Costume: Levy McGarden (Fairy Tail)

I really wanted to do something from Fairy Tail, I have a lot of friends who cosplay Fairy Tail and I like it so I wanted to do it. I had thought about doing Lucy as she is a precious little boo but I also knew I had this blue wig in my wig box that would be perfect for Levy and Levy is ALSO a precious boo. Originally I was going to do her white shorts and bathing suit top outfit as I thought I'd be able to find all the pieces off the rack (very wrong). This was pretty last minute before Anime Fest but I still finished her in time. I always have to have one costume I'm rushing to finish before Anime Fest. It's tradition at this point.

Construction is pretty basic, only notable things are that while stretch gets the look of the art for some reason this combo is a beast to hide undergarments beneath. Also I messed up the grain of the lining on the sleeves so they aren't very stretchy so they take a minute to put on. The wig isn't a lace front, it's a normal wig with the bangs pinned and fluffed into the bouffant. Her hair band (which is made of  a scrap of lining material) hides those bobby pins. I'm pretty happy with her, especially with how quick and cheap she was though I can't wear her for about half the year here as it's a drafty costume and it can't be worn if it's windy.

Series: Fairy Tail

Construction Time: ~1 week

Cost: $31.08

Materials and Construction:

$8.27 Blue Arda wig (won on eBay)

$3.89 1 yd Lining

$12.87 1 yd spandex

$6.05 .86 yd white rayon lycra
$22.54 bustier

On hand:
Ace bandage
Pantyhose
Sandals
Black and red fabric paints
Thread
Pink and red craft foam
Bobby pins
Old glasses
Hot glue
Blue wig cap

Debut: Anime Fest 2014

Final Appearance: Still in Rotation

Costume: EDI 1.5

Series: Mass Effect 3

Construction Time: 2 months

Cost: $217.05
Materials and Construction: Custom Printed Spandex, 4 way Metallic Spandex, Fabric Paint, Hot Glue, Sport Zipper, 12 gauge vinyl, Heelless Shoes (modded), Craft Foam, Velcro, Bra, Soda Bottle, Face Paint, Loooots of Eye Shadow Log

Debut: PAX East 2014

Final Appearance: Still in Rotation
EDI 1.0 Post

Worklog

Updates to make it 1.5: Replaced painted rayon/lycra with printed spandex, removed almost all vinyl, made prop gun.

As much of a hit as EDI 1.0 was I still was never very happy with it. It looked like a costume not like her and that's not what I go for. Then one day while poking around the N7 facebook group I found EDI's texture file (thanks Dani De Wald for uploading those texture files!) and thought it'd be fun to poke around that for reference imagery. Around that time I was already looking into getting some other fabrics custom printed (notably a backdrop) and while looking at my various options I noticed one company offered printed spandex. After seeing the results when used in a bodysuit (thanks rpf-ers who've custom printed Spiderman costumes) I thought why not try something like that for EDI. That would let me get all those details and retain the stretch and basically be as close to looking like I walked out of the game as possible.

I have no idea what I'm dooooooooing

The biggest issue was I haven't really done much photo editing. Coloring pictures I've drawn sure but not... manipulating or anything like that. And there was a lot of that since EDI is proportioned differently than I am. I spent probably 40 hours messing with the image because seriously I had no idea what I was doing.

And now y'all have a vague idea of my size and shape.

But after coming up with some measurements that would hopefully make sure this all sewed together nicely I remeasured about 12 times then did my final adjustments. In the end I wish I would have made the torso a bit narrower, by like 4 inches total in the waist and 2 inches in the hips.

This is what the fabric looked like if you laid it out flat. I had extra printed to make leggings and a leotard too.

Then I sent off the proof to Fabric on Demand and after a few emails to confirm it was formatted/sized right and parting with $80 for two yards of fabric my fabric was queued to print. It was over the holidays so it took longer to print but that was fine since I was in World Cosplay Summit mode.

Avatar Paca approves of this fabric.

Then I got a box with my fabric in it! The spandex is middle of the road in every respect but the print came out nicely so that's what mattered. I never did find a good overlay material though so I just left the overlays out all together. Honestly the hardest part was making sure the fabric was printed in the right proportions, after that it was just cutting it out and sewing it together. Other than the feet and headsock part at least. You can see some extra panels of braiding type areas which I made feeties and a head covering out of. I also had the fun matter of ripping some of the seams on my previous EDI in order to harvest the sleeves and parts of the legs. Ripping stretch stitch takes forever, just fyi.

I pin in the direction I want to sew so I have something to aim for.

Then it was a lot of pinning and sewing. Sometimes I did a contrasting thread color in order to reflect the line detailing like on the torso back.

Other times I used a light grey thread and trimmed the fabric right near the seam since spandex doesn't really fray. Most notably done on the cut our parts of the knees. Then I used a special stretch fabric glue in order to add on the knee details. It took a long time to dry so I got comfortable and marathoned My Cat From Hell until it was good. The silver bars that go down the calf were reused from my previous costume and they're just hot glued on. I also had to attach the chest armor which actually threads in and out so the armor boobs are on the outside of the bodysuit and the shoulder straps and chest band are underneath the suit. It's permanently attached though I did have to get help in the hotel room at PAX East in order to glue the back of the shoulder part into place. But that was a one time deal (and thanks for the help guys).

As you can see I have far more make up for EDI than costume parts

There's not many parts to EDI, and this is something I'm trying to extend to other costumes, just having it all put together and slipping it on is so nice. She's one of the quickest costumes I can get in to. It literally took me about 30-45 minutes both at PAX East and A-kon to get into her and that's including putting contacts in.

After robot-ing for about 12 hours.

There were two other updates for EDI, the first being new make-up. One of my friends who is a Homestuck told me the secret of the trolls and OMG yes. Snazaroo is the best face paint. That up there is after a full day of wear, there's only a few parts where it rubbed off but that was under EDI's bangs so hidden. Barely any creasing by the mouth and none that is noticeable in photos. Going to see about using white instead of grey as my base from now on though since the grey is too blue toned in pictures. But luckily my local Michael's actually carries the white so I don't even have to get that off the internet like the gray!

I added some black paper along the edges to hide the obvious layers after this shot was taken.

And last but not least there is my quick and easy and in no way worries TSA prop gun. It's layers of foam glued together with printed out pics of the gun glued on top. The gun i a little small (about 10.5" long) but matches well with my body suit since they're at about the same pixelation.

And that's it! The only thing I need to improve this costume are to take it in at the waist a little more and to figure out an almost entirely transparent fabric that breathes and has stretch so I can do those overlays because yes the lack of overlays bothers me. Oh and gain feeties of steel since I just can't quite go a full day in those super fab shoes. Almost, but like an hour shy. But that's why I have my Joker carry a spare pair of much more comfortable but not too out of place strappy wedges.

Costume: Glynda Goodwitch (RWBY)

Basically as soon as I saw the first episode of RWBY I knew I wanted to be Glynda. She's so kickass and cool and her costume at first glance looks pretty darm normal. And a friend of mine was super excited to hear that since he wanted a cosplay group of the entire cast of RWBY.

I never realized how tiny she is until now. I'm a size 2 and I look way bigger than her.

I decided to push ahead of the rest of the group and get Glynda done for Ikkicon (I have so few warm costumes you see) and it only took one alnighter to have that happen. That would be when I also started learning how not that practical Glynda's outfit is. Since I was going to wear her for a winter con first I altered the design to some solid black thermal leggings and a knee length skirt (honestly she seems more the type to wear a knee length skirt). Her top seems like it should be made from a cotton or something else crisp in order to do the puffy sleeves and wrist ruffles but the only way to get it to fit right everywhere else without a ton of seams was to use a stretch material. I went with the stretch since that made fitting easier and I had some in stock.

The cape was a pain in the butt to make. In order to get the tentacle bits to not curl it needed some hardcore interfacing but using interfacings in something so curvy and pointy is a pain. It took me an entire day to get that all set in. But I am happy with the results. Also really like how the painted crown came out but I have no pics of her back. :x

As for how it goes on... Let us just say that those little gold bits that pull at the keyhole opening cannot in fact hold that sucker on. There's no way, not without pulling the keyhole out of shape. And there's no buttons or pins or anything. She clearly must be using magic but I don't have Huntress magic. So it gets safety pinned to my bra straps. The little fake gold clip bits keep the cape permanently attached to the shirt (via safety pins).

The riding crop is made from scraps of worbla all smushed together then rolled into the right shape and painted. It's a little hefty but free/a good use for the box of worbla scraps which I still have plenty of.

Series: RWBY

Construction Time: 2 weeks

Cost: ~$50

Materials and Construction: Epic Cosplay wig, hair donut, light green bobby pins, sateen (black), purple lining, gold fabric paint, craft weight interfacing, safety pins, worbla, gold acrylic paint, rayon/lycria (white and black), bronze pin, earrings, teardrop charm, gold buttons, skirt (knee length heavier weight for winter and mini with lace for summer), leggings (thermal for winter and purple snakeskin for summer), socks, boots, black spray paint and silver acrylic paint.

Debut: Ikkicon 2013

Final Appearance: Still in Rotation

Costume: Tracks

I've got an almost proper worklog for Tracks here, I was rather hurried so the worklog suffered while I was actually working on him. It is a little long for a blog post so I'll sum it up.

Tracks is a bit of a failure. You learn more when you admit you didn't quite hit the target right? For most people I'm sure it would be good enough but Tracks is my favorite character from the series so good enough isn't quite good enough for me. The main problem was the base of most everything which was a foam I didn't think to test before switching from craft foam to it. Volara is about as useless as if I'd used cardboard. The design was okay, I could move pretty well and only needed to be guided because I forgot my contacts. The second and last problem of note was the rigging wasn't sturdy enough to hold every thing perfectly in place. The volara and plastic sheeting were heavier than the materials I was used to so I didn't even think of weight issues. I looked okay standing still though, I was able to stretch my torso and put my hands on my hips under the bottom of the chest piece to keep that almost in place. The helmet and mask were absolutely perfect.

Of course I didn't realize when using the materials that I would need to be careful with temperatures. The last day of the convention I left the costume in my car so I could head straight home after everything finished but it must have been very hot further inland where I parked because a number of the seams popped and patches of the top coat of paint transferred off the chassis pieces and onto the bag they were stored in. Tracks got only one convention sadly, but since he's my favorite character I will work up to him after perfecting my technique on another mech or two as I should have from the start.

Series: Transformers

Construction Time: 2 months (160+ hours)

Cost: $212.50

Materials and Construction: See worklog.

Debut: San Diego Comic Con 2009

Final Appearance: San Diego Comic Con 2009

What I've kept after realizing I wouldn't repair him, I'd start over.

Costume: Arcee 1.0

Unfortunately I did not have the foresight to do a good work log, I do have a haphazard after the fact one here. It wasn't standard at the time to document these things, I'm glad that with the creation of Transcostumers we have made that a semi-standard process and also made the world of robot costuming a much more open and collaborative place. It feels kind of cool to have been part of making that happen. I love costuming this kind of stuff because of the challenge. I'm working up to a mech, due to my small size and feminine shape that is pretty much as challenging as costuming can go.

This was my second costume using covered craft foam for armor. The previous costume, done a year before, was a much simpler chest piece with with attached shoulders and built out thigh armor. While I was familiar with the materials used because of the previous costume, this costume was a nice challenge because of the back attachments and more detailed shapes as well as figuring out how to make the costume comfortable enough to put on and wear without help for an entire day. My best idea was to veer from the traditional full helmet that was (and still is) standard to a faceless helmet and a mask that could slide up up under the helmet. Being able to quickly get fresh air or unobscured vision was a dream.

But, here is the summary from my costume lookbook:

Arcee

Series: Transformers: Animated

Construction Time: 2 months (about 135 hours)

Cost: About $120, including all repair materials

Materials and Construction: Craft foam base "armor" covered in broadcloth fabric. Back kibble papercard base covered in fabric and attached to a 1" ribbon harness. Black leotard and black stirrup leggings with pink jersey accents sewn on. Mask constructed of uncovered craft foam with lame backed eye holes and elastic bands to secure it to the wearer's head.

All pieces slip on excepting the chest plate which has a right shoulder/neck zip and hook and loop tape to connect the front underarm panels to the back. The belt also opens and closes with hook and loop tape to make it easier to put on.

Worklog

Debut: A-Kon 2008

Final Appearance: Disney Concert Hall Transcostumers Photo Shoot, 2009

Awards: 1st in 2-D Animation Based Division, All-con 2009

               Transcostumers Featured Costume: Winter 08-09