Chikage's collar and Kondou's kimono

Some time ago I had randomly found out what that particular pattern Kazama has on his haori's collar is called after having seen it on random Asian stuff (including dish cloths in a Thai food store lol) during my life time - sayagata. I had typed it and searched on Google for fabrics but didn't find anything with the right color for Kazama.. until I saw a thumbnail of an Etsy auction selling a vintage kimono collar. It was labelled as 'moss green', but looked darker gold on the photos, so I took the risk and ordered it. Today I found a small package from France in the mailbox and figured it must be it and well... for once luck was on my side when it came to colors, it do indeed look gold!

Oh, I also went and biked with Jäätynyt Enkeli all the way to town to pick up two packages from the post office. One of them was the vintage kimono I will use for my coming Isami Kondou cosplay for Närcon in Linköping. Oh, and yes, it's Kondou from Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan. Yes, I will cosplay him because he is such a bro to Okita (codename: Konbro! xD) and deserves some cosplay love. Especially considering what he did to save all the shinsengumi and yeah, I kinda adore his sense of honor and I loved that scene in the anime where he gave his black haori to sick Okita. ;A;

Kimono (in plastic bag) and collar

Collar close-up

Besides, speaking of Närcon.. a cosplay plan list will appear any day here on my blog so stay tuned if you're going there!

I got stuff for Hijikata!

I went to town around 12:00 clock something, I think, with Ari. Oh my god I was so tired but I wanted to go and get the town visit over and done with...
I went and picked up two packages from the post office and bought some white thin fabric so I can make a shinsengumi headband for coming Hakuouki cosplays. From the post office I picked up yet another vintage kimono (yay!), which, despite looking dark purple on the site it was this weird blue-gray-black with a purple-ish tint. Interesting. The lining is very dark black-purple too... but the whole thing seems to photograph purple anyway. xD I'll use it for Hijikata for now because I don't feel like sewing a kimono in stress again in one day not to mention mom is sick of me making kimonos lol. Tomorrow I need to do some finishing touches on my Hijikata cosplay and pack my suitcase, that's enough to do. *yawns*

I took some WIP photos of Hijikata so far. Excuse mirror photos again..

What's left to do is the headband and add haori himo ties to the haori. The swords are at Jäätynyt Enkeli's place already. The hakama and shinsengumi haori are commissioned by my friend Hasakitsuki's mom. Thank you so much. <3 I could never have made it myself in time for Uppcon because I was busy finishing Desucon cosplays and blah blah. So this cosplay is mostly commissioned and/or bought.

It seems my Uppcon cosplay plans will change too, I'll make a blog post about that later. Gin Ichimaru and Toshizo Hijikata are set though. It seems I'll change Ichito for Hajime Saitou but I'm not sure yet. I can't take Ukitake because the swords got damaged from the Desucon trip.. the golden paint rubbed against and transferred on the black parts of the blade. I need to repaint it and fix one of those ribbon holder square things because it broke already last year at Närcon by accident but so far it's been held together by Jesus tape.. but now it's giving in. Need to make a new one.

Bye bye!

Okita's yukata finished!

So I woke up early today to finish sewing Okita's yukata. After lots of ffffffuuuuuu moments, rage and more rage I managed to get it done. I hate lining forevermore with a passion, it will always fuck up somewhere and then everything fucks up and it's slippery and pain in the ass to sew and just GRAH KILL IT WITH FIREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

I didn't take many progress photos because I focused on getting it done as fast as possible. Today is my last day to get all Desucon cosplays done because I will be leaving tomorrow early. Here you have the few photos I actually took:

Sides had just been sewn together

Lining sewn to the same point as earlier photo

Something just ate my arm!!

Ah, it was just the okumi panel being pulled rightside out...

Oops

Finished

I'm not too happy about it because the lining is too short and creates random folds and bumps at random places... ugh. Oh well, it's still usable so it will have to do for now.

Soon I will upload some Okita preview photos, stay tuned ~

Head accessories + Ichito WIP

 Hi guys!

I've been sewing on Okita's yukata today, but I didn't take any photos of the progress so I'll make a blog post about it later when it's finished instead.

I made Ichito's eye wrap thingies and hair piece today. Not so much to say, pretty easy to do.

Making of the hair piece.. (it's covered craft foam)

I also got my commissioned wigs today so I could finally take some WIP photos without face censors lol. I had one problem though, the wig is very short in the back... or I have a too big head? I don't know, maybe my hair was at fault because I styled it pretty heavily on the morning and very quickly put the wig cap and stuff on.. maybe works better if I pin my hair up (so hard to pin short hair..) and/or flatten it with water. We'll see, otherwise I have to use those head wraps to cover what can be seen of my real hair under...

Oh well, have some WIP photos. Pardon shoes are not done and I was too lazy to put on blue nail polish and I don't have white face powder yet... lololo derp.

I don't know why my hands always end up so close to my face somehow...

I'm fabulous.. err...

ICHITO, Y U NO STAND LIKE A MAN?

Did you notice.................. DOTTED SOCKS BLASPHEMY??! Badumtssh ~

Oh, and one thing. This cosplay already earned the following titles:
• Ultimate everything-falls-off-every-minute cosplay
• Ultimate I-look-like-a-walrus-in-this cosplay
• Ultimate it-feels-like-I-have-no-pants-when-I-actually-do cosplay

Uhum, I'm outta here!

Okita's yukata parts cut out + Ichito obi

 Hi everyone.

Mom helped me cut out the pieces for my Okita cosplay.. but... she made a measurement mistake and we ended up with a knee-length kimono instead of an ankle-length. OTL Mom told me she had earlier been thinking "I'm surprised we haven't done any cutting mistakes yet", you shouldn't have thought that. lol Oh well, I will have to add extra pieces to the front and back panels to get the full length and that means I'll have to make an extra seam where there should be none; I have no other choice because this particular fabric was a leftover piece from the store and only 2,8 meters long and yeah, no extra fabric available and no time either. If I had wanted the body of the yukata to be 'whole' after that error we would have had to put seams in the upper part of the sleeves instead. Eeew. I'd rather have those seams a bit under my butt on the yukata itself than on both sleeves...
Oh, and I have to line this thing too because the fabric is a bit thin and to help it fall better and well, to make it a bit warmer because Okita only has one layer..

Most of the parts cut out

I got lazy so I didn't start sewing it.. I'll do it tomorrow because I have no school...

Some time later I figured I could at least sew Ichito's obi so I'd be one step closer to goal. So first I cut out two long pieces (150 cm each) of that fabric I took inside earlier. I sewed them together at one end and zigzaged around and then I folded it in the middle and ironed to create a middle fold. Then I started folding in the sides all the way. Also folded in the ends.
It was very easy to do, didn't take much more than maybe 15 minutes ~

After I had ironed everything ready

Sewing it closed

Finished obi

That's all, see you!

Modifying Ichito's "jacket" + found last of the fabrics

 Hello!

A few days ago I tried on Ichito's "jacket"-whatever-it-is and noticed that it needs a slight make-over. I needed to cut those front panels into a more triangular shape because I noticed just hiking them up didn't do it. I also needed to take in the back of the garment because it was too big.

derp

Notice triangular pointy front panels

So what do I do? Cut it.

Before any modifications. Poor thing thought it was con-ready..

Marked cutting line

Test photo after cutting and hemming

Took in the back seam and ironed it..

Folded in front panel sides too and sewed around them

Testing after the operation with a substitute sash (blue kimono under)

Back side (näytän niin mursulta! :'D)

I think it'll have to do, I can't take in so much more from the back part closest to the collar.. so it's bigger up and narrows slowly the farther down it gets.

I also helped mom moving her former fabric store's leftover fabrics (those that had been stored in big black bags in the old storage house) to our attic and I found some fabrics I can use for Ichito's obi and shoe covers. Yay, free fabric once again. <3

That rib knit fabric just doesn't want to photograph its real color... it's closer to an army green...

When mom is done outside she'll help me cut out the fabric for Okita's yukata so I can start sewing it. There will very likely be another blog post about it later today.

Until then, see ya!

Ultimate kimono making update

So today when I woke up I started sewing and I sewed and I sewed and I sewed... and then I ate dinner and then I sewed some more. It took me the whole day to make Ichito's kimono; I'm finally done and I'm so happy I managed to get it done in one day.. but I'm not so happy about the fact that my back now hurts as fuck from all that sitting and bending forward when sewing...

Note! This is not authentic but it looks okay for cosplay purposes! (also the sleeves are male style)

I'm tired so I will not explain every single thing I did, pictures will have to do for most of the how-to's today. Oh, and the first two photos were taken a few days ago and I have no pictures of the first cut out fabric step, not like there was anything to show because it was just rectangles anyway...

Panel cut out and ironed in the middle (shoulder part)

Sketching neckline cut ideas on fabric

Neckline cut out...

... and also backside sewn together

Ironed shoulder part again to make life easier before attaching sleeves

Pinning sleeves in place (ironed sleeves too and aligned shoulder and middle seam folds)

Sleeves attached, testing it on

ALL MY HATE TO SEWING ARMPITS CLOSED. ALL MY HATE ...

... and this is why. FFFFFFUUUUU Mega wrinkle derpherp durr
(had to redo it three times before it was not-that-bad)

Armpit sewing, third and final try (still wrinkle-ish on right side but didn't bother to fix it...)

Sleeve 'bottoms' and side seams closed

Folding in and pinning sleeve openings

Sewing sleeve hems...

Looked like this. Need to fold in sleeve opening once more...

Finished sleeve opening

Spread out kimono panels and took a look... what is this I don't even

Cut the shit straight

Cut out okumi panels (used double fabric) and ironed them

Ironed side seams and back seam open (looks better!)

Attached okumi panels

Cut out and ironed collar pieces

Sewed collar pieces together at one end to get one long piece

Zigzaged okumi panel ends before attaching collar (collar also zigzaged around the edges)

Pinning collar in place before sewing it on

Folded in end of collar and okumi panel and hemmed them

Finished kimono, trying it on

Showing sleeves

Kimono laid flat on my bed lol my feet can be seen (sorry bad lighting, it was late)

Sorry for the lack of detailed explanations and that I didn't show photos of every step.. but I guess it's easy to follow anyway. *shrugs* Oh, and I made it shorter for ease of wearing with hakama.

That's it for today and tomorrow my plan is to make Okita's yukata from start to finish afdghsah.