Souji Okita's violet yukata remade!

Hello there!

Yesterday on 1st June I biked to mom's place together with Hasakitsuki. 

Our reason, you ask? Make some cosplay progress for the very-rapidly-approaching Desucon! Go go go!

I already spoiled one of my cosplay plans earlier and that was Okita-san's violet yukata version. Remade, of course. Because my original one is so damn bad that I wouldn't wear it to a con even if I got paid for it. So yeah, I went to mom's to remake this fucker! 8D Because mom has the awesome high-tech sewing machine and I have trusting issues with the old-school one I got to borrow...

So around afternoon 15:00 or such (Finnish time) I started sewing; I had already cut out all the parts needed (except for the collar) at Jäätynyt Enkeli's home a few days prior. I did the measuring and cutting based on some French kimono tutorial as well as my own knowledge.

(note: this picture is of a woman's kimono, I'm making one for men)

I tried to make it accurate, as far as appearance is concerned, but I did cut some stuff off instead of folding it inside collars/seams and stuff because I just couldn't be bothered – for example the collar and okumi panels. The kimono police won't come and chase me with a naginata for a not 100% authentically accurate cosplay yukata anyway. Phew.
Well well, let's get on with this; at mom's the first thing I did was zigzaging around all the pieces except for the okumi panel pieces and the collar, but I hadn't even cut it out at this point because it was to be made of a different fabric.
The first part I attacked after the zigzaging was the sleeves. I went to iron them to make life a bit easier; one small fold for where your hand will come out of the sleeve and one bigger fold for the sleeve's "hanging end", so that there will be less bulk when I sew it shut later.
Oh, much later on I sewed a straight stitch on top of the small fold so that I would get a neat finish and avoid having to fold in the hand opening when I sew the rest of the sleeve shut.

Sleeve preparing – ironing.

I then left 10 centimeters of the sleeve hanging off the body panel (for men's kimono only), aka leaving the sleeves not fully attached to the body of the garment. Then I just sewed the sleeves on. Of course before this I had taken the body panels (left and right) and ironed them in the middle to get shoulder folds; this makes attaching sleeves a lot easier because kimono does not have shoulder seams. I had ironed the sleeves in the middle too to have a corresponding fold that I could easily match up with the shoulder fold to see that it was centered.

10 centimeters marked.

Sleeve attached to one body panel.

With the sleeves on I sewed the back seam shut. I also ironed it flat so that it would look better. Now the front is fully open and the other half, the back, is closed.

Back seam done.

After the back seam I just had to sew the sides shut. I started at one of the sleeves, left 27 cm for the hand opening (this measure is for a man's kimono, women have smaller openings) and then started sewing it shut. When I reached the armpit I prayed to the almighty cosplay gods that it would go well but lolnope, my wish wasn't granted; it ended up being wrinkled and fugly as usual so I had to rip up the armpit seam after I had sewn down the rest of the side. I swear, armpit seams are the bane of my existence, I never get them right. Of course the other sleeve's armpit seam had to derp as well and so I ended up hand-sewing these suckers down.

 I have no idea what I'm doing but let's hope it turns out a-ok! (handsewing)

With the sides sewn I took my okumi pieces and cut them triangle-ish. Actually you are just supposed to fold the excess of the okumi panels into the collar somehow, but I couldn't be bothered to be this accurate so I just cut it brutally into a close-enough shape. I have cheap cotton, not precious silk.

Okumi panels.

I sewed the okumi panels on and noticed soon afterwards that I HAD PUT WAY TOO MUCH SEAM ALLOWANCES EVERYWHERE. It's hilarious to the point of ridiculous because my first yukata ended up being way too narrow to wear properly –because of lack of fabric– and this remade version turned into a "size: SUMO". Needless to say I spent some time taking in all the seams (okumi included) at the very least 2 centimeters, sometimes up to 5 centimeters! And then I spent the remains of the day ripping up the first seams I made because double seams look bad. Don't we all love ripping seams?

Yeah, I actually slept over at mom's place. I need to finish this yukata before I leave or it's not gonna get done in time. On the following morning I woke up fairly early (more time to sew!) and started preparing to make the collar. I cut up 9 cm at the shoulder folds on both sides on the front to make room for the collar. At this point I also lazied out of accuracy so I just measured a straight line from the 9 cm cut to the beginning of the okumi panel and cut out a triangular part on both sides, to make room for the collar.

Upper part of the front panels. Also shows shoulder folds.

Making slits on the shoulder for the collar.

I had found a piece of white scrap fabric that was pretty much perfect for the white collar in a plastic bag in the attic; I measured around the part of my yukata where the collar would be attached and I ended up with it being approximately 180 cm. Luckily the scrap fabric piece was just below 2 meters long so I had enough!
I cut out a 14 cm wide piece (it's called seam allowances and the final collar will be folded in half), ironed it and attached interfacing fabric to the whole length. Then I just folded and ironed it in the middle and sewed it on. I trimmed the interfacing fabric excess off as well.

First, iron it smooth.

Add the interfacing fabric! Floppy collars are eew.

While I was pinning down the collars on the yukata I figured that I could fold inside the collar ends to avoid having an additional (and inaccurate) seam at the very end of it. Of course the iron was of help in keeping the fold inside. Like this:

Folded like this shows.

Folded and pinned in place.

Being sewn on.

Lastly I spent forever trying to figure out if the bottom hem of the thing was straight or not. I swear when I put effort in measuring the whole length of the yukata and trying to get it to be 140 cm long (my ideal kimono length) it kept trolling me. It's like, when I measured it carefully so that it would be 140 cm at all ends then lolnope, it was completely not straight when you lined it up. I probably tried all possible measuring methods but there was always something giving me a headache and finally I got tired of its bullshit and just folded in 1 cm everywhere and prayed that it wouldn't end up uneven as hell... and it actually turned out surprisingly okay. What the actual fuck?! :'DD And here prior to this I put so much effort in trying to straighten it out before getting fed up and opting for the most basic couldn't-care-less solution. Grah! the fabric was cut unevenly to begin with so I don't even know anymore why it didn't end up straight when I tried to measure it right... gh gh gh gh hurr durr derp.

With the bottom hemmed my yukata was basically finished and so we biked back home and I took a few photos of it. If I have time I will do a preview before Desucon but if not then you have to satisfy yourself with this finished product photo:

It's finished! And doesn't fit on my bed.

Valkoinen Samurai goes off to eat some pancakes and think about what more stuff needs to be done before the con arrives ~

Asanoha kimono for Souji Okita ahkjfsk;agsj

There was a package in the mailbox today at my new apartment and well, the mere fact I already had received something I had ordered since moving to my new apartment surprised me. The surprise was even greater when I noticed it was from Japan, which meant it could only be one thing, namely that über awesome I-will-cry-forever-tears-of-blood-if-I-don't-win-this men's yukata kimono I was staying up half the night for in pretty horrid pain just to win... and I did. Today it then arrived, barely 9 days after shipment from Japan - friggin' 9 days, so fast!!

The yukata in question ~
(seller's photo from eBay)

The reason why this was such a must-have was because I friggin' love asanoha (hemp leaf pattern) and have been searching for any men's kimono items with it for the longest time, especially with the pattern repeating all over and not just parts of it randomly placed on the garment. One of the reasons I really wanted a kimono with it was because Souji Okita in Hakuouki has an asanoha patterned kimono and seeing how he is pretty much my favorite character ever, well...  hehehe ~ *smirk*

Souji Okita (Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan)

Oh well, I almost gave up some time ago and my mind had already crossed the line of "let's face it, men's kimono hardly exists with all-over-repeat asanoha pattern. I will have to either buy a women's kimono that is close enough and convert it into men's or make my own kimono and paint it.. which will take forever to say the least". With that said you can guess my almost inhuman reaction of joy overkill when I randomly found this yukata listed on eBay when I was originally searching for something else. Oh my God, seriously. <3 I swear I was smiling so much when I won it that night that I would have been surprised if my face didn't have permanent ridiculous smile lines when I woke up the day after. xD Oops.. erm, sorry about the rambling, I'm just way too excited about this thing!

Oh well, so of course -as the derp I am- I just had to put it on and try to take a few photos despite having my camera charger/USB cable missing in the bathroom. Because I'm impatient and couldn't wait for tomorrow to get the camera cable I had to use my ~ultra gay~ cellphone's camera instead. Don't ask why it's pink, dad bought it and pink was the only color left at that store and, eh, that's why it is ~ultra gay~ [insert sparkles here] hahaha.. ha... ._. Oh well, it's still a pretty good cellphone, I just really don't care for pink.. Well well, because the photo is taken with my cellphone the quality is not the best, sorry about that.. but I guess even a not-so-good-quality photo is better than nothing, neh?

le quick Okita test ~
(sorry mirror photo)

Actually this yukata isn't black but this ultra-mega-dark-blue that looks pretty dang black if I do say so myself. It's still good enough color-wise and pretty much as perfect as I could hope for (read: I can bet half my ass on that I won't find any men's kimono more close enough to Okita's than this one during my lifetime..) and I will so use it for my future Souji cosplay huehuehue~ *rubs hands together excitedly* I will cosplay him someday, a few years from now likely, and I'm slowly gathering stuff and planning how to make it as awesome as possible ~

Oh, did I mention it is just the right size for me and has an awesome wingspan (it must have a good wingspan to work properly for Okita..) as well! herpderp durr happiness hurr ahjfskgja;dskj <3

I'm so happy I totally feel like doing this:

And now I will take my leave before this whole blog post turns into "shkjfdsgkj;dsk asanoha kimono <3" so bye bye!

"Help! I want to cosplay a kimono character!"

"What is this?" you probably think now.

Well, I decided to do my first 'tips and guidelines' blog post to help other people out!

Oh and hello to everyone, both old and new readers and everyone else who've stumbled upon this post! ^-^

Tetsunosuke Ichimura and Souji Okita from PeaceMaker Kurogane.

During my years of cosplaying I have several times run into people online asking the same questions about cosplaying a kimono-wearing character and what to do, how to wear it etc – and I have probably just as many times given them a helping hand. That said, I've felt for some time now that I know enough about kimono in general to share my knowledge with others who want to cosplay characters wearing kimono but are lost on the way. As you probably have noticed by now I'm very biased towards cosplaying characters who don a kimono, for many reasons. But I will not talk about those reasons – I will talk about something more helpful! I will share what I know, as a cosplayer and as a kimono enthusiast, what I think might be what cosplayers who look to cosplay a kimono-wearing character would like to know and also go through the most common errors I see at cons, aka a basic kimono introduction info post. I don't claim that I have any kind of ultimate knowledge – I will just share what I have learned and picked up personally over the years. :)

 This will be in a kind of question and answer form to avoid a wall of text.

 Here goes! ~ 

~~~~~~~~~

1. Is there any difference on the kimono depending on the gender of the wearer?

When cosplaying a character with kimono it's important that you know the main differences between how a man –and respectively, a woman– wear kimono and the differences in the garment itself.

A woman’s kimono has freely hanging sleeves that are left mostly unattached to the body of the kimono. Why the sleeves are like this is because it is better suited for the wide obi (belt) that is tied around the waist. There is also a small opening in the armpits although this, for some reason, is almost never drawn in manga/anime from what I’ve noticed. Men's kimono have the sleeves almost completely attached to the kimono, with only about 10 centimeters hanging free.
Another distinctive trait for women’s kimono is how it is worn – women wear the kimono with a waist fold (called ohashori) to adjust the length to the wearer. This waist fold is located slightly under the obi. Because men wear their obi on their hips –and because men's obi is much narrower– there is no need to have the sleeves hanging freely.

Here is a picture illustrating what I mean:

Image found on Google.

Of course if you crossplay (aka dress as a character of the opposite gender) and the character wears kimono you just wear it the same way as they do – and make sure the kimono's "gender" is the same as the character's. *points at sleeve picture above*
Same thing goes if the character crossdresses. One example is that if, let's say, a male character is crossdressing and wearing women's kimono then that's what you should be doing too, if you want to cosplay said character, that is – you should do the waist fold, make sure your sleeves are open in the back and have the underarm openings etc etc.

2. Which way are you supposed to cross the collars?

Wear your kimono like a living person would, also known as always cross the collars left over right. Right over left is reserved for the dead only. I SERIOUSLY CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH. 
Don't make yourself look like a complete idiot at the con who didn't even bother to do a simple Google search to find out which way to wear the damn thing! Crossing a kimono right over left is like the biggest no-no you can do when it comes to how to wear it. Of course, if the character is actually dead (somehow) and actually wears their kimono reversed, then by all means go for it.

You know, I can honestly say that at probably every anime convention/event I've ever been to so far I've always seen at least one person donning a kimono the corpse style and it makes me cringe so bad that I can't help but do a big fat mental facepalm; I have to resist the urge to go up to that person and politely give them a short lesson on kimono knowledge. Needless to say it practically kills the cosplay for me personally, no matter how nicely sewn and perfect it is otherwise. Yes, it's one of my pet peeves. There ya go.

"I see dead people..."
(Kenshin demonstrating my inner rage face when I spot someone doin' it wrong)

Oh, one last addition to this! I've seen people saying that they have heard from someone else that men and women cross their kimono differently, aka that one sex would cross left over right and the other one right over left. That is NOT true and those who go telling others such bullshit need to check their facts before they spread false information around.  
Note: while this is how it works in our Western world (example: men's jackets are left over right, women's right over left) I want to stress that it does NOT apply to kimono or any traditional Japanese garments!!

3. How are kimono constructed?

Kimono consists of one left and right panel, front overlap panels (okumi), collar and sleeves. Kimono traditionally always have a back seam but never shoulder seams. In cosplay it's not the end of the world if you do not sew your kimono the traditional way, but it is a nice bonus if you want to at least mimic the way it's cut to have it look more authentic, so to say. You don't have to handsew the whole thing though because that's how it's traditionally done too. xD

Hard to understand what I mean?

Here is a picture (note: woman's kimono) to help you see the pieces a kimono consists of:

Image from Google.

4. "How do I wear this thing??? It seems so complicated!"

First off, look at how your character is wearing his/her/their kimono. When you cosplay you will want to wear it in a character accurate way more often than not – and fictional characters tend to break and bend most real kimono dressing rules anyway. :)) But as a general rule the ideal kimono shape is like a cylinder more or less for both sexes, aka you want a straight silhouette. Traditionally women would pad their waist and even bind their breasts, if needed, to achieve a straight shape. 
Also, normally you want the kimono to fall to your ankles.

Not looking for a straight silhouette here nope, lol.
It's Kongiku from Muramasa: The Demon Blade.

There are lots of really helpful videos on Youtube showing how to put on kimono; just try searching with sentences like "kimono kitsuke for beginners" or anything like that and you should find at least some kind of video tutorials. Even if you watch videos meant for authentic kimono-wearing you'll get a better understanding on how to wear a "cosplay kimono" and have it look crisp and nice too – it's not wasted knowledge! 
If you want to invest in learning how to wear a kimono try searching with these words for a start:

• kimono kitsuke (how to dress in kimono)
• ohashori (name of the waist fold on women's kimono)
• obi musubi (different knots for the belt)

There are lots of different ways to tie the obi and some fictional characters have their obi tied in a way that has no exact real-life counterpart, and thus can be a real headache to figure out. I know at least one character with their obi tied in an actual knot, but reversed, and then there's those with something completely weird going on in the back, lol. 
Luckily, many characters have their obi tied in an existing knot and I will also help you by naming a few of the different ways to tie an obi so that you can search online to find how to tie them, if you would need to.

Men's obi knots:
Kai no Kuchi musubi
Katabasami musubi

Women's obi knots:
Otaiko musubi
Tateya musubi
Fukura Suzume musubi

There are several other tying variations (especially for women) as well, just look around and you'll surely find them!

5. What fabrics are kimono made out of and what to do if the character you want to cosplay has "trims" around the collar and sleeves?

Well, first of... THEY ARE NOT TRIMS. It's very very likely that the character is wearing a juban underneath – it's an under kimono meant to guard the outer kimono from being in contact with your body and thus getting stained/dirtied by body liquids etc. Usually nicer kimono are made of silk*, which is delicate and expensive, hence the need to have something shielding it from getting ruined easily. KIMONO ARE NOT MADE OF SATIN.

In most anime/manga/video games characters tend to have a white juban. It's very common for some reason.

* = I want to mention, as an extra note, that not all kimono are silk – for example farmers and such would have kimono made out of hemp. Cotton also exists, although it's not common for anything that is not a yukata. There's also the very thin summer sha and ro fabrics but those are likely not what cosplayers will want to look for. Oh and yeah, modern/newer kimono are quite often made out of polyester, so that's not technically all wrong either.

Kazuma Sohma from Fruits Basket wearing kimono, haori and juban.

However, with yukata –a cotton kimono which is very informal– you don't wear a juban; it's possible to "dress up" a yukata by adding a juban and other accessories though, but it's not really all that common. 
If someone wonders what a yukata is it's a light-weight, non-lined summer cotton kimono often worn to different outdoor festivals in Japan, like cherry blossom watching. Women's yukata tend to have floral prints and be colorful while men's often are more subdued in color and have geometric patterns.

Masato Hijirikawa from Uta no Prince-sama wearing yukata.
Notice the lack of juban.

But of course, when cosplaying, you most likely won't be making a silk kimono so the need to make a juban too –just to have like 2 cm of the collar showing and have the sleeves peek out from inside– might feel like wasted sewing work to most. It's understandable. But still, if your cosplay character of choice seems to be wearing a juban underneath then please, don't skip it. Heck, you can just make a fake kimono collar and it will give you the right look! Easy peasy and certainly looks better than having a trim of fabric running all the way down the collar, like seen on the majority of all the mass-produced Bleach shinigami outfits...

Typical online Bleach shinigami outfit.
Notice the "trims".

Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia Kuchiki from Bleach.

Do you notice the difference? Also on the picture with Ichigo and Rukia you can see that the white can be seen on the inside of the sleeves too. If you just used trim the inside would be black...

6. What are these different Japanese garments called? 

Kimono is actually an umbrella term meaning basically any T-shaped ankle length robe with collars and wide sleeves. That means there are different kimono types which each have a name – yukata and furisode, to just name a few. Furisode are known for their very long sleeves that can be almost floor-length; you can pretty often spot a young-ish female character in manga/anime/video games who wears a furisode. Yukata kimonos are also often seen in anime – it's a very casual informal cotton kimono worn to summer festivals, hot springs, possible sleepwear and the like. Yukata are the only kimono to which you don't wear a juban so yeah, if the character has no second collar peeking out it is likely they are wearing a yukata. 
Both men and women can wear yukata but it will have the sleeve differences and stuff I mentioned in the beginning of the post. Oh, and occasionally characters (especially males) might wear a waist/hip length jacket over their kimono that is open at the front – this is called a haori and it isn't meant to be closed. Also, sleeve rules applies for men's and women's haori too, although what I've seen on authentic kimono men's haori often have the sleeves completely sewn to the haori's body. But again, look at your cosplay references first to see how their garments are.

Also, especially male characters often wear hakama. Hakama is a type of pleated pants/skirt (depending on the style, both versions exist) with long ties that are wrapped around the body and secured with different knots. Most people know them as "samurai pants". 
Regarding hakama and fictional characters I've noticed that quite many shows have a hakama-wearing guy with his hakama tied knotted in a floppy ribbon or a knot with the ends hanging free in front. This is actually not an accurate way to tie them, as far as I know, but even in famous series such as Rurouni Kenshin and Bleach you will see hakama tied like this.

Kenshin Himura from Rurouni Kenshin wearing hakama.

Oh, and regarding hakama – if you plan to make hakama be sure to check out some photos of real hakama to get the hang of what they actually look like. And, please, DO MAKE PLEATS, preferably pleats that hold their form too, not just big poofy pants because it looks cheap and makes me cringe. Oh, and hakama have 5 pleats in the front and 2 in the back. There are exceptions but I won't dig into that. Don't make more pleats than that or it will look... funny. :)) Oh, and don't forget the side openings and –if the character has one– the backboard. Note: women's hakama don't have a koshiita (backboard) and are worn higher up than men's. Only exception is martial arts hakama on which both sexes hakama look exactly the same. 
Also, some anime/manga/video game women like Chizuru Yukimura from Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan and, occasionally, Kaoru Kamiya from Rurouni Kenshin actually crossdresses. Be mindful of these!

Chizuru Yukimura from Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan.

I guess that's the most basic things one would need to know; I might have forgotten something though. Remember to follow your character references first and adjust accordingly if needed; it's possible the character's clothing or way of wearing it might go against the normal kimono dressing rules. This is all just general guidelines, about basic kimono knowledge, to help you out with your kimono style cosplays! Some characters do wear very inaccurate or heavily modified kimono, to which these guidelines might not be of as much help. I still hope you won't be too intimidated to try to tackle any of these "kimono rule breakers" since they're a whole new level of fun experimenting to do!

For example: Nouhime from Sengoku Basara!

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I hope this was helpful to someone out there and, if you have any questions about this post or kimono and cosplay in general, feel free to contact me (my email can be found to the left of the blog) and I will try my best to answer you! I can also help you identifying what exactly a character is wearing etc. ^_^

Want to know something more about cosplaying kimono wearing characters? Send me a request and I'll see if I can write about it!

 

Thanks for reading and I hope you learned something new! ♥
Samurai-sensei is out.

New kimono for Saitou!

I bought a new solid black vintage kimono for Hakuouki's Hajime Saitou weeks ago but I've not tried it on until now. I think me gusta mucho!!

I put it on, along with my juban (also authentic), a white sash and le Saitou wig and went to take some photos. I didn't put on the scarf or any extras because they would just block out the kimono which is the thing I'm trying to showcase here. xD
Excuse me the photos are mirror style (home alone..) and I look like a trainwreck because I have no make-up on except that I darkened my eyebrows slightly... truth is, I've not even had breakfast yet even though I woke up a few hours ago. lol

Notice how far down the sleeves reach with my hand down.
Also the juban doesn't peek out from the sleeves.. which is some sort of awesome considering it's a very common kimono kitsuke problem and is not desirable.

Kimono wingspan. It's awesome! <3
It's rare vintage kimono have sleeves this long.. aka not far from perfect wingspan. :')

This kimono has a nice front overlap.
And I notice I might need a longer sash... xD

Side shot

 With the earlier kimono (which was also vintage) I had the problem that it was not very wide.. which would result in me flashing my legs while walking in anything quicker than semi-snail pace.. along with some other things. But this new kimono is wider, no more do I need to worry about having my legs showing while sitting or walking.

This is just to show how much apart I can keep my feet without showing the juban/my legs.

This new kimono is superior in almost every aspect: better length (aka pretty much my ideal kimono length), better width, longer wingspan. Also this kimono's silk has a solid surface which in a way is more accurate because Saitou's kimono doesn't seem to have any texture to it. My other kimono is tsumugi silk; tsumugi is woven by unevenly spun silk thread so it has texture and is always informal/casual because of its humble origins; Don't think it's actually appropriate for Shinsengumi 3rd division captain lol. But it is cool too and whether or not you want a kimono for cosplay with textured or solid silk (or other fabric, but silk is most common when shopping vintage and vintage = cheaper) is kinda personal preference anyway I guess. I like both.

I will be wearing this kimono for Saitou from now on because of the advantages I listed. But there is one thing that can be a problem - this new kimono is hitoe, meaning it is not lined unlike the other one. This means if I want to cosplay Saitou to a late autumn or winter con it will be cold. The white juban is not lined either so it wouldn't really add much extra warmth. I will have to use my other kimono for the colder months but otherwise this new one will be the default to wear.

Will Hijikata be crossdressing? + Kemi's manga day up next!

So before Tracon I had been looking for a purple kimono for Hijikata because I want to upgrade that cosplay for the next time I wear it. Mostly I want to have an actually purple kimono and while there isn't anything wrong with the wig I have now, when it comes to quality and stuff, it just isn't that flattering for my face, so I decided to order a new one.
But about the kimono. I wanted an authentic one so I can use it for my kimono hobby too. I was checking eBay and then I found a purple kimono that made me go..

This thing:

So.. well. First time I saw its thumbnail I was all "it's a woman's kimono" because of the (bright) color.. purple kimono for men barely exist and when they do they are dark/subdued/almost-don't-look-purple. But for some reason I clicked on it anyway because it was cheap (read: 9 dollars) and I was half-way desperate. Heck, I had thought that if it was a hitoe (non-lined) woman's kimono I could just learn how to convert it into a man's.. namely fix the sleeves.

So I clicked on it and then I found myself staring at the item description, or well.. to be exact, the length, which was only 138 cm. That's super damn short for a woman (unless she's a midget. lol) but an acceptable length for a man. (kimono info: women have longer kimono than men so that they can do an ohashori, "waist fold")

Soon after noticing the short length I noticed the sleeves... they seemed to be like on a man's kimono, aka almost completely sewn to the body of the kimono... but I couldn't say for sure because the seller's photos weren't that clear and the color threw me off all the time. 

Now the fact that this thing was listed at the seller's store as a woman's kimono made me veeeeeery confused. God knows how many minutes I spent staring on this thing trying to figure out if it was a damn short woman's or a man's kimono which had been misplaced... or a woman's kimono which had been converted into a man's for an unknown reason. Oooh the brain damage done to me by trying to figure it out. OTL I even asked another kimono hobbyist about their opinion before I decided to take the chance to buy it.. heck, after all it was cheap and if it turned out to be a woman's I would just have to modify the sleeves.

Today I finally got it (had to pick it up from the customs, didn't have to pay extra though <3) and when I got home I was so nervous and excited! I took it out and...

LOLOLOLO excuse random derp wig, camera face censor and that I'm just using a koshihimo to hold it closed...
BUT THE SLEEVES, THE SLEEVES OH MAI GAWD I WANT TO CRAP RAINBOW POO!!!1 <3<3<3

...

I was right in my suspicion, aka Hijikata won't be crossdressing at Kemi's manga day on 6th October. I'm so fucking happy!!1 :'D Oh, and yes, Kemin mangapäivät will be my next anime/manga event. I will cosplay Toshizo Hijikata there. Now I just want my new wig to come so I can style it and try on upgraded!Hijikata ~

In case someone doesn't know the character:

Toshizo Hijikata - Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan

And don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the Tracon summary! I will write it as soon as I have some photos of my costumes and stop being lazy lolololo. 

Remake, or not remake?

So err, earlier this week me, my mom and my twin went to Eurokangas in town to check if they had some stuff we needed. Eurokangas has a huge sale going on because they will move to another local in town and this is the last week the sale is going on.

While wandering around I spotted in those random "fabric leftover" boxes a very pale light purple fabric... and my thoughts immediately went to my sick!Okita cosplay. I think that's about the same shade of purple that I had used. I have no clue how much fabric that piece consisted of or how much it cost though. I'm wondering should I buy it and remake my Okita kimono? I'm not satisfied with the one I made to Desucon because it was so rushed and there's just so many things gone wrong with it... lining cut too short, cutting mistake ending in seams at a "not accurate" place, too short (especially annoying/embarrassing in my eyes because I do kimono kitsuke) etc. BUT. I'm not sure will I wear this version of Okita to another con (read: I have too much cosplay plans and too few cons to wear them too) even if I did a remake. While I did like wearing it -and I can imagine myself wearing a remade version- I can almost bet on that the day I make his wafuku and western versions those will take its place. Although I still want to do a sick!Okita photoshoot.

So... I'm rather perplexed, should I buy that fabric and remake it if there's enough of it and it doesn't cost me an arm and a leg or should I save that money in favor of future cosplays and just do the photoshoot with the fail!kimono I already have?

By the way, for your information that shade of purple is a bitch to find at least in my hometown and neighbor town, hence why I can't decide should I pass it up or buy it now when I got the chance to remake it.

That's all.

If I go to Oulun Animeseminaari..

.. I think I know who to cosplay there!

Oulun Animeseminaari is held during 18-19 August and well, because it's in Oulu (read: pretty close to me), has free entrance and I think I might be able to sleep over at a friend's place.. well, why not? I would only need to pay for the train tickets to get there and back. Besides today I checked when my school starts and it seems to be 20th August so mom can't use the "you can't go because you're gonna miss school" card.. and you don't have school during weekends anyway lol, but I know she means if I go there on Friday or/and come back on Monday.. but because it's close I need not take extra days I think.

So yeah, for quite some time ago I've been interested in Bakumatsu Shinsengumi Renka (or is it Bakumatsu Koi Hana? I don't know, but I see BRS used much more often..) because, err, shinsengumi, do I really need another reason? xD It's a semi-unknown otome game/virtual novel only released in Japan.. again I'm planning to cosplay some obscure stuff no-one knows in Finland. Oh well, today I randomly found the manga translated to English online and while I was terribly bored I figured "why not?" and read it, at least I would get some knowledge about the series even though there's only one volume of the manga and the game is probably much more deeper than the manga. *shrugs*
I can't say the manga was bad, but I can't say it was OMFG awesome either, worth a read though and quite funny sometimes. Basically it's like a more light fluffy not-so-serious romantic version of Hakuouki where no one dies, heck, there's hardly any fights. I found it enjoyable and it was quite funny to notice that pretty much all the characters had the exact same personalities like in Hakuouki.. except Kondou who was a womanizer and had a white-pink kimono with flowers on.. and is blonde. lol Didn't see that coming.

...
Whoops, I ended up rambling about Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi when I was supposed to reveal my cosplay plans for Oulun Animeseminaari, if I can go there.
So err, I had planned to cosplay this guy:

Hajime Saitou from Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi

Yup, that's what Saitou looks like in BRS. Here's a manga page too, because everyone looks older and cooler and hotter in the manga:

(I erased the text)

At least based on the manga Saitou was my favorite, followed by Hijikata. He has pretty much exactly the same personality as in Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan, he is the distant lone wolf of the group and hard to read because he doesn't really show emotions.. until he trusts someone.
Okita sadly got almost no screentime.. or should I say pagetime. ;_; Except the last chapter.. or well, I think it was more like an bonus story because it said 'the end' earlier on the chapter before it. Oh well ~

It would be an easy cosplay and it seems pretty comfortable to move around in too, although I will add swords to it. I figured I could maybe use one of my vintage kimonos for him too.. it isn't the right color (although the color and patterns, if any at all, varies from picture to picture...) but it has vertical 'spray'-like pattern.. kinda like he does on that official art photo. Note how in the manga his kimono is plain.
My kimono is not super accurate but close enough I guess.. and it's not like anyone will know who I am anyway. xD Besides I've checked those few cosplayers who've done him on Curecos.. no one had a perfect kimono either what I could see, everyone seemed to just use a close-enough one. lol

My kimono in question looks like this:

(photo by the seller)

If I decide to use this one I just need to make that purple loose armless shirt whatever-it-is, a glove and an obi.. because his obi is weird pattern-wise and I can't find anything similar to it online... and green kaku obi's are rare anyway. The rest I have at home... oh, and a wig I need to buy.

I think I'm only going to bring one cosplay to Animeseminaari, it doesn't seem to be a big event and it's chill to just have one cosplay = less stuff to take with me and remember to take back home. lol

See ya!