How I made a fake kimono collar

 Sup everyone!

When you can't be bothered (or have a lack of time) to make a full kimono just to have only the collar showing around the neck... then you figure out a way to fake the collar. I did and here's how:

Note! This is not authentic in any way, just for cosplay purposes!

I had very pale blue leftover fabric from the time when I had made Ukitake's yukata that I figured would work for Ichito's innermost kimono.. or well, probably juban in that case. I cut out a semi-long 14 cm wide piece that I thought would work for my plan. Then I went and zigzaged around it and ironed it so that I would get a nice middle fold.

After being zigzaged and ironed

After that I went and got some interfacing fabric to stiffen it. I didn't bother to cover the full length, only used enough to cover most of the middle part, meaning the part that will be closest to my neck. You can skip this but it makes the collar sit nicer and not be as floppy.

Ironing on interfacing

After that I took the fake collar, folded it in middle and folded inside the edges and started to sew it closed.

After sewing

Close-up

The interfacing helps it keep forms such as this...

When that was done I had to find a way to attach it. I didn't want to sew it on the dark blue kimono's collar (which I haven't started sewing yet) because I'm not fond of  how the fake collar would have gone all the way down instead of ending where it should.. like for example on those bad cheap mass produced Bleach cosplays.

(photo from Google)

So I definitely didn't want it to look like that because it screams fake to me. I wanted to do the illusion of actually having another kimono layer underneath and not just an obvious add-on collar.
After thinking for a while I figured I could try using some wrap-around tie fastening method and see if it worked as well in real life as it did in my head. I went and got some wide cotton ribbon.

After I had cut out two same length pieces of the ribbon (no, it's not that yellow IRL)

I used around 130 cm long pieces. You can use longer or shorter if you want, personal preference. I wanted long ones so I could wrap them in my back and back to the front again for extra hold.

Then I just zigzaged the ends of the ribbons and sewed them on close to the ends of the collar. It makes life a lot easier if you wrap the collar around your neck and keep it folded the way you want it to be when you wear it with the final product, this way you can easier see where you will need to sew on the ties. I had to redo the ties twice before I got them placed right. I had to make sure to wear my collar reversed instead of left over right because Ichito wears his kimono like a dead person would... and that's because while he is not dead himself he's an immortal spirit, who lacks a physical body of his own because of a curse, so he needs to kill someone in order to have a body he can use...

Ties attached

And now some "how it works" photo. Please don't mind that I used a purple kimono as a substitute, I have yet to start sewing the dark blue one...

With kimono on over it (feels so weird to wear it right over left...)

Front without a kimono.. it's just tied over my chest

Seen from back

I guess that's it for today. Tomorrow I'll continue sewing on the blue kimono.. or at least that's the plan.

See ya!

Finally fabric for Okita's yukata!

 Hi!

Mom had promised earlier that we would visit neighbor town Kemi's fabric store on Friday or Saturday so today after she had finished work we went there.. in hope we'd find a suitable fabric for Souji Okita's yukata. I had earlier checked all three fabric stores in my town (well, there's four actually but I didn't bother to check the fourth because they only have curtain fabric etc) and none of them had what I wanted. That particular pale violet is so hard to find... always too dark.
So when we got to that fabric store we went around, checked all fabrics and it started to look dark... until I passed one of these metallic stands with like three baskets with random last meters of fabric from sold-out bolts. I believe. I saw that behind some darker fabrics there was something that looked like it could work. I pulled it out from the basket and mom started to 'finger measure' approximately how many meters it was. She measured it to about 2,5 meters and for a moment we thought if it would be enough.. think so. But then came the other problem: it isn't so thick and probably won't fall as prettily as my other kimonos and I might have to line it... even though yukatas are always unlined originally.
Oh well, I figured it would probably be the best find I could manage in this short time frame (under one week to make the yukata + Ichito cosplay) so we bought it. It cost around 12 € and was actually closer to 2,8 meters. Yay.

Fabric and... red... drink..

Before we went home mom got a sudden "Let's go to Kemi's Lidl before we go home!" whim when it appeared in front of us and I was all "lol, okay sure". We normally pretty much never go to Lidl nowadays.. used to go quite a bit many years ago though.
When we were walking by that milk and juice part of the store I looked up and almost stopped. I saw this very red blood orange juice that screamed ochimizu to me... so I looked at mom and went "mom I need that juice for a cosplay. I need to put it in my glass bottle and take it to the con... yes, the con next weekend..". She probably thought for a second "the fuck" even though I had already mentioned looking for some kind of red liquid for a costume... oh well, she said I could use it as my 'train drink' too so she bought it. Rasetsu-time in the train trololo... ~ For a moment I loved Lidl. x'D

That's all, bye!

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!