Costume: Beauty Class Trainer (Pokemon X/Y)

My feet didn't have enough style points to really pull off those shoes. My legs are still sore from wearing those and EDI's shoes for half the weekend.

I already had a Serena costume by the time the thought to do this one rolled around and I was thinking of just wearing Serena again to A-kon 25 but one of my friends was debuting her Serena at A-kon and I didn't want to step on her toes. I know people can wear the same costume at the same time but I really prefer not to. There was also the part where the people who'd cosplayed the random trainers at Anime Matsuri had clearly had a lot of fun so I had that in mind when looking at other options.

And then I ran into one of the Beauty class trainers in Lumiose and was like "Well heck, I won't even need to buy anything and I can reuse those shoes from military ball that I haven't worn in a decade and then I get to carry around my sunglasses and a snack to boot!"

Yes I do have my 3DS in my back pocket because streetpasses and being able to challenge people to battles.

I did have to buy a baguette and oddly enough a black camisole since it turns out I don't have one of those after all (what have I even been wearing with Xion then??). I also decided to make a Drifblim because it would have been weird for a minor trainer to be walking around with a Fennekin and I wasn't sure if I'd find a Fletchinder or Fletchling plush at con (since Fletchinder is what one Aimee uses and I dig that little bird dude). Also because Driffles is one of my fav pokemon. :D

Originally the plan was to put a helium balloon into Driffles so he'd float buuuuut it turns out the broadcloth was too heavy. Going to try a wire that attaches either to my bra band or into my hair to hold him to he can float. He's just so expressive though, so much fun to take photos of! I also took my little Litwick with me and got an Eevee at the con.

Don't mind me, just going off to lead some children to their death~

I know, I'm far more suited to being a Hex Maniac. Also we totally battled a dude in the Anatole's parking lot and we one shot won with Fly and got his pocket change. That's how you get laundry quarters in the Pokemon world, folks! Also I'm going to do Diantha next because F Yeah Kalos is the best. Also I totally won't even need to buy anything except another set of clip in bangs and some extensions for her.

Series: Pokemon X/Y

Construction Time: A day

Cost: $5 (camisole and broadcloth for Driffles)

Materials and Construction: Clip in bangs (from Puchiko), black camisole, jeans, belt, shoes, paper bag (from the comic book store), baguette, soda can box, sunglasses, pokeball, broadcloth, heat and bond, cotton balls, a tiny bit of hot glue and balloons.

Debut: A-kon 25 (2014)

Final Appearance: Still in Rotation

Tutorial: Basic Bodysuit Planning

As a special thank you for over 500 likes on my page on facebook I thought I would answer one of the most frequently asked questions I get. Well, a partial answer anyway. I've gotten a TON of people asking just how I made EDI's bodysuit so here's step one to making a custom bodysuit. EDI had a different pattern because of where the seam lines needed to be (along the hips and shoulders, no side seams) but this is a basic unitard pattern which will get you started and after messing with something like this enough you'll be able to change where the seams are easy peasy.

1) Measurements

Here is a list of the measurements you'll most likely need for a basic bodysuit. I2/I3 are ones I used specifically for EDI because of the print layout so you likely won't need them unless you need a definite calf and a definite thigh. 1, 2, and 3 are only if you need a super fitted but without an underbust seam unitard and can also be ignored in most cases. Write these down on a list marked A, B, C, etc.

Now for measuring, if it says... 

Length, it is just a flat measurement, say from the center top of your shoulder to where you chest width measure is (like for B). This will never be divided on this basic layout.

Width, measure all the way around. You will divide this later.

2) Decide on Drafting or Applying To A Pattern

If you've never worked with patterns before, don't want to draft it or don't feel comfortable drawing shapes from measurements then I suggest getting a pattern and modifying it. You can also take a unitard or leotard that already fits fairly well and lay that out on top of whatever you're patterning on and use that as a guideline. In order to make this thing symmetrical I like to work in folded halves (so think folded down the center front). I'm going to walk you through drafting this from scratch as applying changes to a pattern is pretty easy. Also if you're looking to custom print a pattern that will need to conform to your shape and match up then you'll need to know how to get your shape down in 2D before you can even start making/modifying the file to be printed!

3) Top Down

So your paper or fabric is folded in half and you're ready to go with pins/markers/chalk and a measuring tape/ruler. The blue is used here to mark points of reference. Start at what will be the high point of the unitard, the shoulder seam (a) and follow the centerfold down. Once you reach a length equal to your B measurement make a little mark/ put a pin in (c). Then start measuring from there until you reach your D length and pin/mark again (e). Then one last time for the F measurement and a final pin/mark for the bottom of the torso of your unitard (g).

4) Side to Side

Start from the center fold and measure outwards at a 90 degree angle. You will need to divide your base measurements for this step by 4 and use that adjusted measurement.

5) Connect the Dots

6) Leg

Just like the previous part, make a baseline (H) then work off of that. This doesn't follow a fold or line, you kind of have to wing that initial placement but if you're worried just lay a pair of fitted pants down to get an idea of what you're going for. Start from the corner of G and measure outwards. Once you have H drawn then draw J at a 90 degree angle from the end, making sure to divide your original J measurement by 2. Then connect the free end of J back up to the the end of F there.

7) Arm

The arm is going to be the trickiest bit. Start off with M, doing just like you did with the leg and putting it at an angle. If you're not sure if you have a good angle then lay out a fitted long sleeve shirt to check. Start from the corner of A and measure outwards. Then for L, draw a line at a 90 degree angle equal to the distance of half your L measurement. K is going to be the trickiest part, divide K in half then either mark that on a seperate piece of paper or on your hard ruler and put on end flush with line M. Adjust this K paper/ruler until the other end makes contact with the edge of the torso part of the pattern, keeping that K line at a 90 degree angle to M. After that is done go ahead an connect the dots between the K/torso intersection and the free end of L.

You now have a basic bodysuit pattern for yourself. You'll need to cut in a neckline but that will change depending on what you're doing so I'm not covering that here.

8) Actual Pieces for a Bodysuit

That's a standard 3 piece basic construction with a front and a back cut in half to allow for a zip. I've used a variant of this for Knockout's undersuit except I used a stretchy enough material, separate cowl and a boat neck to avoid needing a zip.

You can expand from that basic 2 to 3 piece bodysuit pattern and start cutting that up to get something like Arcee 2.0, I used a boat neck, separate cowl and stretchy material to avoid needing a zip. Notice how I made each leg all one piece with the primary seam on the inner leg. As you start getting more experience you'll get an eye for what seams are in the original reference and what aren't and be able to change your patterns based on that. Though keep in mind with animated designs, you may have to be more crafty about adding seams that aren't there but which are out of the way like inner leg and under arm seams.

And then we have this confusing blot which is EDI. She has no outer side seams which is what make fitting it a pain. But this was drafted the same way as this tutorial just with a bit more eyeballing and a lot more awkward measurements.

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.

Closet Costume: Xion (Kingdom Hearts 358/2)

This sounds ridiculous to call this a closet cosplay, I know. But I really do just have an Organization XIII coat chilling in my closet. I made it back in college when I needed a heavy winter coat and thought I could maybe do a Vexen cosplay without needing a wig (I knew I couldn't and the only cons I went to after making it were summer ones so it never got cosplay usage).

It was a pain in the butt to make the coat, part of the issue was finding a coat weight wool because back then the Joanns in the rural place where I was didn't even have any of any color (they now have several including the blue I used for my Reeve Tuesti coat). I ended up getting a butt ton for what actually was a great price ($60 for 6 yards) in the LA Fabric district when I went home for spring break. It seemed so expensive at the time though and now I still am trying to work my way through all that fabric even after making a heartless plush from it too. I used a pattern from the 70s because it had the right seams (excepting pockets and rain-guard but those were easy to add). I also ordered a custom zipper because I couldn't find a metal zip in that length but I learned why because that thing is wavy as bacon. The chain deco is made from a charm bracelet, some pretty buttons, silver cording and a set of earrings I found at Walmart.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the coat though I want to replace the zip with a plastic one, adjust the lining a little bit and put some boning in the pocket edges so I don't need to snap them closed to sit right. But it's a warm cosplay that is now very simple with the Haruka wig I have. I actually got another wig in order to do Zexion but I'm debating if I'll do that after all. There really is only one or two cons I go to that are winter cons so that wig might be better left as is for lolita outfits or for a future cosplay.

Series: Kingdom Hearts

Construction Time: None

Cost: $0

Materials and Construction: Haruka wig, black camisole, black thermal leggings, socks, black gloves, riding boots, Organization XIII coat

Debut: Ikkicon 2013

Final Appearance: Still in Rotation

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

Closet Costume: Kurashita Tsukimi (Princess Jellyfish

So a few days before a convention a friend mentioned how they were going to do a Princess Jellyfish group and had a Banba, a Mayaya and a Kuranosuke and may have implied I'd make a good Tsukimi. So I thought about it and realized I have a kimono and obi that look rather like the ones Chieko lends Tsukimi and I have a wig and clip in ponytail from my lolita-ing that could masquerade as her hair and well what do you know suddenly I've got a Tsukimi outfit.

This one specifically.

It's not a perfect match, there's a distinct lack of green in my outfit and my kimono had a fall/maple motif instead of roses but for all of an hour of deciding between accessories and a grand cost of free I'd say it was pretty good. And it meant I got to wear that kimono that I haven't worn since high school again which is nice.

It also meant I got to derp around with some pretty fun people (though technically I also did a closet Jiji cosplay but I plan on ramping that one up for either A-kon or San Japan). I just wish I would have remembered to put her ponytail on the right side and that I'd have used more blush.

Series: Princess Jellyfish

Construction Time: 1 hour

Cost: Free

Materials and Construction: Wig/Clip in ponytail, Vintage Kimono, Handmade Juban, Handmade Haneri, Vintage Obiage, Vintage Obi, Vintage Obijime, Tabi Socks and Vintage Zori.

Debut: March 2014

Final Appearance: Still in Rotation

A Quick and Dirty Guide to Finishing Worbla

Alrighty-tighty folks, have spent the whole of my January experimenting with finishing Worbla I've now got a pretty good idea of what to use when and since I have yet to see something like this out there (I searched. Hard.) I thought I'd put this out there for Valentine's day (even though maybe I celebrate Legumentines instead).

There are several methods of finishing out there that I've seen so far and I've tried almost all of them. The only ones I didn't try were plastidip and friendly plastic as I didn't have those available to me.

A QUICK NOTE
Now that I've had these pieces for awhile and they have done some travelling I can make a few notes about durability which have been added below, the major note is JUST SPRAY PRIMER IS PRONE TO CRACKING/CHIPPING.

Products:

Gesso

$10 for a bottle that could probably last for a long time.

Time: About a week for 8 coats and 20 hours of sanding.
Durability: N/A

This is the one I tried first as that was what everyone was doing in late fall. I don't actually like it as it's honestly not easy to sand smooth. After 8 coats my mask still hand some low bits and bumps even but luckily it was just a test anyways.

Verdict: Unless you have tons of time and an already existing supply of gesso or are already good at gesso-ing I'd say pass.

Wood Glue

$4 a bottle that lasts for a few pieces of armor

Time: 1-2 days most of which is waiting for coats to dry. No sanding needed.
Durability: VERY durable, no cracks or ships yet.

Many thanks to Kamui-sensei and the gentleman at Ge[Bastelt] for this one. It's the quickest, cheapest and most non-toxic of finishing materials. It works best on highly detailed (like lots of raised edges) things and is wavy if you try it on anything flat/unadorned that's bigger than about 2 inches wide. It dries almost entirely clear which makes it kind of hard to see if you've got a dip or something in the finish until you're painting. It can sand if you want to and while you can water sand (as in with a wet finger) I don't find that water sanding does much of anything for how much time it takes.

Filler Primer

$4 for a can which is enough for 2-3 coats on a helm.

Time: 2 days to a week depending on how often you sand between coats and how smooth your original worbla was.
Durability: Pretty meh on it's own. Corners can chip and if you flex a part too much it will crack. Can be fixed by applying wood glue over it though and repainting. When used on top of wood glue though it has more of the durability of wood glue.

This is what you use to get a smooth mirror finish. It can get expensive but for something high visibility like a helm it's honestly worth it. Everything that is touches on your piece must be sanded though so it does take a good bit of sanding time but unlike gesso it takes about a minute at most to apply the primer itself and it easily goes on in an even, uniform layer. Also it sands much easier than gesso. I would suggest putting three coats down initially then sanding with 150 and going over that briefly with 500, then two more coats and if it looks smooth after those then just polishing it up with 500 before painting.

So now you know about what some of the products we can use are, let's get to the much more interesting part of what to use when.

Techniques

Wood Glue

3 layers tends to work well, painting on thickly but not to the point where it runs

Small (2"x2" or less) pieces

Very detailed pieces of any size

Things that will be a pain to sand

Edging around gems (1-2 layers of wood glue)

Filler Primer

3 layers then sand with large grit then fine grit then two layers and sand if needed

Things that are fairly flat and have no major dips you need to fill in or particularly bumpy seams

The top of the turbine is unfinished since that goes under a sleeve.

Wood Glue & Filler Primer

3 layers wood glue then 2-3 layers filler primer then sand with 150 and finish with 500

Pieces with large flat/smooth areas

Pieces with noticeable bumps, dips or seams (may want to do 1-2 extra layers of wood glue then to fill these)

I've had amazing luck with the wood glue/filler primer combo as it both saves time and money. And the sanding isn't so bad if you put a towel on your lap to catch the dust and sit down and watch something good. You can look forward to more Worbla related stuff here as I'm really enjoying working with it. :)