I'm not gone! (The Glorious Return)
Oh goodness, I'm not gone!
My online chronicling has been rather terrible lately, even on my main website. It's been a whirlwind of a year, and yes, cosplay has been involved, but it's been so crazy...but I intend to keep updating! I'm trying really hard to get my momentum going.
So here's a recap of what's been going on:
Bahaha the Slayers Return!
Whenever life gets a little hectic, I recollect the memory of being about four or five years old and watching Pocahontas, particularly in the scene where Powhatan tells her to choose the smoothest and steadiest course. And of course, the ever-bamf Pocahontas realizes that the river isn't steady at all. It's a wild and crazy ride, with a few tranquil spots along the way, but it eventually leads to a whole new opportunity. Sometimes, it still might even have the same decisions to be made, only the experience adds a fresh perspective to it.
And that...is my excuse for my delays in writing about my life, well, my cosplay endeavours at least. Firstly, I did end up switching over to my other site, although I have barely updated it since my classes. Unfortunately, the first barricade to my constant posting had a lot to do with the outside forces of work. Shortly after ALA, my job became short-staffed, which resulted in me having to take on more hours than usual. Coupled with school, it got extremely busy.
I have been sewing, yet chronicling each step of the way got exceptionally difficult. I think I still have half of my Facebook cosplay page even made. It's kind of embarrassing how terrible I am with updating my social media.
So work became such a prevailing chapter of the season that it overlapped my other activities. Along with that, unforeseen illnesses and the like burdened a few months in the early springtime. It really was horrid, but things are slowly better from that now.
Despite all this, I was able to make a few cosplays during the spring season. I could copy and paste about ALA, since I also left that in a cliffhanger. ~_~ But ALA was tranquil and really quite fun. I managed to finish Kougyoku to wear for Day 2, which turned out better than I had expected! I had a lot of fun working through it, and at one point some nights before, the power went out in our house! I ended up taking a makeshift light and handsewing for a few hours on the collar till the lights came back.
Credits to Estrada Photography for this amazing shot!
The dress was made with so many lovely textiles. *_* It took about a week's worth of sewing nonstop (and when I mean nonstop I really do mean it lol). I started firstly on the pink overskirt pieces, which I pattern out myself after making some small paper mockups. Then I made the bottom skirt and decorated that with an AMAZING trim I found at our usual shop. The little hair pieces were from Taobao, which I ordered and are really well made.
The top was made of a super cool printed rayon, so it was amazingly light and cool. I made the neckline collar separate and added the trim, along with a cute gold one for some more definition. I also went with some prints instead of the anime's solid colors. I just wanted it to be super colorful and fun.
A derp shot of me at ALA. xD
Overall, it was a joy to make. I also got a chance to catch up on a season 3 of Friends. >D
I got to wear this not just at ALA but at the Riverside Lunar Festival, which was not far after. I had a whole lot of fun running around in it and carrying colorful flowers! I will say that the current status of the wig seems unsalvagable. D= It's sincerely a mess to take care of, and since I'm space-limited, I think the wig was way too upset to hear that.I'll probably make a full costume post about her process, since it was fun.
SO BACK TO ALA! We had a pretty doofus awesome time there. I think everyone was mostly tired and it was the one weekend everyone had off. Most of us had come out of finals and crazy holiday schedules at work so it was fun to regroup.
A
shot of me, Shii, and Z having a kigu festival. xD Shii and I had
bought kigurumis in our order, so we wore them for most of the first
night. And we just wore our newest wigs - I had purchased an entire
Mirai cosplay for ALA I didn't get to wear yet, and she got her Aladdin
wig. And Z's just plain kawaii with his Quatre wig.
And we also did masquerade! It wasn't anything super serious. We just had fun and ended up with a silly colorguard skit together with our One Piece cosplays!
I started out making Nami, but I wound up making Nico Robin's safari outfit. It wasn't anything special, but it was fun to make since it's a different silhouette than my usual gowns. The furendo were all dressed in the following - my brother as Shanks, Shii as Luffy, Z as Sanji, and the ever-pensive Frye as Zoro. Not featured was Maiko as Nami! It was quite fun!
To watch the skit:
I Just Can't Wait to be King - By Pants Your Goonies Cosplay
Overall, it was a good con. Some awesome cosplays and a fun time to see old friends.
So then came the big work wave of eversville, so my days got a little bit more limited when it came to sewing and having days off to do other things.
So
in between I got to working on Scheherazade's dress from Magi. I
managed to finish it but I wasn't too crazy about the silhouette last
minute. I might remake parts of the costume and see what happens there.
For Valentine's Day, I ended up making Shiemi from Ao no Exorcist:
Shii
went as Rin and I ended up making Shiemi in about two nights. It was
quite fun and really comfy! I'll probably wear it around for another
event since it was pretty cool to wear.
And
then a shot of Shii and I derpin'. We went to a little photoshoot in
the springtime and ended up just us getting some shots of each other in
our shoujo 90's-rific cosplays. She was Sasami from Tenchi Muyo and I
rewore Belldandy. It was actually super fun, since it was also a trip to
the museum next door. I'm not usually one for cosplaying in public
(outside of conventions), but this was fun!
And then the Great AX approached, which resulte din being most of a blur since once again, the skit was postponed. I actually constructed my cosplay, but it's never been worn and I am unsure if I will be wearing that version by next year. ~_~
But the great miracle was me deciding that besides masquerade, I wanted to celebrate the big Sailormoon Celebration held at AX! I've often mentioned how much I love Eternal Sailormoon, so I caved in and decided to make a sailor fuku. It ended up being a huge wild ride.
Thanks to my friend Rachael for getting this shot of us. xD Her Sailor Pride was also pretty awesome!
Eternal Moon was a hectic ride, mostly because she was done in roughly three days of work nonstop and one night of hotel scurrying (and complete with sewing machine failures!). My machine got massively jammed by the last night, but I managed to take it to a repair shop and few blocks away from the hotel, which was an absolute miracle!
So there's so many firsts on this cosplay, but to be short: Besides Nanami Haruka, a cosplay I made for Day 1's Utapri happiness, this is my first serged cosplay. Thankfully, the costume is extremely clean on the inside. Usually my oher cosplays may have French seams for finishing, though it depends on the project. I used the Green Pepper Ice Skating pattern and graded it, and used a white knit that I doubled so that it wouldn't be too opaque.
The skirt, sleeves, and collar are all made of casa satin, with gold, fuchsia, and azure trims on them. The boots were barely modified with added trims and gold, glittery moons. All of her jewlery was made by me, including her choker, wing clips with pearls and feathers, her bun clips, and her little tiara.
I don't even want to remember how I survived making this.
Either way, I had so much fun wearing her around!
SO WHAT NOW??
So this summer in late July I sustained a pretty back injury,the crescendo to all of my physical woes. I've had back back injuries before, but at this point, I was prompted to go see a doctor since the pain was extremely intolerable. I got an MRI and learned that I have an badly herniated disk. It's been like that for a while now to my surprise, but it got really inflammed and unbearable because of my physical and stressful exertion.
I spent nearly the next two months recovering and slowly regaining my ability to move. It was heartbreaking, but it's a lifechanging process. It's hard to remember that you're a person and not a machine when you're in your artistic moments sometimes, so this was a good dose of reality.
Now it's October and I've regained a lot of my strength back, although I'm super careful about myself and I'm undergoing regular treatment for it. It's limited some of my work and school time, but it's getting better. I'm sewing again but I have to take more breaks.
With PMX coming, we're working on a new set of costumes as the Pants Your Goonies return with a colorful new skit idea!
Colorful costumes from Karneval! We're all signed up and ready to compete, so there we are, once again back to the ongoing process and in towards a successful new season!
And truthfully, I've missed chronicling my adventures, so I'm going to get back to my web work here and enjoy keeping my place to share my cosplay tips and tutorials. I love cosplay too much to just go back to the days of forgetting to get a snapshot of me in costumes.
Some other costumes in progress this upcoming season!
My online chronicling has been rather terrible lately, even on my main website. It's been a whirlwind of a year, and yes, cosplay has been involved, but it's been so crazy...but I intend to keep updating! I'm trying really hard to get my momentum going.
So here's a recap of what's been going on:
Bahaha the Slayers Return!
Whenever life gets a little hectic, I recollect the memory of being about four or five years old and watching Pocahontas, particularly in the scene where Powhatan tells her to choose the smoothest and steadiest course. And of course, the ever-bamf Pocahontas realizes that the river isn't steady at all. It's a wild and crazy ride, with a few tranquil spots along the way, but it eventually leads to a whole new opportunity. Sometimes, it still might even have the same decisions to be made, only the experience adds a fresh perspective to it.
And that...is my excuse for my delays in writing about my life, well, my cosplay endeavours at least. Firstly, I did end up switching over to my other site, although I have barely updated it since my classes. Unfortunately, the first barricade to my constant posting had a lot to do with the outside forces of work. Shortly after ALA, my job became short-staffed, which resulted in me having to take on more hours than usual. Coupled with school, it got extremely busy.
I have been sewing, yet chronicling each step of the way got exceptionally difficult. I think I still have half of my Facebook cosplay page even made. It's kind of embarrassing how terrible I am with updating my social media.
So work became such a prevailing chapter of the season that it overlapped my other activities. Along with that, unforeseen illnesses and the like burdened a few months in the early springtime. It really was horrid, but things are slowly better from that now.
Despite all this, I was able to make a few cosplays during the spring season. I could copy and paste about ALA, since I also left that in a cliffhanger. ~_~ But ALA was tranquil and really quite fun. I managed to finish Kougyoku to wear for Day 2, which turned out better than I had expected! I had a lot of fun working through it, and at one point some nights before, the power went out in our house! I ended up taking a makeshift light and handsewing for a few hours on the collar till the lights came back.
The dress was made with so many lovely textiles. *_* It took about a week's worth of sewing nonstop (and when I mean nonstop I really do mean it lol). I started firstly on the pink overskirt pieces, which I pattern out myself after making some small paper mockups. Then I made the bottom skirt and decorated that with an AMAZING trim I found at our usual shop. The little hair pieces were from Taobao, which I ordered and are really well made.
The top was made of a super cool printed rayon, so it was amazingly light and cool. I made the neckline collar separate and added the trim, along with a cute gold one for some more definition. I also went with some prints instead of the anime's solid colors. I just wanted it to be super colorful and fun.
A derp shot of me at ALA. xD
Overall, it was a joy to make. I also got a chance to catch up on a season 3 of Friends. >D
I got to wear this not just at ALA but at the Riverside Lunar Festival, which was not far after. I had a whole lot of fun running around in it and carrying colorful flowers! I will say that the current status of the wig seems unsalvagable. D= It's sincerely a mess to take care of, and since I'm space-limited, I think the wig was way too upset to hear that.I'll probably make a full costume post about her process, since it was fun.
SO BACK TO ALA! We had a pretty doofus awesome time there. I think everyone was mostly tired and it was the one weekend everyone had off. Most of us had come out of finals and crazy holiday schedules at work so it was fun to regroup.
And we also did masquerade! It wasn't anything super serious. We just had fun and ended up with a silly colorguard skit together with our One Piece cosplays!
I started out making Nami, but I wound up making Nico Robin's safari outfit. It wasn't anything special, but it was fun to make since it's a different silhouette than my usual gowns. The furendo were all dressed in the following - my brother as Shanks, Shii as Luffy, Z as Sanji, and the ever-pensive Frye as Zoro. Not featured was Maiko as Nami! It was quite fun!
To watch the skit:
I Just Can't Wait to be King - By Pants Your Goonies Cosplay
Overall, it was a good con. Some awesome cosplays and a fun time to see old friends.
So then came the big work wave of eversville, so my days got a little bit more limited when it came to sewing and having days off to do other things.
AND THEN FANIME HAPPENED.
Oh
gosh, the magical tale. Fanime was such a crazy experience, mostly
because the hefty working days got to the best of me. We actually had
been working on a skit for Fanime the day after ALA. It was coming along
when everything happened like a wave at once, and it left us little
time to work on our cosplays. A similar thing occurred with this skit
again at this past AX, so we've just come to the conclusion that we are
okay to postpone it till next year. Hopefully this means better cosplays
and a better design process since I don't remember much of it right
now. x_x
So
Fanime became the, "Let's rewear and make comfy cosplays" convention,
and it worked out super well. We spent more time hanging out and
socializing rather than sitting backstage or sewing in the hotel room.
My lineup was:
-
Tsukino Usagi (High School Seifuku) from Sailormoon Sailor Stars - Oh
gosh, I love this seifuku. It's probably my favorite to wear still, and I
even managed to buy the right shoes and everything for it. The wig I
wore at Fanime was kind of horrible, but I have a newer one now that
I've been using since AX. But I love this cosplay so much, and it took
about a day's worth of work.
-
Nepgear from Neptunia - I might remake this, since when I made it, it
was around the same time as Usagi and I divided my attention to the two.
I was sort of in lala-land about the whole thing. The shoes are a bit
tight when I ordered them, so I might have to find a way to fix them.
=_= Then I didn't finish a whole lot of the details since I simply ran
out of time. I wore it briefly for an evening, but I met a lot of really
awesome Neptunia fans around who liked my cosplay. =)
-
I rewore Yuuki and got some new jewelry for Belldandy, so it turned out
really nice! It was a chance to bring those cosplays out after having
them in the closet for a while. BUT YUKI WAS SO WARM. Oh gosh.
Synthetics. In spring heat.
Nonetheless,
I got to meet a lot of amazing cosplays at Fanime! I'm hoping to go
back this coming season and have a fun time! San Joseis such a cool
place to visit, and it was great to be in the area and get to visit also
the Great Mall, the eateries, and a lot of the nightlife.
And then the Great AX approached, which resulte din being most of a blur since once again, the skit was postponed. I actually constructed my cosplay, but it's never been worn and I am unsure if I will be wearing that version by next year. ~_~
But the great miracle was me deciding that besides masquerade, I wanted to celebrate the big Sailormoon Celebration held at AX! I've often mentioned how much I love Eternal Sailormoon, so I caved in and decided to make a sailor fuku. It ended up being a huge wild ride.
Eternal Moon was a hectic ride, mostly because she was done in roughly three days of work nonstop and one night of hotel scurrying (and complete with sewing machine failures!). My machine got massively jammed by the last night, but I managed to take it to a repair shop and few blocks away from the hotel, which was an absolute miracle!
So there's so many firsts on this cosplay, but to be short: Besides Nanami Haruka, a cosplay I made for Day 1's Utapri happiness, this is my first serged cosplay. Thankfully, the costume is extremely clean on the inside. Usually my oher cosplays may have French seams for finishing, though it depends on the project. I used the Green Pepper Ice Skating pattern and graded it, and used a white knit that I doubled so that it wouldn't be too opaque.
The skirt, sleeves, and collar are all made of casa satin, with gold, fuchsia, and azure trims on them. The boots were barely modified with added trims and gold, glittery moons. All of her jewlery was made by me, including her choker, wing clips with pearls and feathers, her bun clips, and her little tiara.
I don't even want to remember how I survived making this.
Either way, I had so much fun wearing her around!
SO WHAT NOW??
So this summer in late July I sustained a pretty back injury,the crescendo to all of my physical woes. I've had back back injuries before, but at this point, I was prompted to go see a doctor since the pain was extremely intolerable. I got an MRI and learned that I have an badly herniated disk. It's been like that for a while now to my surprise, but it got really inflammed and unbearable because of my physical and stressful exertion.
I spent nearly the next two months recovering and slowly regaining my ability to move. It was heartbreaking, but it's a lifechanging process. It's hard to remember that you're a person and not a machine when you're in your artistic moments sometimes, so this was a good dose of reality.
Now it's October and I've regained a lot of my strength back, although I'm super careful about myself and I'm undergoing regular treatment for it. It's limited some of my work and school time, but it's getting better. I'm sewing again but I have to take more breaks.
With PMX coming, we're working on a new set of costumes as the Pants Your Goonies return with a colorful new skit idea!
And truthfully, I've missed chronicling my adventures, so I'm going to get back to my web work here and enjoy keeping my place to share my cosplay tips and tutorials. I love cosplay too much to just go back to the days of forgetting to get a snapshot of me in costumes.
Some other costumes in progress this upcoming season!
- Shiba Miyuki - Mahouka no Koukou no Rettousei
- Shindou Shuichi - Gravitation
- Minami Kotori - Lovelive
- Mikage Aya - Ayashi no Ceres
- Rei - Persona Q
- Creamy Mami - Ai no Tenshi Creamy Mami
- BB - Fate/Extra
- Lina Inverse - Slayers NEXT
- Sheryl Nome - Macross Frontier
- Elincia - Fire Emblem
- Maximillion Pegasus - Yugioh
- Hino Kahoko - La Corda D'Oro
- Kohinata Kanade - La Corda D'Oro Blue Sky
- Motomiya Akane - Harukanaru Toki no Naka de
- Kaioh Michiru - Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon
- Circus Madoka - Puella Magi Madoka Magica
- Solaria - End Breakerz
- Lucrezia de Borgia - Cantarella
- Kinomoto Sakura - Cardcaptor Sakura
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