March 31, 2012

Started working on Ichito

Pfhah. 

I Finally stopped procrastinating working on cosplays and actually did something.
Oh sweet, I have the whole April, May and beginning of June to fart out an Okita and Ichito cosplay from scratch.. here goes!
I decided to tackle Ichito first because he is the more complicated of them two and will take longer to make. Surprisingly when I showed mom a picture of him she went "oh god that's SO PRETTY!!". You know, I was pretty sure she'd kill me because it was yet another kimono wearing character.. but nope, she didn't.

Okay, so to my joy we already had 3 meters of white fabric lying around in the house that I could use for his "kimono jacket". It rocks to have a mom who used to own her own fabric store and be a former sewer... that means we have an outside storage full of leftover fabric and more sewing supplies than I can use up in my whole lifetime. XD Love you mom. lol

So, this is what I'm trying to make:


The game he is from is very unknown and err, I don't have many references to go by. But I'll find solutions to everything~

And well, this is my new friend, say hello to mom's overlocking machine!

Saumuri on hyvää puuta~
I've never used one of these things before and I was scared to use it at first but gosh, this thing makes sewing so much easier! It cuts of excess fabric automatically and it makes the seams look professional and stuff. I'll need to use it more in the future.

So, regarding the costume... me and mum cut out the pieces for his "jacket" today and it's starting to look as it should, but I still need to fold in the hems or what you call them, the edges. The collar is attached but the sleeves are not. No decorations are done yet and his flap thingy we haven't cut out. I'm sorry but I don't really have any progress pictures more than one shot of the sleeve.

Wide sleeve is wide.
Sorry not so much more to say, hopefully more progress photos next time!

Desucon 2012 cosplay plans!

Alrighty. Here comes my cosplay plans for Desucon in Lahti, Finland, 8-10 June 2012!


Friday 

Character: Jushiro Ukitake
Series: Bleach

It seems our Finnish Bleach group decided Friday to be our group's "main day" so I'll bring my signature cosplay, Ukitake, then. He is my favorite character from Bleach! I will do the default captain version complete with shikai swords.


Saturday

Character: Ichito
Series: Asaki, Yumemishi

Oh sweet Jesus. This will be one of the most obscure cosplay choices I'll ever do... but I don't care because I drool buckets over his design, period. I don't care that he's a cursed psychopathic immortal missunderstood forever alone spirit... he is awesome.


Sunday

Character: Souji Okita
Series: Hakuouki

Ah, Okita. One of my favorite shinsengumis, if not my favorite. I decided to do this version for now because it's a chill "Sunday cosplay" and yeah, Ichito will be quite some work... and I'm a procrastinator.

March 29, 2012

Hijikata wig

A wig for Saitou wasn't the only one I ordered from Moemall, ordered a wig for Hijikata too because I know for sure I'll cosplay him someday too... although when and what con is a question mark. I've been thinking about Animecon in Kuopio this year, but I have no clue if that's even possible.. so expensive to travel to the south... train tickets to Kuopio and back would cost me around 120 €... ugh. I probably won't have any summer job (lol never had) and thus no income.. and it's not like I can fart out money either. Too many cosplays to do but not enough cons to wear them too... and not enough moneeeeeeey.

Oh well, have a Toshizo Hijikata WIP photo.

derp
It's mostly just a wig and make-up test. I need to make a dark purple kimono.. I used a light one I had from an earlier cosplay as a substitute. I also need gray hakama and shinsengumi haori for this one too. I might need to trim the bangs... we'll see.

March 28, 2012

Got my wig for Saitou

Whoops, just realized I forgot to make a blog post yesterday about my Saitou wig... sorry about that, ahah I will do it now instead. Two posts a day, wow.

So err, what to say... got my Saitou wig yesterday and because I got home pretty early I had to try it on. Hey, no one was home and I was simply too excited, couldn't resist!



Most of this cosplay is actually done, I just need a juban/shitagi/under kimono/whatever (I'm just using a random white t-shirt as a substitute on the photo) and fix his white hair tie... I had one but it fell off after a while and I didn't bother to tie it back again. I do have the scarf too, but it kept being mildly annoying so I took it off.
I still need to make the iconical sky blue shinsengumi haori of course and the headband thingy that he only wears when wearing said haori. Otherwise than that I'm done. It was a pretty easy cosplay because I managed to find a good condition cheap vintage tsumugi silk kimono.. and a black one at that that was of a decent length for me to wear. Yay. You know, men's kimonos have incredibly boring color choices 85% of the time, if you find anything else than blues, grays and browns you should grab it. Black kimonos are often formal and have kamons on them.. but I found one without.
I already have two swords (metallic, but dull) that should work decently for it even though they are dark blue and not standard black and I have shoes and the sash too. At least it seems that the con where I'll debut Saitou at accepts dull metallic weapons (seems most cons don't) as long as you only unsheath it for photos and yeah, not swinging it around and being a threatening noxious idiot. Common sense.

Sengoku Basara second season finished... and Hanbei.

Finished watching Sengoku Basara's second season and it was pretty awesome.
But Jäärä trolled me, haha. At one point when we watched the anime we said something about Hanbei, I don't remember what exactly but she said something along the lines of "You will end up relating to him and liking him anyway. I promise." and I was all "Why?" and a bit confused. Well, he was kinda semi-cool and all but not like instant OMGWOW. Of course I had my suspicions what it could be but err, I couldn't really believe it would be that... but it was... and I was like "OH SHIT WHAT THE HELL MAN??" to say the least. OTL Dafuq. Totally didn't see that one coming...

Hanbei Takenaka
But yeah, I must admit Hanbei was the most likable of all the "bad guys" to me, even before knowing about  *coughcough*, he had the coolest clothes too and white hair and well, now when I know that I guess I feel a need to cosplay him. XD But one thing...

Jäärä, have you been planning all this too from the start?
I guess it's just really easy to figure out how my brains work when it comes to possible cosplay candidates... xD Oh well~

And I actually wonder if there even is any "bad guys" in Sengoku Basara, I mean, everyone were fighting with everyone for different reasons and sometimes two fighting clans would suddenly be allies. *shrugs* I guess Nobunaga and Hideyoshi were seen as the main evil ones, but about the others I don't really know... except for Matsunaga, he was a disgusting ass.

March 24, 2012

Sengoku Basara and Dokuganryu

WUUUUU started watching the first season of Sengoku Basara with Jäärä yesterday and although she have watched the show before I have not. I think it was the day before yesterday (or was it two days before?) when Jäärä even kind of brainwashed me into cosplaying Masamune Date. I didn't have anything against cosplaying him back then either because I've been interested in Sengoku Basara for quite some time already and planning to watch it.. heck, I even have the Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes game for Wii although I haven't played it yet. It just seems I ended up watching it earlier than I had thought. Date did end up being my favorite character, by far, so now I'm pretty certain I want to do him and seriously, it's almost enough reason to cosplay him just because of that smexy über awesome crescent moon helmet (hey can't deny it's effin' cool man!) and the chance to wield six swords at the same time... SIX SWORDS. AHGFDFSAFGJHS. Mom is going to kill me when I have to make all those, she already believes I have too many swords. 

Date as seen in the anime
I don't think I'll have time to do his iconic outfit this year seeing it's quite difficult and most of my cosplay plans for this year are already set and also to what cons I'll wear what. So 2013 hopefully for his battle outfit. Although I could maybe cram his kimono version to this year's plans seeing how simple it is.


 C'mon, it's just a white kimono and dark blue-ish hakama.. I have a feeling my kendo hakama would even work for it...
And what makes me happy is that Jäärä will maybe cosplay Kojurou Katakura, Date's right hand man. Personal assistant hurrdurr.
 
Date and Katakura fighting ~



I want to do that... spinning.

 I think that's enough for now.
Ahahah my cosplay list keeps on growiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing, must add Dokuganryu -the one-eyed dragon- to my list. Stop me someoneeeeee, I already have too many cosplay plans. XD Too many cosplays, too little cons to wear them to.. and too little money...

March 20, 2012

Hajime Saitou derp.. err, I mean update


ARGHJGGJHGDFJHS SAITOU WIG I WANT YOU SO BAD, Y U NO HERE YET?
 Eh, sorry about that. Great way to start a blog post neh?

Well, anyway... home again from school early and a ridiculous desire to try on my vintage kimonos that I ordered from eBay some time ago. What I do? Put them on.
It seems they both would work for my Saitou cosplay, but I think I'll go with the tsumugi black one. I don't have the wig yet (like you noticed...) and I still have the shinsengumi haori left to make.. but I tried what I had on anyway, just to get an idea of how it will look when finished and if there is anything I need to fix. 
WARNING FOR A TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE BELOW.

Oh god ain't I pretty? lolnope.
Eww mirror shots. Do not like. But there aren't other options to take full-body pics when home alone...
Yes, I censored my head with a meme face because it was derpin' herpin'.
Ignore the weird pose and the walrus that is me. I put everything on very quickly and so it looks like crap. :'D Oh, and yes, if anyone noticed I didn't take off the basting threads.. too lazy.
I noticed I will probably need to get myself a new white juban for this because the sleeves are too big on my current one and they bunch up and won't behave and just generally looked fugly. Oh, and the black kimono's sleeves are kinda short on me and they look extra short on this shot because I'm holding my hands awkwardly, but it's hard to find a perfect match vintage kimono... *shrugs* And there's no kitsuke police at conventions anyway.
I'm surprised my random long cotton sash thingy held up both my (metallic) swords... but I guess it will loosen when I walk around a whole day at the con and well, I won't use these swords for the cosplay anyway. And if anyone have missed it Saitou is one of my coming Närcon cosplays for this year.

Nothing more to say, see ya.