Baby cosplay

My favourite blog Costume Craze shared with us back in February these cosplay onsies from Japan. I don't know who half of them are but I love the idea! Awww, so adorable! Japanese company Bandai has announced a new line of anime and tokusatsu baby outfits! There are 10 outfits total, scheduled for release at the end of this month.

Top left to right: Devilman, Dorami, Doraemon, Ultra Seven, Ultraman

Bottom left to right: Sun Goku, Shocker, Kamen Rider, Red and Pink ranger from Himitsu Sentai Goranger.

Summer Costumes

Its that time of year again, summer is fast approaching and its time to plan cosplays for the conventions :) I have a couple of costumes I made before falling pregnant, and some could be modified. I am keen to début my Kaylee overalls which could be adapted for bump, if I get a waist coat and stethoscope for my baby Daddy "Simon" it could be quite funny :)

I haven't worked on it but I have a nearly finished "Ponyos Mother" who is a beautiful sea goddess with long red hair. If Dave will let me I can dress him as Ponyos father, the human wizard who resides in a submarine and we can be the perfect prequel pair, he certainly fits the kooky character ;)

Also I have a dress that is very close to that of an extra in the first episode of my all time favourite anime Cowboy Bebop. I have on the top of my cosplay wish list a Spike and Faye costume, the later of which has been struck right off! I can make trousers and buy a sombrero and poncho for Spike should the Jacket be too complex or time consuming.


In the past its been me motivating and pushing DH into costumes, or (due to work) been left till the last minute or he couldn't decide on a costume. David is for the first time excited about a cosplay! He isn't a massive fan of resident evil but after researching a Jill Valentine cosplay (as I am want to do in my spare time) he would love the chance to get kitted up and be Chris Redfield for the day. Looking badass has never felt so right!

He has a lot of options for the combat waistcoat with plenty of army barmy mates it shouldn't bee too hard to find something suitable. He is also keen to try his hand at prop making for Chris' machete, not to mention nagging me into learning leather working to make him holsters not only for cosplay but also his military past times. Is there no end to the demand on my talents??

Kaylee

I have now finished my fabulous Kaylee costume!

I am very please with the distressing and ageing, it took a while to get the oil stains right. My husband dryly commented "why don't you just use engine oil?" Well that might have been a good idea but by then I had spent a long time mixing wd40, vegetable oil and dye to try and make it greasy and permanent, so I had to see it through to the end.
A lot of fine detail has gone into this costume, I hand stitched the patches with embroiders thread and put dirty wear marks on the pockets and high use areas, ie knees and bum :) I have seen several other bear overall cosplays but modest though I am mine is by far the best! There are 2 things I am not 100% happy about but they barely shadow how please I am with the overall result : D

I also made a little bag from some left over materials, its not that large but just big enough to hold my purse, phone, keys and con badge etc.

I hope you enjoy the photos taken by my good friend Mr Abe, he came down especially before I get too big to fit in them any more! I am thinking I might still wear this costume over the summer, I could just leave the top half of overalls around my waist but that would only be funny with my baby daddy dressed as Simon to tag along. Lets see if we can convince him!

Kawinnet J Frye

Kaylee! Sqwee ^_^

I adore Firefly, the frontier scifi show from genius Joss Wheadon, the series that certainly is a case of quality over quantity. I love the crew of serenity but Kaylee has something special about her, and it wouldn't be hard to stay in character whilst wearing her costume!

First of all I bought a parasol with the intention of painting it but so far I've been un-able to find a suitable silk shirt to wear with it so for now I'm sticking with normal mechanic Kaylee. I searched a long time to find suitable overalls and finally found this great pair from Uncle Sam. Shipping from the US was as much as the item itself so I decided to buy 2 and try to sell a second complete costume online to help towards costs.

There are three patches on Kaylee's coveralls: the bear, the heart, and the flower.

The size of the flower is 1.25" x 1.5" and it has a yellow centre.

From yet another long search came the 2 smaller patches on the front of her overalls. Although the heart and flower seem to be home-made or crochet on Kaylees overalls I have bought some iron on patches made from shiny material, and the flower also has a little glitter but the size and colours are right. Despite not being spot on they cute and I know kaylee would approve :) I attached a heavy metal zip to the front of the overalls, removed the sleeves and tweaked the shape of the jump suit to make it a more flattering shape for a curvy woman such as myself.

I used sand paper to age the pockets, knees and other hard wearing areas. I found very few resources for the characters on Kaylee's trousers, but this one is amazing. After I had decorated the Chinese doodles, I used spray paint and oil to dirty it up - it was good fun! When I was done I washed the whole thing about 6 times, sometimes with some lightener, to give it a well broken in look. I searched for a long time and did find a good copy but it was too much money so eventually bought a long sleeved tee-shirt on ebay, its not perfect but again I'm sure it would definitely be approved by Kaylee herself :)

Special thanks to Maggie at http://www.costumersguide.com/

Alcon 2010??

Oh my frickin' gosh! *screams* ahem >_> so yeah I have just registered to a rubbish convention . . . at the last minute . . . its in 4 days time . . . argghh!

I was looking forward to going to Amecon this year but my husband was away and none of my friends wanted to go, instead they want to return to the rubbish con we attended last year. In a huff I refused to register but I haven't been to any conventions so far and feeling left out I took a little look at the website. After seeing they had spaces left I thought I'd give Anime League a second chance, although having tickets left just proves my point (!) at the very least my costumes will get an airing.

The "argh" was for the work I have ahead of me; I haven't finished 3 costumes - Priss, Saint Tail and Ponyos Mother - have lain untouched for a the last few months (I was sulking) but I'm not very good at sulking (I'm sure I was supposed to pout?) and nobody actually noticed. *sigh* So now I have to finish 3 costumes in 4 days, which means accepting first attempt stitching, accessory compromises, late nights and second rate results : (

I have 3 finished costumes - Motoko, generic maid and Sailor Mars - but I've certainly learnt my lesson: don't sulk over cosplay, you only hurt yourself.

Major Motoko Kusangei

Ghost in a Shell is a legendary media shaping anime collection that I have always admired. I have also put together a Togusa costume for my husband, who is hardly a major character but unfortunately he is just no where near the right build for the majors lieutenant, Batou.

Which means I get to be the cyborg anti-terrorist hottie: The Major : D This costume is half store bought and although only took about 12 hours to finish it took me 4 months to complete, I always get excited and start new costumes before the previous one is finished! This year I had 6 costumes to do so I made and finished them all bit by bit lol In total this one cost £65 to put together, and although it was a challenge I'm happy with the overall effect.


To start with I bought some jeans and a wig worked from there, I love Ghost in a Shell so it was easy to get excited about it :) I made a jacket from Pleather using copied design, I tried 3 different types of material before I was happy, and boy it is not easy to work with! I also spent a long time getting the leotard right and this is the only thing I was un-satisfied with on this cosplay. Take a look at the gallery, thanks to Cosplay Portrait for the photos and the how too on the jacket and leotard can be found here.

Comments are greatly appreciated, let me know what you think!

Lolita Maid

Just thought I'd show you some photos of a new costume in my collection a generic "french" maid :) I love the short puffy dresses of gothic and sweet lolita even though petticoats don't suit someone with my bust I still persist ;)

I decided to do this dress below the knee and with its plain black ruffles its a very sensible maid costume, un-like the lolita maid dresses coved in ribbons and lace that I admire so much. I have made an apron and a head piece to complete the look, all I need now is a decent duster!

Tim Burton

On Saturday 20th The Adgincourt Rock Venue in Camberley Surrey (our hometown haunt) is holding a Tim Burton Theme night. I love theme nights they give me excuse to dress up with my friends without the expense of a party, and am very gutted not to be able to go!

In the past I have won a couple of completions but have missed out on a few, they are judge by cheers or the crowd so popular or big boobed girls are more likely to win. Regardless of this I am sure that my Corpse Bride costume, made for Halloween last year would win hands down : ) Unfortunately we are going the week afterwards for a couple for birthdays and the week before for mothers day and cant afford to travel the 120 miles to our home town 3 weeks in a row : (

A friend of mine is making an Oogie Boogie costume which I just know will be awesome! I will post a photo of him - I hope there will be one! - after the event. I found this wonderful costume online, I love the toy worms and spiders and the rough seams. I would love a chance to make one myself, so it has been filed away as a possible in my "to do" list : )

Star Trek

This weekend there is yet another costume night at the Adj -our home towns rock venue- for a friends birthday : ) With all my costume making and lack of full time work this year I already have several pricey projects eating up my expenses so I needed something cheap and easy. . .

How to Make a Star Trek Mini Dress

Volia!
Easy peasy and will only take an hour! I'm going to Primark on Monday which is ideal for cheap gents tee-shirts, and I can buy ribbons in a number of places. In TOS blue was worn by medical and science personnel (my Starfleet allocation) but also by security which is also my current job description so its win win! I'll post a model photo once I have finished : )

Aayla Secura

I love Star Wars almost as much as I love costumes, so its obvious to say that the two have crossed paths on more than one occasion. In the past few years gathered together a Leia & Han costumes for myself and my husband a few new years back, I have several light sabres, a Padame jumpsuit and also as a particular feature in this blog; my favourite ever Jedi: Aayla Secura.

Now bear in mind I had only 2 days in which to make this costume, and as I dislike wearing full body paint (for those of you who don't know, Aayla is blue skinned) especially in a night club so there is a little poetic licence and imagination needed here.

I had trouble finding decent reference pictures but it is an acceptable likeness, unlike the other costumes I listed above I was actually correctly recognised whilst wearing this costume. This was in a night club not at a convention . . . !

I like the belt best, I also added a handbag; attached to the belt like a pouch to carry my camera, coin purse, mobile and other essentials. And I am particularly proud of my stuffed tights brain tails : D The later unfortunately didn't last all night, the ribbons kept slipping down and I don't know if you have ever tried to mosh with a head piece on but its not easy!

Cosplay plans 2010

I have made some definite decisions regarding this years anime conventions. We are going to Amecon in Newcastle on Lyne and The London Movie and Comic con. I also fancy a look in at the London Expo : ) We might tag along at Alcon again this year if our friends are going anyway - ut David isn't keen.

My costume buddy Laila has picked about 8 quite similar but also very tricky costumes, she is very ambitious so I have decided to stick with some simpler but more thorough costumes. I do like to accurate ; )The final cast list is as follows:

Nanoha Strikers bureau uniform - I've already started modifying a suit and sourcing accessories.
Major Motoko Kusanagei from Ghost in a Shell SAC series - custom jacket and sourced clothes.
Sen/Chihrio and No Face from Spirited away - Ill make both of these from scratch.
Sailor Mars - also from scratch to be partnered with Lailas Jupiter.
Daisy Mario and Donkey Kong - The former will be from scratch and the latter hired from the costume shop.

I'll make posts for them all once they are complete : ) And hopefully this time around I'll get some decent photos to accurately portray my hard work : )

The Joker

Well my husband has asked me for the second time to put together a drag costume for him. I know it’s a squadie thing and all military men need little encouragement to don a frock and I should not be surprised considering David’s enthusiasm for the eccentric, but still I am a little concerned. I’m not too worried though as this costume totally rocks!

I love comic books and recently there have been some wonderful and brilliant live action movies. Iron Man is so far my favourite but I also love The Dark Knight. Since seeing the latter earlier this year my husband loved the hospital scene and said Heath Ledger looked great so when an announcement came from a friend who is having a heroes and villain fancy dress birthday in December, it was his first choice.


First of all I sourced the dress. It wasn’t as difficult as I expected and after some time I found a style that was satisfactory. I needed to take it in a bit, adjust the lapel and neckline, fiddle with the pockets and add some trim. After some research I found out that the dress from the movie is actually of British design/inspired so that explains it. I also bought a pair of socks, sneakers belt and a silver fob watch. The last thing was to search for a wig. It was tricky because most wigs are wither blonde or brown, curly or straight not a mixture of both. I found this wavy wig very acceptable and trimmed it to the correct length.

My birthday friend knows David has chosen to dress as The Joker but doesn’t know the variation, I can’t wait to see the look on their faces! It will be brilliant and I have no doubt that Dave will be a talk of the town : )

Wonder woman

After my friends recent announcement I had a hard time deciding who to dress up as for her Heroes and Villains birthday party. I have always been keen to do the jokers lover Harley Quinn but also was tempted to do an original Catwoman. Trouble is both of those costumes are cat suits and leotards as are many other super hero costumes. After much deliberation I decided to pick up a costume I have been putting together and have never worn, of my most favourite comic book hero bar none – Wonder Woman.

I found a great red corset that had very supple PVC and is comfortable to wear although not as well fitted on the bust as I would have liked. I also bought some shiny blue hot pants which are teeny tiny so I made a skirt to cover them. This is an acceptable modification in many WW costumes so I don’t feel concerned about authenticity in this mater.

I did however have a conundrum concerning colouring. I wasn't sure if I should go for yellow as the comics show or gold as the cartoons, live action and pictures show. In the end I decided on a controversial mix of the 2. I already had a yellow hair band and belt so I have added gold centre pieces to make them authentic. I also used gold for the W on the bust; I hope that the mixture will create a desired affect even though it lacks authenticity.

I have modified a collection of accessories including a golden lasso, bracer's and tiara, I hope they will do Princess Diana of the Amazons proud : ) While you at it check out this years DC animated movie : )

Party Season?

High fashion continues to display 80's dresses with floral and animal prints this party season which to be honest doesn't excite me at all.


There are also plenty of sequins to be found! Luckily I have seen at least half a dozen items that I would love to buy for my costume wardrobe (which lets face it is twice as large as my regular one anyway >_>) such as this sequinned skirt from Bay trading, wouldn't it be perfect for Columbia! They also have a questionable gold sequinned blazer : ) I have been holding a torch for her costume for a long-time and this is enough to push me into to putting it together : D

Emily: The Corpse Bride

Tim Burtons musical underworld is where Emily the corpse bride spends most of her time, intill she meets Victor, and then all sorts of drama ensues! I have planned a brilliant costume and although I'm not sure how many people will recognise me I am satisfied it will be accurate and realistic : ) I like to adjust costumes to fit in with real life, using real clothes and adapting make up etc to make things more realistic, after all I'm not a cartoon.

First I ordered a cheap Chinese lace corset that is very satisfactory, spray it with a fine layer of silver to give it a bit of sparkle and then aged the edges with dark blue, mostly around the top and bottom of the bodice. I took some time in constructing a trio of rib bones using ivory polyma clay and attached them to the bodice.

A silver dress bought on ebay will be adapted and made into a high waisted skirt with a knee high split slightly of centre to show a view of my shockingly bony leg : ) I will wear a white stocking with knee high blue sock rouched down round the ankle on my left leg. False lashes and bright blue eye shadow to the brow are a must, I have also bought 3 new shades of face paint to paint my body with. The veil I cut to a custom design, which I then hemmed, it is chapel length and falls to the floor. I soakd it in a tea bag/water/dye mix along with some ivory lace wedding gloves. I’ll also distressed them a little with velcro, and tears, both are made of cheap material and tarnished very well. I bought some wooden flowers in several colours which I aged with teabags and paint to make a fabulous bouquet and head piece, the latter of which I will attach the veil : )
On a side note David has a very acceptable hump made from a pair of pillows and some thick elastic straps. I was hoping to find some sort of plastic buckle (like you get on suitcases and the like) but for the moment bows and knots will suffice. I made a rough sack cloth type tunic in stone coloured cotton to go over the top. I had all the materials needed for this and my Emily costume cost £35, which I am so very proud of.

Bridal halloween costume

The party is pretty much planned and I have all the supplies I need, I have started David's costume and my own. I had planned to wear a charity bought bridal gown and put my hair up for Bride of Frankenstein but she actually only wears a sort of bed sheet bandage combo rather than a formal wedding gown. I'd love to do my hair up and I'm sure everyone will recognise me, it would be a very agreeable costume.

But I am tempted to modify the gown (it would look great) and tint my hair purple to become Tim Burtons corpse bride, Emily. This would be more authentic but I'm not sure I can ruin such a gown (even a bargain one) with good conscience.

I'd like some opinions please, do I modify the gown and paint myself as a zombie (I do love a good zombie!) or do I keep it decent and do a passable bride of Frankenstein? Decisions decisions! Please vote on the right hand side, opinions are greatly appreciated : )

Frankintiens bride & Igor

This year I started planning for Halloween early, we are having a party and David is away for 6 weeks before hand so I wanted to get most of the planning done before he left. I've ordered supplies, made shopping lists and menus, I have even got most of the decorations sorted.

I wanted to invite my friends for a dinner party, make a very fancy formal invite and then when they arrived up it would be a ghost house with cobwebs and a graveyard : D We are still doing that but now that David is going to be home early we have made it to a full blown party with cocktails canepes and 25 guests.

I had an idea of 16th century dress in silver and talc in my hair to make me look like a ghostly lady of the court and I did buy a dress pattern but money was the main issue, not to mention a lack of sewing machine. Last week David and I were in a new charity shop in Saffron Walden and I got this perfect bridal gown at a steal for only £5! Its home made so its all frayed and the roses are perfect, I hardly needs modifying, only pulling in the train and taking in the waist so I am very happy : ) I found some hair crimpers at a car boot but I still need to find someone to help to put my hair into a beehive though >_>

I have drawn up plans for Davids hunch back costume, I'm going to use brown cotton sheets to make a sack cloth type tunic with thick straw colour embroidery thread and a pillow strappe to his back underneath for the hunch back. A pair of old trousers/jeans with the bottoms rolled up and some drawn on scars/stitches will finish it of : ) He is in Canada at the moment and they have lots of Halloween things much like they do in the US so he might pick up some treats like a wig or eye piece.

Aerith's summer dress

I took the for-action of ordering Mcalls pattern M-5094 for Aeriths dress. Its Panelled so is not 100% perfect but pretty spot on : ) I'll leave out on the panels to keep the skirt straight and sew buttons on the front. When I cut the pieces for this pattern I thought I had bitten off more than I could chew and was disheartened, I couldn't sew it without help. When my mother in law took her sewing machine back I tried to find a tailor who could take the job from me.

The only one who was interested in "having a look" said he didn't have time to make it before the convention but I was welcome to use his extra machine if I had the free time. I explained I was a rookie and the pattern was too complicated and he said he would help me, I was sceptical but after 8 hours solid work I was so happy with the result. It came together beautifully and although the dress is not 100% correct from the game, its a beautifully made lined summer dress!


I have sewn white pearly buttons from just under the bust and Laila has found these fabulous boots. I also had a play with some polyma clay and modified some bangles for her, I still have to paint the plastic bits but I am very happy with the result. She also needed help with Squalls costume so I have bought and modified some belts that I am also very chuffed with, I hope Alex (Squall) will like them as much as I do : )

Tifa Lockheart

I quickly compiled the items I needed for my Tifa costume and I am very glad it came together so easily! I had some items already including; a white ribbed tank top, socks, boots and gloves. One essential piece was this brilliant leather skirt on I bought on ebay. Although it will be a bit longer than "offical Tifa" with its very high waist the tank top - rather than the authentic crop top - will look better. The only problem was the braces pulled the skirt even higher! so next time I'll buy a skirt that is not so high on the waist as well as changing the elastic on the elbow pad to brown to make it more accurate. Over all I think it went very well : )

The braces were the most expensive item at £7 but they are double ones which is spot on so in my view worth the money. I like it when I find perfect accessories ; ) I painted some brass split pins (no silver ones available!) and modified a pvc belt, turning it back to front, I taped the back to avoid snags when wearing.

It took a bit of time to find some Polyma clay, but once I got some I had fun with it! I put some tape on the INSIDE of the gloves and used the 4 air holes as guides for the "studs". I guessed what proportions by going with what looked right to me and rolled out 4 balls. I flattened them with my thumb, baked them following instructions and stuck them on with craft glue, simple! I have 2 knee length socks cut at the toes and worn under the leather gloves to complete Tifas gloves : )

The elbow pad I sprayed silver with a bit of pewter over the top to give it some depth. I also made a small armoured piece with cardboard and clay to attach to my boot, shown on the far right. The gloves looked fantastic and I was very happy with the result : )

I was not overly excited about this costume by itself but I was excited about Arieths dress! Being along side her was great, I was very proud and Laila was happy to be glomped several times : ) We saw a couple of other FF cos-players and some serious guys but mostly was store bought and a few nauturo (boo). Ill definitely stick to the bigger conventions in future.

Alcon

Well folks seems we are all going to Alcon 2009, Aerith and Tifa here we come! I'll post as I go along as I did with my medieval costume back in April, that way you can see the work in progress : )

The costumes mainly consist of the following:
- Aerith
Red denim cropped jacket
Pink button down summer dress
Brown boots with white socks
Wicker basket & accessories (Hair tie, thong necklace and bracelets)

-Tifa
White tank top
Black leather skirt
Black 6 clip braces
Brown leather gloves
Custom elbow pad/long black gloves
Brown boots with black socks.
x2 red hair ties.

Budgets for both costumes will be tight but I hope to do Tifa for under £15 and Aerith for under £25, lets see how that goes shall we? I hope you will enjoy following the progress, I love actually getting a chance to put together and make new costumes, and in this case I get to do two! Lets hope I get everything done on time considering it is only a couple of months away.