Masamune's undershirt feat. [not so] bling-bling sleeves

 Hello and greetings to you!

I've been working on and off the past weeks on a sort of undershirt for Masamune because even though it's not really obviously visible if he has something under that torso armor plate or not.. I can't imagine it being terribly comfortable if there wasn't anything under it hahah.

I have not written about this earlier even though I did not make it all in one day.. I decided to write everything in a single post when it's done, which it now is. So I warn you now, a lot of ramblings and progress photos ahead. If anyone wonders why I take so much progress photos of the steps when I work on my Masamune cosplay it's because it's a big "project work" I have to do (yes, I chose to do a costume) and therefore I need to show how I work and document all progress so my supervisor can follow what I do and blah blah.

The first progress on this undershirt I made on the 6th January. I decided to use very dark blue tricot fabric because it was what was easily available and I figured that because Masamune's undershirt isn't shown it wouldn't really matter what color it was (and besides it would hardly be seen anyway) ... but I wanted either black, dark gray or dark blue.

I found some close enough pattern (or not, it was some kind of top.. I don't know really) and decided to use it. I fixed the fabric and pinned the pattern in place. It was a bit short so I lengthened it a bit too. Also I cut the sides straight instead of curved.

Pattern pinned on fabric

The pattern I used didn't originally have a sleeve pattern but mom told me she had used this pattern quite a lot and found that another pattern's sleeve pattern fit it. I went and searched for it and then I found it. I didn't need the "mouth" of the sleeves as wide so I skipped the seam allowances except at the shoulder attachment part.

Sleeve pattern pinned on fabric

Because I've never sewn a long-armed shirt before I wasn't sure how the sleeve would fit.. yes, I found that upper shape weird. So to reassure myself I went and wrapped it around my arm after I had cut it out. At the same time I also decided to mark with a pin how far down I wanted the chainmail net fabric to reach.

Sweet Jesus, it indeed will become a sleeve! :DD lolololo

Next thing was to cut out the net fabric for the sleeves. It would be on top of the sleeves, like a second skin. First I just put it on top of the fabric to see what it would look like when finished.

Net fabric on top of sleeve. (pin marks how far I want it to reach)

Close-up photo

It looked surprisingly good so I decided to go ahead and cut out fitting parts. I folded the net fabric and put the cut out sleeve on top, to act as a pattern. As you can see on the photo below the full sleeve is not on the net fabric, I only wanted the net fabric to reach to that pin placed horizontally... the uncovered parts of the sleeve would be hidden by Masamune's gauntlets anyway.

Reference photo. As you can see the gauntlets reach pretty high, something elbow length..

Net fabric cut out to right shape and pinned in place

After I had all the parts cut out for the sleeves I started sewing the undershirt's shoulders closed, right sides facing each other as usual. I used an overlock machine.

Sewing shoulder seams..

That was all the progress I did on 6th January. Next progress was on 11th January.

I started by zigzaging the net fabric in place at where it ends on the sleeve, some 5 or so centimeters before the sleeve's "mouth".

Net fabric zigzaged in place..
(I chose to zigzag because it felt more secure than just a straight stitch)

After that was done I could go ahead and sew the sleeves to the undershirt... lolnope. Mom told me I had forgot to mark which part of that sleeve curve attachment thing is front and which is back. It was not like I had forgotten.. it was more like I had no idea long-armed shirt sleeves were so fancy that it mattered which way you sewed them on to the shirt itself. OTL (note: I've never sewn a long-sleeved shirt.. or heck, any sleeved shirt before.. just kimonos and a sleeveless shirt)

So I went and grabbed the sleeve pattern and put it beside until I could figure out which way it was supposed to be sewn on.. luckily the pattern was marked.

Notice "Etu", it means front in Finnish

Looking at the left sides of pattern and sleeve you'll notice it curves slightly deeper..

Okay, so that side which curves more will be sewn to the shirt's front. I went and got the body of the undershirt and pinned the sleeve in place.

Sleeve pinned in place

Sleeve attached to the body of the undershirt

Next step was to sew the sleeve closed as well as the sides of the undershirt. Still using an overlock machine.

Started sewing the sleeve closed

One sleeve sewn, about to sew armpit and go over to sewing the shirt's sides closed...

After both sleeves and both sides of the shirt were closed I could put it on and it would resemble clothing, yay. I put it on and it seemed okay so far.. but what was not okay was my face, hence the face censor.

Excuse me very dark photo..

That was all the progress I did on 11th January. Next progress was on 14th January.

With the sleeves sewn on and the sides closed I had the hemming and collar left to fix. I decided to hem the shirt's bottom first... but it was uneven.

I used the overlock to cut it straight and sew the edges so they don't fray. Then I switched over to the "normal sewing machine" and hemmed the bottom with a straight stitch.

Hemming hemming ~
(alien camera color anyone?)

Next up was to hem the "mouth" of the sleeves. I had to take off a part of the sewing machine so I could fit the sleeve around that part on which the presser is. I didn't want to risk accidentally sewing the sleeve opening shut.

Zigzaging the opening of the sleeve..

.. and hemming it with a straight stitch

That was all the progress I did on 14th January. Next progress was on 22nd January.

What was now left was the collar. I had pretty much no clue how to make a collar so what I did was pretty much impromptu. I started by taking a measuring tape and measuring around the collar on the undershirt to figure out how long the collar needed to be to fit. Then I went to get some white fabric that had some stretch in it but still wasn't overly.. floppy. Found a fitting fabric at home.
Because I couldn't find the fabric pen I had to use pins instead to mark the fabric where I would cut. I thought a 10 cm wide collar would be enough. I added some extra length just in case.

Fabric marked with pins

Collar fabric cut out
(I cut off those.. err.. sides of the fabric with those small holes.. you know, which keep the fabric from fraying.. I have no idea what they are called)

I figured I would need some light interfacing fabric for the collar...

Went to get the roll of interfacing fabric, put collar half on it...

... and cut out two fitting pieces

I ironed on the interfacing fabric to the wrong side of the collar pieces. I cut off the excess. I then went to sew the collar pieces together at one end to form a single long piece.

But when I thought about how to attach it things got weird; it wouldn't really work. I would need to sew the other ends together too so I would get one closed donut collar...

Like this. Now it looks like it could work...

Buuuuuuuttttttt. At this point I realized I had made a measurement mistake, d'oh! Of course I would have to fold the collar in half because there's the interfacing fabric on the wrong side... and because of this I should have cut the collar twice the width I wanted it to be when finished.

Collar folded in half, now only 5 cm wide...

I thought it wasn't too bad of a mistake so I continued. I took the undershirt and test pinned the collar around the collar opening of the shirt. The collar was way too long...

Notice the huge collar bump/gap.. ill-fitting...

I had to cut off a few centimeters from one of the ends I had sewed together and resew it closed.

After I had cut one end open again for a better fit

After resewing it closed I test pinned it in place again. This time it fit much better, not perfectly but better. Also I noticed if I aligned one of the shoulder seams with the corresponding collar seam the seams at the other side would not match up.

Better fit but both sides can't have aligned seams...

But I think I know why that is - because the undershirt's collar opening on the front and back are not of the same size while the collar has exactly the same length between each seam. I can't win haha.
I just decided to go with it and went to the overlock machine to sew the collar on.

Sewing collar on

I had to stretch the shirt's fabric a bit to get the collar to fit around right because it was still a bit longer than the shirt's collar opening. (both of them stretches lengthwise)

When I was done I noticed the collar is more.. err.. bigger, than when I put the shirt on without a collar. Probably because of the fabric stretching during the sewing.

Finished undershirt

I don't mind so much even though the collar isn't super accurate for the character; when it is looser and isn't hugging my neck I don't have to worry about restricted neck movement or face derps. I know my face tends to look bad when I have a high collar.. so I guess this kind of went from an unwanted cosplay mistake to an unplanned adjustment for a more flattering fit for the wearer, hahaha.

This sums up my feeling about this "fail" perfectly:

Oh, and during the collar progress, which I did today, I was in fact wearing kimono. I had worn kimono before deciding to sew and I didn't feel like changing clothes sooooo... as a final BONUS PIC here's my sewing outfit of today:

Yes, that's a measurement tape and yes, I tied my sleeves so they wouldn't be in the way ~
(mirror photo, I'm not dead...)

That's it. Next time I think I'll start on Masamune's coat for realz.. or at least that's the plan, hah!

Screen printing for Date's coat symbol pt.1

I've spent a long time on trying to find a good game reference of Masamune Date that would show the symbol on the upper back of his battle coat clearly. Not so long ago I managed to find a nice picture on deviantArt that showed the Sengoku Basara game model Date seen from the front, back and a head close-up. It was of immense help.. references like these are a godsend for cosplayers.

http://lezisell.deviantart.com/art/Sengoku-Basara-3-Masamune-Date-p1-fully-poseable-336345938

So to get a good view on that back symbol I had to crop that part specifically and then resize it bigger. Making something bigger also kinda drops the quality of it.. or well.. not sure what to call it but it doesn't get prettier or easier to see what exactly is on it. lol

Because this is a part of my "projektarbete", that I can do as an art task in my art course, why not do it? It's like killing two birds with one stone. Also school has some nice stuff for fabric printing that I do not have at home.. namely the materials needed for screen printing.

Okay, so during art class last week my teacher helped me to print out the coat symbol on an A4 paper. I thought at first A4 would be too small but upon further examination it seems to work okay. Although I will need to transfer over the symbol from that A4 print to an A3 to fill in some few parts of it that got left out when printing it out from the computer because of a lack of space.
   I would need to trace the symbol over to an A3 and at first I thought I could just put the A3 paper on top of it and trace it window style but lolnope.. I could hardly see the symbol under it at all. Too dark and it was hard to see what was blue and what was white and where they met when there was a paper on top. So what to do? Take a black marker and draw out all the lines. Life made 20% easier.

After I had drawn out all lines with marker
(lol the tape is still on, I just ripped it off temporarily from the A3)

After that I traced it again by using the window as a sort of "lightboard". Worked surprisingly well seeing it was still dark outside... art class is first lesson on the morning and during winter time it's dark. I did a fail though, at first I traced the symbol onto the backside of the A4... lol. At least I noticed pretty quickly and turned the whole thing around. After I had traced it down on the A3 using a pencil my teacher explained how the screen printing works. Sure I had done it once before.. but it was like 3 years ago so I didn't really remember much. But upon seeing a screen print frame, which still had someone else's art on it, reminded me of how it worked; everything that is transparent on the frame will be where there will be paint. The blue-green parts are like a sort of "hard filter" or something that blocks the paint and will therefore stay the fabric's color.

The example frame that still had a design on it..

Okay, so everything that I want white on my Masamune coat symbol will have to be colored black/dark? Sure, give me some markers!
...
......
A lot of minutes and neck pain (and annoying markers that color inconsistently) later I had this:

And with that the art class had ended for me. More about this next week.
Unless I continue with my landscape oil painting...

Espeon gijinka ears

 Meow!

I bought today some purple fleece for my gijinka Espeon ears while I was waiting for le stepdad to pick me up from town. When I got home I decided to start making them right away. I will write this in a kind of tutorial-ish way. Here goes ~

My chosen fabrics: purple fleece and err, I think it's black velvet..

The reference picture I used of Espeon

I took some pattern paper and drew the form of the ears, including the "eartail" things. I made them around 30 cm long.

Pattern for the ears drawn..

Folded the fleece fabric and pinned pattern in place..

After I had cut out a pair of ears.. 4 pieces of fabric in total. Remember seam allowance!

I made the inner ear pattern by putting the "outer ear" under the pattern paper and drew it..
(this is taken after I had cut out the inner ear pattern and put it on top of the outer ear to check that they fit together)

Inner ear pattern pinned in place on fabric...

Inner ear pieces cut out.. 2 in total, you don't need these at the back of the ears obviously.

I didn't do any seam allowance for the inner ear pieces because they are just sewed on top of the ears.. and the fabric doesn't fray, so no need to fold it in or anything.

I pinned the inner ear pieces..

.. and zigzaged them on. (you can do straight stitch if you want, I just used zigzag to avoid getting more of those "black fluffs" everywhere)

Turned the ears right sides against each other and sewed around it..

During the sewing I made some mistakes. Every time you have to change sewing direction you can't do a sharp angle... Like an "L" or something like that. It will look bad when you turn it right sides out.. trust me, I did this mistake on the first ear and it puckered and looked fugly so I had to unstitch all parts were there was a sharp angle. You have to do a soft curve and it also helps to do some cuts along the curve at the wrong side to "relax" the fabric.

Cuts at the curve to demonstrate what I mean...

When you have sewed both ears closed (except the root of the ears, which you obviously should leave open, if you want to have some stuffing inside them) carefully turn it back right sides out and use a pen or something to get those narrow pointy-ish shapes out fully.

An empty ear turned right side out... it needs some...

... FLUFF! (pillow stuffing or whatever it's called)

After filling ears with stuffing...

I sewed the roots closed with a sewing machine.
You can handsew too if you prefer that..

Now I had a pair of Espeon gijinka ears. The method of attaching them to the wig is either by safety pinning the ears into the wig or you could sew them on if you'd like. I will just use safety pins for now myself because I don't know yet if I can use the wig for other cosplays...
I did the ears this way because it's easier to hide and looks more, err, "natural" than just having an obvious headband with ears on.

I decided to do a really quick Espeon gijinka try-on, just to see how the ears sit on the wig and if they weighted it down or something. They did not, very light-weight and comfortable to wear!

Here's few (mirror) photos:

Is it just me or does this wig suit me? xD
When I had it on I thought "Maybe I should really cosplay Gakupo.." (yes, I've planned that for quite some time but not 100% sure)

My gijinka ears "droop" as you can see on the last photo, but I can position them and have them hold the new pose as long as I do not move my head around. I'm not sure if I should keep them like this because in a way I kinda like them when they hang like that. xD Or should I safety pin them so that they point more outwards/stand up more? I think depending on how I pin them the shape they are in will be different... hmmm I'll have to experiment with it...

That kimono (and juban) is the one I'll be wearing but I have not yet decided on if I should use a black or wine red kaku obi.. and I'm thinking about adding some accessories.. if I can find what I have in mind ~
Also I need to get my hands on a red craft gem or rhinestone or whatever they are called.. with a flat back of course. I checked Tiimari and another store today but they didn't really have gems with the right form/size/color.. and if they had something half-way decent they were in a multi-pack and/or overpriced... and because I just need one and not like 30 in different sizes too OTL it feels a bit derp to pay 5 € or something to just use one of them lol. I think I'll go check Tex too before I turn to buying from eBay haha.

Bye bye for now!

Third time's the charm - Shinsengumi headband

Konnichiwa!

Finally decided to try and finish my shinsengumi headband. The last try didn't work and I learned from my mistakes.. aka do not use stretch fabric.
I went to the attic and looked at other fabric options; I found some semi-glossy black slightly sturdier non-stretch fabric.. I have no idea what it is but it seemed okay so I decided to use it. Not so much to say about the process because it's very basic, I'll let a few photos speak instead.

Fabric cut out (I cut extra for seam allowances)

Zigzaged around

Folded in all the sides and sewed

Sewing it in place on headband

I don't understand why it took me so many tries to get such a simple thing right... troll!headband. OTL Oh well, now it's done and I decided to do a very quick try-on in cosplay to see that it wasn't trolling even after being finished...

Excuse my lack of pretty much all make-up except eyeliner.. I couldn't be bothered. Also mostly mirror photos.

 

Just to show length of headband
(note: ponytail is under it on this)

It seems to be working all right, thank God for that. I was getting fed up with this project. I think I'll use the headband for Hijikata at Närcon Vinter, possibly the other shinsengumi guys in the future too.

Hmm, not so much more to say. I'm really looking forward to Närcon Vinter!

Närcon Vinter 2013 cosplay plans changed!

Late yesterday I started thinking about my Närcon Vinter cosplay plans, especially after talking with one of my friends on Skype (same one who gave me the sakabatou) and trying to figure out if the blue kimono Kenshin is just an alternate color version or in fact Battousai. I'm getting really confused (maybe partly because I haven't finished the series yet) and my friend insisted more or less on that Kenshin only wears blue kimono when Hitokiri Battousai. The few seemingly non-Battousai Kenshin pictures I've seen in which he has a blue kimono and the sakabatou he seems to have white hakama.. which is a problem for me because while I do have white hakama they are too long (I measured wrong back in the days) so I plan to sell them and buy shorter ones as replacement. *cough* if anyone is interested in white unworn budo hakama drop me a mail, we can discuss price! I had thought about using my light gray hakama for Kenshin but that together with a dark blue kimono just seems to be what Battousai wears. Not like I would mind cosplaying Battousai sooooo ~

So here comes the new cosplay plans for Närcon Vinter:

Friday

Series: Rurouni Kenshin

Character: Kenshin Himura (Hitokiri Battousai)

Yup, it will be Battousai for now. Of course I will do the pacifist Kenshin too later this year! Now I get more time to try and figure out how to fix that sakabatou and get myself a new white hakama.. and maybe a purple/red/cerise/pink/whatever kimono... xD Oh, also I just ordered a red-brown ponytail wig for Battousai because he always seem to have his hair tied high while Kenshin has his hair in a low ponytail.. also I can't find any official pictures with Battousai with manga color Kenshin hair.. aka the brighter orange wig I have. So yup, Battousai is gonna have a different wig. Also I think I will do Battousai with just a single scar cut on his cheek.. on recommendations of my more Kenshin knowledgeable friend.

Saturday

Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan
Character: Toshizo Hijikata

Hijikata of course stays the same because it's a group cosplay and also because I can use the same hakama and swords for Battousai. Yay less cosplay stuff to drag with me ~

Also now that I have the train tickets I know that I can stay on Sunday and go to the con; I have an evening train back home. This means I can do a Sunday cosplay! :D But because Sunday is a short con day I don't feel like putting on anything that takes a long time.. so I thought about doing some new cosplay I already had the wig and clothing for (read: kimono. My everyday clothes are mostly just black t-shirts with dragon/tiger/metal band/whatever prints lol) ... and then I thought "what kind of cosplays are of the kind that you can decide for yourself what it should look like?" and the answer was pretty obvious - gijinka. And me, being a long-time Pokémon fan it was clear as day that a Pokémon gijinka was the choice.

Sunday

Series: Pokémon
Character: Espeon

Why Espeon? Because I've always loved all the Eeveelutions and Espeon is a simple and kind of elegant Pokémon... so imagining a humanized (male) version in kimono makes sense to me. Also I've had a purple wig, for maybe a year or so now, that I bought just because I got it for barely even half the original price. Back then I had no idea what character to actually use it for but now I figured it's pretty much a perfect color for Espeon! I just need to make the ears and the red gem on its forehead.

That's it for now. I hope people don't mind too much that I suddenly changed plans to Battousai instead. I promise I will do gentle-and-does-not-kill Kenshin this year too! I like Kenshin so much as a character that there is no doubt I want to cosplay both sides of him!