Katara Cosplay

It occurred to me that I never posted my Katara costume (or Pokemon Trainer) I made for Dragon*Con 2012.

Dragon*Con was fun. While it feels like great number of people took our photos, I found a mere perhaps four or five on the vast internet, which is a shame. I at least got my husband to work my DSLR for a photo of me. I will have to get a proper shoot or something another time for more views of the costume.



Fire Nation Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender

An adventure in applique, also.


I will probably invest in wigs for later endeavors, especially as my own hair is as unpredictable as the wind when it wants to be.

I am planning two more Katara costumes for the future, after my next big project.

Back to costumes

The husband and I are heading to Dragon*Con together this year. It'll be his first convention and he wants to cosplay. It's still months away, but I have started on his costume already.

I'm working with and doing a lot of things I haven't before. I have to make some actual props and things. A lot of detail work. I'm having a lot of fun with this.

1) The shoulder guard is made from craft foam sheets. I used metal rivets and button snaps.
2) The foot guards are also made with craft foam sheets and metal rivets. There's also some elastic to stretch under the boot to hold it in place better.
3) The prayer beads are polymer clay. How I love the stuff.
4) I've never done applique before, but I am now for the white stripes along the navy blue on the robe.
5) The jug prop is a cardboard skeleton and expanding foam carved to the right shape. I then covered it with spackle (The stuff you fill in holes in the wall with). That's as far as it is right now until I sand and finish it.
6) Our kitten tries to help. Tries.

And of course, this is all going to eventually become:

Auron from Final Fantasy X

I have not yet started on the sword or any of the clothes aside from the robe. The sword's going to be a lot of fun. :D

Costumery - Steampunk Goggles

I will attempt to explain in absolutely terrible detail how I made my lol-goggles.


Tutorials I've found on the interwebz:
http://mtani.deviantart.com/art/Steampunk-Goggles-Tutorial-105778289
http://fenris-the-red-wolf.deviantart.com/art/Steampunk-Goggles-A-Tutorial-91226763
http://raegar.deviantart.com/art/Steampunk-Goggles-168441815
These all looked great, but...

Yeah, okay. So while I wanted leather and metal, the whole nine yards (or at least four and a half yards would have been nice), I didn't have many things on-hand to futz with. I did however have a pile of polymer clay, some spray paint from my NERF gun repaint, and some old aprons and felt. ...And a toilet tissue roll. The heck did I do with this crap?

Pile of junk.

I cut two pieces from the cardboard roll the be the base of my eyepieces. Maybe an inch wide. I reinforced these with masking tape so they wouldn't be so flimsy, before rolling a sheet of polymer clay around the outside and trimming it to fit. (I ran the clay through my pasta machine so it'd be uniform.)
The fronts of the eyepieces still had to be made. I rolled out more clay and used something (in this case, an old salt shaker cap) to cut out circles from the middles, where I would later put in clear plastic for lenses.
Around the opposite edge, I poked holes through before baking where I'd later stitch.

Or something like that.

I don't care how the inside looked. Baked this per package instructions. Let cool, then applied a few coats of spray paint. I spent the time it was drying to dig around the house for some kind of fabric to use in lieu of leather.

This one was a huge ugly "No."

My wonderful mother however pulled up a pile of aprons she doesn't use for work anymore. Essentially black canvas (And an adorable red one I'm keeping) just waiting for me to decimate it.   I cut a rough "Whale" shape (As I saw it described in one of the aforementioned tutorials - I think that sounded adorable.) and trimmed it down how I wanted for comfort. I DIDN'T THINK THIS WAS ENOUGH THOUGH! It needed more color. I managed to dig up my old collection of craft felt. I cut a matching piece from it and put them together. I wrapped these two pieces around the now-dry eyepieces, and using the previously poked holes, I stitched (repeatedly) through the fabric and eyepieces to secure them together.

Like this.

Repeat for the second eyepiece.

I managed to find some clear plastic from some product's packaging. I cut circles from it to use for lenses and trimmed the edged down until they sat inside of the eyepiece snugly (from the inside. This is why I previously stamped out circles, leaving a place inside for the lens to rest).

As for the rest of the goggles' assembly, I used a scrap to join the eyepieces in the middle as a noserest or something. I cheated by using the adjustable strap from the apron as the strap for the goggles.



These look freaking goofy if I actually wear them on my face, but my main intent in making them was to wear on my hat.

HURR HURR HURR DURP DURP

Costumery - Steampunk Mechanic

I went to Dragon*Con last month for my first time! Good times. The guy I went with (and by association his two friends) wanted to be all Steampunk. Firstly, I think steampunk is fascinating in itself. That is to say, in literary works such as things Jules Verne or HG Wells. Some of the theory behind it, too. Also... the Victorian style is gorgeous. HOWEVER that doesn't mean I want my life to revolve around steampunk dress and tech, as well as the nonfunctional, totally decorative, randomly pasted gears. Disclaimer: I'm neither bashing steampunk, nor the people who love it. As I said, I think it's fascinating in some respects.

That being said: He wanted to be a steampunk skypirate captain. I blurted I'd be his mechanic because every ship needs a mechanic, thus weaving myself into a trap. But okay, I wanted to make some kind of costume and I wanted to go, so if I had to appease the person by playing along with his costuming so I could bum a ride to Atlanta, I would.

Well, I didn't get into my costume hardcore mostly out of I didn't have money to embellish it how I wanted. I made due with what I had. Either way, I rough sketched the character. I had to deviate from my sketch as I progressed, of course. Things I had to create: Obligatory goggles (Although I find it more appropriate as a mechanic who would actually need goggles), a firearm, holster for said firearm, work belt, a big wrench. Minimum. Things I had or recently purchased: Vest, shorts, shirt, boots. Appropriate hat was necessary and Google serviced me well in that respect. Newsboy style cap that even looked slightly weathered.

Original sketch

I may make separate posts for ... like... creating my props and such because there were several components.
I didn't get around to making spats because I wanted such high spats and sewing is, still, beyond me. I didn't make any bustle or skirt-thingy. The waist cincher from the sketch wound up being my vest instead. Did a plain wrench instead of a monkey wrench. Couldn't find a leather I liked for bracers, so didn't do that.

"Chef", Captain, Mechanic, Navigator

No offense or anything intended, but you better believe next time I costume in a group that I'm going to make sure the group is reliable. He at least had the jacket, hat, and goggles thing going on. But really. Really. I'm not finding a flavor of steampunk elsewhere.

Anyway, I didn't pull off my costume entirely how I wanted. I was also too stupid to unholster my gun for any pictures, which is regrettable.

Except I found two R2D2s.

Also, not wearing these boots for another 18 hour stretch of constant walking. I thought I had made them more comfortable, but alas. Need new boots with less heel for future costumes. Boots are so multipurpose. (I did want lace up walking boots for this, but again - no money.)



Whatever.


Also, if anyone on the interwebz happens to see a picture of me in this costume that someone took, I'd love to see it. :< I know a couple people took pictures. Not many, but a couple.