Birches and streams - hakama!Saitou photoshoot [v.2.0]

Hi!

Yah, I promised a second hakama!Saitou photoshoot and here it now is.
These were taken on Sunday 19th August when me and my twin were walking to Oulu's anime seminar event on the morning, a few photos were taken when we were walking back to our aunt's home after the event. All photos are taken at the same 'park' in question; Oulu city had these lovely small walk-through parks in the middle of the city with nice trees, bushes, bridges, nice water fountains, small streams of water, park benches etc. It was lovely and provided a great location for photoshoots! Sadly Jäätynyt Enkeli wasn't really in the mood of taking photos...

Cosplayer: Valkoinen Samurai
Photographer: Jäätynyt Enkeli

And lastly a photo taken on the way back while I was standing on the white bridge. The same bridge can be seen in the background of the earlier photos. I was looking at the flowing stream, very calming.

This is what it looked like (it was prettier IRL though)

If I visit Oulu another time -and have cosplays with me- I want to go shoot in the parks again ~

Bye bye!

Forest fungus, Super Mario and sushi - Oulun Animeseminaari 2012

Yesterday night I got back home from Oulu, where I spent last weekend attending Oulu's anime seminar event. It was a rather small event (or well, the building it was held in was rather not-so-roomy) and had the same feeling to it like Kemi's comic days have, namely that chill and relaxed hang-around-with-your-friends feel.

Only photo I have of my company during the con, derp too. Taken by my aunt.
• Chizuru (Sairu-chan), hakama!Saitou (me) and prison!Rukia (Jäätynyt Enkeli) •

I cosplayed the casual/plain clothes version of Saitou (aka hakama edition) both days, it was comfortable to wear and derp around in; I'm happy I didn't take a more complicated cosplay with me, there was rather few cosplayers (and photographers) running around so it would have felt pretty 'meh' to spend a long time getting ready when it felt like most people were there just to hang out rather than to put on their most flashy cosplays and take photos of others. Luckily I had my new friends to hang around with all day so it was a certainly positive experience.. even though Saturday was so fucking hot (big glass windows + sun = everyone is boiling inside) I would have died had I not taken with me my cheap-ass fan from Thailand. Phew. Luckily Sunday was better, not too hot but not too cold either.

So, eh, what more to say? I don't know.. I had a fun time. Vinkee fiilis tulee metsäsienistä ~~
On Saturday me, Jäätynyt Enkeli and Sairu-chan went to troll around the city in cosplay, mostly to try and find a restaurant and a food store. We obviously got some stares, along with comments mainly I overheard after we had passed by, like "Oh, Japanese..?" and a father seemingly telling his children "Some kind of samurai gang". We all three were wearing kimono outfits, me being the only one with autenthic vintage pieces though. *points at photo up there*
When we got to the sushi bar at the top floor of Stockmann the one Japanese chef/bar holder/whatever well, when we stood outside and looked at the menu he came outside the sushi bar and spotted us. Later inside it felt like he looked at us pretty.. I don't know. XD His expression didn't really change but he looked at us every now and then. lol Not everyday random gaijin walk in dressed like that..

Hmmm.. I don't have so much more to say. I derped a lot with my new friends and I mostly just hung around with them all day. There wasn't really that much to do at the event so I can imagine that if you didn't have any friends with you you might have gotten bored pretty fast. *shrugs*
Oh well, I had a great time nonetheless and will be going again if this event will be held again; an anime event that close to me (yes, 100 km is close..) with free entrance is awesome, be it small or not!
Also it was a blast sleeping over at my aunt's place well, I have many aunts butbut. She is generally awesome and she even had a Nintendo Wii so me and my twin played some New Super Mario Bros. Wii there. So much fun because neither of us two had played it before... so we failed a lot and did lots of derp mistakes. xD Even though we are gamers olololo ~

That's it, a second hakama!Saitou photoshoot [feat. Oulu] will be posted soon!

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 ~