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 ~~

New Hijikata wig styling pt.2

I decided to trim the bangs of my Hijikata wig a bit more shorter, straighten them and make them a bit.. err, angled, I guess? I mean so that all of the hair isn't of equal lenght, it shortens towards the sides gradually. Too bad it doesn't really show because there's so much fibers so that when I position the bangs more at the sides everything looks more or less the same length. I also cut some strands noticeably shorter so they fall approximately to my nose.. or something.

reference photo I used

I also tried to put that thing into a ponytail, even though I'm home alone and I need assistance to do it.. or at least a wig head (yes, head, not stand.. I can't put pins into a stand..) which I do not have currently. So, err, I didn't get far before I decided to screw trying to make a higher ponytail because it would tangle if I tried to separate sections of the wig. So yeah, I think I'll roll with a lower ponytail for now until I get a wig head... I namely don't think my other option is very possible at all; my twin probably wouldn't be very eager to have the wig on when I'm trying to style it for an hour or two. lololo

That's all.

Skecon 2012 cosplay plans!

I've been thinking about what to cosplay at Skecon the last weeks or so and I think I've finally decided. There's still a slight risk that I might change plans, but this is what it looks like currently:

Friday

Character: Falkner

Series: Pokémon (HeartGold/SoulSilver)

Ah, Falkner, the first Gym Leader in Johto who uses Flying-types.

Truth be told, this was a veeeeery spontaneous cosplay choice.. it came out of the blue. Falkner wasn't even on my cosplay list and that's saying a lot because I have craploads of characters in my cosplay list and I list pretty much all characters who I have even the slightest interest to cosplay. Somehow Falkner wasn't there, even though I remember having the thought that "if I ever wanted to do a Pokémon trainer cosplay it would likely be Falkner" but I shrugged it off because it was very low priority and Pokémon cosplays just wouldn't be as fun doing alone... until my twin Jäätynyt Enkeli really wanted to do something new for Skecon and that 'something new' turned out to be Silver (aka the rival) from HeartGold/SoulSilver. The "AMG I WANT TO DO A (JOHTO) POKERMANZ TRAINER TOO" reaction was triggered... and Falkner was the obvious choice. Ah, this will be a trip to nostalgic times ~

Lawdy lawd someone explain to me why I'm so hopelessly stupid? My cosplays get less and less clothing the further away from summer we get. :'D I sense perfect logic here.

Saturday

Character: Toshizo Hijikata

Series: Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan

Toshiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ~~ <3

What is there to say? It's Hakuouki, a con without a Hakuouki cosplay is not a con! >8D

Also I've managed to get a few friends to have a mini Hakuouki group on the Saturday; we'll have a  Chizuru, Sannan, Ibuki (if I've got it right) and me as Hijikata. Of course it will be my newer version of Hijikata as seen here, only with the wig in a ponytail.

Luckily I might not freeze to death in this cosplay at least...

Sunday

   

Because Sunday is the last day and the con ends 14:00 (at least according to their website..) I don't really feel like it's worth it to put on a full cosplay. Also if I did cosplay I would need to sit in that cosplay the 4 hour bus trip home, not sure if gusta because I would worry so much about getting the wig tangled etc. So I think I might just put on a kimono and possibly haori (no hakama because that means murder if I have to go to the toilet xD) from my vintage kimono collection or go in casual clothes with some traces of geekiness something different.. depends on the weather and how cold it is. We'll see.