Halloween and Photos

First of all, my Sailor Jupiter photoshoot was added on cosplay.com. I'm very pleased about that! Linked here.


Hetalia Day Halloween Party:
In honour of World Hetalia Day 2009, I decided to have a Halloween-Lite Party in my backyard. I covered the outdoor umbrella with long sheer curtains to make a little tent, put up some orange Halloween lights in the centre and made a huge feast of strange foods. (That's worm and snail salad in the pumpkin, just so you know.) Dressing up Hetalia-style was also requisite for an invite. Here I am dressed as schoolgirl Belarus and Bryan is dressed up as Greece.

Halloween Dance Party:
Went to a Halloween Dance on October 31st. Much fun and dancing! Me as Mio (or Azusa cosplaying as Mio) and Bryan as Stein.

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Mio Finished

Managed to finish the Mio costume on time for the Halloween party, with time to spare!

On Friday afternoon I made and attached the ruffle to the dress. It was about an inch high and box pleated. The machine absolutely 100% refused to penetrate the dress, so the ruffle had to be attached by hand. I added the halter strap on Saturday afternoon, made from the bottom piece of the tuille section I cut off the dress. It also had to be sewn by hand, and that was even more difficult! I was sewing through around probably eight layers of fabric. There was much frustration to be heard while I was doing that....

The wig worked out very well too. I had to chop up the sides a little, because frankly I didn't like the long hanging front pieces. I used Ciel as my reference, because I purchased the wig with that costume in mind, after all. It was very fun to wear it to the party, although it was at times a bit of a hassle in that kind of party setting. Got stuck in the seatbelt and stuck under my arms while I was dancing. Yeah... it's going to need a SERIOUS detangling the next time I pull it out.

In other news, Bryan finished the Stein costume. Although he had a few issues with the screw, he managed to win a costume contest when he wore it on Friday - Funniest costume, or something. Hey, recognition in prize form is recognition nonetheless.

Pictures to come when I manage to find where my camera has been placed....

Wig Work

First of all, took some pictures of my wigs:

I absolutely adore the feeling of the black wig, it's so smooth and silky and awesome. The blond wig is pretty awesome too, but it sheds a surprising amount, so hopefully it will be able to survive all the surgery that I will need to do to it.


Today went scouring Deserres for wig dyeing materials. Eventually we found the brands we were looking for but not after a lot of headaches looking around in the wrong sections. Anyway, after determining there are no grey sharpies to be found in a 50 mile radius, we decided to go with the FW ink dyeing method (this is for the short blond wig).


A further detailed report about my experience to come.

Wigsies!

The wigs arrived today!

Well, technically they arrived around 1:30 yesterday afternoon, but I was at school, so I had to wait until after school today to go pick them up from the post office, but, anyway....

They're here!

A Day of Small Updates

Ciel Phantomhive: Part Thirteen
Finished the lining, but still need to attach it to the bodice foundation layer.

Dr. Stein: Part Three
Yesterday, went to Rona and Michaels to raid them for possible parts to make up the screw. Bryan is rather insistant that this screw should turn and click, like it does in the show. I'm not really going to get involved with this... Anyway. During the week Bryan managed to finish all the stitches on the front of the t-shirt, excepting the neck, which I will need to figure out how do in a little while... i.e. the night before it's needed.

Today I have finished the lab coat. Pretty soon I or Bryan will have to start on the stitches on that one. Perhaps I'll be able to do some later.

And so it begins...

Ciel Phantomhive: Part Twelve

So, on Thursday and Friday I made the dress in the top layer fabric. But I didn't like it. The main problem was that the skirt was extending out of the bodice section below the waistline, creating a very long torso effect that wouldn't fit properly over the hoop/was pushing the hoop down too far. So I started over today. I decided to make it out of my more expendable lining fabric first, in case I wasn't please again. It looks better now, although there are still some things I don't like, the problems now have more to do with my hoop being annoying than anything else. There isn't really much I can do about that, however, without risking the underskirt and dress no longer fitting over it properly.

Today we also purchased wigs for Ciel and Dr. Stein, which is both very exciting and scary, naturally. And I picked up my longer zipper and some dye to dye my shoes. If I can fit it in, I'm going to dye my shoes black and makes some spats for them, because I can neither find nor afford the lace-up boots I would need. At least not in time for the Ball. Maybe for Anime North, heh.

Ciel Phantomhive: Part Ten

So, on Friday evening I went and bought the fabric for the dress. I got a matte bridal satin in a colour that can really only be described as Pink!, but I suppose that is appropriate. I also picked up some interfacing, twill tape, the pink ribbon and a cute little white lace trim. And a zipper. I also did some more work on the bodice mock-up (noticing in particular one very big mistake, that I'm too ashamed to write here, learning experience be damned).

On Saturday I realized I had forgotten to get some lining. So we headed back over to Fabricland and I picked up some broadcloth also quite Pink!. But appropriate. When I got home I started work on the interfacing layer. I decided this was going to be the foundation on which I built the entire dress, hopefully this will work out as well as I think it will. I cut out all the pieces, attached them together and began making boning channels with the twill tape. I ran out of twill tape less than halfway through this process (I had no idea how much to buy, in my own defence) and had to go back to fabricland to get more. Thank god for that 50% off members sale, I tell you what! I've only had my renewed membership for about two weeks and I think I've earned back its cost already.

Between Saturday evening and Sunday morning/afternoon I managed to finish all the boning channels and insert the boning. There are seven bones on the front and seven on the back. I pinned the interfacing to the zipper to test out the fit, and I am very satisfied, except for some minor gaping the back, which is easily remedied. The zipper, however, is a tad too short. *Kicks self* Which means... yet another trip to Fabricland.

I also managed to pick the pink flowers and white ribbon for the hat on Saturday morning.

Anyway! Except for one little "engineering" issue I have with the back of the dress I should be ready to start work on the top layer of the dress at any time. Exciting and scary, to say the least.

Dr. Stein:
On Saturday I also tailored Bryan's lab coat. It looks much better now, except for a little twisting of the sleeve when his arms are down. Which is annoying. And he did a lot of work making more stitches on his shirt; it's looking so good!

Yet More Rufflies!

Ciel Phantomhive: Part Eight

This post encompasses work done today as well as yesterday. Basically what it amounts to is the completion of the second ruffle. I had a little bit of a snag with this one, as I ran out of fabric before I got all the way around to where I needed the ruffle to end. I had to add an extra two meters to the ruffle and still it wasn't quite enough to get the fullness I'd have liked right at the end on the left hand side, but it's something that isn't noticeable. This, however, leads me to believe that I greatly underestimated the length of fabric for the first ruffle. I thought it had been six meters long (which I why I thought five meters would be sufficient for the second ruffle), but after some thought it was more likely to have been ten meters. And eight, rather than the seven I ended up with, would have been the perfect amount of fabric for the second ruffle. Overall, the process was much the same.

Progress: (Front and back views)

Dr. Stein: Part One

In some respects I've inherited this costume as well. Bryan took apart all the pieces of the shirts and attached most of them. I had to serge all the pieces, to allow for stretching. With the shirt surgery completed, I started working on the "stitches". We decided the best method would be to use embroidery thread, rather than some of the other methods I've seen. I used a crisscross backstitch to make the lines, and I think the effect is very appropriate. I've done about 30 on the shirt so far.

Bryan also started disassembling the lab coat, and I did some necessary stain removal. Fun times.


Progress: (Prior to adding any stitches)

More rufflies!

Ciel Phantomhive (Little Robin): Part Seven

I sense there will be a lot of parts to this. Today I finished sewing down the first ruffle in addition to the black ribbon detail. So first ruffle = 100% done. Yay! The fun part about that, however, is that it is going to be about 75% covered by the second ruffle. Not so much yay.

I also measured out the second ruffle, cut and prepared it for gathering. Just for reference I cut the first ruffle to 16 inches and the second to 13 inches (each cut on the selvage, with an additional one inch for the seam allowance).

The unfortunate thing about this costume is that even though I have done so much work, it barely looks like I've done anything. It'll take quite a lot more hours for it to start like I've completed a significant chuck. But, c'est la vie!

We also took a trip to Value Village and Fabricland today. Bryan is starting a Dr. Stein (from Soul Eater) costume, which we picked up supplies for - shirts to operate on (heh), chunky boots and a lab coat, which was a pretty miraculous find! I got a cheapish top hat to be the base for Ciel's hat. And I also got a white vest (and yellow dye) for my future Maka Albarn (also from Soul Eater) costume... very future.

And in un-costume related news I bought myself and new huge sewing box! So pleased with it. *Strokes lovingly*