Mericon 2025 lineup!

 Hello everyone!

It's just about time for Mericon it's literally tomorrow and of course I will be there! This is the third Mericon coming up and I will once again be a part of the workforce to some extent, to be more precise I'm one of the cosplay competition judges and you might also find me at the photo booth. But I'm also doing something new at Mericon that I've never done at events before – I'm holding my first ever panel (or activity, program, lecture... whatever they call it nowadays)! I'm super nervous but I've wanted to talk about my tall ship sailing experiences since the very first Mericon but I kept chickening out because Mericon is thematically a perfect place to hold a talk about marine topics! It's slotted into the later half of the event so come listen if you want to hear some fun and chaotic sailor stories~

But anyways, I will of course cosplay at Mericon too. Sadly I don't have an outfit that fits the nautical theme this year but there's a reason for that and the reason is that I haven't been back home since Nekocon and that means that I have exactly two costumes to choose from – which made the choice rather easy because yeah, I have to factor in ease of movement cuz I'm part of the crew.

So with that said...

Character: America (Revolutionary War)
Series: Hetalia

Yeah, who would have guessed? xD No but really, it's a fairly easy cosplay to move around in and put on and that's priority number one. I want to improve Gaogamon a bit before its next outing so my options were either rewearing America or going casual and, err, I'd rather not be casual when I have a functioning costume with me.  Of course, ideally, I would have preferred to wear something that would fit better with my panel (and the con's theme) but I ran out of time for my original plans to work and I was dumb and didn't think of taking with me any gear so I could pull together a pirate-inspired outfit before I left hindsight saves no one when you're 500+ km away from home. :') 

With that said, see you hopefully at Mericon this Saturday! It's free entrance so come on over~

Nekocon 2025 – Team Rocket can't capture Digimons!

Hello peeps!

I was at Nekocon last weekend and now it's time to write my con summary about how this year's trip went. So yeah, Nekocon was held during 19-20 July in the Music Centre (Musiikkikeskus) building in Kuopio, Finland. This is my third Nekocon experience to date, I've been attending it annually since my first one in 2023. :)

Let's get to the summary~

Mine and Firith's con journey started on Friday morning. We had planned to drive down because it suited our plans better this year as we would stay in the south after Nekocon and continue towards Eura and Mericon in two weeks – no point in driving all the way back up and then soon drive down again. 
The car trip down went well and this time we were spared from tractor meetups and other road rage inducing experiences. I did have to handsew the elastic belt loops of Gaogamon's tail in the car though so yeah, the classic last minute fixing happened haha. Somehow I managed to lose my seam ripper in the car and I'm still sad about it; maybe it fell out of the car during one of our many stops because I had it in my lap last time I saw it. It sucks to lose things you've had for a long time no matter how inexpensive it was because it still had some emotional value... and this is the kind of shit I beat myself up over.

We were laughing at silly and dirty town and street names like Alapitkä (hard to translate but if you're dirty-minded it means that you're long down there lol) and Makkaramäentie (lit. sausage hill road)... xD I mean that's how you entertain yourself while on a long road trip, right? Another one is counting yellow cars and coming up with meanings for register plates on passing cars...

You know when everything becomes Pöljä (means something like dimwit) that Kuopio is close. :'D

We arrived at Kuopio somewhere between late afternoon and evening and before we went to our hotel for the night we drove to Kuopio's centrum and grabbed our con tickets in advance from the booth outside the Lumit building, which is part of where Nekocon would be hosted the next day. We had also been tasked with retrieving Sallukka's and Dongrieg's tickets because they would arrive (also by car) much later than us and would thus miss the chance to grab their tickets. I mean no one wants to queue on the actual con day unless you absolutely have to, right?

After we got the tickets we headed to Rauhalahti spa hotel, just like on the two previous Nekocons. We might have cemented this as a Nekocon must-have package because yeah, the spa is included in the hotel price (which is reasonable and comparable to a standard hotel) and nothing is as refreshing as jumping into the spa after a sweaty summer con day lol. And yes, this year's Nekocon was just as hot as last year's and we were positively dying.
We checked in at the hotel and, as cosplayers usually do, our belongings spread across the hotel room like wildfire. We had an unholy amount of luggage with us which required multiple trips to the car to empty it so yeah, there was a lot of stuff. xD I unpacked my cosplay parts and put them on hangers etc on the balcony – I mean we didn't have access to an ironing board so you gotta do what you can to minimize wrinkles lol. We were lucky to have a room with a balcony this time because it meant we had a functioning AC. 
Because we arrived before 9 PM it meant we had time to jump into the spa on our arrival day, which was quite nice after that long trip down. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and preparing for the con morning by going through skincare routines, ditching the beard etc.

Kuopio's Music Centre, aka Nekocon main building.

We had mutually agreed on a no-stress Saturday and that's because there wasn't really any activities that piqued our interests enough to warrant an early morning lol. Although in hindsight we might have been a bit too sluggish to get going. XD We woke up respectably early at around 9 in the morning for being millenials at least and immediately went to the breakfast buffet. Rauhalahti hotel buffet is not as large as on the Sokos hotels we've frequented but it has the necessities eli karjalanpiirakat. 

After we were done eating our fills we went back to the hotel room and we, uhh, were supposed to put on our cosplays, which... well, we eventually did. We just took a reaaaaally long time getting into gear because we were tired and hovering in lazybum territory lmao. I did struggle with Gaogamon's makeup because I had not been able to do any practicing beforehand so yeah, caking my face up took a stupid amount of time. To make it worse I had forgotten my matte eyeshadow palette at home and both my liquid eyeliners decided to be unreliable and randomly start showing signs of dying just now because why wouldn't they? :)) Needless to say I wasn't happy with my eye makeup at all and I will do it differently next time lol. Firith didn't need nearly as much time as me to finish Tanemon's makeup, aside from some false eyelash rage. xD Putting on all my cosplay parts was quite the struggle too because I had so many moving parts (the floofy pelt, long scarf, bandages, boxing wraps etc) and my tail didn't stay secured as well as I had hoped. Had to use a safety pin to stabilize it and even despite that it was still a bit too floppy to my liking. I will have to rethink the attachment method for future use.

Once we finally had our costumes on the clock was something around 3 in the afternoon. Honestly we've probably never arrived to a con this late before, this has got to be a new record. xD It was a very hot summer day and before we did anything else we quickly walked past Lumit to take some proof photos before our faces melted off. Despite our efforts to do more summer-friendly cosplays we were still overheating lol. 

Lumit, the secondary Nekocon building.

Despite the super warm day it was fun to be in costume and we got a couple adorable interactions by the younger congoers. I just wish I wasn't so socially awkward and could manage to say something else than just a 'thank you' when someone comes up to me. :') I always come up with replies in hindsight and after the occasion has passed – one of my useless superpowers lol.

Taisteluturri vauhtikorvilla.

After the minimal camera session behind Lumit we decided to check out the Artist's Alley, especially because we knew that some of the sellers were only there on Saturday and others only on Sunday. Just like on previous years the Artist's Alley was located inside Lumit and inside Lumit were also the video game room, the flea market and probably something else I'm forgetting. Lumit is a separate building from the Music Centre but they're just next to one another so it's easy to navigate from one to the other.

I had one fun encounter as Gaogamon when near Lumit – I spotted a pair of Team Rocket Grunt cosplayers and asked for their picture because they were super cool. While I was grabbing my phone I said something silly along the lines of "I'm a Digimon so I can safely snap a photo without being stolen by Team Rocket!" which made everyone laugh. :'D For once my social anxiety gave way to be a goof around strangers.

View towards Lumit's entrance, general area and AA.

One of the Artist's Alley corridors.

There were quite a lot of artists this year too and some I don't remember having seen before, which is always nice. There was a good variety of items for sale but of course when I'm in the market for pins to decorate my ita bag with that's when most booths don't have pins. How come my luck is always like this? xD I remember years ago pins were super common but now it felt like only a few tables had pins for sale. *sniff* Oh well, I still ended up with a loot haul bigger than what I expected I would find!

View of the general area and AA from another angle.

I quickly checked out the video game room and there was some kind of game tournament running on the big scene I think? I didn't stay to watch though because a new intrusive thought had entered both mine and Firith's brains – what if the Aina Kesä bubble tea stand is out there in the town square this year too? There had been no marketing nor mentions about it on Nekocon's social media channels at this point and so we decided to enter detective mode and go check it out ourselves. 

The video game room. My eyes spy Double Dash...

We left Lumit and walked up the road towards the market square; it looked very similar to the previous years and there were normies everywhere staring just like previous years too lol. It didn't take long before we spotted the boba stand and the next thing that happened was a beeline straight towards it! We also saw some other colorful people who were clearly Nekocon attendants so we definitely weren't the only ones needy of cooling drinks!

The milkshake that brings all boys to the yard.

The sellers were super friendly and the drinks were yummy! Apparently this year there was a 10% discount for everyone who had the Nekocon ticket (which is a band on your wrist) instead of last year's version that had the discount for those who were dressed up. I mean this year's is more fair because not everyone cosplays or dressed up all fancy at cons so why should the casually dressed be excluded from a Nekocon collaboration? 

After we had finished our drinks we decided to go back to the hotel so that we would have time to invade the spa before it closes at 9 PM. 

This day was a rather quick run at the con but that's mainly because we arrived so late and only checked out Lumit and the town square; we had agreed on saving the Music Centre for Sunday instead. No need to rush when it's a 2-day event and especially because Nekocon had little to no must-see activities and so we were free to schedule our time how we saw fit. This chill approach allowed us to make sure we had time to make use of the spa facilities which, truth be told, is probably 50% of the reason why we attend Nekocon at this point. x) And the bubble tea stand is probably 30% and the rest is Nekocon itself lmaoooo.

Höpsöt päänahat roikkumaan feat. Wario-lippis.

We yeeted ourselves out of our costumes, showered and then hurried to the spa. We cut it a bit late but still had roughly one hour of pool time so yeah, it worked out. Might have consumed a hamburger at some point too. That was in fact my second chicken burger in a row, I couldn't stomach the thought of a third one for the remainder of the trip lol.
The rest of the night I think we lazily watched the first Lord of the Rings on television and inhaled a bag of chips.

On Sunday morning we did better. Or well, we woke up roughly the same time as the day before but we didn't idle for as long in the hotel room after breakfast. My cosplay for the day was also a lot easier to put on so that played a part too lol. I debuted my Revolutionary War America cosplay from Hetalia that I've had near-completed for years, oops. I was expecting this costume to be breezier to wear than Gaogamon but in hindsight I'm not sure if it was any lighter at all. xD Well at least there were less moving parts so I had an easier time moving around without constantly having to adjust something!
This time we didn't have same series cosplays like our Digimon gijinkas on Saturday – Firith did an Espeon gijinka and borrowed my old ears and the red forehead gem. I was a bit nervous before the trip because in my bathroom cabinet I have a bunch of unmarked sfx liquids and I wasn't entirely sure which one of the bottles was the spirit gum but yeah, luckily I picked the right one to take with me and so we could glue the gem without having to use eyelash glue as a substitute or some shit.

Once we both had our costumes on we, once again, drove to Nekocon. Firith's car was parked in a shadeless spot on the hotel's parking lot so you can imagine that boiling hot out-in-the-sun-all-day car smell when one opened the doors, it was like stepping into a sauna on wheels. xD The AC couldn't start up any sooner!
We arrived at the con in a much more reasonable hour of the day than on the day before. But before we entered the main building we pulled out my trusty old camera and did a quick mini photoshoot near the vegetation. Because there's only two photos I'm not going to post them separately but instead add them to this summary. 

Cosplayer: Shiro Samurai (America)

Photographer: Firith

Photo editor: Shiro Samurai

I'm somewhat relieved I managed to repair the ahoge because it had been crushed during transport. For once it was useful that I had packed with me all kinds of repair kits just in case, hah.

Once we had taken turns photographing each other's costumes we finally were ready to step inside the main con building. The Music Centre held within it the Dealer's Hall, Artesan's Alley, organization booths, panel rooms and cafeteria and basically everything else that wasn't in Lumit. We did not explore every corner but from what we could see it seemed like almost everything was placed in the same way as on previous years – as in the layout was super familiar. I'd say it works so why change it? What I don't like though is how horrible the indoors air quality is in the Music Centre, it has always been bad (even during the old Animecon days) so I've come to expect it but yeah, it very quickly becomes suffocating and especially upstairs in the Artesan's Alley where there's massive glass windows.

Artesan's Alley upstairs.

Cutest birbs made by momomaumau!

I was quite surprised to have some people come up to me and recognize that I'm from Hetalia, especially as its glory days are long past. The interactions were wholesome and lowkey adorable and I was so relieved to have nice interactions because I was mentally prepared to get cancelled lmao.

I bought a few more things from a couple artesan tables (artesan's and artist's alleys are separated in Finland because the former are seen as more professional, they usually are entrepreneurs and have higher selling volumes and experience than the standard artists) and we also browsed the dealers both in the upper floor and on the main floor.

Merchandise seller upstairs.

There were some Nekocon promotions. That Blastoise thou.

We didn't attend any activities or panels today either and so we mainly just browsed all the shops. If I had unlimited money I would have bought a lot more stuff but I don't and so I had to limit my spending sprees. That Blastoise plush made me feel hyper nostalgic though because I have a very similar one but the old-school version from the late 90s or early 00s when it had leather cannons; I still have it somewhere and it's super precious to me (Blastoise was my very first favorite Pokémon) but the leather has degraded a bit over the years. :'< I was tempted to buy the new one so I could have tortoise twins from the past and future lol. Maybe next time!

Dealer's Hall main area.

This seller had a lot of retro stuff that made my geeky heart tingle. ;_;

There was a kimono/wafuku shop in the Dealer's Hall too!

I don't think I have so much more to say about Nekocon, I mean I didn't really spend that much time at the con itself and what time I did spend was spent browsing and buying stuff. :'D I don't feel like a con trip has to be filled with activities to be worth it, I'm very much content just supporting some artists etc and seeing all the wonderful cosplayers while enjoying the atmosphere. Of course if there hadn't been such a summer heatwave I probably would have spent more time indoors or well, at least in the video game room hahah. 

During the con's final hour we went to get more boba!

All in all I'm happy with this year's Nekocon and I would definitely return next year, unless something unforeseen happens like Firith's car dies for good. The weather was perhaps a bit too hot for my liking but hey, we Finns from the far north shouldn't complain because half the year is winter and darkness! 

Thanks for reading! Mericon is coming up soon so that's where I'll be heading next~

Nekocon 2025 cosplay lineup!

 Hello frens!

Nekocon is right around the corner this weekend aaaaa and yeah, I know, this cosplans post is a dumb amount of late. I would have liked to publish it sooner but I swear my plans were changing every second day, no joke. I just could not settle on what to cosplay for the longest time because I wanted something new but also something I wouldn't boil to death in. We've been having crazy warm weather lately and apparently the Nekocon weekend will be warm too and well, I don't want to be miserable during one of the highlights of the year lmao. :'D I really need to make more summer-friendly cosplays... 

After a lot of back-and-forthing I think I've finally come to a point where my plans won't change anymore. *crosses fingers* It's not the first time I'm very last minute with cosplay plan reveals but better now than not at all!

Let's goooo~~

Saturday

Image source: Digimon wiki

Character: Gaogamon
Series: Digimon

I've always been a Digimon fan, I just haven't cosplayed from it yet – which actually is kinda weird when I think about it. As a kid I never really understood the "you have to choose one" rivalry between Pokémon and Digimon, I genuinely enjoyed both? Over time Pokémon won the mass appeal and Digimon got stuck in an underdog kinda position but honestly, the original Digimon anime went hard because it had a more dark and mature story that hit some really deep themes (especially when you consider it was a kids show) compared to Pokémons episodic and light-hearted animation. 
But yeah, it's about time I showed this long-running franchise some love and ever since I saw Gaogamon in the Digimon World: Next Order video game I was like hell yeah! 

I'm reusing bits and pieces from previous cosplays for this one (happened to have stuff with fitting colors..) combined with some newly made props to make it recognizable. :3 Obviously I'm making a gijinka, not a fursuit. xD A fursuit would be cool though but I have no experience how to make one so it ain't happening in two days lol.

Sunday

Character: America (Revolutionary War)
Series: Hetalia

I've had this cosplay lying around since early 2021 so maybe it's time I finally debut it lololol. I figured it was technically one of my lighter cosplays lighter than 3+ layers of lined kimonos at least and, although I don't have the shoulder/cross belts, the costume is still complete enough to be wearable. I don't have any kind of props for now but that's fine since America will be my chill Sunday cosplay. 

That's it. These plans should be final unless something unforeseen happens. It's a bit amusing that both of my costumes have the same color palette with blue, red and white – that wasn't intentional at all. xD

Oh, and I should maybe mention as a sidenote that it's been like 10 years since I watched Hetalia and it's just a silly gag show to me that I originally watched because one of my big interests has always been history and world history happened to be the basis of the show (regardless of how accurately it portrays things). I don't think of myself as part of the fandom, the show was amusing at times and a bit questionable at others but left no big overall impact on me; I'm mainly cosplaying from it because some outfits are cool-looking – just like with any other anime I casually consumed lol.

See you at Nekocon, meow!

Lens review: Chromaview Lunar Eclipse White

 Hello all awesome beings!

We're back to do another crazy lens review and this time it's a stark white special effects lens called Chromaview Lunar Eclipse White. This is a rather intense lens with a lot of potential appeal if you're into unnatural, unnerving and mysterious looks!

Let's get on with the review~

Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14 mm

Water content: 53%

Life span: 30 days

These lenses were difficult to photograph in their blisters because they kinda just blend into that metallic background! But it's a pure white lens with a black burst-like irregularly spiked outer rim. If one looks really close you might notice that the spiky part actually has a soft blur to it; I thought it was my camera messing up the focus at first but it really is on the lens lol. Anyway I like it because it slightly smoothes out the overall effect and makes the lenses look a tad more ethereal instead of a tad more crazy, if that makes sense? xD

Chromaview is a contact lens brand mainly active in the western market and they carry a lof of different sfx lenses for all kinds of costuming and Halloween needs. I've been familiarizing myself with their products lately and honestly, I'm really digging them!

One lens in.

As you can see on the photo above I really meant it when I said these are a stark white! It's an unapologetically bright, no bullshit pure white that has no intentions of looking natural. Already by being white it looks really intense and, to some, perhaps a bit creepy. But I swear there's something with that tiny blurred edges effect that makes these less unsettling than those other 'zombie white' type of lenses.

Because this is a crazy lens they don't typically feature any notable enlargement effect, unlike circle lenses (first popularized in Asia, now a global hit). But if you look a bit closer you'll notice that the lens is, in fact, a tiny bit bigger than the size of my iris, albeit barely. It's honestly not noticeable on a quick glance and it wouldn't even look off if you decided to only wear one lens.

Lens photos below!

All photos are taken by yours truly during an afternoon with a clear sky. All close-ups are free from color filters and the like and that's so that the colors would appear as true to life as possible.

Natural room light indoors.

Yellow room light.

Bathroom light.

Flash photo indoors.

Facing a window indoors, not sun side.

Outdoors, back against the sun. (facing wall)

Outdoors, facing the sun while under a shadow.

Outdoors, facing the sun.

I did wear these lenses out for an anime event and I'd say that the comfort is decent. The lenses are thin and very easy to insert (you can easily tell apart right side from wrong) and I didn't feel that I had them on at first. But as is typical with opaque crazy lenses, due to their smaller pupil opening, you will have blurred corners at the edges of your field of vision in poorer light conditions and by that I mean mainly indoors or at night. It can make you feel uneasy if you're new to wearing colored lenses but don't worry, your eyes will readjust to the 'tunnel vision' and odds are that you'll stop noticing it in due time.
I wore these lenses for about 2 hours before I started to feel signs of uncomfortable dryness, but I want to point out that my eyes are naturally very prone to drying and on top of that this was during winter with almost -30 °C outside so yeah, it was cold as fuck and the air was dry too – which definitely contributed. Around the 4 hour mark the lenses were unbearably dry and I went to take them out. I want to note though that I'm certain that in better conditions these lenses would have been perfectly fine to wear longer; the event just happened to be on a particularly cold day coupled with my naturally sensitive eyes and yeah, that's gonna be ass no matter what lenses you put on. :'D

Summa summarum I'd say that I would recommend these lenses and especially if you fancy white lenses and/or have a thing for dressing up in costumes. These work just as well for bolder alternative fashion styles as they do for Halloween monster parties and cosplay. Depending on your tastes you can also wear these for fantasy beings like dark elves, sirens, warlocks, undead pirates and otherwordly rulers – the sky's the limit!

Distance photo!

Short summary:

Color: 10/10
A highly visible and striking pure white, super noticeable even from greater distances!

Design: 8/10

One of the staple crazy lens designs, albeit with a blurred burst effect at the edges. Intense and provoking.

Opacity: 10/10

Perfect coverage all the way, no cap. The white is super pigmented.

Enlargement: 3/10

There's a very slight size increase but it's not really noteworthy.

Comfort: 6/10

Thin and pleasant to wear (no scratchiness, itchiness etc). Might be a bit dryish in colder climates or on sensitive eyes, but still decent overall.

Naturalness: 0/10

This type of cosmetic lenses are meant to be extremely unnatural and outlandish, that's the appeal.

Have you worn sfx lenses for a fantasy look before?

Shiro Samurai out~

Repairing Ukitake's captain coat a decade later

 Hello everyone!

 

I already promised on my last post that the next one I'd write would be some yapping about the captain's haori, aka coat, repairs. :'D So for those who don't know Ukitake is my fourth cosplay (fifth in order if we count the first version of my OC Yuuto, which was a closet cosplay back then) and I originally made this costume way back in 2011. I wore Ukitake extensively to most cons I attended during my early congoing days in 2011-2012 so yeah, this costume has seen its fair share of life lol. But of course with so many outings also came accidents – the most notable of which happened during Finncon-Animecon 2011, which was my second time wearing Ukitake out after his debut at Uppcon in 2011.

I remember it so well – I had put on the full costume at the hotel on the morning and was walking towards the con area, it was a rainy day and I had with me an umbrella and didn't think much more of it at the time. I used the umbrella of course to shield myself from the rain but what I failed to consider was that it had rained so much so that the rain and dirt water was pooling up on the streets... and well, walking around with zori-style sandals made me unknowingly fling up all that shitty water into the back of my costume with each and every step I took. I remember when I finally arrived at the con area and people were looking at me and my awful condition (yes, it was very anxiety-inducing); I was aware of the disaster and extent of damage my cosplay had taken and while my memories are kinda blurry of what happened after I do clearly remember a Rukia cosplayer appearing out of nowhere and patiently helping me get off the worst of the dirt by blotting wet paper towels etc while I was quite literally having a meltdown crying. I was so shaken and upset with myself and I felt massive guilt over ruining my nicest costume. Some of the stains were so bad they were impossible to get off and I just had to wear it as-is for the rest of the convention day. To this day I still don't understand how I managed to keep myself together as well as I did and how I managed to even have fun despite how visible the damage was. Knowing myself I just know that had something similar happened in this day and age I would have immediately gone back to the hotel to change out of cosplay and my day would have definitely been 100% ruined lol – back then the hype and excitement to cosplay beat anything life threw at you. I kinda miss that resilience and drive, those starting years were different.

When I got back home from Finncon-Animecon I threw the coat into the washing machine. Should maybe mention here that I never prewash fabrics because most costumes feel too detailed and intricate to wash safely after completed so you just air them out. And I couldn't be arsed anyway because I just wanted to get to sewing lol.
Well, except this was the one time I maybe should have prewashed. You see, what happened was that the outer fabric, aka the white bridal fabric, shrunk a lot while the inner red satin lining didn't. This screwed up how the coat looked because the red lining was now constantly showing up on the sleeve edges, looking "rolled over" and the hem was raised with the red lining peeking out when worn too. It really didn't look good but yet I wore Ukitake out a few times more even after that in my defense I didn't have many other costumes back then.
I stopped wearing Ukitake after one last outing at a tiny anime event in 2013. I had grown too unhappy and self-aware of how the coat looked and it felt like an impossibly daunting task to even try to fix at the time. And I guess I had some kind of mental barrier blocking me from even trying because I was blaming and tormenting myself so much for not preventing it by taking a taxi to the destination or changing into cosplay once at the con etc. Hindsight is a curse and although I know I had valid reasons for not doing said prevention measures (I couldn't afford a taxi and my anxiety ruled out using changing rooms) it was hard to get the self-blame to dissipate. I had ruined my proudest creation and that was an insurmountable obstacle to sit with.

Time flew by. I cosplayed other characters, got into other fandoms and so on. Yet over the last few years I've felt this increasing urge of wanting to revisit and rewear my older costumes for many different reasons. And then one day it hit me that I actually missed cosplaying Ukitake, said costume used to be so defining and important to me. I remembered exactly why I hadn't worn it but time had dulled my memory of how bad the damage actually was and so I pulled it out of my ancient cosplay box in the storage room to take a closer look. The lining shrinkage issue was just as bad as I remembered but there were also prominent large water stains along the hem, discoloration and a lot of yellowing along the collar, makeup stains etc. It looked even worse than I remembered, in fact. Yet at this point I thought "fuck it" and threw it into the washing machine for another loop with a generous scoop of baking soda this time, 14 years after the first wash. I wasn't even sure if it would do a difference after all this time or if all the crap had permanently set in but I thought that since the fabric had already shrunk it couldn't get a lot worse at this point. #yolo

Coat's a bit big so it takes up the whole drying rack lol.

I let the coat dry for a few days while praying to a various assortment of cosplay gods to give me their blessings. I was quite nervous because if I couldn't get those water damage and other stains out I would have no choice but to remake the whole thing and I wasn't quite at peace with that idea. Especially since that perfect bridal fabric I used is long gone from mom's attic so I would have to settle for a fabric that likely wouldn't look valuable enough to fit a Bleach captain's status.

Thankfully the second round in the washing machine actually made a bit of a difference. The massive water stain outlines disappeared and the yellowing got slightly improved, it was still there but it got a bit lighter at least. So I guess I could say it made it better at least, not worse.
Once the coat was completely dry I took it to mom's so I had access to better surfaces to work on and a sewing machine.

Just showing how bad the lining issue was. 

The photo above is to show how much of the lining was constantly overextending, that amount of red that you see was how much was always visible, even when the sleeve was relaxed and I didn't try to pull or tug it in any way. It constantly looked like it was rolled up and bunching uncontrollably, it was legit awful. Before the uneven shrinkage issue happened the red lining didn't show at all and was like a lining should be, aka only visible on the inside.

I started the whole reparation process by taking out the seam-ripper and undoing the seams on the sleeve ends. I know, I could have just made it easy for myself and save time by cutting it off with scissors but I was too concerned about how much losing those couple centimeters of fabric (especially the white one) would affect later on when I reassemble the lining. I didn't really want to shorten it because it would look wonky if the shihakusho black and white kimono sleeves were a lot longer than the captain's coat sleeves were. Every centimeter was precious lol.

This took ages but at least the ripper was ergonomically shaped.

Once I was done undoing the seam I just stared at the lining unraveling before my eyes. I was also quite surprised that I hadn't done any kind of fraying prevention measures on the lining fabric, it was just raw edges all over and that made me uneasy and judgmental of my former self lol. Nowadays I just couldn't, I'm very anal about zigzaging all edges even if they technically couldn't unravel. It just bugs me so much to leave something undone.

Notice how much longer the lining is, oh god!

On the photo above you can see how much the white fabric had shrunk compared to the lining because the inner and outer sleeves were aligned at the corner in this photo. This amount of excess explains why it looked so bunched up and just wouldn't behave no matter how much you tried to force it to stay down.

Another thing I was baffled by was that back then I hadn't even treated the edges of the white fabric?! I had just folded them in and been like "this is fine" all because the lining would hide them from view lmao. It feels weirdly surreal because I used to have this pure mental image that this cosplay was done so carefully and I had zero memories of skipping any corners so yeah, taking seams apart and finding raw edges staring back at me was a real 'what the duck' moment. :'D

Zigzaging all the edges reeeee–

I had some struggles with deciding on how to reassemble the sleeve mouths. Originally they were done in what I'd like to call the "default lining" way aka what happens when you attach the lining to the outer fabric's edges and then turn it over, press it down and do a decorative stitch around on top to make it crisp. So basically it wasn't folded or hemmed and looked like on official character references. I originally wanted to replicate this but figured that it would be a lot of extra steps because I'd either have to remove and reattach the whole lining (which would also mean trimming the excess down before refitting which would have been a lot of extra work) or do some fidgety precision folding techniques by folding both the outer fabric and the lining separately and then have them line up perfectly against each other and stitch them down and hope they don't shift while doing so, which would surely have been an exercise in carefulness and frustration. I figured that the easiest and most doable approach was to fold in the excess lining fabric enough times to make it have the same length as the white fabric (I didn't cut off any fabric, just folded it inside) and then fold the white fabric on top to seal the red fabric underneath it. It's a bit hard to explain but I hope that makes sense? xD

Ended up doing this approach to finalize the sleeves.

I worked on both the hem and the sleeves simultaneously but I decided to post the sleeve progress first to make it easier to follow. But yeah, I did a similar approach when opening up the hem, meaning I first undid the stitches to free the two fabrics from each other.

Ripping up the hem in progress.

The hem came with the additional problem of realizing that of course the lining fabric was larger in all directions than the white fabric that had shrunk. Ideally this meant that, for a perfect result, I should have removed the whole lining, trimmed it down and then reattached it but this would have meant that I would have needed to remove the whole collar as well because the collar attached to the lining on both sides on the front. I wasn't quite up to this task and so I stood there facing the issue that, due to the collar being attached to the lining and thus locking me from handling it from all directions, that if I didn't remove the collar I would have to be creative about how and where to cram and hide the excess lining. There were a lot of back-and-forthing at this point on whether I should make a strategic cut to avoid the otherwise forced wrinkling of excess lining at the corners but I eventually decided against it and just made a vertical fold in the lining, near the ends of the collars, to hide the worst excess bunching and then I folded in the rest at the hem in a similar way as I did on the sleeves.

Lining excess hiding aka sneaky folding in progress.

Of course it wouldn't end up flawless because I didn't do it in the most time-consuming way (aka remove the whole lining etc) but I feel like this approach worked surprisingly well while also sparing my sanity lol.

It was a bit of a risky choice but to secure and attach the newly folded and prepared hem I had to sew on the upside of the coat and that's because I noticed on my first try, when I tried to sew on the underside (to see that the needle hits where it should), that despite measuring and retracing the former stitch lines I still ended up having the stitch not aligning with the original stitch on the upside and this was a problem because the white thread was really visible if it crossed over one of those black salmiakki details. So yeah, I had to sew on the upside to make sure that the new stitch aligned with the old one (it looked fugly when it didn't, trust me bro) and just crossed my fingers that the stitch went correctly on the underside and secured the hem. Luckily it did after a few minor corrections.

This was a nervous moment lol.

After that I was finally done repairing this part of my Ukitake cosplay. It's such a relief because yeah, despite the coat having been neglected for over a decade it wasn't beyond saving. I proved to myself that I could do it despite how daunting it seemed. I also got it done in time for Kummacon where I also had a quick mini photoshoot and yes, it was such a blast to be Ukitake again! I really need to repair his twin swords next and although that's probably an equally ennerving project to tackle, if not more, I now feel more confident to try my best!

Thanks for reading! Have you ever repaired a cosplay after an accident, did it work out?
~ Shiro Samurai out.

Mini photoshoot: Captain Ukitake returns!

 Hello there~

As mentioned in my Kummacon summary I had a small-scale photoshoot of my good old Ukitake cosplay that I've finally repaired since the last outing in 2013. Or well, partially repaired because I have yet to fix the Sogyo no Kotowari twin swords.

For those who don't know this costume's history it's actually my fourth cosplay that I made (out of 50+ characters to date, including different versions) so yeah, it's definitely old by now. Yet I'm still quite proud of it. This was an ambitious cosplay back then to make but it was so worth it because the memories I've made with this costume at cons have been defining for me in so many ways. I have a deeply personal connection to this particular character and, although I might not be up to date on the Bleach series, Ukitake will always have a special place in my heart; cosplaying him has always carried with it a certain feeling that I can't quite put into words – he's more than just a character to me. And getting to wear this cosplay out and mend it after 12 years of neglect was nothing short of emotional.

Cosplayer: Shiro Samurai (Jushiro Ukitake)

Photographer: Firith

Photo editor: Shiro Samurai

I'm so happy with how these photos turned out despite how much of a struggle it was to get the natural lights to work! I only have the very barebones camera gear so we were completely at the mercy of the harsh noon sun; we had to find shade under this big spruce with hanging branches. I kept getting my wig entangled in the barbs too and had to be freed a couple times. xD

I do have Ukitake's sealed form zanpakuto somewhere but that one also needs some alterations and repair before I can use it again, hence why I have no props this time. I just went for a leisurely moment kind of vibe and carrying props around would have hindered me from doing my work tasks at the con so yeah, there was that factor too.

Oh and yeah, some people might notice that I'm wearing brown contact lenses although canonically in the manga his eyes are green. I'm well aware of the eye color discrepancies in the anime and manga (Ukitake's not the only character affected lol) and I would have preferred to use green lenses, but due to the short notice on which I decided to cosplay Ukitake I simply didn't have time to order new lenses – and I only had a brown pair already available at home, so brown it was. For my next outing as Ukitake I will get green lenses for him because I deem the manga to be the more correct one because it came first.

Thanks for viewing, next up is the repair post about the captain's coat~
Do you have a favorite character in Bleach? :D