Dragon*con 2010

I have to write a blog post for my armor since I happen to think it was pretty cool. I was challenged by Mrs. Volpin Props to make all of my armor out of hot glue -- and I did. All of the golden armor and the blue and red jewels are hot glue cast.

I only have time to briefly say Dragon*con was super awesome, and here I am running around the con in costume.



Princess Zelda 100% completed and donned. This was actually the first time I put the whole costume on at the same time. The angle is dorky but when I switched it to upright it looked ridiculous so I like the funky tilt. I'll have some great pro shots from Bryan Humphrey and Eurobeat King up later.



Sophitia Alexandra, completed and donned -- and hanging out with my "sister" Cassandra whose costume puts mine to shame...but she (and her husband, Volpin) spent much more time on it than I did so nyah. Ironically it wasn't until last night that I realized I'd completely forgotten to tie the shoulder thing on the left side. I put it on the right side. Minor detail to the world but I'm kicking myself. Especially since there are photos on the 'net of me wearing this costume and some of them are from behind. GRRRR IMPERFECTION.


So there we have it, my two projects for 2010. I've officially decided to make Ashlotte for next year, and if she ends up being the only costume I make I think I can live with it. I want perfection -- and I ended up switching back and forth between Sophitia and Zelda like mad anyway. Might be easier to just have one epic costume over two semi-epic costumes.

Zelda: Twilight Princess -- Progress

The panel for my Zelda V3.0 gown was absurdly difficult to put together. This is because I'm A - Insane, B - A Perfectionist ... so I decided after lazily painting V1.0 and V2.0 I was going to do something extravagant with V3.0

So I did.
By which I mean I hand-embroidered the entire thing.

Cost: ~$30 for fabric, embroidery needles, paint, and all of the threads
Time: ~70hrs
First, I took blue satin and sewed it into the shape of the panel.Then, satin-stitched around the edge for about six million hours, and fifteen minutes. It took forever because everything had to be so tightly pressed together.


Continued with my method -- sketch the pattern with disappearing ink, and satin stitch over it.
Can't seem to find the rest of the in-between photos...but here is the finale. I used some gold jacquard beads to make the yellow triforce nice and shiny. Off-white thread for the rest of it except the deep purple, and then forest green paint for the ...er, green part.
A comparison between Zelda panel V1.0, V2.0 and Zelda Panel V3.0...as you can see I got better. It actually cost quite a bit more to do V1.0 and V2.0 than V3.0 (acrylic paint = more expensive than embroidery thread), but I spent a fraction of the time on V1.0 and V2.0.


The bodice for Zelda 3.0 was fairly simple to sew up...and took around quite some time to embroider since it was the first thing I did and I'd never actually embroidered before. There are some obvious mistakes that will eventually be repaired.

Cost: ~$24 for fabric and thread
Time: ~20hrs


Thus, it begins...

Close-up

The front, all spiffified.

The back -- I decided to sew the back up so it's a bit of a squeeze to get on but it fits like a glove which is something I have a hard time achieving. Usually things are a bit too large. So the laces are false, I put them through properly but they don't do anything.

Progression photos of the bodice from 2008, 2009, 2010

The white gown was insanely expensive as far as fabric, and took a while to get put together juuuust right. The embellishments on the bottom are just painfully boring, but not terribly difficult. Unlike the other stitches this is an inverted backstitch. Meaning I'm backstitching the underside instead of the top to get a thicker fill. I'm still four away from the end of the bottom of the skirt being done.
Cost: ~$60 for fabric, thread, the paper I drew the pattern on and follow
Time: ~30hrs and counting


All sewed up

Ta da!

The back laces up so I can get it on tightly. I boned where the laces are for some extra sturdiness

Obligatory puppy posing with patterns shot


The embroidery begins.



The four completed
Everything put together and pinned -- and the wagging tail of my dog.


That's as far as I've gotten so far. I still either need to shine up the armor I'm going to reuse...or start working on new armor. I also need to make new gloves, and style my wig. I usually just use my hair, so using a wig is going to be odd. I used to have waist-length blonde hair but I hacked it all off in October 2009 and just recently dyed it brown...so I have to wig it up.

Facebook Page

Masqued Cosplay is on facebook! Updates there are likely to happen more often than here since there I can write a sentence and be done, here I have to put something succinct together.

follow here

Latest work

I've been pretty busy working on costumes lately...feeling guilty for not updating this since I apparently show up Volpin's list of blogs he follows.

Costumes in progress for Dragon*con and what's left to work on (photos to come next with some step-by-steps):

Zelda v3.0 -- Twilight Princess --
4 embroidered skirt embellishments
Remake shoulder armor
Remake tiara
Remake panel clasp
Style wig
Gloves

Sophitia Alexandra -- Soul Calibur IV --
Belt 1 (flat)
Belt 2 (jeweled)
Add back wire to shoulder armor
Bracers
Shinguards
White dress w/fabric paint embellishments


So yes I'm still alive. I've been updating my facebook more than here I think I'll post a link in case anyone wants to add my Facebook page ^^

Hahahaha

This is what happens when you create a cosplay in two days.
It turned out...decently. I used the acrylic ink and rubbing alcohol method to dye the wig -- had I had more time I would have loved to ...y'know, get the right colour, and style it. But I didn't. There were a ton of issues with this costume that really built up on me but I see some things I'd like to keep and some I'd like to reaaaally get rid of.

Favourite part of the costume: that little vial in my hand. It was dyed water and then I added pieces of dried ice and it bubbled and steamed and was downright suh-weet. It really looked all supersciency. Unfortunately the dried ice kinda didn't last too long so I had to keep refilling it and that got frustrating.

Favourite part of Wasabi Animeland Con: Well, there were some really nice things in the Dealer room (SLAYERS STUFF REALLY?!) and the music videos were pretty cool (my favourite was the Big O one... really there were too many "hah let's make a joke about SEX" videos).

I also made a Tenchi shirt for my boyfriend. I think his shirt turned out beautifully. The only issue with it was that I accidentally grabbed a pattern a size too small and it ...er...was a size too small.



I eyeballed the entire Washu costume, no patterns. Which is part of why it turned out so badly. I love the purple skirt, though. I was supremely pleased with that.

Wasabi

So I'm going to Wasabi Con.

I decided this...yesterday.

So I am going to attempt to come up with a Washu from Tenchi Muyo. Should be interesting. The wig is going to be downright horrific and I have already accepted this fact. So we will see. Updates soon.

Ashlotte

So I got bored with the idea of making a Rose costume -- I may still do it, but having finished the Halloween costume I realized how remarkably simple it is, so I can figure that out any ol' time.

I realized how badly I want to do Ashlotte from Soul Calibur IV, so now I've decided to start working on that because I really am a huge dork who likes to randomly switch projects. Problem? Figuring out how to make the metal dress. The cage, the arm things, I have some ideas in progress for that. It's that damn dress. I certainly can't make it out of metal -- not that I wouldn't like to, I just wouldn't be able to get ahold of the equipment. Oh, and the skill.

The character:
...my internet at my parents' house sucks so it's just not going to happen. If I remember to, I will come back and put up her picture. If you don't know who she is, she's a special character in Soul Calibur and easily googleable.


Stay tuned for sketches and thoughts. I'll try to keep a running list of what happens, since I've already realized no one else has a nice tutorial (at least that I can find...) and it's frickin' impossible to find a photograph of her from the back so I'll have to try to convince one of my friends who owns the game to let me play it.

Halloween

Totally forgot to update this.

I finished the dress in time for Halloween (while jamming to Repo! The Genetic Opera), the problem was that where I went was way too small and crowded for me to wear my hoops, so all of my pictures are hoop-less.

But all the same.

The final product:
That's my friend Christopher, whom I went to hang out with for Halloween, on the phone with his friend. He is, in fact, wearing a Mal costume from Firefly. I found this thrilling.

Eventually I'll try to get a photo out in my yard with my full gown and hoopskirt on, the skirt should go out about two/three more feet more than it does. I went to Cabellas in that gown, it cracked me up.

So there's my "practice gown" -- I'm pretty pleased, it was remarkably easy to make (especially with my dress form).