I has a shirt!

Hiya!

I started working on Bakumatsu Renka Saitou's shirt yesterday and I just finished it. I didn't take progress photos of every step because it was a rather simple project and I focused more on getting it done because, as we all know, Tracon is this coming weekend and I also will be leaving home already on Thursday.. and Wednesday goes for packing stuff so.. yeah.

I will now show those few progress photos I took while making the shirt:

Front and back pieces cut out + arm hole facings

I had to widen the collar to get the thing over my head. My chosen fabric didn't stretch at all.
(I did widen it more than what this shows in the end)

Then I went ahead and sewed the shoulders together and side seams. No need for explanations.
After that it was time to attach the facings. I had never done this before so I was worried the facings wouldn't fit, I angled them wrong etc. But luckily they ended up being pretty damn perfect.

Test pinning facings in place to check that they were of the right size..

Sewn together, zigzaged around the "flap edge" and stitched on top so that the facings stay better on the 'wrong side'.

Making a self-made facing patterns for the collar because the original pattern was wrongly curved after the widening earlier...

I must say I was really unsure if the collar facing would fit right because, err, I made the pattern by tracing it over onto pattern paper directly from the shirt itself... and I couldn't even see if I was tracing right because the pattern paper was kinda thick, herp. So I just had to feel my way where the collar was and trace. It felt like it would be a fail but I went ahead and cut out the facings in fabric. I added some extra centimeters to both ends of the facings (back and front) just to be sure that they would fit when sewn together. After having cut out the facings I had veeeery little fabric left (read: barely enough if I ended up fucking it up) and now when I tried to line up the front and back pieces to meet at the ends it seemed like the front piece was too long. I was ready to shorten it when mom came and said "don't cut it, you might need the excess length when sewing the facing around the collar". So I put away the scissors.

Test pinning the collar facing on

When I had pinned the facing to the collar I noticed pretty early that one of the facing shoulder seams wouldn't align with the shirt shoulder seam if the other side did. "Fuck.. now it probably won't be long enough.." I thought but kept on test pinning... and then I noticed it was just long enough to go around. AWWWWWW YEEEEEEAAAAA, thanks mom!

And by that I was finished ~

I has a shirt! :'DDD

Now just to make the glove and get ready for the con ~

30 minutes closet cosplay challenge

So for quite some time now I've seen pretty many Finnish cosplay bloggers do this one cosplay challenge so I decided to give it a go because it seemed so much fun.

Sorry guys, for now this will be in Finnish, I will add a short description about the challenge in English at the end!

Säännöt:

1. Kuka tahansa halukas voi ottaa haasteen vastaan riippumatta siitä, harrastaako hän cosplayta. Kokoa kolmenkymmenen (30) minuutin aikarajan sisällä cosplay-asukokonaisuus materiaaleista, jotka löydät kotoasi.

2. Saat käyttää vaatekappaleita, peruukkeja, meikkejä ja maskeerausvälineitä. Jos olet nopea, saat myös ommella/askarrella jotakin uutta (esimerkiksi rusetin kankaasta tai propin paperista). Et saa käyttää sellaisenaan valmiita cosplay-asuja, jotka olet jo joskus tehnyt.

3. Kun olet valmis tai 30 minuuttia on kulunut, ota asustasi kuva ja laita se haasteen sääntöjen kanssa esille blogiisi. Kerro myös, kuka hahmosi on ja liitä mukaan lähdekuva.

4. Haasteen tarkoitus ei ole luoda täydellistä pukua lyhyessä ajassa, vaan testata haasteen tekijän mielikuvitusta ja pitää hauskaa.

Okeei, eli mun valittu hahmo oli Kenshin Himura (Hitokiri Battousai versio) Rurouni Kenshinistä. En nyt ole ihan 100% varma ku en ole sarjaa vielä lukenut ku muutaman random chapterin ja yhen leffan katsonut joskus vuonna nakki ja muusi. Mutta normi-Kenshinillä ku on vaan se reverse blade katana ja Battousailla mun logiikan mukaan perusmiekat plus ei oo arpea ainakin jossain vaihees joten menkööt näin. Joissakin kuvissa Kenshinillä on harmaat hakamat joten en nyt oo ihan varma kumpi on se oikea by the way.

PS. Joku enemmän tietoinen fani saa korjata jos puhun ihan sontaa!

Hahmon referenssikuva.

 

Sori peilikuvat, en ole arkusta noussut zombie!!

Cossi-asun sisältö:
• Budo alustakki (jota myös käytän muihin cosseihin jotka vaativat valkoisen kimono-kauluksen)
• Ichiton tummansininen kimono
• Hijikatan vaaleanharmaat hakamat
• Hijikatan miekat
• Random tekkout/käsisuojat jotka ostin eBaystä aikoja sitten ihan vaan huviksi
• Mustat tabi-sukat jotka olen ostanut mun kimono harrastustani varten
• Puiset geta-kengät jotka olen myös ostanut mun kimono harrastustani varten :'DD Problem?

Jooo-o, mitäpä sanois, oli hurjan hauskaa ja en paljon kiirettä tuntenut ku tä oli tämmöinen ultimate kaappicossi koska kaikki tarvittavat löytyi valmiina jostain huoneeni kolosta.. ongelma oli vaan löytää kaikki ajoissa ja pukea päälle. :'D Tosiaan peruukin kävin pöllimässä lainaamassa Jäätyneen Enkelin vaatehuoneesta koska en itse omista ainuttakaan punaista peruukkia.. lähin (värillisesti) mikä olis mun kaapista löytynyt olis ollut Ichigo Kurosakin peruukki... eiiii. Tai muuten olis tullut joku ihmeen rasetsu!Kenshin valkoisilla hiuksilla... koska pitkiä valkoisia peruukkeja multa löytyy kyllä lol.
Tää peruukki oli siis ainoo edes jotenkuten sopiva tähän hätään, vaikka väri on aika räikeen punainen IRL ja en kyllä käyttäis kyseistä peruukkia Kenshinille sit sinä päivänä kuin kyseistä herraa sitten ihan kunnolla cossaan. Joo, on tarkoitus ihan oikeasti cossata Kenshiniä joskus. Sitten kyllä ostan kunnon hyvävärisen peruukin ettei herran hiukset muistuta punaisia liikennevaloja...

Ai niin, meinas unohtua, mulla tuli paniikki ku en meinanut löytää ihan perus hiuspampulaa vessan kaapeista, olin sillee hetken "midä vidduu, pakko niitä on jossain olla!" kunnes kaivoin kaappia tarpeeks syvään ja sit löytyi semmoinen mursun kokoinen musta pampula... sai luvan kelvata. lol

Mutta siis...

CHALLENGE SUCCESSFUL!

Jaahas, ja äidin ruutuiset aamutossut paistaa mun hihan/käden alla... ihanata.

 

Mulla oli cossi päällä ku oli viel 10 min aikaa jäljellä, like a boss! Paitsi että melkein kaikki meikit jäi laittamatta koska laiskapaska.com ja naama kirvelee ku meikinpoistoainetta jo käytin aiemmin tänään ku cossasin Okitaa.. ja naama hieman vammaisen tuntoinen sen jälkeen joten annoin olla ihan suosiolla.

 - lalalalala -

And now a quick description in English for those who didn't go to Google Translate lol already ~

So yeah, basically this challenge was to find a character and cosplay them in a time frame of 30 minutes. So you had to make/find everything for it and put the costume on and when 30 minutes had passed you had to take photos of what you had created. You were allowed to use clothes, make-up, wigs and if you were fast enough you could craft something quickly... basically you had to do a closet cosplay. xD You weren't allowed to use already made cosplays aka a character you had cosplayed before. This challenge wasn't about making a perfect costume, it was about having fun and being creative.

My closet!Kenshin consisted of Hijikata's hakama, Ichito's blue kimono, a white budo/martial arts inner jacket, Hijikata's swords, black tabi & wooden geta I bought for my kimono hobby and tekkou I bought from a private person on eBay long time ago just for the heck of it. The wig is my twin's because I didn't have anything even remotely right-looking myself. The wig is actually bright red IRL (not orange-y like photos show) and I won't be using it that time when I cosplay Kenshin for real. Yes, I will do him someday.

 

And I guess that's it ~

Quick sick!Okita "photoshoot"

Hellou!

I didn't have to go to school today because my schedule is still a mess and, besides, I only had one lesson today. It would have been quite a pain in the ass to get to school because I would have had to wake up piss early (*cough* 05:30 Swedish time) to take the bus and then walk some kilometers from the bus station to my school... and my right foot has been derping rather painfully the last days ever since I dropped my damn laptop on it... OTL Sucks to not have mom driving you on the mornings, hahaah.

Soooo I woke up quite early and decided to do a quick Okita "photoshoot" because I was bored and home alone. I can't really call it a "photoshoot" because it was just me and my camera. ._.
I used the self-timer for some photos but it was kinda hard, or well, damn hard to get everything right. Oh well, I got a few good ones, although the lighting was bad so they are kinda.. err, 'grainy'. But I thought it fit the mood somehow so I don't mind the reduced photo quality all that much and besides, I didn't want to turn on the lights because it made photos turn rather fugly orange-y.

If anyone wonders what that blue thing is it's my shinsengumi haori.. used it as a blanket.. kind of.
I look like a tired mess... and that's what I was more or less. XD lol it rhymes...

When I got fed up with trying to use the self-timer I just went to take some egophotos self-photos instead.. although I only got one I liked enough to publish...

Bbbbbbb, this reminds me... back when I was in Eurokangas yesterday I also tried to search for that light purple fabric I had seen before they moved which I could have used to remake Okita's kimono. I didn't find it. ;_; pffjhfiudhiuf

That's all. Bye!

Fabric for Saitou's sleeveless shirt

Went to Eurokangas (fabric store) after school. I'm happy they moved their store to Rajalla/På Gränsen shopping center instead of being next to Prisma (a food store) a few kilometers away. This means that because Eurokangas is now at the shopping center I will have a chance to visit it pretty much every day when I finish school and take the bus home because, well, I walk through the shopping center because it's shorter (and more fun) to just go through it than go around it and I always buy some sweets to eat while I do so, but that's another story... Yeahh, I bought fabric for Bakumatsu Renka Saitou's sleeveless shirt-or-whatever-it-is.

Wonderful, fabrics seemingly never photograph their real color.. OTL
It has more dark purple tones to it, not just gray like the photo shows.

 The fabric is a tad darker than the reference, but, it was the only grey-purple fabric they had (kinda hard color to find..) and besides I kinda like the color and have a feeling that it will look better with the kimono I'm going to use because, well, my kimono isn't reference color accurate either so I just bought what I thought would look better together with it. Me? Not being color accurate? Dafuq just happened?
My other fabric choices would have been 100% purple but.. eh... I rather buy this one.

It seems that I'll possibly start my Tracon journey already on Thursday next week. SEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWW.

Second wig styling attempt

I repaired my brown vintage hakama again earlier today because I will need them for my Kondou cosplay to Tracon. I also decided to cut and style my wig for Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi's Saitou.

I forgot to take a picture before I started but you can see the untouched wig on my earlier blog post.
Oh, and all wig styling photos are taken with flash because otherwise it would have been hard to see anything... the wig is not shiny at all IRL.

After I had trimmed the bangs. Back of wig still untouched..

Back trimmed too..

Front after spiking

Side after spiking

Back after spiking

And we all know that when you have styled a wig on a mini-sized head substitute you just have to try it on your own head too. Because you need to see how much you just failed!! :'D
I used no make-up except that I made my eyebrows darker (looks so derp to have light brows and dark hair..). I just put a random Thai silk robe on because it's better than a t-shirt. lol

Front..

Side-ish...

Back... something. trololol.

I must say I was nervous at first before cutting, it was the second time I ever cut a wig.. but I must say it turned out quite bueno. It's not half-bad but there's still room for improvement. Oh well, no one is born professional at anything, practice makes perfect. It could have been a catastrophe. lol

BRS (no, not Black Rock Shooter...) Saitou WIP test

So a few minutes ago I decided to put on what I already had ready for my Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi Saitou cosplay, aka mainly the kimono, kaku obi and wig. The kimono and obi are genuine vintage pieces from my wafuku collection.
The shirt is just my random Finland/wolf shirt backwards. lol I didn't put on any make-up except some eyeliner because 1) I'm too fuckin' lazy xD 2) it was boiling hot.

These are all mirror photos.

I have no clue what's with that face..

Full-body..

PHOTOBOMB!!1 by le twin

The wig needs some trimming and possibly spiking. Gonna fix that as soon as possible.
I also need to go to town and buy some purple-gray fabric for his sleeveless shirt because mom apparently didn't have any purple fabric in the attic that would have been good enough... actually, she hardly had any purple fabric at all. Dafuq.
Oh, and need to make the glove.

Bye.

Tracon, I'm goddamn coming!

Yeah, you read right. 

For the longest time I've been pending back and forth should I or should I not go to Tracon this year. Mind you, I've always really wanted to go but this time mom said she wouldn't be helping me pay for the trip like she did for Desucon and some others, so, I would have to pay for everything myself, which, well, would cost a lot of money for someone who has had no income all summer. It stings. Buuuuuuut, I figured if I don't go to Tracon this year I will later regret it a lot for many reasons (like missing my last chance to see most of my Finnish con friends this year and all the awesome cosplays they will do for Tracon) so I decided...

I CAN'T FUCKING MISS TRACON. I LOVED IT SO MUCH LAST YEAR. ;A;

So I'm coming, let it cost what the hell it wants. Fuck money, I'm coming if I so have to live on crispbread and water for the next year!! Or well, no, not really.. but you guys could maybe help me out so here comes some

~*~ SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION ~*~

I decided not so long time ago to start taking traditional art commissions to fund my life and hobbies, want to help me out? Have a look, it's in a book.. almost.

• Commission information •

 And to get back on track...

I've ordered the con ticket to Tracon a few days ago like a ninja while the cheaper advance ordering was still active (it is no longer available) and today I passed the point of no return, aka Ri-kun ordered the hotel for themself, me, Jäätynyt Enkeli and Mira-kun to sleep in during the con weekend.. this will be fun! 8D

Soooo, now let's spike up my cosplay plans! Man I've been waiting for this!

Saturday

Series: Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi

Character: Hajime Saitou

Yay obscurecosplays.com strikes again.

I planned at first to cosplay this to Oulun Animeseminaari but it.. yeah. So I postponed Saitou for later.. and "later" is now Tracon.

I took a picture from the manga but I will do the game/official art version when it comes to the patterns of the kimono although my kimono isn't blue-gray, it's simply gray. Oh, and yes, this cosplay will consist of half vintage wafuku and half self-made stuff. I will need to make his shirt and that glove I guess. Wieee.

Now to get off my lazy ass and start sewing...

Sunday

Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan

Character: Isami Kondou

AWWWWWW YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

Most of my friends are going to roll a western!Hakuouki group on Sunday and of course I have to be part of it. BUUUUUTTTTTT. I have no western versions myself (yet) and I don't really want to do a "double character", even though I don't really mind doubles, it's just cooler to have as many different characters as possible from the cast. *nods* So, well, Kondou has no western outfit so I'm gonna be trolling there in kimono gear and still feel right, LIKE A FUCKIN' BOSS. >8DD Besides it's awesome to fill the group with yet another character, I think we will have almost all of the shinsengumi members! This will be GREAT!

Hijikata, you can't command people anymore, boahahaha ~

I'm so excited I could puke rainbows!