Past works 2

After that year of failure, I took a couple of years to find myself and do costumes just for me. Halloween of 2007 I decided I wanted to go as Ichigo Kurosaki from the anime Bleach. I went out and got some light weight black fabric for the Hakama and outer Gi (the shirt) along with some white for the under Gi. I used a pattern my grandmother still had from when she used to make my grandfather's Akido uniforms making careful alterations when needed.

I made the mask out of plaster. (And by made I mean I sat in a chair while my mom covered my face with plaster.) Since I had waited till the last minute to get the mask done, I shoved it in the oven to dry on VERY low heat for the day. I then painted it with a white acrylic base coat to even out the texture, and added the red scratch marks (which ended up turning pink because I hadn't allowed enough time for the white to dry before hand...)

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I then got majorly involved in making the costumes for my boyfriend and I who were attending Otakuthon which is held in August in Montreal. It was my first convention and I was ecstatic. I went out and splurged on some really nice fabric to make the dragon coats two of the four characters of the anime Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, Fai and Kurogane, wear in the short clip "Clamp in Wonderland 2" (see video clip below minute marker 03:33 - 03:50) and this reference picture I found in the Tsubasa Artbook made by Clamp.

 Fai in Blue, Kurogane in Red.

My boyfriend as Kurogane, and me, as Fai! The longest part of the costume would have to be the dragon detail on the front of Fai's and the back of Kurogane's coats. The sword was made by my mom, who is epic with an exacto knife and insulation foam. The blade was made with blue sheet insulation while the handle is a six foot length of 1" X 1/2" pine. I wrapped the handle in black hockey tape and screwed a hook into the tip to attach the six feet of chain that ran from the sword to the shoulder of the coat. the blade was carved, taking about a month by hand by my mom, she then painstakingly painted it in acrylics (also by hand) and sealed it with a coat of clear verathane.

That year I also helped my sister with her costume. Since she was six months pregnant at the time, she had a limited choice of characters to go as. Her choice? Lulu from FFX-2. She made the entirety of the dress while I fabricated the hair chopsticks, necklaces and Cactuar purse.

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The next Halloween I was asked by one of my friends to make her a Sheena costume from Tales of Symphonia. I worked from this reference shot I found online since it gave me a good view of the costume from all angles.

Since she was on a student's budget, I couldn't get too fancy with the material, so we went with a simple cotton perma-press. I used a pattern for a karate Gi from Simplicity (#5840) and cut it a bit larger to allow me to fit it better to her later on. Using some black spandex I had lying around, I made the black part of the sleeves a little smaller than the pattern indicated so it would fit close to her body. The gloves were made with the same perma-press material as the Gi, and I made them by building them up from the first blue stripe on the knuckles up, (blue stripe, purple stripe, second blue stripe, last purple part of the glove.) The entire set up was then sewn onto the rest of the sleeve for simplicity when putting the costume on. Next were the boot covers... Oh the joy of the boot covers! Happily for me, my friend supplied me with the boots she would be wearing so I only had to build the covers around them and make sure they fit adequately to her leg. I didn't have a pattern per say, so I sort of winged it by using the boot itself as my pattern. Lying it flat I cut two pieces of fabric with an extra two inches on either side of the boot to compensate for the curve. I then cut another two pieces with and extra four inches to allow me to cut those respective pieces down the middle to make the opening in the boot. I then sewed the center front seam and center back seams with a 1/4" seam allowance. I added the blue trim to the front of the cover before hemming the bottom of the covers. The three straps were sewn on, and then velcro was sewn onto the backs of them and the adjoining pieces of the covers.

And finally, we come to the bow, which was surprisingly simple to make. I took a piece of rectangular pink fabric the length of my friend’s waist plus two inches and about 8" wide. I sewed the center seam and then turned it right side out, ironing it flat so the seam fell in the center of the waistband. I used a piece of red string that I tied into a small bow for the front of the waistband and then ran a second piece along the center. I sewed both pieces to the waistband by hand since my sewing machine kept freaking out. Next came the actual bow. Cutting a four inch wide strip of pink fabric about five feet in length, I hemmed the edges and set it aside. I then cut two pieces of fabric about 8" wide by 10" long and sewed them together, leaving a small hole to flip the fabric right side out. Doing so, I sewed the hole shut by hand. I then took the bow part and laid it over the ribbon part (the long dangly part of the bow) and using a small piece of fabric about 1 1/2" wide and 3" long made a small ribbon and bound the two pieces of the bow together. After, I attached the whole set up to the waistband, making it attachable to my friend via more velcro. And here are a few shots of the final product! (sorry I don't have any full body shots....)

And here are a few shots of the final product! (sorry I don't have any full body shots....)

 

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That same year in August, we went to Otakuthon again, this time with a full Tsubasa team. We added a Mokona Modoki, a Syaoran and a Sakura Hime. I wont be talking to much about Sakura since I had no hand in making the costume.So first up will be the Mokona. 

Simply put, I made a hat with ears. My friend already had the hat and the outfit she would wear to go with it so I went out and found some beige fleece material, along with some pink satin to go on the inside of the ears. I made a pattern by loosely sketching what I thought to be an appropriate ear shape. I then cut two pieces for each type of material and sewed one of each together leaving the tops of the ears open for flipping the fabric right side out. I then stitched the ears to the hat and added the red gem on the forehead which was made from a medication bottle cap and some red gems I found at the dollar store. And Voila! finished. 

The only picture I found was a group shot of us and another Tsubasa group from the convention, but this will if anything let you see the whole group at once. ;)

So from left to right we have two Kurogane's, a Mokona, two Syaoran's, two Sakura's and two Fai's in the back.

Next on the list is the Syaoran costume. Made from the same material as the two other coats, again the dragon detail was the hardest part to do... the orange details along the shirt are all made out of orange imitation leather which is suprisingly supple :) the gloves were modified from a store bought pair which I then proceeded to gut of the insulation and add another four inches with a similar fabric.

Now onto the bracer spiky gauntlets!! These things were freakishly heavy, (about 5lbs apiece.) Not much, you say? Try having them strapped to your wrists for 9 hours ;).

 So, onto construction. Again, my mom was a major help for this project, making 95% of the total prop. She first laid down a shell of small mesh, (kind of like chicken wire, but with smaller holes.) Lacing four pieces of Velcro between the mesh, she then covered the entire surface with three thin layers of paper mache, letting the gauntlet partially dry in between each layer. After the whole rig was dry, we went on to adding the spikes. This was rather technical since the only reference shots I had managed to get a hold of was the shot from the artbook, and some slightly blurry stills taken from the video. After careful deliberation we decided on having four spikes per gauntlet. These were made from pieces of cardboard laid over with another layer of paper mache. The dragon tail, which can kind of be seen in the artbook picture, was made by layering more paper mache in the general shape of the tail. After everything was dry we painted the whole setup with a dark green and black acrylic paint. In total these beasts took about two weeks and were about four feet in length.