Final Cosplay Results for NDK 2012

While my Jareth costume did not happen even remotely, here are the results for both Kurama costumes and our Katamari cosplay.

Costume number one: Shuiichi Kurama:

The girl standing next to me is cosplaying as Botan from the same anime.

Compared to this:

(Side note, those twisty-things around his ankles and wrists are not part of the outfit, they are part of a power his opponent was using in the scene, which I would not have used if I could find a better full body picture of this outfit. It is also hard to tell that the cuffs and collar are dark blue.)

Thoughts: I love this outfit of Shuiichi Kurama's. Almost no one knew who I was because Shuiichi Kurama has two, arguably three, more popular outfits. I have never seen anyone else wear this particular outfit. Even doing a Google search turned up no others like this Also, the wig was awful! I couldn't get it right, so I just did the best with what I had. If I ever bring back this outfit I will commission a new wig. The one I made (sadly) belongs in the trash. I had to hot glue parts of it, which means it cannot be taken out and re-done better. The hot glue happened because I was running out of time and options. I don't really recommend hot gluing your wigs.

Costume number two: Yoko Kurama:

(Also, forgive my weak poses and half-smiles. I am a cosplayer, not an actress... And I am sad that my tail cannot be seen in this photo.)
Compared to this:

Thoughts: This one was much more of a hit. My one main problem was the ears slipped if I looked down. Otherwise I liked it very much.

Costume number three: June from Katamari (plus my friends as the King, Prince, and other various cousins):

Notes on making our costumes: We made the cardboard frames and wrapped those in quilt batting. I believe that we all used some interfacing (I did because mine is white and I didn't want everyone to see through the cloth and such) and sewed the cloth like a pillow case which could be slipped on. Due to the irregular shape, they had to be hand sewn shut. I left a hole for my head to go through, but my friends, being wiser, did not and cut it afterwards (which made the case fit better). The linings around faces and edges are hemmed and hot glued on. The cones and balls for the antennae are foam. The cones are covered in yellow cloth and the balls are painted and we hot glued them on last. The faces were made with a cross-stitch mesh covered with two layers of a chiffon dyed a flesh color. The eyes, noses, and mouths are felt that we did together for consistency and are hot glued on. For my dress I used a pattern made for me by Cat and the gloves I winged and did not do a good job on. Tights were purchased and I painted old white shoes to match the rest.

Compared to:

Thoughts: I LOVED this cosplay! It was fun and we were a big hit! Unfortunately it is hard to see much unless there is a lot of light (which there usually wasn't) so we didn't always know when people were taking pictures or finished taking pictures unless someone told us. It was a little hard to hear. We had the King and other friends herd us around the hotel in a big linked chain, stopping occasionally for pictures. Also, it gets very hot inside those heads! But totally worth it! Even after spending about 10-11 hours painting all those circles (yes, 10-11 hours for the whole head and dress-just for circle painting, though I worked 12 hours total including putting the lining on the head and making the gloves) was worth it.

Ending Notes: Wearing so much white at NDK was sort of rough. It is not the cleanest of places and it is hard to keep them white. I got some makeup on my Shuiichi costume and a little drop of chocolate on Yoko's tail (not sure how, but that's OK). Something to keep in mind for the future and for those thinking about white costumes.

For next year we are talking about doing a large Ghibli cosplay! I hope this one pans out because I would love to be Nausicaa! Have to plan these things in advance you know!

Nausicaa

NDK Countdown

For those of you who don't know, NDK is this coming weekend: Friday through Sunday! The main thought going through my head as we rapidly approach the weekend: YIKES!!!

I still have yet to style my wigs. At least the Yoko Kurama one doesn't require much work.

Jareth did not happen at all. The only thing I did for that costume was to find a perfect wig (which I did not purchase) and make the sparkly belt.

Contacts did not happen for any costume.

I haven't planned make-up yet, but I want to try to cover my freckles.

I need to find the caps that go under the wigs (but I think I know which box they are in).

My Katamari costume is not finished. The head is mostly covered, but still needs to be trimmed and painted. The costume is still in a couple pieces, needs clasps in the back, and needs to be trimmed and painted. I haven't even started the gloves yet. And the shoes need to be painted. And we need to make and put on faces and the piece that goes on top of our heads.

Proceed in full panic mode! Step one: sew like a maniac. Step two: paint like a maniac who knows how to paint lots of perfect circles. AHHHH!!! And take a deep breath. I will be at my sewing machine if anyone needs me.

Costumes Part Five

Hello everyone! This update is a little early because Isaac and I are going on vacation for about 10 days. I will not be able to work on anything while I am away (sad), so I figured I would update now and then work and update again after I return. (But I will probably post about the vacation :) )

Exciting news regarding my costumes.
One: I learned what an ease-stitch is and how to do it. (For my fellow amateur seamstresses, here is the most useful link that I found: http://sewing.about.com/library/weekly/aa063001a.htm.) I needed to do this on the sleeves of my Shuiichi shirt and many sites talked about gathering and puckering and puffy sleeves, which helped me not a bit. Glad I found the link above otherwise I would have been out of luck. The sleeves were a bit puffy, but not too bad when they were finished.

Two: I ordered two of the three wigs I need! Woo! Both are for Kurama costumes and were bought under advisement from my friend, Cat. Check her out, she does commissions and she is just amazing: http://www.facebook.com/groups/274681619281442/ or http://www.angrylittlegnome.deviantart.com/.

My wigs can be found here: http://cosplayanimewigs.com/33herewhlost.html and http://cosplayanimewigs.com/28heredareds.html. I will need to make some alterations because they need to look like this:

I will be consulting Cat some more on how to get Shuiichi's hair to do that...

I also think I found a wig for my Jareth costume. Another magnificent suggestion from Cat. I will post more about that once I order it.

Sadly, little progress has been made with my Katamari costume. Kinks are still being worked on by the "professionals" (Cat and Jhenn) for the heads and faces (like how exactly we will see out of them). And I have yet to start the dress, but I have white fabric and fabric paint for the circles. I don't have a pattern for this one and I think I may have to find one if I am going to get up the courage to make it. Free-sewing sounds like a bad idea for me.

Also, no progress has been made on my Jareth costume, either. I'm still scared of it. On the plus side, I have Yoko's costume finished (once I fix up the wig a bit) and Shuiichi's nearly finished! I need to make the pink belt-tie thing and put the yellow trim on. I'm excited! Once everything is finished, I will post costume test and and make-up and hair test pictures.

Costumes Part Four

Sorry I haven't updated in so long! Work got kind of crazy--I worked some late shifts and had some meetings, etc. We should be about back to normal now, so be expecting more updates.

So! Costumes!

I am pleased to report that Yoko Kurama is almost complete! I fixed up the ears and the tail (the tail wasn't long enough or fluffy enough for me and the ears weren't fox-y enough). I used a white (that ended up being a little off-white, unfortunately) fake fur and a little bit of quilt batting for the tail. I just wrapped it all up and hot glued everything. So this is what we have now:

I also managed to put in a little pocket. Let me tell you: they are much easier to do BEFORE you actually sew the pants together. I think I have learned my lesson. And the little sash to tie the tunic shut and attach the tail is finished. Yay! Just need a wig now! (And contacts? I still haven't decided. Based on my financial situation, I am guessing no...). My friend, Cat, helped me find some good wigs for all of my costumes, now just to save up and purchase them. I will post links when I make my final decisions.

For Shuiichi Kurama I have finished the pants. With a pocket! I haven't tackled the shirt yet because frankly it intimidates me a little. That is the next step, however. Hopefully next week will see some of that finished.
 I still haven't done anything besides the belt for Jareth. Cat has done my mask prototype, but I haven't seen it. I'm sure it is going to be great! I am scared about doing his outfit, too. I might leave most of it for last.

We have all been working on our Katamari heads! My friend, Jhenn, is amazingly brilliant! She came up with the whole mascot-head design, made all the measurements, and made templates. We all traced the templates onto cardboard and cut every tiny little piece out. So I ended up with this pile of cardboard with no notion of how it would all come together.

Jhenn began fitting it all, and we hot glued everything together. So here are some progress pictures:

Tracing

  

Cutting

Gluing

 Side note, hot glue guns for a project this big got glue strings EVERYWHERE! Leading to various lines such as "Holy glue strings, Batman."

And the finished product on my head! Soooo fun! And isn't Jhenn amazing?! I can't believe that she could visualize and create these! I am exceedingly impressed.

Next step: Cover the head base in quilting batting and cut a piece of cross-stitch mesh to put over the face. Then hot glue it all together!

And this is what I have!

I still need to put batting on the ends. We are looking for fabric to put over the face so we can paint on Katamari faces and still see out. All of us still need to make the outside cases, but more on that later.

Costumes Part Three

Sorry I didn't update on my costumes last week. I made shockingly little progress at all the week before. This week was much more productive.

Here is my belt for my Jareth costume. It sparkles. Need I say more?

All of these tiny rhinestones don't really like to stay attached so I tried Modge Podge on the backside (so as not to cover the sparklies). We will see if they hold up.

And I am almost finished with my Yoko Kurama costume. I just need to make a sash and finish the ears and tail. Oh, and the wig. Guess I need that, too. And find my shoes. Damn.

During the course of making this, I had to have my mom come over to help with the fitting. In case you don't know, it can be difficult to fit things to yourself without help. Especially under the arms. I had to interrupt my mom for this and she suggested getting a dress-maker dummy. While this would be a great idea, I don't have a whole lot of money to spend. The cheapest I found one was about 50 dollars, but I'm not sure it was adjustable (which is not a necessary feature, but it would be nice). The others were closer to 100 dollars, and I'm sure more with shipping such large, awkward objects. I haven't actually looked in a store yet, but I'm sure Joann would have something.

Then I ran across this link: How to Make Your Own Sewing Dummy on eHow. Brilliant, right? I think it would be fun to try. The most expensive part would probably be the stand. Anyhow, I ran the idea past my mom, and she thinks it would be fun to try. So this might be my next project. Totally psyched. Then I don't need help with fittings! Yay! I will post that when it happens.

I also started the pants for my Shuiichi Kurama costume, but they weren't far enough along to justify pictures. It's been a while since I have done pants, it took a while to remember how to put them together! The Yoko pants turned out well and the Shuiichi ones are fine so far. They are a little more complex. I also remembered after I finished my Yoko ones that I wanted to put in a pocket... I will make sure my Shuiichi ones have one, but I will have to go back and add one to the Yoko pants... Ugh.

Oh, I have also added another costume to my NDK list for this year: Katamari cousin. My friends talked about a group cosplay with someone dressed as the Prince and others dressed as his various cousins from the games. If you have no idea what I am talking about, here is a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katamari_Damacy. The basic premise is that the King of the Universe destroyed the stars (or something) in a drunken fit and his tiny Prince has to roll things up on the Katamari (a big ball which sticks to things smaller than it to grow) and make new stars. It is fun and silly. As you go through the game, you encounter various cousins.

It was decided recently that this will actually happen. So Amie will be the Prince and I believe we have someone who will be the King, and two or three others. I think that I will be June, shown here:

And hopefully we will all have Katamari. Hopefully with velcro things to stick on them! Fun fun! More soon.

Costumes Part Two

Costume progress report! Nearly all of my white fabric is cut out. So that means essentially everything for both Kurama costumes is cut (all except the trimmings). A couple pieces are pinned together, but that is about it... In other words, everything still looks like a pile of fabric.

I bought this set for the ears and tail for Yoko Kurama:

 

I know, it has sparkling pink with bling, but I figured that I could take all of that off and alter it to suit. So here are the tail and ears without the pink and sparklies on them (as much as I love things that sparkle...). I am trying to turn other pieces of the set to make the ears fuzzy like the tail. This is what it looks like thus far:

Not too bad, right? The strip at the top is one of the fuzzy cuffs that will hopefully fit on one of the ears. I'm not sure how yet, but I'm working on it.

I also bought white gloves for my Jareth costume, but I am still sort of afraid to start it.The belt seems easiest so maybe I will tackle that soon. Then I will have an awesome sparkly belt to wear if I so desire.

Still no wigs.

Still no money for contacts.

Costumes Part One

Yesterday I thought I needed a little retail therapy after Pico died. So my mom and I took a trip to Joann to buy fabric for some costumes I want to make.

In case you don't know, I am a pretty big nerd. I love, LOVE Halloween and dressing up in costumes. I also like many animes so I will be attending our local anime convention, Nan Desu Kan (NDK for short). Told you, big nerd. That's OK. Being normal is totally boring.

The fruits of my trip are shown below. Tons of white fabric, some dark blue and pink. Yellow ribbon, gathered sheer fabric (like gathered lace, but not lace) and a bedazzled silver finding. Plus, YARDS of interfacing, which my mother assured me many times that I really do need...

Oh, and patterns. I will be using these as my basic patterns and altering them as I need to. Yes, much altering.

As of right now, I have three costumes in mind. (Yes, there may be more depending on whether or not Isaac wants to do a cosplay with me for NDK).
First, Jareth, the Goblin King, from my all-time favorite movie: "Labyrinth." And not just any Jareth, ballroom Jareth. Mask and all. Here are a couple pictures. Luckily, I have an awesome friend and professional costume maker who is helping with the mask (she already has a prototype!) and possibly the wig. (Here is Cat's deviant site in case anyone wants to see what kind of work she does: http://angrylittlegnome.deviantart.com/)

Second is Kurama as Shuiichi in this particular outfit. When people dress like him, they do not wear this outfit, but it is probably one of my favorites.

Third is Yoko Kurama (same character, totally different look).

I will start with the very last because the costume itself should be easiest. Then I will probably work my way to the top. The Jareth costume is going to be intense. It has lots of little pieces to it (watch the ballroom scene in the movie a few times if you don't believe me).

Problems: The wigs. Especially for Jareth and Kurama as Shuiichi. The white wig for Yoko Kurama should be easy enough, but I am not sure how I am going to do the ears and tail...

Bonuses: I already have shoes for all three costumes! As well as black leggings for Jareth. Awesome.

If I have time: I may do colored contacts, but that's a lot. As a perfectionist, I really want to in order to "complete" my costumes. I would need a gold set for Yoko Kurama (which I could use for other costumes I have), green for Kurama as Shuiichi, and one blue and one brown for Jareth. That might be a hard order to fill, especially if I actually want to use prescription lenses. Well, we can save that for later.

I will be posting updates as I make progress. I am going to start Yoko today. Here we go!