Saya and Diva from Blood+ at Desucon 2012

The photos were taken by Miika Ojamo at Desucon's photobooth last Sunday. I just love the costumes and how the photos turned out and that we finally got a sister-cosplay!

More about Desucon, what went on and what else we wore is still to come!

Finally, Mireille Bouquet from Noir!

I got it done! Only thing left is to secure the shoe covers and then I'm officially closing the construction of Mireille. It took only 1,5 years, but better late than never.

I had sewed most of the costume already, only things I actually made was the bag, belt, shoe covers and finished the skirt. Over all, I'm really happy with the result.

Yoki took some photos, so here you go!

Towels and stuff

For the celebrations of annual Towel day, we got geared up the proper way.

 It always comes back to the sanding paper.

What do you mean 'I have no fashion sense', this is a perfect working gear.

Hiron changed her mind about spending Desucon Saturday in casual clothes. She dug up a costume project which she started about two years ago. Mireille Bouquet, codename Noir. High ranked assassin and a fine woman... except her purse is really... pink.But Hiron made it, because she loves bags almost as much as hats and headpieces.

Progress with songstress Diva

I still haven't finished the gown even if predicted otherwise... all because I realized that I have to sew the satin bias tape by hand. Oh well, I thought and started to do everyting else but sewing the bias tape by hand, like making new curtains to my workroom and sorting the wig shelf. Despite the distractions, I now have the dress in decent condition. Some tweaking here and there is required, but I'm confident that I finish it well on time.

 

I have also the world's oddest bolero under construction.

The wig is also taking form with the rose and feather brooch. The extensions and the bun are all attached with hair clamps, since Yoki will be using the wig in its normal form the day before. Fangs we fitted and customized the other day.

Nothing special, I'm just...

... Making new costumes!


Who am I kidding; I’m just too easily bored. It seems that I need to have something in the making or I won’t be satisfied. So after all the speculation, we are going to have new costumes to debut at Desucon in June.  I thought I could play a little game here and give some hint before revealing the characters. If you are inpatient, just scroll to the end of this post.


The characters are from manga adaptation of certain series. Finally we are able to cosplay female characters who are siblings! And I’m really happy that I can sew some modern, “real” clothes. We are currently in a situation where three people want to reclaim the jacket Yoki will be wearing after the convention.

I must also give myself praise that I get Yoki to wear a skirt. A short skirt.

Both of the characters have black hair and something sticking between their teeth. Yoki will be wearing light brown contacts, while I will re-use my blue ones.


One reason for choosing the manga version is that the gown I’ll be making for myself is really pretty. I fancy pretty dresses.

Yoki might be the one who gets recognized more, since her outfit appears in both anime and manga.

Time for the revelation! The characters we are cosplaying are Saya and Diva from the series Blood Plus!

Yoki’s outfit is nearly finished, I’m currently constructing Diva’s gown and will hopefully have it done on Sunday. I’ll try to make a post after I’m finished with it.

P.s Ja ei, äiti. En ole tekemässä morsiuspukua ja menossa salaa naimisiin, ei huolta!

Video update with the Decepticons

New video has been uploaded to our Youtube page - the brilliant plan to take over the universe, part 3 745 106, starring Princess Megs and Lady Star.

Troll toes trial no. 1

Since I don’t have anything under construction right now (except for few fancy dresses for summer and a quilt works), I thought to continue our troll project with experimentations on the foot-side. It’s weird that WOW troll has three fingers but only two toes! The asymmetry is rather weird, but I will roll with it. The fingers I’m going to solve by sewing custom gloves, but the toe matter is bit trickier. I’ve seen costumers making the feet over boots, but I wanted the toes to look like they bend and act rather naturally. And I really want to make the feet look good, since people seems to loath them so much.

I’m pretty sure that I’m going to make the toes out of foam. The “how” is the thing I’m still pondering, but my first trial gave a good base to the future construction.

First I kindly asked Yoki to lend her foot so that I could draw the outline on a piece of foam. After that I sketched out how the fake toes would look like and how they are placed compared to the real toes. Then I cut away the inner section and the excess around the troll toes.

When I had the first piece ready, I copied it on another piece of foam and cut the top part of the foot. I rounded the edges and carved the inside of the top part hollow so that it would sit nicely on Yoki’s foot.

Then I trimmed the pieces until they looked fairly nice. I also added creases to where the toes might bend naturally.

Then I had a problem. These two photos show how I try to find a solution to how to wear the damn think and how to fade out the angularity of the cut edges. I ended up using the stockings for the trial.

I’ve bought a pile of blue stockings to be used as pieces of bodysuit for the trolls, but for the trial I used regular lycra to act as skin. After sewing a tight fitted sock I stuffed the toe part inside. I screwed up the pattern, but the idea worked quite nicely. Yay, for troll feet!

Costume cross-section- Baby Jane Splicer

My splicer costume has only three different pieces; dress, hook and a stay-up sock. If I ever wear Baby Jane again I will finish the other hook and definitely wear a wig, since my own hair wouldn't do anymore. The wig I have planned for Baby Jane is again a remnant from last decade. The bob is actually going through one of my experiments, which this time is dyeing with ink. I might tell about that ordeal later on.

The dress was rather simple task to complete. Based on the reference pictures, the cut was easy to transfer to basic pattern, as the seams follow quite faithfully the darts on the front. The dress is made from taffeta that shifts between dark green and black. The cuffs and the collar I made from some navy blue scrap velvet, which had been conserved into the depths of the sewing locker for over ten years. Now I finally found use for it! Thank goodness, my memory served me well. Cotton velvet is so damn expensive!

I added a lining on the bust and sewed plastic boning on the seams. Hidden zipper is on the back seam and the dress has too removable navy blue shoulder straps. The hem was constructed what was left from the fabric after cutting the bust and the sleeves, which I two-pieced to get the right fit. I tore the hem with scissor and added an old fake rose on the bust.

I laughed a lot while trying to take a photo of the stay-up sock, but I think you might get the idea… I didn’t want to buy a pair of socks just to destroy one, so I made one from pair of old pantyhose. The upper part of the sock or the panel is made from the crotch part of the stockings, as its bit more durable. The suspender is just a piece of black elastic band.

The hook has its own construction post. For painting the hook I used acrylics paints, mostly grey with hues of silver and copper with black on the weathering. The red is theatrical fake blood, still tacky after six months.

The make-up had rather regular composed feel to it, but this time I used make-up latex with tiny pieces of toilet paper to make the scars, with touches of fake blood. I especially liked how my knee turned out, even if it didn’t show in any of the photos. And about the black tooth lacquer… it tastes horrible.