Ichito cosplay tekkou pt.3

I finished my tekkou today. Let's cut right to the chase!

So the push-button fastening method didn't work in my taste so I had to cut yet another tekkou, boy I've screwed up two now... oh well, this time it went well so it's ok, practice makes perfect.

I won't show you again the first steps of tekkou making because those have been described in part 1 and 2 already. But after I had cut out and decoration stitched around a new tekkou and folded in the sides I went and got the leather fabric again and drew two 50 cm long and 2,5 cm wide ties on the wrong side of the fabric with an ink pen. I made sure to check that the fabric stretched horizontally so that the ties would stretch a bit if needed. I used one tie per tekkou.

I've drawn out the ties...

Cut them out

After that I just made a middle fold on both the tekkou and on the middle of the ties and sewed them on. I just made a single straight vertical seam on the middle of the tie.

Testing it on.. ties are just wrapped around once and tucked under

No retarded side buttons hihi

And they overlap closer to the middle, yay! (I didn't bother to get them to be aligned lol)

Now there was only left to do that finger ring thingy. Mom earlier got the idea that I could use two of those curtain ring hanger thingies if I just removed that hanging clip part. Easily done.

Former curtain rings, they'll soon get a new more exciting use ~

I made a small loop for the rings to go through and hand-sewed it to the underside of the tekkou. Machine sewing won't work for obvious reasons...

Hand-sew to and fro for strength

After that I was pretty much finished. Yay, no more errors! I'm glad my "use ties to fasten" idea worked as well as it did, when I do it my way it doesn't derp ~ *coughyeahrightcough* Well, not always as this proved! D:

Finished product (sorry it bunches, it does that if I move my hand certain angles)

Under arm <3

Finished tekkou, front and back side

Hmm... what's next? Probably make the blue kimono ~

Ichito cosplay tekkou pt.2

 Hi guys!

More tekkou progress today... but it didn't quite work as planned...
Remember when I mentioned the leather got some fugly marks from the sewing machine?

Look to the right and you'll see scratch marks... they are more visible in real life

Sewing derp or something too...

Well, they bothered me enough for me to make a new one...

Just finished tracing the form on the wrong side of the fake leather...

 And then I just cut it out, sewed a decoration stitch around the edges and then, to prevent fugly marks from the sewing machine, I used that "paper underneath" trick mom told me yesterday. You just put the paper (thin) under the leather so that the leather's right side is against the paper and you're sewing on the wrong side. I had to sew on the wrong side because I folded in the sides a bit.

Paper trick.. I'm just ripping it off, works like a dream

Sides folded in

And then mom attached push-buttons to those folded sides (folded them for strength) and I ended up with something that looked like this:

Looks good right? Right?

But when I tried it on I noticed it was loose enough to almost fall off my arm, even when the push-buttons were closed. Eh. Besides when I got it to look nice on one side of my hand it derped on another... Here's photo examples seen from different sides with tekkou sitting properly (first pic) and what it looks like seen from other angles without me trying to fix the fit at all:

Normal angle comment: "Seems okay"

Under arm angle: "lolwut"

Side angle: "Eww I'd rather have the fasteners on the middle of the under arm..."

So yeah, not quite satisfied with it. Luckily I only did one tekkou so the other one is still at that "side folded in" stage. I'm considering dropping the push-button idea and attaching some ties to keep it shut instead.. like it seems tekkou originally had, if I'm not outside biking.

 Something like this:

(photo found on Google)

Oh well, next time I need to cut out yet a new one and then try the ties method.. hopefully it won't derp as much.

Bye.

Bead bracelet and feet wrappings

I made some minor progress today!

Let's start with the bead bracelet. Not so much to say about how I made it because it's so simple...

My weapon of choice - black elastic and blue beads

Start to string beads.. everyone knows how to do this c'mon...

Just tie the ends and BOOM finished!

lolol what it looks like when it's not on my wrist

Next thing I did was the feet wrappings... again very simple. I just went and grabbed the same fabric I earlier had used to make the 'feet tubes' so that they would match. I then measured 5 cm and drew marks...

Those faint pink streaks are my 5 cm marks...

Fabric cut out

Zigzaged all around

Super easy huh? xD I'll probably just wrap them around my feet and then tie the ends together in the back, nothing fancy.

That's all, bye.

Ichito cosplay tekkou pt.1

 Hi guys!

Sorry this post is actually from 28th May, I didn't have time to write it earlier so now I'm writing it in the middle of the night.
While I was working on Ichito's 'flap' I was actually working on his handguards, tekkou, also.

Kind of shows his tekkou... and how he likes to threat killing people right and left..

 Earlier during the same day I had googled around for some information about tekkou and I had found this Youtube video that gave me some kind of ideas of what to do.

And then I also found this nice little helpful picture:

(found in Google)

So filled with a basic idea of what to do I went and got the roll of pattern paper and started drawing a tekkou pattern. My first prototype turned out to be a fail so I did another one. I kept tweaking and changing it forever until it finally had a not-completely-retarded fit.

The pattern I ended up using (own measurements)

Then it was just to go get that brown leather fabric we had at home and cut out two pieces. Good thing with leather is that you don't need to do a shit to it. XD It doesn't fray.

Cut out pieces (they are darker in reality)

I wanted to do a seam around the edges for decoration... (sorry dark photo)

Mom suggested using push-buttons for fastening. I found that a better option than velcro.. I don't really know why but I don't really like velcro...

When I tried to continue sewing in 2 centimeter of the sides on one of the tekkous (to strengthen the push-button and to get a better fit) I noticed the sewing machine left those ugly markings again on the surface... ugh. So mom came with the idea to use pattern paper under the leather. It worked perfectly and the paper was easy to rip away afterwards. But. When I was sewing the sewing machine suddenly decided to be an ass and quit. It started sounding weird and gave warning signs and then it made this huge tangled bobbin thread mess that got half-way stuck inside the machine. Great. Needless to say no more sewing after that.. I hope I can continue tomorrow.

That's all, bye!

Ichito's 'flap' pt.6

 Hi everyone!

Sorry this post is actually from 28th May, I didn't have time to write it earlier so now I'm writing it in the middle of the night.
I FINISHED THIS SUCKER TODAY!
Err, let's go back a bit and go through what I actually did today... and excuse me for the crappy yellow-ish lighting again. 

Remember last time when I pinned the lining? I continued from there. Obviously the next step was to sew a straight seam all around the top part so that the lining was finally fully attached at all sides and couldn't live its own life anymore.

Mr. Lining, no more derping for you, Mr. Sewing Needle takes away your freedom BOHAHAHA

Sewing seen from another angle

Now it's on

And now the next step was to fold in the right (white) side into the lining side along the straight seam I just had made. So that earlier seam served as a mark for this fold I was about to do.

Fold it over and sew again

Fold sewn on, it's close to the goal line now ~

Then I went and got some white elastic band. Yes, I decided to use the elastic method.
Mom took my hip measure and cut out a fitting piece. I went and zigzaged the ends of the elastic so they wouldn't fray.

Zigzaged ends

And now the part I was too afraid to do myself because of messing it up... so mom did it. Yayness. It went alright.. except that one sewing needle broke. The front doesn't wrinkle like an elephant's ass when I'm wearing it so it's good, the back is a bit more wrinke-y but it's ok.

Finished 'flap' (elastic is of course on the lining side, only fastened on the upper part)

IT IS DONE. Finally. I almost want to puke rainbows now. <3
What did I learn? Well, one thing's for sure... lining is a bitch to work with, it has its own life and hates cooperating with your plans and enjoys bringing you cosplay misery in the form of never perfect fittings.

See ya!

One day in town... with cosplay in mind!

 Hi everyone!

Sorry this post is actually from 28th May, I didn't have time to write it earlier so now I'm writing it in the middle of the night.
So today I finished school very early and instead of walking to town and directly taking the bus home I decided to look around for cosplay stuff. The cosplay stress has been gnawing inside me very much the last day and it didn't help when I realized Desucon is not this weekend but the weekend after that... oh mama save me.

Oh well, when I got to the shopping center I went into Tiimari and the bookstore.. Tiimari didn't have anything for my cosplay needs (and even if they had I could probably find the item for half the price somewhere else...) but from the bookstore I bought some black thin round elastic band. I will use it for his bead bracelet. He only has it on his left hand.

Oh yes, bad guys have nail polish ~

Öblöblöb.. err, then I went into Citymarket (general big store with food, clothes, make-up etc) and bought a bag of make-up sponges and Herbina brand fragrance-free hair spray. Both of course for cosplay purposes... and the hair spray I'm not even going to use on hair... it's going on my face. I'm so cheap I don't buy proper make-up sealers. lol

After that I left the shopping center and headed for a second-hand store, the one I'm most familiar with. I was looking for some shoes with a slightly upwards pointing 'nose' that I could modify... had no luck. Went to the next second-hand market that is called Vaarin Vintti ("grandpa's attic") where I've only been, hmm, three or four times now I think. The judo jacket I saw there weeks ago was still for sale, 10 € lol. Oh well, I was looking for shoes, not judo jackets! But I didn't find any good enough shoes.. everything that was semi-ok (not pointy though.. so still kinda wrong) was too small for me and when I found one with right size it was way off in design. I looked around the whole place at least three times to make sure I didn't miss anything.. I didn't. Bleh.
So after I had dug through the two second-hand stores I knew of in town I decided to try and find again that one fabric store I found last Saturday when I was in town with a new friend. Turned out said fabric store was in front of me when I was standing facing away from the other second-hand store's entrance. The fabric store mostly only had curtain fabrics and not so much clothing fabric... but I found a yellow brown-ish kinda mustard-y but not quite colored fabric that could maaaaybe work for Ichito's obi. I got a free test piece of it. Yay.

It doesn't want to photograph it's real color.. it's not that shiny and a bit more yellow (flash photo)

After that I started walking down a street I had not walked down before and when I got to the corner I passed by something that looked like a third second-hand store... with the exception that I didn't even know of its existence until I walked by it, stopped right in my tracks and went inside. XD
I didn't have to search for many minutes before I found the shoe part of the store... and my eyes spotted these beige mocca-ish (I guess) shoes with a nice upward-ish nose. It's not sharp but at least it points upwards. I tried one of them on and noticed they seemed just a tiny bit too small but still okay. These were by far the best shoe candidates I had seen today (and only cost 5 € and were in good shape) so I decided to buy them. Hey I'm running out of time and I highly doubt I'd find something better for this emergency so let's go with these. As the Finns say, "cosplay ilman tuskaa on teeskentelyä" which translates to something like "cosplay without pain is pretending".

Close enough shoes... now just to make them green somehow...

After that I paid a visit to another fabric store, this time searching for a dark blue fabric for Ichito's kimono. I found one that I thought was fitting so I ended up getting 3 meters of it, lol the store owner was soooo confused when I tried to explain I was doing a kimono and I wanted it done a certain way... guess that's why mom was like "lol you bought like 1 meter too much fabric, she either tricked you into buying more or is just generally bad at what she's doing". Yeah, mom used to own a fabric store too... I tried to call her prior to buying but she didn't answer ahjfsgjad. Oh well, I at least have extra fabric if I mess up... and if I don't I probably have enough to make a vest or something like that. *shrugs* 
I also bought a tiny bit of this light gray very stretchy fabric because I figured gray elastic bands do not exist, just white and black ones. I will use that gray fabric for his eye wrap thingies and possibly even hair tie.

Let's finish with a photo of the rest of the purchases of today:

Make-up sponges, hair spray, black elastic band, gray stretchy fabric, dark blue fabric.

Goodbye for now!

Ichito's 'flap' pt.5

Woah, feels like I've been working on this thing forever... and I'm still not done. :c

Oh well, today I got the bottom of the front 'flap' sewn closed so a little bit closer to finish it. So I started by folding in the edges like I did on the back piece some time ago. I had started sewing it closed half-way when I noticed that it derped.

Not cool...

Turned out the lining is a bit too short so the white fabric made this fugly bump in the corner that was just eww do not want.

So my plan A didn't work out on the front as well as it did on the back piece. Let me show:

My original plan (finished back piece)

So when that didn't work I went and asked mom for advice and she said to try and fold the front (with the paintings) over to the lining side and nothing more. It did seem to work after a pinning test.

Pinning front to check...

And then just sew. I folded in the excess lining neatly (it was longer) and then folded the front slightly over the folded lining.

Lining side of the front

Front of the... well, front

After that I stroked the lining to try and get out bumps and shit and pinned it in place, at the top part, so that later I can sew the lining completely attached.

Pinning lining..

But I have one problem... I can't decide do I want to do a wide elastic on the top so it stays on my hips or if I want to do some kind of ties...

Sayonara!