Falkner's mini hakama pt.1

I was bored and decided to start sewing on Falkner's hakama-ish pants to get some progress done, after all Skecon is slowly closing in; I have only 17 days left to get everything done, heuheuheuheu...

Last weekend mom helped me cut out the parts for my pants. We were lucky, the fabric we had at home was just enough for Falkner's kimono style shirt and mini hakama. Phew~

Oh, and before I start. This is not the authentic way to make hakama, just for costume purposes. The patterns are just originally these huge pant's patterns which I shortened and modified later on. The modifications I just did what my brain told me to do.

Front and back pieces cut out, two of each obviously

I started with zigzaging around all four pieces. I decided to save the blue thread so I used white thread for this.. it doesn't matter anyway because the zigzag won't be seen on the outside. After I had zigzaged all pieces I took both back pieces and started folding in at the sides to get these hakama style openings.

Impromptu folding (both back pieces)

I tried to get both of them the same size and depth. After I had got both back side opening folds like I wanted them I put away one of the back pieces, took one front piece and copied the back piece's folding over. Must try to get them as similar as possible. Repeat for the other front piece and then just iron the opening folds flat and stitch them in place.

After ironing and sewing it in place
(I folded in the edge closest to the opening so that the zigzag won't peek out)

But upon closer inspection I noticed something...

SKIPPED STITCHES. WHYYYYYYYYYYY

I tried re-threading the sewing machine at least thrice and switching the sewing needle but nope, the problem didn't go away...
I find it weird how I didn't get skipped stitches at all when I made Falkner's shirt earlier, it's the exact same fabric and I used the same needle...

I see you little troll...

I decided to screw it and sew anyway. I just want this thing done, if it bothers me in the future I can just undo the seams and remake those failed parts...

Next thing to do was to sew the outer side seams closed and after that sew the inseam/inner-pant-leg-whatever seams closed.

Outer side seams sewed, obviously one front and one back piece

Inseam sewed closed

Next thing to do was to align the crotch, right sides together of course, and then sew along the curve.

Crotch aligned, before sewing

 Now I had something that resembled pants... or not. Instead of mini hakama I now had these humongous ultra XXXL sized granny pants! I don't see anything "mini" about them right now... Aren't they sexy?

Ihan helevetin maukasta..

Errr, maybe not so...

Oh well, it's not like this sucker will stay like this forever. I have yet to pleat it, add the ties and hem the pant legs. I'll fix that another time.

This is good progress for tonight. *yawns*

Pokéballs! + Falkner progress

 Hiiiiiiiiiii!

Earlier today I decided to check if I could find my old candy container Pokémon figure pokéballs.. and I did. Now I at least have some kind of fitting prop to go with my Falkner cosplay, yay! It's kinda hard to come up with poses when you don't have props.. I also decided that if Jäätynyt Enkeli and Sairu-chan want to borrow a pokéball I'd lend them one each so that we all would have different but still matching pokéballs!

I thought that Jäätynyt Enkeli could use the Lure Ball (left) because it's.. well, blue, and kinda similar to a Great Ball which Silver has in this official art. Also it was introduced in Gen 2 of Pokémon so it kinda fits. Sairu-chan could borrow the Repeat Ball (middle) because it has the same color scheme as Erika whom she will cosplay. I would use the Heavy Ball (right) because it was also introduced in Gen 2 of Pokémon and it fits Falkner's color scheme somehow too.

Today I also finished Falkner's kimono style shirt. Not so much to say because it's really simple and straight-forward. I took some few pictures though.

I hemmed the arm openings, nothing special.

Cut out the collar pieces, sewed them together at one end so I got one long piece and ironed it.

Pinned the collar in place and started sewing..

Collar done

After I had hemmed the bottom. Finished.

One part of the cosplay finished, yay! And I love how my camera fucks up the colors. None of these pictures show the real color of the fabric, trolololo. Hopefully soon I'll start sewing Falkner's mini hakama.

That's it for today.

Falkner wig

On Monday this week I went to the post office and picked up my Falkner wig. It arrived some days earlier but I couldn't go get it then. I didn't have time to open and try it on until recently but I must say I love the color; it's this awesome mix of a lot of different colored fibers like different shades of blues and grays.
The bangs could have been a bit longer but I don't mind because they're good enough (aka they cover my eye) and I was expecting them to be a bit shorter than what the character has anyway because this wasn't a wig specifically meant for Falkner or anything. XD

Now some try-on photos. I woke up pretty recently so I look like a mess.. oh, and I'm wearing my silk robe as usual.. I'm always wearing it on mornings and some hours before going to sleep. lol

Outdoor light

I don't feel a need to style it because it looks pretty good as is. It is very easily fluffable too so I can arrange the fibers, tease them and have them keep the wilder style without falling flat directly. I'm wondering though, should I roll with black eyebrows (like on photos) or should I go get something blue instead? I think black seems to look just fine but.. I'm not 100% sure.

The start of Falkner

 Hallo!

Not so long time ago I went to the attic and picked up some suitable fabric for my Falkner cosplay. Also during the last weekend I cut out the two body parts for Falkner's blue sleeveless kimono-style top. This time I didn't strive for making it very accurate to a genuine kimono, because, while you can see his outfit is very much inspired from Japanese clothing there are some not-so-authentic qualities to it. So well, I came up with some kind of hybrid kimono pattern.

Looked like this after being cut out.

 There's a left and right body side.. I didn't want shoulder seams, not even for this. It would have bugged me. I did skip making an okumi panel (that overlap panel on kimono) though, I just widened the front parts for this. Falkner doesn't have a visible okumi seam what I've seen anyway... not like most fictional kimono-wearing characters have it either. *shrugs*

Today I decided to sew together what I had cut out. First I zigzaged around the part on both left and right pieces which was going to be the back seam. Then I sewed them together at the back.

Back seam sewed

After that I zigzaged the sides and sewed them together.
Then I just ironed the seams open and tried it on.

So far my weird pattern idea seems to work rather well.. except that I made one small mistake; I shouldn't have cut the neck part (where the back seam start) as deep. It falls kinda low if I align the shoulders right when I wear it but luckily I will add the collar and thus get some extra width for it, which should make it look alright. If it doesn't I can just wear the thing with the shoulders off-centered so that the collar sits right, no one's going to notice anyway because the shoulders of this thing won't be seen when the whole cosplay is on ~

Camera face censor ftw

That's it for now.. I can't progress further before I cut out the collar and I need mom's help for that; we need to make sure that when we cut out the collar there will be enough fabric left to make his mini hakama. Not sure how much of this fabric there is left on the bolt (doesn't look like much) and hakama eat a lot of fabric so we need to play it safe just to be sure. trololo

Bye byee ~~

Skecon 2012 cosplay plans!

I've been thinking about what to cosplay at Skecon the last weeks or so and I think I've finally decided. There's still a slight risk that I might change plans, but this is what it looks like currently:

Friday

Character: Falkner

Series: Pokémon (HeartGold/SoulSilver)

Ah, Falkner, the first Gym Leader in Johto who uses Flying-types.

Truth be told, this was a veeeeery spontaneous cosplay choice.. it came out of the blue. Falkner wasn't even on my cosplay list and that's saying a lot because I have craploads of characters in my cosplay list and I list pretty much all characters who I have even the slightest interest to cosplay. Somehow Falkner wasn't there, even though I remember having the thought that "if I ever wanted to do a Pokémon trainer cosplay it would likely be Falkner" but I shrugged it off because it was very low priority and Pokémon cosplays just wouldn't be as fun doing alone... until my twin Jäätynyt Enkeli really wanted to do something new for Skecon and that 'something new' turned out to be Silver (aka the rival) from HeartGold/SoulSilver. The "AMG I WANT TO DO A (JOHTO) POKERMANZ TRAINER TOO" reaction was triggered... and Falkner was the obvious choice. Ah, this will be a trip to nostalgic times ~

Lawdy lawd someone explain to me why I'm so hopelessly stupid? My cosplays get less and less clothing the further away from summer we get. :'D I sense perfect logic here.

Saturday

Character: Toshizo Hijikata

Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan

Toshiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ~~ <3

What is there to say? It's Hakuouki, a con without a Hakuouki cosplay is not a con! >8D

Also I've managed to get a few friends to have a mini Hakuouki group on the Saturday; we'll have a  Chizuru, Sannan, Ibuki (if I've got it right) and me as Hijikata. Of course it will be my newer version of Hijikata as seen here, only with the wig in a ponytail.

Luckily I might not freeze to death in this cosplay at least...

Sunday

   

Because Sunday is the last day and the con ends 14:00 (at least according to their website..) I don't really feel like it's worth it to put on a full cosplay. Also if I did cosplay I would need to sit in that cosplay the 4 hour bus trip home, not sure if gusta because I would worry so much about getting the wig tangled etc. So I think I might just put on a kimono and possibly haori (no hakama because that means murder if I have to go to the toilet xD) from my vintage kimono collection or go in casual clothes with some traces of geekiness something different.. depends on the weather and how cold it is. We'll see.