Category: Crafting

Lost momentum

Comic books, Cosplay, Crafting, Fandom, Geek

I’ve been trying to figure out why I can’t seem to get anything done in the mornings before work (which used to be my most productive time of day), and then it hit me: without cosplays to work on nonstop, I’ve lost steam.

With so many mornings of gogogogogo in preparation for Phoenix Comicon, my brain doesn’t know what to do with nothing to do. Well, I guess I don’t have nothing to do. I could write, draw, read, color in my coloring books…so there are things that can keep my mind occupied–I just don’t have the drive to do any of them. My inspiration on my new novel has evaporated, so until that comes back to me I’m a little at a loss there.

Once we get some fabric for my husband’s coat and pants for his next cosplay, I can get back to spending all my free time in the craft room frantically cutting, pinning, and sewing.

Well, maybe not frantically. I have three months, give or take a week or so, and I got the Naruto cosplays finished in a month. So one could theorize that I have some breathing room here. I’ve already used the pattern for my husband’s pants once, so I know how everything goes together; I just have to do some mockup work to get the color blocking I’ll need to do. That’s going to be the interesting part of making these–his costume has some cool color blocking, and mine will have a lot of modifications to the designs of the patterns I’ve purchased for it.

The good news is that I found several pairs of boots that might work for my cosplay, so that’s one less thing to worry about. I think those boots are pretty much the only things (aside from my husband’s boots as well) that we won’t have to make from scratch. This should be fun.

Now if I could just find something to do until we get that fabric….

De-con-pression

#nerd, Convention, Cosplay, Crafting, Fandom, Geek, Learning

Yeah, yeah, the con titles are getting old. This should–maybe–be the last one…for a while. Possibly.

So as my husband and I decompress from the convention, we’re catching up on TV that we missed and discussing our next cosplay pairing for Dragon Con in September. Being that I have an awesome husband and mom, I’ll soon own a new serger and be able to sew knits and Spandex for more cosplays. We also attended several panels on cosplay design and creation, so we’re hoping that gives us a start on accomplishing bigger and better cosplays.

You’ll be seeing progress photos as my husband and I get to work, partly because I get super excited and geeked out over it all, and partly because I like to see the progression myself. It’s fun to see what started out as, say, a couple bouncy balls from the toy section in Wal-Mart to a larger-than-life prop gourd that got tons of compliments during Phoenix Comicon.

We only have a couple of photos of our cosplays so far, so I’ll wait and see if I find any more of them before I post the “finished” looks here. (I put “finished” in quotes because we’re already brainstorming ways to improve on our first attempts.)

On to interview transcription and article writing! (That’s right, I didn’t forget that I was attending as a member of the media) 😉

Invested in Cosplay

Anime, Convention, Cosplay, Crafting, Sewing

I’m almost done with Gaara’s vest for my husband’s cosplay! It only took me a day, which blows my mind because I had no pattern, no instructions, no real plan other than to make a rough mockup out of two pieces of fabric, cut a crapton of the actual fabric I was going to use, and pray.

This is the vest I was trying to recreate:

Garaa1

Not too bad, but I still didn’t really know what I was doing. I also had to make a hidden pocket for it, which I will tell you is no easy feat for a novice.

Here’s the almost-finished product:

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With this being the biggest piece left to do before Phoenix Comicon, I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. Small things here and there I can do. The notion of two cosplays from scratch was intimidating a month ago when my husband decided that I’d have plenty of time to finish them before Phoenix Comicon (June 2). I didn’t think I could do it, especially considering I would be making my first coat, but I am so close to the end and it feels amazing.

Con artist

#nerd, Anime, Art, Convention, Cosplay, Crafting, Geek, Sewing

Ha! What a pun!

No, seriously. I may not be the world’s best artist. I may not even be a good artist. And I’m certainly not a featured artist of the con. But I am an artist. And I’m going to the con. So…yeah.

The cosplays are going so well that I can hardly wait for Phoenix Comicon. I mean, there is still a lot of stuff to get done. Mostly little stuff, thanks to my early morning insomniac sewing, but still a lot to get done.

The parts that are finished are looking quite nice, and I have to admit I’m egotistically proud of myself for doing so well, especially on my husband’s cosplay pieces so far. (I’m not particularly proud of the skirt I made for my Jedi TARDIS, but it’s finished now and it would take too much effort to remake the whole thing. Again.)

I don’t have any pictures of his Naruto cosplay–yet–but I have a selfie of me wearing my Temari kimono and headband. At 3am. In the dark. Still, it’s a cute photo, so I’m going to show it off here, along with hubby’s completed Sith Time Lord cosplay (missing just a couple red leather straps that are due to arrive *fingers crossed* hopefully by the end of the month):

As you can see in the bottom left corner of the picture of the front of hubby’s Sith Time Lord, our cat Rory likes to photobomb our cosplay pics. I have several examples of this. Seriously, cat, we’re just standing around in funny clothes taking pictures of each other. Relax. It’s nothing interesting.

We also *may* get my Temari fighting fan cosplay prop before Phoenix Comicon. Hubby ordered it last night, but we don’t know for sure if it will arrive before the con.

My plans for the evening? More artsy-craftsy cosplay art for our annual con. 🙂

Tick-tock, Tick-tock

Cosplay, Crafting, Poetry, Sewing, Time

Tick-tock, tick-tock

The hands go round and round

The more cycles that the hands complete

Her nervousness abounds

Tick-tock, tick-tock

So much work left to be done

There’s snips and clips and lengthened tails

Will she finish by the strike of one?

Tick-tock, tick-tock

The list, it ever grows

The more that’s done, the more’s to do

Will she finish? No one knows

Crunch time

Anime, Convention, Cosplay, Crafting, Fandom, Geek, Sewing, Time

It’s now exactly 3 weeks until Phoenix Comicon, and I’m still not done with all the cosplay stuff I need to do–in fact, my list is growing every day!

I have to:

  • finish my husband’s Gaara coat
  • work with my husband to make our Sand Village shoes
  • make the Gaara vest (and put a pocket inside it for keys/phone/wallet)
  • make the Gaara belt and leg strap thingies
  • paint Gaara’s symbols on the gourd
  • make a belt for my Jedi TARDIS cosplay so I have a place for my lightsaber
  • add belt loops to the bag I made for my husband’s Sith Time Lord cosplay (so he has a place for his keys/wallet/phone)
  • add a snap on his tunic so it stays flat in front
  • maybe make another couple of straps for my Temari obi

I’m sure there are other things I’m forgetting, but those are the major things. So yeah, 3 weeks for that, and I work a lot in those 3 weeks.

I think I can do it. I’m telling myself I can do it. I just need to buckle down & bust my butt. Once I get the Gaara coat and vest done and the Sand Village shoes for our Naruto cosplays, that should be the majority of the sewing stuff. So beyond that it’s little stuff. The painting shouldn’t take too long…the symbols are simple enough, just need to sit down & paint them. That’ll be, what, an hour or so? So yeah, not too bad.

The worst part will probably be making the vest for the Gaara cosplay, because I have no pattern for it. I have to 100% make it up from scratch. And I’m no Project Runway contestant.

I can do it. I can do it. I can do it. (If I make this my mantra, maybe the positive thinking will make it true lol)

Oh…and think up interview questions for any interviews I get with the con guests.

I can do it. I can do it. I can do it……

Stressing over nothing?

Anime, Convention, Cosplay, Crafting, Sewing

Yesterday, I spent Mother’s Day worrying about the coat for my husband’s cosplay. I was frantically cutting, pinning, and sewing in the hopes that I could finish it before Phoenix Comicon. Before I sewed the first seam I got so frustrated that I started bawling. My first pre-con freakout of the year.

As I started putting pieces together, though, I noticed that it really wasn’t as bad as my mind made it out to be. Sure, there are a lot of pieces. There’s a lot of technical stuff I have to do that I’m not accustomed to doing. It’s my first freaking coat. Still, the instructions are (thus far) easy enough to understand, and I have the aid of a friend who has made the pattern before.

Now that the top outer layer is getting closer to done after only a day of work–most of it spent pinning and cutting–I’m more confident that I can pull this off. There are a little over three weeks until Phoenix Comicon and I have a couple of half days and an off day in between where I can work on it during the week (and not just first thing in the morning before I have to get ready for work).

I just hope it fits.

A step in the right direction

Anime, Convention, Cosplay, Crafting, Geek, Insomnia, Sewing

I finished yet another piece of our cosplays this morning. Now I have my husband’s pants pretty much finished (just need some buttons) & my kimono is done. I’m pretty proud of the sleeves–I didn’t have a pattern for them, so I made something up. They’re not perfect, of course, but they’re even and the shoulders are comfortable, which means I measured somewhat right.

I’m about to get started on the red sash, and sometime in the next couple of days I’ll probably start on the shoes.

Okay, so I might not get started on the sash just yet. My body has just reminded me that I’ve had like an hour & a half of sleep. So later today. Or maybe tomorrow morning. But I will start soon.

Bang my head against the wall

Anime, Convention, Cosplay, Crafting, Geek, Health, Sewing

Oh…my…Goddess. I’ve had recurring headaches the past couple of weeks, nearly every day, usually in the evenings. It’s getting annoying.

As long as I catch them early and take some acetaminophen within the first half hour, they stay under control. I know from experience, however, that if I let a headache go without taking something it’s going to end up at near-migraine levels, if not a migraine itself.

This afternoon I had to stop working on my Naruto cosplay because a headache reared its ugly, well, head. I took something, but it’s still lingering.

It doesn’t help that I keep noticing little things that I need to make for the cosplay. Gotta make gloves, gotta either find cosplay shoes online or buy some sandals & modify them to match, gotta make some straps of fabric to go around the shoulders, gotta make sleeves for the kimono (because the pattern I found didn’t have sleeves)…lots of little things, but things that make the character.

I still haven’t started on the hardest part–the coat–and the vest that I need to pretty much design from scratch. Then we’re going to use some hot-glue cosplay magic to make my husband’s sandals, because the only ones he can find online that match his character don’t come in his size.

Oh yeah, and there’s the painting of the gourd, making some kind of sling for him to carry it, and figuring out some way for us to carry our things (because the patterns I have come sans pockets). All this with barely 5 weeks until the con.

It’s no wonder I’m getting headaches.

I have nearly conquered the pants

Anime, Convention, Cosplay, Crafting, Fandom, Geek, Sewing

Just a little bit more! I have almost finished the pants that have been plaguing me for what, a week or more now? Anywho, I just need to slipstitch the waistband & then hem them & a couple buttonholes, a few buttons, and BAM! Pants.

Trying to decide which to do next: The kimono for my Temari cosplay, or continue with my husband’s stuff–the coat and vest. I think I’ll do the kimono, partly because I want to switch to something easier and less stress-inducing, and partly because I’m too lazy to change out the thread on the sewing machine. (The kimono is the same color as the pants.)

Today my husband and I started the paper mache on the gourd prop for his Gaara cosplay. It was predictably messy and slightly stressful, as he got annoyed with me trying to give instructions. I was trying to make things more clean and efficient, and I guess I didn’t take into consideration that he might just be wanting to do things his way. I suppose I just assumed I’d be taking point on the project. It’ll be okay, though. Tomorrow we’ll have some more time to work on it, and we have plenty of time before the con to get it finished.

My fighting fan prop may not happen before the con, though. We have to buy it because making it is just too time-consuming and complicated, and our budget might not allow for the purchase until after Phoenix Comicon. That’s fine, though; I mean, we’ll have plenty of time before Dragon Con, which is a bigger con anyway.

I feel good about being nearly finished with the pants. Onward to the next project!