Cosplay

Chattering Initated

I have been cosplaying for a long long time. There has been a series of website i've put my cosplay photos on, but I suppose when you want something done right, you must do it yourself!

Many of these costumes debuted as halloween costumes. My Silent Hill 1 nurse was a halloween costume, given that Young Me did not go to conventions. I have plenty of halloween costumes that did not get documentation. Strings of werewolves or ghouls have gone unremarked on by history and my camera. Some of them were good. Most of them were not. All helped me learn about costume making, even if all I learned was how bad a mess rubber cement can make. I have done costumes with small to medium props, but nothing heavily depandant on faux armor or metal. Metal working isn't my strong-suit and has not been required of me often enough for me to gain any semblance of mastery over it.

Most of my costumes won't have their own page. They're usually not part of a series, or I haven't put that much time into them.

Sayaka was my favorite from Madoka Magica. Sayaka is most of the mid series tension and beautifully designed. I think my favorite part of this was the cape. I wore this twice and the first cape was white cotton but the second cape was a heavier synthetic material that swooshed wonderfully. Shoes were painted with acyrlic because I dodn't know about leather paints at that point.

Plain Doll (Bloodborne)

Plain Doll was a comfortable outfit once I got past the initial awkward fit of the brown over-shirt. The cape still hangs on my coat hook today and the skirt was comfortable and breezy, until I took it apart due to getting bothered about wearing it multiple times. It was one of the only skirts I've made that had pockets in it. The costume asked for a cartain about of detail, but not so much that it becomes bothersome.

Jodariel (Pyre)

Jodariel from pyre was a strange costume. It reused my blond wig from the doll, braided. This picture taken is the halloween before the wig arrived. I didn't have hooves, since I am not Little Wayne, so I settled for some shoes with a very tall platform in the front and no back, raising me almost a foot higher than normal. It required concentration to walk in those, and they've yet to be used since. I liked being tall for once, but not enough to wear them around! Instead of trying to take some metal with EVA foam I went to the hardware superstore and grabbed some metal duct parts to slip over my wrists. It has been years since I made this but I still look at it with aspirations of going back and really making this costume shine.

Eclipsa Butterfly(Star Vs the forces of Evil)

While not techinically impressive, Eclipsa Butterfly was very comfy to wear. The dress was a purple kona cotton. I made it a bit long and had to raise the hem with a quick basting stitch. The dress was extremely comfortable and rewearable in other situations, but the collar was stained and I never got around to replacing it. The shoes were also comfortable, being ones I already owned. My favorite part of this is the hat, which, having been stripped of the big branch, I wear out for formal occasions. My parasol lost its super long handle, which will need to be replaced if I ever want to rewear this. I honestly loved having the super long umbrella/parasol. I think if I ever remake the cosplay, I'll put more effort into the parasol. Heck, I might just get the parasol and skip the costume.

Mad Mew Mew

Mad Mew Mew, the Swtich exclusive Undertale boss, was really fun to make, but awful to wear because my attitude towards costuming over the years has been "make it real." When confronted with a bunch of bells on the feet and tail I.... bought real bells. The ones on the head are christmas ornaments I was able to take the ringing parts out of. I wasn't able to do that for the others. I felt like a midevil fool 'jingling miserably across the floor' of the convention hotel. People could hear me on different floors. I kept knocking into walls due to my wig swelling the outer perimeter of my head to three times its normal size. I had white shoes and gloves and apron. What wasn't white was baby pink.
Anything that got spilled WOULD stain. I was constantly reattaching my shoe covers because the thread at the arch of the foot kept snapping. To top everything off, someone thought I was an OC and not an actual Undertale character, even when I told them... Yeah, this costume is retired I think. I had fun working on the tail,though. Loved the look of the fur once it was stuffed.

Cure Yum Yum

Cure Yum Yum was a hassle to wear.
The base wig I got last year to replace a different blonde base wig. The buns also came from the red fabric for the shorts. I had initially wrapped loose hair around wires for the curly bits, which cost me 2.99 for one pack of hair and4.99 for the floral wire. When i decided I didn't like it, i went for simply curling some hair and inserting it in the buns. The yellow ric rac was .45 cents a yard, bought 2 yards in case of accidents costing .90 cents. The little hat was made of a fill-able plastic sphere for 1.89 with a second bought in a smaller size for 1.89 in case the first was too big, leftover fabric and a ribbon which cost me roughly 1 dollar.
The chest bow ended up supper annoying, as I couldn't wait for a 3d heart to arrive from etsy. I first tried making one of paperclay for 4.99. When i didn't like the results, I ended up finding a plastic heart shaped jar for2.99 and using the lid along with the paint i used on the shoes. It was made pin-able with a pin backing and hot glue i already owned. the base shoes were 3.37 at a second hand store after a 1.12 discount for having a membership/frequent buyer card Then they were painted with ButterCream brand interior paint that I got years ago at 3.50 on clearance The bows were part of the red fabric i bought later and the shape was held with interfacing.
This is because the local fabric shop doesn't always label what fabrics are being bought-just the price and quantity. So I have a bunch of free floating numbers on my receipts. Why is this a problem? Because I was also purchasing for two other costumes at the time. I made a point to remember the bigger chunks of material for the others,but things like ribbons, trims, buttons and hooks were not labeled. And this is just what I kept the receipts for. I know I made other trims for more interfacing later on that don't have the receipts to go with the memory.

Cure Black

Cure Black was actually very easy to do. I was afraid the heart shapes would be the end of me, but it was all doable, and for a very reasonable budget. Cure Black asked for very little, for being a magical girl; Shorts, a top, an overskirt and some basic arm and leg coverings. Her shoes were solid colored, rounded toe, leaving lots of room for interpretation. Cure Black asked for hearts and lots of frills but nothing truly outrageous or demanding.
Cure Black totalled up to be approximatly 56.49 plus taxes. With no need for a pair of shoes that I didn't already have, and a minimum of colors, Cure Black is one of the cheapest cosplays in recent history for me. That's rather appropriate for her obliging and breezy character, isn't it!
I got a reminder while wearing it that detached sleeves and long socks need more support than elastic can give them. Sock glue would have been my friend for the sleeves if i had any, but it was just me, puling them back into place on the regular. Luckily my calves kept the socks up and in the right spot. I made my belt buckle too small, but in the end I was happy with the results for this costume. I really only could have been happier if I had a Cure White to pair with for photos, but PreCure just isn't as popular in the US.

Princess Heart!

Heather's UFO ending costume isn't THE Dream Costume, but it's a close second. It's a glitzy magical girl pastiche patterned less after traditional magical girls and more after 70's style Space Babes. Bewtween the super high collar with the low bust cut and the short shirt with the boots, this is They Came From Planet Vulcan all the way.

The white stars on the boots and the hearts were actually obstacles I didn't expect to be as annoying to work around as they were. The choker and belt buckle hated being alive and tried to die upon the first wearing. We can rebuild them though,faster, stronger, shinier. I also had to wash the hell out of the white body of the dress because i didn't expect the red of my gloves to rub off on the dress as I was wearing it. It wasn't even wet, at the time.

I ended up cutting the dress up at the seams and turning it inside out, costing me a full inch and a half at the front. The end result is pictured, wrinkled, hasitly redone seams and all. The quickly attached heart is not the first heart. The first heart was lost somewhere in the shuffle. The second wearing of the dress did have some improvements in the midst of the downgrades. The long awaited gems have made their way to the cuffs of the poofy sleeves. A three inch deep pocket was added along the right side of the costume. Last but not least, a proper fastener was added to the choker. It made it a bit looser than before but more solid and less likely to jump to its death on the floor. The belt, however, is still a disaster zone. Finding a heart buckle is surprisingly hard these days. Either that or I am looking in all the wrong places.

Mini Gallery

Many of the photos of my old costumes are incomplete or poor quality due to being years old. Here are some of my oldies. Enjoy the scraps.

a waist up shot of a haruharu haruko cosplay in a bathroom irror fuzzy picture of an Izumi Konata cosplay, the camera is angled so it covers the persons face a picture of a cosplay of a Little Sister from Bioshock 1. the dress is light blue. The cosplayer is standing in the water of a swimming pool an incomplete cosplay of godtier Vriska Serket from Homestuck A cosplay of Akita Neru from vocaloid, Kaitos jacket is draped over the shoudlers of the cosplayer