~Autumn's Last Breath~ Hajime Saitou photoshoot

Yesterday me and my twin Jäätynyt Enkeli decided to have a cosplay photoshoot outside in our yard and in the area nearby. Almost all leaves have fallen and the first snow came a few days ago but it melted away; we had morning frost on some parts of the ground yesterday. It was around 0 ºC outside but we managed.. somehow.. although during the last 15 minutes something I couldn't feel my fingers.. but what won't you do for cosplay?

So I decided to cosplay Hajime Saitou from Hakuouki because I feel I don't have so many decent photos of that cosplay.. also he is one of my favorite characters to cosplay because we have so very similar personalities.

Cosplayer: Valkoinen Samurai
Photographer: Jäätynyt Enkeli

 

(I took this photo)

 And then two photos on which I played with some light effects~

OH WHYYYYY is my fav photo always blurry? *tableflip*

And lastly some photos I took myself at the rowanberry trees; my photographer couldn't get a good angle because I was standing on a higher surface than he was and he is shorter than me.

And that's the end of the Saitou photospam for now. We had a lot of fun even though it was so cold after the sun had set, aka during the later half of the photoshoot. I REGRET NOTHING! Of course at one point we went inside to get some stuff and to warm up and mom came and raged. "Oh no you two don't go out again, don't you have enough photos already? You're gonna get sick!" lolnope~ We ignored her warnings coming from the kitchen and ninja'd our way outside. U MAD MOM?

Falkner's mini hakama pt.1

I was bored and decided to start sewing on Falkner's hakama-ish pants to get some progress done, after all Skecon is slowly closing in; I have only 17 days left to get everything done, heuheuheuheu...

Last weekend mom helped me cut out the parts for my pants. We were lucky, the fabric we had at home was just enough for Falkner's kimono style shirt and mini hakama. Phew~

Oh, and before I start. This is not the authentic way to make hakama, just for costume purposes. The patterns are just originally these huge pant's patterns which I shortened and modified later on. The modifications I just did what my brain told me to do.

Front and back pieces cut out, two of each obviously

I started with zigzaging around all four pieces. I decided to save the blue thread so I used white thread for this.. it doesn't matter anyway because the zigzag won't be seen on the outside. After I had zigzaged all pieces I took both back pieces and started folding in at the sides to get these hakama style openings.

Impromptu folding (both back pieces)

I tried to get both of them the same size and depth. After I had got both back side opening folds like I wanted them I put away one of the back pieces, took one front piece and copied the back piece's folding over. Must try to get them as similar as possible. Repeat for the other front piece and then just iron the opening folds flat and stitch them in place.

After ironing and sewing it in place
(I folded in the edge closest to the opening so that the zigzag won't peek out)

But upon closer inspection I noticed something...

SKIPPED STITCHES. WHYYYYYYYYYYY

I tried re-threading the sewing machine at least thrice and switching the sewing needle but nope, the problem didn't go away...
I find it weird how I didn't get skipped stitches at all when I made Falkner's shirt earlier, it's the exact same fabric and I used the same needle...

I see you little troll...

I decided to screw it and sew anyway. I just want this thing done, if it bothers me in the future I can just undo the seams and remake those failed parts...

Next thing to do was to sew the outer side seams closed and after that sew the inseam/inner-pant-leg-whatever seams closed.

Outer side seams sewed, obviously one front and one back piece

Inseam sewed closed

Next thing to do was to align the crotch, right sides together of course, and then sew along the curve.

Crotch aligned, before sewing

 Now I had something that resembled pants... or not. Instead of mini hakama I now had these humongous ultra XXXL sized granny pants! I don't see anything "mini" about them right now... Aren't they sexy?

Ihan helevetin maukasta..

Errr, maybe not so...

Oh well, it's not like this sucker will stay like this forever. I have yet to pleat it, add the ties and hem the pant legs. I'll fix that another time.

This is good progress for tonight. *yawns*

Pokéballs! + Falkner progress

 Hiiiiiiiiiii!

Earlier today I decided to check if I could find my old candy container Pokémon figure pokéballs.. and I did. Now I at least have some kind of fitting prop to go with my Falkner cosplay, yay! It's kinda hard to come up with poses when you don't have props.. I also decided that if Jäätynyt Enkeli and Sairu-chan want to borrow a pokéball I'd lend them one each so that we all would have different but still matching pokéballs!

I thought that Jäätynyt Enkeli could use the Lure Ball (left) because it's.. well, blue, and kinda similar to a Great Ball which Silver has in this official art. Also it was introduced in Gen 2 of Pokémon so it kinda fits. Sairu-chan could borrow the Repeat Ball (middle) because it has the same color scheme as Erika whom she will cosplay. I would use the Heavy Ball (right) because it was also introduced in Gen 2 of Pokémon and it fits Falkner's color scheme somehow too.

Today I also finished Falkner's kimono style shirt. Not so much to say because it's really simple and straight-forward. I took some few pictures though.

I hemmed the arm openings, nothing special.

Cut out the collar pieces, sewed them together at one end so I got one long piece and ironed it.

Pinned the collar in place and started sewing..

Collar done

After I had hemmed the bottom. Finished.

One part of the cosplay finished, yay! And I love how my camera fucks up the colors. None of these pictures show the real color of the fabric, trolololo. Hopefully soon I'll start sewing Falkner's mini hakama.

That's it for today.

Falkner wig

On Monday this week I went to the post office and picked up my Falkner wig. It arrived some days earlier but I couldn't go get it then. I didn't have time to open and try it on until recently but I must say I love the color; it's this awesome mix of a lot of different colored fibers like different shades of blues and grays.
The bangs could have been a bit longer but I don't mind because they're good enough (aka they cover my eye) and I was expecting them to be a bit shorter than what the character has anyway because this wasn't a wig specifically meant for Falkner or anything. XD

Now some try-on photos. I woke up pretty recently so I look like a mess.. oh, and I'm wearing my silk robe as usual.. I'm always wearing it on mornings and some hours before going to sleep. lol

Outdoor light

I don't feel a need to style it because it looks pretty good as is. It is very easily fluffable too so I can arrange the fibers, tease them and have them keep the wilder style without falling flat directly. I'm wondering though, should I roll with black eyebrows (like on photos) or should I go get something blue instead? I think black seems to look just fine but.. I'm not 100% sure.

A third photoshoot

Actually, yesterday after getting home from Kemi's manga day and after eating dinner me and my twin had a third and final short photoshoot for the day. It was already too dark after dinner so we had to shoot indoor. I figured we could use the sliding doors as a nice background. Random info: there's one sliding door separating the guest room from the living room and another sliding door separating my room from the guest room. Yes, my room is linked to the guest room and you have to enter the guest room to get to my room.

The lights weren't that great so all indoor photos got a kinda blurry/grainy texture. Oh well,  I don't really mind because I think it fits the mood of the photos rather well~

Cosplayer: Valkoinen Samurai
Photographer: Jäätynyt Enkeli

After we had taken enough pictures I went to change back into everyday clothes.

Buuuuuuuuuttttttt.

Me, being the derp I am, I of course had to take a few *cough* "few" self-photos before reverting back to 'normal'. Like I ever am normal TROLOLOLOLOLO PROBLEM?

Sayonara~

Kemi's manga day summary 2012 + photoshoot x2

So yesterday I attended Kemi's manga day.. or well, this time it was labeled as "Cosplay meet-up" but, honestly, it felt just like any other manga day before it. I don't think there was any more cosplayers than normally. lolololo Oh well~
Err, so my company to the event this time were Sairu-chan and Jäätynyt Enkeli, as Chizuru Yukimura and Keisuke Sannan from Hakuouki: Shinsengumi Kitan respectively. I cosplayed Toshizo Hijikata but I kept the wig untied because I didn't feel like having a melee with it and I know my face more often than not end up looking derp with tied hair.. so I let it be for now.. until I get a wig head.

On the morning me and Jäätynyt Enkeli woke up 08:00 Finnish time and started to put on our cosplays. I was so tireeeeeeeeeed. I thought I could be ready for 09:30 but, well, I gravely underestimated the time it takes to put on all make-up for Hijikata as well as put on hakama and everything else.. aka I was roaming the house in just the purple kimono, wig and make-up. No pants TROLOLOLOL. At this time I had been texting our Chizuru when she would be here because we had originally planned to gather 09:30 at our house and photoshoot outside before leaving for Kemi. Well, some errors happened and we all three were together first at 11:00 more or less. I didn't mind that much because Hijikata got more time to dress himself properly. LOL Of course having more time to photoshoot would have been nice butbutbut.

Now some few photos taken at our yard before going to Kemi. It did drizzle a bit outside but by no means much considering it's been raining all week more or less.

Cosplayers: Valkoinen Samurai & Sairu-chan
Photographer: Jäätynyt Enkeli

 And now some less representative photos... Derp storm!

Truth be told, almost all photos were incredibly derp, this is just a fraction of it. xD

Both failed to keep a serious face and cracked up. 

BITCH I'M FABULOUS

Örhörhörhör

After that it was time to leave.
We got to the place the event was being held in and yeah, it's a very chill hang-with-friends type of event. There's not much to do except watch the cosplay competition (which we did watch) and the cosplay date (which we didn't watch). I didn't really buy anything because nothing really caught my eye (and most merchandise seems to be bootlegs anyway..) but we three went to a food store nearby because Chizuru wanted to buy a coke and chocolate. Most of the time we three were hanging together, derping and whatnot but we did bump into a lot of familiar faces during the day. It was a pleasant experience even though it was pretty, well, let's just say not so much happened. People were there to hang around and relax with friends, not really to dress up in awesome cosplays and get their photos taken. It was nice nevertheless. But the best part was by far when I decided that we all go find some decent photoshoot location outside, close to Kulttuuritalo, and have a second Hakuouki photoshoot.We found a nice leafy bush place I don't know and it worked well for our purpose. Puskajussit pusikossa paskantaa~ eiku.

Cosplayers: Valkoinen Samurai & Sairu-chan
Photographer: Jäätynyt Enkeli

 

(I took this photo)

And of course photographer was our lovely troll!Sannan. <3

I must say... this second photoshoot... oh lord I can't remember when I've last had so much fun. So much ridiculous derps were shared, everyone was laughing until they cried.. and my stomach hurt. XD Hakuouki photoshoots are the best breeding grounds for hilarious moments.. <3

Oh, and lastly.

To sum up the amount of derp and the numerous amounts of brain cells we lost, well, let's just say that we all had our derpilicious codenames *BADUMTSSH* and those were as fabulous as:

HERPKATA

CHIZUHURR

OPPA SANNAN STYLE

 I'm outta here!

The start of Falkner

 Hallo!

Not so long time ago I went to the attic and picked up some suitable fabric for my Falkner cosplay. Also during the last weekend I cut out the two body parts for Falkner's blue sleeveless kimono-style top. This time I didn't strive for making it very accurate to a genuine kimono, because, while you can see his outfit is very much inspired from Japanese clothing there are some not-so-authentic qualities to it. So well, I came up with some kind of hybrid kimono pattern.

Looked like this after being cut out.

 There's a left and right body side.. I didn't want shoulder seams, not even for this. It would have bugged me. I did skip making an okumi panel (that overlap panel on kimono) though, I just widened the front parts for this. Falkner doesn't have a visible okumi seam what I've seen anyway... not like most fictional kimono-wearing characters have it either. *shrugs*

Today I decided to sew together what I had cut out. First I zigzaged around the part on both left and right pieces which was going to be the back seam. Then I sewed them together at the back.

Back seam sewed

After that I zigzaged the sides and sewed them together.
Then I just ironed the seams open and tried it on.

So far my weird pattern idea seems to work rather well.. except that I made one small mistake; I shouldn't have cut the neck part (where the back seam start) as deep. It falls kinda low if I align the shoulders right when I wear it but luckily I will add the collar and thus get some extra width for it, which should make it look alright. If it doesn't I can just wear the thing with the shoulders off-centered so that the collar sits right, no one's going to notice anyway because the shoulders of this thing won't be seen when the whole cosplay is on ~

Camera face censor ftw

That's it for now.. I can't progress further before I cut out the collar and I need mom's help for that; we need to make sure that when we cut out the collar there will be enough fabric left to make his mini hakama. Not sure how much of this fabric there is left on the bolt (doesn't look like much) and hakama eat a lot of fabric so we need to play it safe just to be sure. trololo

Bye byee ~~