by the end of the day Monday or mid-Tuesday. I think I can do it.
Pray for me. That all being said and done, I am SUPER DUPER excited to spend the weekend with my best friend, Kathy, from Katastrophic Kreations - especially during the 4-ish hour road trip to pick up Sam. Good thing he lives on the way to Erie! We are going to have so much fun. We plan on vlogging (even though I still haven't finished my last Otakon vlog - oops), taking lots of pictures with Kathy's nice camera, and I want to try to do a CMV of the cosplay I see! All of this on top of interviews, contractual obligations, and judging the contest. Busy, busy week for us!! I finished my obi - though I'm afraid that it may be TOO orange. I don't want to look silly. :( I have the leg pieces plastidipped and the first coat of silver spray paint is applied. I also plastidipped the shoulder, arm pieces, and the belt. The arm pieces have the first coat of silver spray paint, too. I officially have one boot done! Well.. made. I struggled for a few weeks to find the right boots for this cosplay. I had a pair of knee-high boots, but they made it awkward to put the leg armor on with and I didn't want to worry about that. Finally, I found a cute pair for under $20 (my goal) at Walmart. I'm happy. I snatched them up and started on the boot armor! It's made of five separate foam pieces, a piece of craft foam, and googly eyes. I still need to seal the section on the toe where the foam comes together to hide the seam before I plastidip AND make the other boot. Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it all looks together - the boot and the leg piece. The only other pieces of armor I need to make are the gloves and the headpiece (I'm still deciding on whether or not to do upper arm cuffs), then I can worry about the tabards and the dress portion of the cosplay. With the wig styled, the cosplay will be done! THEN - I get to do it all again! TWICE! Woo! Wish me luck. My fingers will be crossed for my success! Be on the lookout for more updates as I make them. Things in red haven't been started, things in purple have been started, and things in green are done.
I have been spending the last week building the major armor pieces for my Moltres Jedi. It has been painless and fun to build.. because, to me, it's easy and something I enjoy. All I really have left to build armor-wise are the boots and gloves, but I need to find boots to wear and I need to make the gloves before I can make the armor. I'm not too worried about it, though, because I can whip armor out with little-to-no problem.
Tonight, I realized that the sewing portion of the cosplay (which I thought would be pretty simple because it's just a dress and some tabards) was going to be hell. I think it is due to the type of fabric I opted for - 60% polyester, 40% cotton. I chose this fabric because it's stretchy and I was looking for something comfortable. I went to create the tabards for the jedi robes out of a 100% polyester fabric, but when I tried to sew my seams, the fabric kept getting sucked down into the machine via the needle and clogging up the entire thing. This happened three times before I finally gave up in a fit of rage. I took some time to calm down before researching how to sew stretchy fabrics - which, I know, I should've done first. You live and you learn. I think I decided that I won't use the stretchy fabric for the tabards, but for the belt and opt for a different type of fabric for the tabards. Yay, another trip to Joann's! I'm going to check and see if I have a ball-point needle for the stretchy fabric and try to make the belt tomorrow. It's just a rectangle, so it shouldn't be too hard. Knowing me, though, I'll mess it up somehow. Fingers crossed that I can do it. I need to sew a dress, a belt, two tabards, and two gloves. Positive affirmations, everyone. I've been trying to work little-by-little each night on this cosplay. I do best when I work off of lists, so for my own sanity, I'm going to do what I did for Sinon and keep a colored list of updates as I get this done. Of course, I have to do THREE of them, starting with mine. Things in red haven't been started, things in purple have been started, and things in green are done.
|
AuthorMaiacat Cosplay Archives
July 2018
Categories
All
|