Off the Track

I was doing pretty good. Tooling along, going at a good speed…and now I have to cut some of my time to write for something equally creative: cosplay.

Yes, I’ve started it again. I had almost finished with the Doctor Who/Star Wars mashup cosplays when my husband found the next cosplays he wants us to do for next year. Okay, great, plenty of time to work on it and still get some writing in.

Except the cosplays he picked are pretty easy (mine is, at least), so he decided that we can get them done by Dragon Con in September. Still no problem. I can do it.

Now? Now we’re going to shoot for Phoenix Comicon. In a month and a half.

I got this. I think?

So Close to the Finish Line…

Yes! I have very nearly completed my cosplay, and my husband’s isn’t much farther behind. I need to make him some hand warmers/fingerless gloves/whatever you want to call them, a pouch of some sort to carry his phone, wallet, & keys, & I need to either make or find a belt so I have a place to put my lightsaber. (Oh yeah, and we need to buy our lightsabers–but we’re doing that at the con.)

It’s the culmination of about 6 months of work (off & on), and I’m feeling very accomplished. Sadly, I need to bust my butt on losing weight because I can barely fit into the corset as I am right now. 🙁 I’ll do it, though. I have more motivation now that I’ve seen how hard it is to get into the corset right now. Luckily I made an elastic waistband for the skirt, so I should be fine if I lose weight.

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I can’t believe managed to pull this off. I really didn’t know what I was doing for the most part and patterns have been my friend, but a few things I had to pattern out myself. (Mainly the skirt, a sleeveless black tunic top I made for under the corset–which you really can’t see in these photos–and altering things for my husband’s cosplay. I also made the black belt with the tails without a pattern.) Hubby’s was much more complicated, but I managed.

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Next up? Well, after a break from making cosplay stuff, next up is a Naruto couple’s cosplay (though we’ll be cosplaying siblings–not that it really matters. It’s cosplay after all). They look like fun characters to play, and they both have large props that should be interesting to make.

Now off to be productive!

Listing Forward

Lists upon lists upon lists upon lists. I have a list for the things I need to finish on our cosplays. I have a list for interviews I want to do for Phoenix Comicon. I’m making lists of lists I need to make.

I don’t know what has brought on this sudden need to organize. I guess I’m afraid I’ll forget something important.

Oh, that reminds me…I need to make a list of things to bring to Phoenix Comicon so I don’t forget any cosplay items when we go.

Maybe it’s the OCD in me. Maybe it’s neurosis. Maybe it’s just procrastinating from the things I’m making lists for.

I should make a list of possible reasons…

Is the Reign of the Nerds Coming to an End?

It happens to everyone: you have your fifteen minutes of fame, your time in the spotlight, your moment as King of the Realm. Everything uncool becomes cool at some point, and nerd is no different.

In the past several years, there has been an upsurge in growth of the popularity of nerd culture. Comicons are now hot commodities, cosplay is mainstream, and movies like Star Wars and superhero films are blowing box office records out of the water. It seems like all things nerd are cool.

As happens with all things, though, popularity cycles through the cliques, and nerd is no exception. It can’t last forever. Nothing does. So when will our rise to power come crashing down?

It’s hard to say. With Star Wars and Deadpool killing box office records, Funko Pop! figures selling like hotcakes, and nerdy merchandising overflowing in almost every store, it seems that nerd culture is still on the upswing. It is now cool to admit that you’re a nerd, a geek, a dweeb, a fan. No more hiding in the shadows, no more skulking around, hoping the jocks won’t notice you and stuff you in a locker.

I don’t foresee this as lasting, though. I predict an end to the nerd reign in the next few years. I think we’ve reached a climax. We are at the orgasm of popularity, and after a little while spent in the afterglow, we’ll be left spent and sweaty as society dumps us for a new girlfriend.

Who will overtake the nerds at the top of the food chain? I have no clue. Hipsters, maybe? They’re already mocked as nerds once were. Or perhaps the jock will retake his crown once nerddom falls. The beauty queen? The burnout? Who knows.

Fellow nerds, enjoy our time at the top while we still have it. There’s not telling when we’ll be back in charge again.

Ooh, shiny….

Yeah, I know. I should be writing. Not writing a blog, but writing-writing. Today has been one of those distraction-filled days, where Facebook and Twitter and Google Play and staring into space (and this blog, I guess) all keep me from making any progress on my work-in-progress.

Okay, so maybe I made a little progress. Regressive progress. I did some more work on strengthening my main character, but in order to do so I took out a few hundred words. Granted, the words I took out weren’t necessary anymore (and not really necessary to begin with, I found out), but it’s still a step backwards.

Maybe this weekend I’ll get more done. Or at least Saturday. Sunday I need to get back cracking at finishing up the minor final details on our cosplays. That’s another thing I keep getting distracted away from.

At least the commission art project I spent so much time on is done. It was fun, but it’s a weight off my shoulders to have it completed. One less distraction.

Tonight will be a live tweet of the 100th episode of Grimm for Talk Nerdy With Us. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve live tweeted because I’ve been caught up in stupid adulting, but I think tonight I’m going to take some time to focus on the show and getting a good live tweet done. It’ll be good practice for getting back in the swing of live tweeting, because next week I’m back on Pacific time so I can tweet alongside the people who are watching the West coast feed (so few people live tweet during the Mountain time zone! No one interacting, which makes it less fun).

Aaaaand I got distracted. Again. Well, since it’s almost time to go to work I guess I’ll leave my poor neglected WIP off to the side for a while. Until the morrow!

Crushed

No, I’m not crushed. My poor corset grommets are! I bought an eyelet setter to make it easier to secure the grommets on my corset, and while they are indeed now more secure, they also are warped and, well, crushed.

It’s disappointing, because now they look terrible and I know it will count against me if I enter into a cosplay contest at Phoenix Comicon. I was so proud that only a few were distorted after my hammering, but the hammering just wasn’t cutting it. I needed that tool, but I guess the grommets were the wrong size for it. I put some eyelets on the flaps of the pants I made for my husband, and those set perfectly. So sad.

On the bright side, I am nearly done with all the cosplay things I need to make for Phoenix Comicon (and Dragon Con later in the year). A few hems, a bag for my husband to carry his phone/wallet/keys during the cons, and the waistband for my skirt (possibly redoing the skirt entirely–I haven’t decided yet). I might even make myself a belt for mine. Haven’t decided if I’ll do that or just buy a belt.

I’m feeling more confident and accomplished the more I sew. I even think the top I made to go under the corset will turn out pretty nice, despite having no pattern and just piecing together leftover fabric from my husband’s tunic. It’s going to have a weird seam in the middle of the back, but I’ll be wearing the corset and a shrug over it, so that part will barely show.

Can’t wait for Comicon!

Can’t Con-tain My Excitement

It’s a little more than 3 months until Phoenix Comicon, our cosplays are almost done, and I’m getting increasingly excited about this year’s con.

I want to enter a cosplay contest, if possible. I may not win, but it’ll be great to take part and be able to say that I broke through some of my social anxiety to attempt such a thing. I also can’t wait to meet some of the con/cosplay friends I’ve made through my Cosplay Closet Essentials interviews for Talk Nerdy With Us and through the Blue Ribbon Army group on Facebook. (Don’t know about BRA? Check out my post on Talk Nerdy With Us!) And, of course, there’s at least one celebrity that I have to get a photo op with!

Also exciting? This will be my first year attending as a media member! Talk Nerdy With Us has given me so many opportunities, and this one is by far the best. I may be able to interview some great guests of the con, and it will be awesome to do a special Phoenix Comicon edition of Cosplay Closet Essentials. I’ll also get to meet one of my Talk Nerdy With Us coworkers.

In addition to Phoenix Comicon, I’ll also be attending Dragon Con in Atlanta this year (not as media, but it will still be awesome). I’ll get to see my BFF in Alabama on the way (can you say “road trip”?), and we’ll get to spend some time together at the con. I’ll also be able to meet more of the Talk Nerdy With Us team, as many of them are considering going to Dragon Con. TNWU con party!

I’ve gone from having near-crippling social anxiety to trying to gain as much attention as possible by dressing to the nines with cosplays that I have created and wearing an official BRA lanyard to identify myself to other BRA members and possibly make new friends.

Cons are amazing things, and I can’t wait for Phxcc!

Cosplay Conundrum

I’ve almost finished my husband’s cosplay, but I have hit a snag. Not in the fabric, but a snag in the works. I have to somehow make the legs of the pants longer than they are without making it look Frankensteined. I thought I had an idea, but I have no clue how to implement it.

Somehow, I have to make leg wraps that attach to the bottom of the pant legs that don’t fall apart or come undone during con wear. Easy-peasy, right? Not really.

My own cosplay skirt still sits unfinished, and I’m still just as perplexed as to how I’m going to finish it. I know I want to make an elastic waistband, but I guess I’ll have to hit YouTube to figure out how to make the elastic waistband. I have the elastic, I have the skirt, but beyond that I got nothin’. I’ve never done this before (though that hasn’t stopped me so far), but I think I’ve burned myself out on being clever with this cosplay.

I’ll be glad when it’s done, but after this comes next year’s cosplays. My husband wants us to cosplay as a couple every year, with me making a new cosplay each year. I don’t mind it, and it sounds like a lot of fun (I’m so glad he’s getting excited about cosplaying with me), but right now, at this moment, I am just plain tired.

Contestant #5, Come on Down!

Okay, so I haven’t entered any contests…yet. But if this cosplay I’ve been working on turns out as good as I think it will, I’m freakin’ entering a contest! I’m so amazed at the progress I’ve made in just six months. I went from kinda being able to hand-sew some things together to making full cosplay outfits.

I’ll definitely be finished by Phoenix Comicon, so I’m hoping they have a cosplay contest there. If not, a fashion show will do I guess.

But I really want to enter a contest.

Cosplaying the Day Away

Spent most of the day working on my husband’s cosplay cloak. It’s turning out pretty well, and I hope to have it finished by next weekend.

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Once I figured out the color blocking on a mockup, the rest came fairly easily. Hubby even helped me figure out how to transfer what I’d patterned out onto the fabric I planned to use in the finished product.

After this comes the belt with the “tails” and finishing his pants and my skirt. I need to make him a bag or pouch of some sort as well, but that can wait until the end.

Getting so excited!