Närcon Vinter 2013 preparations!

Hi guys!

Tomorrow 13:45 Swedish time I will leave for Haparanda bus station to take the bus to Luleå.. and from there I'll take the train to Stockholm and further to Linköping.. to Närcon Vinter!

I'm so terribly excited over this, I've been longing to go to a con since Skecon early last November and tomorrow the loooong journey down starts! I have to travel 19 hours because I live so far away and I try to avoid taking the airplane when I have props with me because.. well, personal experience with stuff (read: a sword) breaking. Train and bus just are safer even though it takes a lot longer.. but I don't particularly mind because I'm used to traveling long distances.. hell, before my parents divorced we drove car from Sweden to Italy. xD
I actually started packing my suitcase already yesterday. I'm not quite done yet. Speaking of suitcases, I bought myself a new one last week. I got it for 50€ (I had a 50€ gift card hehe) and it has a pretty nice size, not too small but not too big either. Just right for me!

Con stuff!

I took out my Hijikata swords (although I've used them for other characters too) yesterday to check them and I managed to break the very tip of the longer sword when I took it out of the sheath too hastily. This was no surprise because there's been a crack on it for a long time *coughsinceuppcon2012cough* but it hadn't fallen off so I didn't mend it back then. Now it indeed broke off so I took some glue and glued the chipped piece back in place.

After I had glued it back in place..

I've also got my hands on a small red glass pebble some time ago and, because I won't have time to try on the whole Espeon gijinka before the con, I decided I should at least check if the pebble would stick to my forehead with some spirit gum. It did.. after some pressing. This means my Espeon cosplay is ready!

Glass pebble testing.. success!

Oh, also this time I will have a new friend with me to the con.. I borrowed it from school over the con weekend! Say hello to le digital SLR camera! <3

Nikon D60

This obviously means I can take more-awesome-than-usual photos of my friends (especially if they want a quick cosplay photoshoot!) and of course of the Saturday Hakuouki cosplay group! Did I tell we're going to be surprisingly many Hakuoukis? We have me as Toshizo Hijikata, Jäätynyt Enkeli as Keisuke Sannan, Ri-kun as Hajime Saitou, Psycho Cat as rasetsu!Sannan and Izz as Souji Okita. There will also be a Chikage Kazama, Chizuru Yukimura, Isami Kondou and two more Saitous. I hope I'm not forgetting anyone. xD We are so many, OHMAIGERD I'm so excited because last summer when I cosplayed Hakuouki very few people knew who I was supposed to be and I'm just so happy to see there's Hakuouki fans in Sweden too! (I've had the impression the series is more known in Finland..)

Now to finish packing and then PARTY HARD with le twin... lol not really. But seriously, this will be SO MUCH FUUUUUUUN!! ~~ :'DDDDDD

See ya!

Repairing vintage hakama

Konnichiwa!

Remember those dark brown vintage hakama I used for Kondou and will use this weekend for art/collector book Saitou too? Well, during the Saitou photoshoot a few days ago when I crouched down I noticed there was three holes on the hakama that would need to be repaired before Oulun Animeseminaari. One couldn't see that there was holes if I was just standing or walking slowly, but if I sat down, crouched or just did basically anything that makes hakama spread everywhere then.. yeah. Oh, and I don't mean a hole in the way that it's in the middle of the fabric or something, I mean a hole like where two fabric pieces were stitched together and the stitching holding them together is coming loose... look, my English is so wonderful, I'm not even sure what that's called, if anything. So yeah, I decided to fix my hakama in shape before the event.

But.

I went to town today and visited four sewing supply/fabric stores asking for silk thread.. no one carried it. One of the sellers at one of the shops even said "you're the first person even asking for silk thread this year". So... yeah. The fuck.

Oh well. Back home I figured I would just have to suck it up and use normal sewing thread instead, even though silk thread would have been preferred...
   At first I hesitated sewing because I wasn't sure how the hakama were sewn and well, I'd hate myself forever if I messed up any traditional Japanese clothing because I have such a deep love for them.

I thought if there was any 'quick fixes' but all the ideas I came up with where... eh... let's say barbaric. I then decided to examine the stitches on the hakama and noticed they were super simple... then I proceeded to feel stupid. OTL With a sewing needle in hand I started working ~

Started hand-sewing...

Done
(flash photo, so bad lighting in my room)

It didn't take me long time to sew shut all three holes. Now my hakama look presentable again and I can go and rock them at the event without having to feel embarrassed all day and wonder if anyone notices the holes or not. Oh, and now I can sit down too whenever my feet decide to kill me. Sweet.

Now it's time to start packing my stuff for the weekend, bye bye ~