January 9, 2013

Special effects: Scar testing

 Hello!

Just a warning beforehand, if you are very sensitive to scars (even if not real) you might not want to scroll down.

Okay, I bought some Rigid Collodion almost two weeks ago and it was in the mailbox today after I got home from school. I've been waiting anxiously for it to turn up so I could get to experiment with it! Mom also left so I got to scar myself alone without getting the weird looks or asked why I'm locked in the toilet for an hour. lol

If you don't know what Rigid Collodion is it's a scarring liquid widely used in movies and stuff to simulate shapes of wounds and scars.


I've never used this stuff before but I've been digging information, so I had some ideas what to try creating with it. Okay, I obviously didn't want to put it on my face for practice because... well... it's kinda hard to hide your face without getting very suspicious looks in case I would make an error. So I decided to put it on my right forearm. (note: I'm left-handed, so it's easier for me to practice on my right hand)
I didn't put any base make-up on prior to testing so I can't know for sure how well Rigid Collodion will stick to that. But what I've seen it seems to work just as well.

I tried at first to draw the shape of the scar that I wanted (just a short slightly curved line) in a dark brown eyeliner pencil. I just drew lightly, don't use pressure or it will look unnatural. After that I just started by putting a layer of Rigid Collodion on where I had drawn the "scar". I let the stuff dry between the layers; it dries really fast, probably in under one minute. I must say that the feeling when it started drying was... interesting... xD It felt like something was nibbling and pulling my skin. It didn't hurt or anything but it would occasionally itch for a split-second.
I think I did around 3-4 layers on my first try and it looked like this:


Not really that good but it was a half-decent first try. To remove it you need to peel it off. If you have sensitive skin you can use spirit gum remover. I decided to try using spirit gum remover but when I opened the bottle it had this white cork patch thingy.. which I thought was one of those that you can't take off so you would have to turn the bottle upside down to get it to moisten the patch and then roll it against your skin.. so I turned the bottle and at the first second nothing happened so I thought "meh, weird.." but the following blink of an eye the goddamn patch flew its merry way and almost half of the (unused) spirit gum remover was everywhere in the bathroom. Fucking great. I tried to clean it as best I could but I think it left this weird coating to all the surfaces it hit.. oh boy...
Oh well, I then just decided to pinch my skin together to get one of the scar sides to peel and then just rip it off. It left a red mark but it's very logical seeing that the Rigid Collodion was pulling at my skin.


I decided to try the same technique again but this time with a dark red eyeliner pencil as a base. It came out too cartoony. But during the second try I realized I could use some light powder between every three or so layers to get it to shine a bit less.

And so on the third and final try I decided to blend dark red and brown eyeliner together for the scar base, dust some light powder over it and then start applying layers. This time I put a lot of layers.. I think maybe 10 or so and well, it made a world of difference comparing to the first try! Now I actually think I managed to make what looked like an old deep scar... 3D too. What's good is that it doesn't hurt (I've been "wearing" it for over an hour now I think and I barely even feel that it's there) and it seem to hold really well, unless you move the scar area around too much because then you risk having it peeling and thus ruining the effect of it looking real.

But now. Photos.



I think I love this stuff now, it's awesome. I'm very impressed...
Next time I think I'll definitely try it with my Kenshin cosplay! Ohmaigerd I can't wait to take preview photos! <3

That's all for this time, see ya!

"Help! I want to cosplay a kimono character!"

"What is this?" you probably think now.
Well, I decided to do my first 'tips and guidelines' blog post to help other people out!

Oh and hello to everyone, both old and new readers and everyone else who've stumbled upon this post! ^-^

Tetsunosuke Ichimura and Souji Okita from PeaceMaker Kurogane.
During my years of cosplaying I have several times run into people online asking the same questions about cosplaying a kimono-wearing character and what to do, how to wear it etc and I have probably just as many times given them a helping hand. That said, I've felt for some time now that I know enough about kimono in general to share my knowledge with others who want to cosplay characters wearing kimono but are lost on the way. As you probably have noticed by now I'm very biased towards cosplaying characters who don a kimono, for many reasons. But I will not talk about those reasons I will talk about something more helpful! I will share what I know, as a cosplayer and as a kimono enthusiast, what I think might be what cosplayers who look to cosplay a kimono-wearing character would like to know and also go through the most common errors I see at cons, aka a basic kimono introduction info post. I don't claim that I have any kind of ultimate knowledge I will just share what I have learned and picked up personally over the years. :)

 This will be in a kind of question and answer form to avoid a wall of text.

 Here goes! ~ 

~~~~~~~~~

1. Is there any difference on the kimono depending on the gender of the wearer?

When cosplaying a character with kimono it's important that you know the main differences between how a man –and respectively, a woman wear kimono and the differences in the garment itself.

A woman’s kimono has freely hanging sleeves that are left mostly unattached to the body of the kimono. Why the sleeves are like this is because it is better suited for the wide obi (belt) that is tied around the waist. There is also a small opening in the armpits although this, for some reason, is almost never drawn in manga/anime from what I’ve noticed. Men's kimono have the sleeves almost completely attached to the kimono, with only about 10 centimeters hanging free.
Another distinctive trait for women’s kimono is how it is worn women wear the kimono with a waist fold (called ohashori) to adjust the length to the wearer. This waist fold is located slightly under the obi. Because men wear their obi on their hips –and because men's obi is much narrowerthere is no need to have the sleeves hanging freely.

Here is a picture illustrating what I mean:

Image found on Google.
Of course if you crossplay (aka dress as a character of the opposite gender) and the character wears kimono you just wear it the same way as they do – and make sure the kimono's "gender" is the same as the character's. *points at sleeve picture above*
Same thing goes if the character crossdresses. One example is that if, let's say, a male character is crossdressing and wearing women's kimono then that's what you should be doing too, if you want to cosplay said character, that is you should do the waist fold, make sure your sleeves are open in the back and have the underarm openings etc etc.

2. Which way are you supposed to cross the collars?

Wear your kimono like a living person would, also known as always cross the collars left over right. Right over left is reserved for the dead only. I SERIOUSLY CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH. 
Don't make yourself look like a complete idiot at the con who didn't even bother to do a simple Google search to find out which way to wear the damn thing! Crossing a kimono right over left is like the biggest no-no you can do when it comes to how to wear it. Of course, if the character is actually dead (somehow) and actually wears their kimono reversed, then by all means go for it.

You know, I can honestly say that at probably every anime convention/event I've ever been to so far I've always seen at least one person donning a kimono the corpse style and it makes me cringe so bad that I can't help but do a big fat mental facepalm; I have to resist the urge to go up to that person and politely give them a short lesson on kimono knowledge. Needless to say it practically kills the cosplay for me personally, no matter how nicely sewn and perfect it is otherwise. Yes, it's one of my pet peeves. There ya go.

"I see dead people..."
(Kenshin demonstrating my inner rage face when I spot someone doin' it wrong)
Oh, one last addition to this! I've seen people saying that they have heard from someone else that men and women cross their kimono differently, aka that one sex would cross left over right and the other one right over left. That is NOT true and those who go telling others such bullshit need to check their facts before they spread false information around.  
Note: while this is how it works in our Western world (example: men's jackets are left over right, women's right over left) I want to stress that it does NOT apply to kimono or any traditional Japanese garments!!

3. How are kimono constructed?

Kimono consists of one left and right panel, front overlap panels (okumi), collar and sleeves. Kimono traditionally always have a back seam but never shoulder seams. In cosplay it's not the end of the world if you do not sew your kimono the traditional way, but it is a nice bonus if you want to at least mimic the way it's cut to have it look more authentic, so to say. You don't have to handsew the whole thing though because that's how it's traditionally done too. xD

Hard to understand what I mean?
Here is a picture (note: woman's kimono) to help you see the pieces a kimono consists of:

Image from Google.
4. "How do I wear this thing??? It seems so complicated!"

First off, look at how your character is wearing his/her/their kimono. When you cosplay you will want to wear it in a character accurate way more often than not and fictional characters tend to break and bend most real kimono dressing rules anyway. :)) But as a general rule the ideal kimono shape is like a cylinder more or less for both sexes, aka you want a straight silhouette. Traditionally women would pad their waist and even bind their breasts, if needed, to achieve a straight shape. 
Also, normally you want the kimono to fall to your ankles.

Not looking for a straight silhouette here nope, lol.
It's Kongiku from Muramasa: The Demon Blade.
There are lots of really helpful videos on Youtube showing how to put on kimono; just try searching with sentences like "kimono kitsuke for beginners" or anything like that and you should find at least some kind of video tutorials. Even if you watch videos meant for authentic kimono-wearing you'll get a better understanding on how to wear a "cosplay kimono" and have it look crisp and nice too it's not wasted knowledge! 
If you want to invest in learning how to wear a kimono try searching with these words for a start:

• kimono kitsuke (how to dress in kimono)
• ohashori (name of the waist fold on women's kimono)
• obi musubi (different knots for the belt)

There are lots of different ways to tie the obi and some fictional characters have their obi tied in a way that has no exact real-life counterpart, and thus can be a real headache to figure out. I know at least one character with their obi tied in an actual knot, but reversed, and then there's those with something completely weird going on in the back, lol. 
Luckily, many characters have their obi tied in an existing knot and I will also help you by naming a few of the different ways to tie an obi so that you can search online to find how to tie them, if you would need to.

Men's obi knots:
Kai no Kuchi musubi
Katabasami musubi

Women's obi knots:
Otaiko musubi
Tateya musubi
Fukura Suzume musubi

There are several other tying variations (especially for women) as well, just look around and you'll surely find them!

5. What fabrics are kimono made out of and what to do if the character you want to cosplay has "trims" around the collar and sleeves?

Well, first of... THEY ARE NOT TRIMS. It's very very likely that the character is wearing a juban underneath it's an under kimono meant to guard the outer kimono from being in contact with your body and thus getting stained/dirtied by body liquids etc. Usually nicer kimono are made of silk*, which is delicate and expensive, hence the need to have something shielding it from getting ruined easily. KIMONO ARE NOT MADE OF SATIN.

In most anime/manga/video games characters tend to have a white juban. It's very common for some reason.

* = I want to mention, as an extra note, that not all kimono are silk – for example farmers and such would have kimono made out of hemp. Cotton also exists, although it's not common for anything that is not a yukata. There's also the very thin summer sha and ro fabrics but those are likely not what cosplayers will want to look for. Oh and yeah, modern/newer kimono are quite often made out of polyester, so that's not technically all wrong either.

Kazuma Sohma from Fruits Basket wearing kimono, haori and juban.
However, with yukata a cotton kimono which is very informal you don't wear a juban; it's possible to "dress up" a yukata by adding a juban and other accessories though, but it's not really all that common. 
If someone wonders what a yukata is it's a light-weight, non-lined summer cotton kimono often worn to different outdoor festivals in Japan, like cherry blossom watching. Women's yukata tend to have floral prints and be colorful while men's often are more subdued in color and have geometric patterns.

Masato Hijirikawa from Uta no Prince-sama wearing yukata.
Notice the lack of juban.
But of course, when cosplaying, you most likely won't be making a silk kimono so the need to make a juban too just to have like 2 cm of the collar showing and have the sleeves peek out from inside might feel like wasted sewing work to most. It's understandable. But still, if your cosplay character of choice seems to be wearing a juban underneath then please, don't skip it. Heck, you can just make a fake kimono collar and it will give you the right look! Easy peasy and certainly looks better than having a trim of fabric running all the way down the collar, like seen on the majority of all the mass-produced Bleach shinigami outfits...

Typical online Bleach shinigami outfit.
Notice the "trims".
Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia Kuchiki from Bleach.
Do you notice the difference? Also on the picture with Ichigo and Rukia you can see that the white can be seen on the inside of the sleeves too. If you just used trim the inside would be black...

6. What are these different Japanese garments called? 

Kimono is actually an umbrella term meaning basically any T-shaped ankle length robe with collars and wide sleeves. That means there are different kimono types which each have a name yukata and furisode, to just name a few. Furisode are known for their very long sleeves that can be almost floor-length; you can pretty often spot a young-ish female character in manga/anime/video games who wears a furisode. Yukata kimonos are also often seen in anime it's a very casual informal cotton kimono worn to summer festivals, hot springs, possible sleepwear and the like. Yukata are the only kimono to which you don't wear a juban so yeah, if the character has no second collar peeking out it is likely they are wearing a yukata. 
Both men and women can wear yukata but it will have the sleeve differences and stuff I mentioned in the beginning of the post. Oh, and occasionally characters (especially males) might wear a waist/hip length jacket over their kimono that is open at the front this is called a haori and it isn't meant to be closed. Also, sleeve rules applies for men's and women's haori too, although what I've seen on authentic kimono men's haori often have the sleeves completely sewn to the haori's body. But again, look at your cosplay references first to see how their garments are.

Also, especially male characters often wear hakama. Hakama is a type of pleated pants/skirt (depending on the style, both versions exist) with long ties that are wrapped around the body and secured with different knots. Most people know them as "samurai pants". 

Regarding hakama and fictional characters I've noticed that quite many shows have a hakama-wearing guy with his hakama tied knotted in a floppy ribbon or a knot with the ends hanging free in front. This is actually not an accurate way to tie them, as far as I know, but even in famous series such as Rurouni Kenshin and Bleach you will see hakama tied like this.

Kenshin Himura from Rurouni Kenshin wearing hakama.
Oh, and regarding hakama if you plan to make hakama be sure to check out some photos of real hakama to get the hang of what they actually look like. And, please, DO MAKE PLEATS, preferably pleats that hold their form too, not just big poofy pants because it looks cheap and makes me cringe. Oh, and hakama have 5 pleats in the front and 2 in the back. There are exceptions but I won't dig into that. Don't make more pleats than that or it will look... funny. :)) Oh, and don't forget the side openings and if the character has one the backboard. Note: women's hakama don't have a koshiita (backboard) and are worn higher up than men's. Only exception is martial arts hakama on which both sexes hakama look exactly the same. 
Also, some anime/manga/video game women like Chizuru Yukimura from Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan and, occasionally, Kaoru Kamiya from Rurouni Kenshin actually crossdresses. Be mindful of these!

Chizuru Yukimura from Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan.
I guess that's the most basic things one would need to know; I might have forgotten something though. Remember to follow your character references first and adjust accordingly if needed; it's possible the character's clothing or way of wearing it might go against the normal kimono dressing rules. This is all just general guidelines, about basic kimono knowledge, to help you out with your kimono style cosplays! Some characters do wear very inaccurate or heavily modified kimono, to which these guidelines might not be of as much help. I still hope you won't be too intimidated to try to tackle any of these "kimono rule breakers" since they're a whole new level of fun experimenting to do!

For example: Nouhime from Sengoku Basara!
 ~~~~~~~~~

I hope this was helpful to someone out there and, if you have any questions about this post or kimono and cosplay in general, feel free to contact me (my email can be found to the left of the blog) and I will try my best to answer you! I can also help you identifying what exactly a character is wearing etc. ^_^
Want to know something more about cosplaying kimono wearing characters? Send me a request and I'll see if I can write about it!
 
Thanks for reading and I hope you learned something new!
Samurai-sensei is out.

January 7, 2013

New kimono for Saitou!

I bought a new solid black vintage kimono for Hakuouki's Hajime Saitou weeks ago but I've not tried it on until now. I think me gusta mucho!!

I put it on, along with my juban (also authentic), a white sash and le Saitou wig and went to take some photos. I didn't put on the scarf or any extras because they would just block out the kimono which is the thing I'm trying to showcase here. xD
Excuse me the photos are mirror style (home alone..) and I look like a trainwreck because I have no make-up on except that I darkened my eyebrows slightly... truth is, I've not even had breakfast yet even though I woke up a few hours ago. lol

Notice how far down the sleeves reach with my hand down.
Also the juban doesn't peek out from the sleeves.. which is some sort of awesome considering it's a very common kimono kitsuke problem and is not desirable.
Kimono wingspan. It's awesome! <3
It's rare vintage kimono have sleeves this long.. aka not far from perfect wingspan. :')
This kimono has a nice front overlap.
And I notice I might need a longer sash... xD
Side shot
 With the earlier kimono (which was also vintage) I had the problem that it was not very wide.. which would result in me flashing my legs while walking in anything quicker than semi-snail pace.. along with some other things. But this new kimono is wider, no more do I need to worry about having my legs showing while sitting or walking.

This is just to show how much apart I can keep my feet without showing the juban/my legs.
This new kimono is superior in almost every aspect: better length (aka pretty much my ideal kimono length), better width, longer wingspan. Also this kimono's silk has a solid surface which in a way is more accurate because Saitou's kimono doesn't seem to have any texture to it. My other kimono is tsumugi silk; tsumugi is woven by unevenly spun silk thread so it has texture and is always informal/casual because of its humble origins; Don't think it's actually appropriate for Shinsengumi 3rd division captain lol. But it is cool too and whether or not you want a kimono for cosplay with textured or solid silk (or other fabric, but silk is most common when shopping vintage and vintage = cheaper) is kinda personal preference anyway I guess. I like both.

I will be wearing this kimono for Saitou from now on because of the advantages I listed. But there is one thing that can be a problem - this new kimono is hitoe, meaning it is not lined unlike the other one. This means if I want to cosplay Saitou to a late autumn or winter con it will be cold. The white juban is not lined either so it wouldn't really add much extra warmth. I will have to use my other kimono for the colder months but otherwise this new one will be the default to wear.

January 6, 2013

Ponytail clip-on test

Remember that ponytail clip-on I mentioned in the last post? Well, I decided to try it on together with my Sebastian/Hijikata/whatever wig to see what it looked like when worn. Ignore my lack-of-everything face. herpderp


Actually I noticed that the wig is a very dark brown-black and not full black like I had thought at first; the ponytail is black but luckily the color differences aren't disturbingly noticeable. Personally I don't really mind at least not yet xD that the colors don't match perfectly... it's understandable seeing the wig and ponytail are from different eBay sellers and wig colors are hard to match perfectly anyway. The difference is a bit noticeable when both wig and ponytail are hit by the light at the same time but otherwise okay. It will do just fine for me.

I will use this for Toshizo Hijikata's first season version from now on at cons, I think,  because it's easier to care for. That longer wig I will save for private photoshoots and when I do his calendar version. Also this combination works for another character I have in mind too, but I won't reveal that one just yet ~

January 4, 2013

Shinsengumi headband modification + stuff

Hi everyone.

I went to town today on the morning together with Jäätynyt Enkeli. First thing we did was that we went to his study apartment and ordered the train tickets for Närcon Vinter. Yay finally it's out of the way... sadly we couldn't get the Närcon discount herpderp. Oh well, after that we walked to the post office and I picked up the black ponytail clip-on I had ordered from eBay a month ago. It sure took its time to get here. ._. Better late than never... it was from China but still, never taken this long before for anything I've ordered to arrive.. except that one wig that got lost lol, I got a replacement wig though free of charge.
I must say that when I got the package in my hand I was... weirded out. My first thought was "is this now the right thing I ordered? It can't possibly fit into this... ó_ò" and then I started imagining all possible more or less bad scenarios. xD Oh well, I put it in my bag and went back inside the shopping center (post office is on the outside of the same building). When inside I remembered I needed to buy some cosplay make-up, namely some good concealer/foundation/whatever-stuff-to-cover-derpness-on-your-face (I'm soooo knowledgeable when it comes to make-up terms.. lolnope) because yeah, powder alone just doesn't really cut it and the one thing I have is just... well.. it takes forever to dry and doesn't fit my skin tone - first I look like Simpsons and then I look like I have airdried poo on my face.
So I wobbled into the make-up specialized store like "herpaderp I know like almost nothing about this shit -and I wouldn't put my foot in here unless my nerdy hobby called for it- but I need some stuff that gives me this effect herpaderp". Yeah, go figure. Luckily I got some guidance to some kinda promising concealer which I decided to give a try.. but the price wasn't as yummy: 25 €. My poor wallet cried tears of blood. *pats it* I'm happy I only use make-up for cosplays...  



When I got home I took out the package. It's sooo tiny!

package in size comparison with normal (bigger) scissors...
... but sure there was my ponytail clip-on in there!
It was tightly rolled inside. I must say I was surprised. XD I took it out and it unrolled like WROOM and I was all "mistä tämä pituus oikein tulee? : DD" no ei Saunalahdesta ainakaan. Highly space effective way of packaging lol.

Now over to the progress part. You might or might not remember that I did a shinsengumi headband quite some time ago. Yeah, I never wore it to a con because I noticed it derped. It was a bit too wide to wear on your forehead with a wig. It would look derp.. or at least on my face it did. Also the craft foam protector part thingy creased when bent and the glue didn't hold it super securely in place. So I've been thinking about modifying it for a long time and today it was time for it to finally get a long awaited make-over.

First things first. Rip off the craft foam part.
It left some glue remains.. not sure if gusta.
I then took the seam ripper and unstitched the whole thing open again. I didn't want to cut any fabric because who knows, I might need the extra fabric someday later if I want to resize the width again.
When I had unstitched the whole thing I wondered what to make the forehead protector part out of; I wanted something that was glossy and would bend with the fabric... and so my mind went to the roll of pvc fabric my mom has. "Why not?" I thought and went ahead to try. Oh boy little did I know what hell awaited me...

After cutting out a fitting piece of pvc fabric
I went to iron the headband itself, this time folding in the sides twice to get it thinner and after I just resewed it shut again.

Double folded and ironed sides before sewing.
Sewn shut.
And now to attach the pvc piece to the middle. I just thought that it would be easy peasy to sew on. The first few stitches went all good and I was positive it would work so I continued sewing. I noticed very soon that every second stitch I had to lift the presser foot because the fabric wanted to turn to the side and crease and fold up under the presser and ahgjfdskjadskgj. But I continued sewing... and when I was almost done with the upper part I finally noticed that the whole thing had turned into a fucking drunk banana crooked beyond all points of hope!!

"Tell me again how you were supposed to be a headband..."
(yes, that's the default form it took if I tried to lay it flat, go figure)
I raged silently for myself and here comes the seam ripper. But sweet Jesus! Dx The stitches were so small it was impossible to rip them up because the seam ripper's.. rip.. point.. thing.. seemed gigantic in comparison. OTL So I tugged the pvc fabric upwards and somehow, slowly, managed to unstitch it. But the hand position I had to keep hurt like fuck and it felt like my thumb muscles or something would disintegrate when I was done. Needless to say my feelings were nothing less than..


If you didn't figure it out already - I left it unfinished.
Maybe another day I'll finish that sucker up... now it can just go and... sew itself goddammit.

January 2, 2013

Masamune coat test + collar

I've been inspired to work on cosplays the last two days so here's finally more Masamune progress. I really need to work more actively on this.. before I know it it's going to be summer and d'oh! xD Must stop procrastinating.. it's the bane of my existence lol.

First up I took the front upper half coat pattern and pinned it together with the back pattern to see if the neck cut matched with the front's shoulders or not. It didn't.


After I cut them to fit
After this quick fix I did a prototype version of the coat's upper half of some scrap fabric we had at home. Nothing special, just cut out the pieces needed.


Because this is just a kind of test, to see how the real thing will fit/look, I didn't bother to zigzag or do anything except sew the shoulder seams and side seams closed with a simple straight stitch. This is just a scrap test anyway, just to see how well my self-made patterns work or not when assembled.
After I had sewn what was neccessary to hold the thing together it looked like this. Not too bad.. if I do say so myself.

Face censor ftw.
The two pins are there as collar markers.
The shoulders will need some hardcore interfacing on the real coat to stay up like on the reference but the form seems to be otherwise quite alright.

Next up was time to figure out the collar. It took some thinking before I felt sure enough to draft a pattern. The pattern looked like this:


But the collar would need to have a strip of extra fabric added to the front, extending towards the coat's opening. Masamune's collar kind of starts already on the coat's V-shaped front and folds a bit out. I don't know how to explain clearly what I mean but on this anime pic it's pretty obvious:


So I went and took the front pattern piece, pinned it along the curve to a small piece of pattern paper and drew out the curve. I put the collar pattern temporary on top for reference and to get the starting point (aka 11 cm from the collar's middle) right.



After that I pinned the collar pattern (it's only half pattern, will be cut at the fabric fold) along with the extension piece to the test coat, to see if it would sit like I had imagined. Of course I pinned the collar's "end" (actually middle point) to the middle back of the coat and then just pinned along the neck curve and when I got to the front I pinned the extension piece along the coat's front curve. It sat really well.. I was surprised haha.

Straight...
.. and slightly folded.
Green lights! Time to cut out a prototype collar for the coat to see if it works as well with fabric..


As you see I just sew the collar on with a straight stitch just like the shoulder and side seams earlier.
No need to do extra work.
It looked something like this when worn after being sewn on:

Not half bad. The collar is a bit too wide but otherwise it seems to work.
Super floppy fabric though, so the real collar will need interfacing too.
 The prototype coat looks like this when on a flat surface:



I took the collar pattern and made it a little bit less wide.. I don't want a huge Dracula collar lol.

Drew a line with a pencil where I will cut
After fixing the size. Put it over the collar for comparison.
(prototype collar has about 1 cm seam allowance though)
That's all progress for today.. ~