Sneak peeking

You know the feeling, when everything is finished and ready to go. It makes you feel satisfied and somehow empty. All your hard work and effort can be now packed and prepared to wear on the big day. For us it is usually a passing feeling. It lasts about two minutes and we usually haven't really packed all our stuff away, because we still need to sew some stitches and glue something to something. The two minutes usually take place between finishing everything and wearing it on the morning of the convention.

But now! Now we have that feeling and it's still two DAYS to the convention. We even took some photos to test our costumes. Wicked! Oh yeah, we needed to take them so that our faces would not be visible, because we didn't have the make-up on.

Finnish cosplayers and other con-goers, see you soon at Tracon!

"Of course it is legal. Trust me!"

Sniff... No sniff! Muddler!

Joxter using his time beneficially.

System mallfunction! Or... what?!

Few days ago, a very small bottle of clear liquid was found inside my mailbox. Thanks to Karan we were able to try to attach Muddler’s whiskers. Two attempts later the glue passed on to Hiron. She made the job look easy, again. The whiskers are made out of grayish fishing tackle, which I found after a quick search from mighty wreck storage.

Hazy picture of the whiskers trial.

Few days has also passed from the construction of Muddler’s evil shoes… or socks, but evil never the less. Yeah, Hiron was unhappy to be forced to take yet another round with them, but she didn’t shoot me when I suggested few alterations to them.

Oh yeah... Almost forgot. We are practically ready. Four days before the convention we are heading. This is our record. And because of that, we are in awe.

Almost finished!

Cosplayer, crossplayer, neutraplayer...

I'm a lady. I think there is no way I could be mistaken as a boy, but still my cosplay history is dominated by male characters. Not the most masculine men in the world, but still male. During the time I have been cosplaying, I have not used word “crossplay” to describe my hobby more than few times in the beginning. Particular term has just dropped from my vocabulary. There is an discussion on Finnish cosplay forum at Aniki.fi, which gave me the spark to write about the matter. “Cosplay or crossplay” is the topic, where people explain why they prefer one over the other. Cosplay. com has a own section for crossplaying for international tastes.

I see crossplay as a sub category for cosplay. As a term it defines that cosplayer and her character differ gender. If someone asked me if I see myself as a cosplayer or a crossplayer, I would answer that I'm a cosplayer. I have no need or will to highlight the gender difference between me and the character I’m portraying. So somehow I'm unable to comprehend why the term crossplay is sometimes such an issue.

I’m at the age, when parents don’t really care how I present myself. Or maybe they care, but also trust that as an adult I know what I’m doing. I’ve read that some of the younger cosplayers suffer from narrow minded parents, who don’t let them dress as a member of the opposite sex. Some in these cases there might be fear of “un-normal sexuality”, which is a rather twisted idea.

I think that crossplay doesn’t create anything that isn’t there already. Crossplay might be a supporting matter or way of self-expression of sexual orientation or usually neither of these. I know many people who dress as a member of the other gender while cosplaying and sexuality plays no part at all on their hobby. Cosplayers normally understand this, but sometimes the public doesn’t and I think that is something the parents fears the most. Being labeled isn’t nice and being bullied because people’s ignorance is horrible. I bet that is something what parents have in mind, when they ban crossplaying from their young ones.

To avoid negative commentary from parents or any other direction enlarging matter doesn’t help it. Crossplay can be thrilling. Also for some it is just cosplay. People have different types of bodies and sometimes they bend better to female silhouette and sometimes male. Sometimes the favorite character just happens to be male. When you cosplay, it’s all and only about a character. Cosplay isn’t reality, which sometimes seems to be forgotten. It’s just like theater, acting a role of somebody else than you. That is why I see the term crossplay as a descriptive word, not as an competing hobby next to cosplay.

As a side note, I need to add that sometimes I just love the term, because mind games are fun! For example, one time I saw a cosplay, where a girl crossplayed a boy who was crossplaying a girl. I only have cosplayed a girl who crossdressed as a boy.

General view on the progress and contacts trial run

Midsummer Day is on the next weekend. While everyone else are staring at a ridiculously huge campfire and eating sausages with potato salad, I shall try to finish all the incomplete stuff for Joxter and Muddler. Yoki will spend the weekend away, but she’s been really efficient these past few days. She found the perfect suede jacket to be torn to materials for Muddler’s ears.

Attaching rather real looking tail.

I already altered Muddler’s sock patterns according to our test version, but I’m going to start sewing on Saturday. I don’t want Yoki to be around when I start to curse and blame all the innocent creatures on Earth when things get difficult. I also finished Joxter’s hat. Only thing I still need to do with my costume is to weather it and possible find character loyal undershirt. The coat is pretty hot to wear.

Unidentified flying objects drying/flying in Yoki's room.

By the way, my convention envy got downgraded when I realized that there is only under few weeks to get the cosplays together. I’m bit worried for our companion Karan. I heard from Yoki, that she has made all the easy stuff, when I asked about the condition of her cosplay last weekend. We talked via Skype today, both parties working on the costumes. Karan assured that she will make it. Let's still cross our fingers!

Yoki painting the base shoes for Muddler's socks.

Now to the contact lenses. We bought them from Cybershop when they had sale going on. It was a nice coincidence that I found a pair for us both for half the price they originally were. Yoki’s lenses are 2-tone Onyx grey and mine are 3-tone Aqua marine. They are labeled to last a year. On our infrequent use possibly longer. We both have contacts on our left eyes, right on the picture. It's always pretty weird to put the lenses in the eyes after a long period of time. But next to that, they work nicely for our purpose.

Make-up tests for Joxter's nose continues...

Make-up test for Joxter

I got inspired yesterday and made a trial version for Joxter's make-up. I still need to improve the shape of the brown nose area. When I was applying make-up to my nose, I got caught up with the thought, WHY the nose is darker than rest of the skin… Which is quite irrelevant, when you go trough all the polymorphous creatures on Moomin Valley. But still.

I tried to alter the shape of my eye by the placement of the eye-liner. In the corners it's on the inner eyelids and in the middle on the outer, to fake the strict cornered, almond look of the eyes which Joxter has. I used brown and black pencil eye-liners and a lot of fading. The last, black lining is left un-touched. For the nose I put basic foundation on a palette and took a piece of bronzer and made a paste from them. I used a sponge to apply it. The sides need some more fading, I think. The base is just foundation I usually use. I applied bronzer under the cheekbones and under the jaw to make the shape of the face more distinct. Flash tends to make face look flat as a pancake.


The wig still needs some styling. I need to lighten it and try to flip the ends. For the make-up, I will apply the darker foundation paste on the whole forehead. And I will make the paste more beige and natural looking. It looks too terracottaish. I'm not wearing contacts on this particular photo. I altered the color a bit with Photoshop, but it’s still little off from the assumed, more turquoise color. “The contact lenses- test drive” will happen after few days. That’s something to look forward to!

So hyped up!

Yesterday I went trough cosplay blogs and sites to fill the late night hours. It was quite obvious that Desucon was held last weekend. Almost every Finnish cosplay or anime related blog had an entry about it. And suddenly July seems so far away! I think I got some sort of convention envy for reading and watching people’s experiences from Desucon. Luckily, first aid for the nasty disease was lying on the floor when I got back to work. Postman had delivered our tickets to Tracon. The symptoms are bearable now. I just need to fight the urge to push everything else aside and finish our costumes.

After some investigation on different sites, it was clear that I had missed tons of great costumes. If I summarize some opinions and observations, the level of cosplay in Finland has taken a step up. The bar has been raised, I believe. Not only for the cosplayers, but also for the conventions. I still haven’t found bad critique towards the convention itself. Of course there is some, but it’s rather neutral and pretty normal for any bigger scale event.

Euro Cosplay preliminary was held at Desucon, which must have affected the level of the costumes. I checked some videos from the contest and was mostly like "Woah!", even if I didn't recognize every character. The winner of the preliminaries will attend to the championships at London MCM Expo. All I can say... Go Balthier, go!

Ears, toes and saucepans

There is about half a month till Tracon and we are on pretty good standing, even if there is still work to do. As I earlier posted, we haven't done much. The progress on the costumes was on hold for two weeks because of our vacations. This week is no exception. I'm stuck with my real work and commissions. Yoki has a summer job and is preparing her graduation party. But next week we try to get the costumes in a condition, which would allow us to have a pre-photoshoot. Meanwhile I took some pictures of some objects I haven't yet posted.

The saucepan is a real saucepan. It will be altered by Esa, our dear metal expert who will make the handle on it and hammer it up a bit. Originally pan is from anonymous donor, who found it lying around his cottage. We were quite close of giving up on the search of an old aluminum pot. And we wanted it to be aluminum. I can't see Muddler's headwear to be anything else. Gladly, when inquiring many people the word will get around and we were lucky to obtain the hunted item.

Muddler's socks will be built on old ballerina shoes. The pattern is a mixture of shoe cover technique and altered glove patterns. The material is thick linen, normal one would possibly tear in use. The sock pictured below is a model. Yoki wasn't happy with the outcome of the first sock and after she pointed out some minor errors, I got the urge to do them again. I wasn't too happy about that at the time. Perhaps I even let out some bad words. Anyone who has sewn gloves from non-stretchy fabric with seam allowance of few millimeters knows how annoying it is.


To obtain Joxter’s shoes was surprisingly easy. I went trough only four (which is the number of them existing in our town) flee markets to find what I was looking for. They are one size too small, but what would cosplay be without some pain. I only need to weather them some more and possibly change the laces.

Muddler's so-called-head is made from recycled leather from old suede jacket. I like to work with leather, because you don't need to hem it and you can stretch it to some extent. The pieces of the scalp are stitched together with tense zigzag. The seams will not be visible. They will be covered by the ears and the saucepan. We still need to find natural beige leather or fur for the lighter parts of the ears and the best way to attach the whole thing on Yoki's head.

CasualtyCosplay FAQ

Nothing much have happened on the costume front and my brains are on a summer mode, so I will take a hold of Yoki's suggestion of answering the frequently asked questions. The questions are collected from the comments on our Youtube account.

Where do you get your outfits?

This is the most popular question of all. I think I have answered this regarding most of our costumes here on the blog. But presumably, if I have not mentioned commissioners then the costumes can be labeled as our own creation. Information about the wigs or the shops we have purchased them I have seen quite pointless to share until now, because most of the queries came from other countries than Finland and we tend to buy them locally. But I know we have some Finnish readers, so this is all for them.

I might get some of those mentioned Finnish cosplayers gasp with this confession... If we buy the wigs new, we buy them from Finnish costume store Punanaamio. Now, now... Hold your horses! One error with cheap plastics wigs taught us to buy washable XTPRO-quality wigs. They are not as good as kanelon wigs, but for our purposes they have worked well. They can be dyed to some extent and styled easily. I have worked with few types and can recommend shoulder to short wigs as they are. They are thick enough not to expose the net underneath. The longest possible XTPRO needs weft add-ons for my tastes. The size of the wigs suits us pretty well, which is quite crucial, because they are not adjustable. Our head sizes are between 56-57.

Contact lenses we purchase from Cybershop. They sell lenses for cosmetic use only! I have always been really pleased with the shop, so I highly recommend their services.

How did you make Mayuri's hat and ear-chin piece/Deidara's scope, ponytail and palms/Sasori's body?

These are the questions which I usually leave to be, if they are not send trough private messages or e-mails. These inquiries for detailed information and construction tips usually consider props and costume parts which are expensive to buy, rare or they are not sold anywhere. I take pride on these particular objects, because I have found way to accomplish them. And to succeed on them I have used many working hours and my imagination, which are rather valuable for any artist. So no, I’m not going to share step by step tutorials of them publicly. I always answer the inquirer personally and try to describe the process verbally the best I can. Normally I ask them to not to share the information as it is.

Questions about clothes and patterns I answer willingly. They are the things I don’t struggle with much and have professional knowledge about. I have been thinking of making tutorials from pattern making, because it is rather popular subject on the questions I get.

Is Yoki a girl or a boy ?

Yes, this is one of the frequently asked questions. And Yoki is surely a girl.

Where are you?

This is not probably a question, but people tend to misunderstad where we are from. To make things clear, I looked out a map. And no, we don't have polar bears.

Making animu-faces

Note: Oh, this is such a silly post.

Posing isn't always easy. Even harder its in conventions, where you can do little to improve pictures and strike a perfect pose with little thinking. That is possibly why cosplayers go with safe/same pose photo by photo. One of these poses must be the kawaii-pose and the many variations of it. But really, the base is always the same. Big, wide eyes, high photo angle and cute, quirky smile.

After some experiments, I noticed that it is really quite easy to achieve, even if you are not sweet and innocent girl on her teens. And now, I shall share my knowledge with this specific and highly descriptive step by step guidance!


Starting point: Relax your face. Think of something cute and sweet, like cupcakes and candies.


Nose manipulation: Tense the side muscles of your nose, like if you were going to sneeze. The tip of your nose will fall a bit and the length between your upper lip and nose will slightly increase. Tension affects also the upper lip. This is an optional step. I think it makes the next phase easier.


Smile: Press your lower lip tightly against the upper lip. Try to smile. Don't worry, if you think you look like a duck. It's part of the process.


Vogue...Strike a pose: Turn to the camera, tilt your head down and open your eyes wide. Lift your eyebrows to create an illusion of innocence. Add weird hand gesture. Kawaii~~!

One convention confirmed!

Here we come, Tracon! I finally got myself to book us a hotel and buy tickets to our first convention we attend together in two years. Two years, people! I think we are out with all what has been happening in the Finnish cosplay scene these past few years. Still I have spotted people who I actually recognize and whose works I admire. Couple of them has their own blogs, so spying their progress and is quite easy. I thank you, dear internet.

Needless to say, we are going as Joxter and Muddler from Moomin. Next few weeks we are far away from our costume projects and it doesn’t help that we had a small hiatus this month, because of my commissions and Yoki's entrance exam. The finishing of the costumes is pushed back near to the convention. As always. I’m so happy, that they are in good shape compared to some other late constructions. But what would cosplay be without few frustrating, long nights.

Tracon is a Finnish roleplaying and anime convention held in Tampere, Finland. It has worked its way from a year starting, one day winter con to two day summer con. As a hobbyist from both of the genres, we just can't miss it. And as on our previous cosplay excursion we are accompanied by Karan. This year, we keep snacks with us as a first aid. No more collapsing cosplayers.

Yoki as Snowtrooper, Karan as Chaplin. Pic by Hiron 2010.

Geek pride!

Today is the official Geek Pride Day! The origins and manifesto of this great holiday can be found on all-mighty Wikipedia. There is no denial of us being geeks of some sort. Naturally we will take part of spreading the geekiness on our small corner of the community. And it shall happen with Casualty Cosplay’s own Geeky Alphabets! We loaded a video on Youtube for your enjoyment. After finishing our alphabets I ran into "The Geek Alphabet" post at Geeks are Sexy. Not a coincidence that they are partially same!

Today is also annual celebration known as Towel Day, which is a tribute for Douglas Adams, the creator of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. To honour the work and memory of this great author keep a towel with you today where ever you go!

Embrace your geekiness, be tolerant and have fun!

Nicknacks coming together

It's a pipe! No... really.

Lately we have been working with the small stuff our costumes require. Yoki started working today on a giant safety pin, as I finished Joxter's pipe. I constructed the shape from modeling material, as the package titled. In the frame I used bent aluminium stick and cork from a deodorant container as seen above. The mouth piece is modified from rubber cork and piece aluminium foil.

I must say that the "modeling material" we are using at the moment smells horrible. Yoki stated that it smells like finger paints, but I strictly disagree. Normally I would have bought modeling clay, but in a rush I purchased this current paste of continuous puking from our local craft store. I'm never making the same mistake again... I'm glad that after I painted the pipe the smell got little milder. It will be really interesting to see, if I can resist the urge of gurning while being photographed.

Joxter's pipe and tobacco pouch.

I also suffered minor casualty, when I stuck the hot glue gun straight to my thumb. Now, I has a blister. I got it when I was working on Muddler's tail, which succeeded extremely well damages taken in concideration. The material on the tail and on Joxter's tobacco pouch is recycled leather. Same stuff is used on Muddler's "head" and ears. I will add pictures of them when they are finished.

Muddler's tail.

Cosplay nightmares - Pet peeves got nothing

I've had some real cosplay nightmares. They are quite the same as dreams, where you have went to school, work or any public place and you realize that you are naked or you have forgot some crucial part of your clothing. I don't get nightmares too often and I think ones including cosplay or costumes are more frustrating and embarrassing than scary.

One time I had a dream, in which I was in a convention and had a great time until somebody came up to me and asked who I was cosplaying as. I was like... And... Umm... I had no idea! There I was standing in a costume (pretty awesome, I remember) clueless who I was portraying. In another dream I was in a convention again and in cosplay, but I randomly changed parts of it to make it more interesting. I think at the beginning I knew who I was cosplaying as, but the idea was lost quite rapidly. It was truly bizarre. I even got a full body paint to "make the cosplay better".

Now let's move on to reality. If I can form any thought about people's biggest fears with cosplay after reading many pages of forum posts and individual blog entries, I think the nightmares connect with things one can't affect and things where there is money involved. Matters of worry are for example finding trustworthy commissioners, commissioning costumes or parts of it, ordering wigs, having them styled on someone else, having things shipped to you overseas and on time arrivals. I think I personally would crawl in my skin, if I was faced with these kind of issues. More if there is little time to the deadline.

I must admit that I have been avoiding previous issues on purpose. I hate the feeling of not being in charge. And when it's passionate hobby combined with relative amounts of money, I want to know every moment how things are and where they are. I'm also touchy-feely type of a person. I need to see and be able to examine fabrics, materials and products before purchasing. I need to assure myself that I have done all the decisions, even if they later prove not to be the best on my costume. Luckily, we have been able to find the things we need locally.

All the previous has been sweet talk, now let's move on to what the topic is all about.

Some of the true nightmares are the ugly side products emerging from cosplay. I was mad and out of my mind in my little corner of the cosplay community, when I came across thread, which were written by a cosplayer who was outrageously ripped off by a "cosplay commissioner". After searching a little it came obvious that there were more than one case. I don't want to mess with my blood pressure too much, so I'm not going to all the dirty details. They can pretty much be read on the thread and on few similar ones at Cosplay.com.

Like when making the costumes yourself, I think throughout base work is also necessary when looking for commissioners and cosplay gadgets. It is a shame that opportunists have found such a narrow audience to cheat. And apparently cosplayers are rather easy to cheat. Even I didn't think year ago, when I first heard about commissioning hoaxes that they could even exist. And to the hoaxes even work in both ways! Commissioners have ended up finishing a costume, sending them to the client and then having e-mails where the client claims that the goods have not arrived and they are not going to pay for them. This is just one example from many. Ones that actually got me stunned for quite some time were the cases, where "clients" tried to use their commissioners for money scams with invalid checks.

Because of cosplay scams people have stopped cosplaying or/and stopped making costumes which is sad and a pity, but then again, understandable. Money has been lost, hours of work has been all in vain and long, painstaking battles have been fought because these nightmares. I cheer every time I read that some of the scammers have been caught one way or the other and guys on the good side wins.

Buying costumes is a hush-hush issue here in Finland. People don't speak about them much, so it's pretty unclear from where people buy their costumes. But because costumes are bought and they will be bought still, I think conversation and interaction about commissioners and online shops would be helpful for everyone. Maybe more disappointments could be avoided.

There are trustworthy commissioners, some enthusiastic hobbyists themselves who work genuinely and accurately. There are also cosplayers who will pay from job well done. Do your homework.

Hiron explores: Detangling a long wig

I set myself a record few months ago in fiber length, when I bought used wig from a fellow cosplayer. The price was set low, even if the wig was ridiculously long. Long wigs equals tangling, which brought down the cost. I have a cosplay in mind in which I would use the wig, but it's not likely done in near future… Unless I magically turn into well-toned bombshell overnight. Pretty please?

I had thought of trying experimental ways to detangle the wig before and today I bumped into a thread by ChilmarkGryphon on Cosplay.com forums and was like "Yeaaaah!". When we were vacuum forming we used silicone spray as a release agent on the molds. At the time I was too busy to think of anything else, but now I think I get inspired by "Detangling discovery: silicone spray lubricant" and start experimenting.

Here is the subject of the experiment. For peace of mind the design of the possible cosplay character will require the wig to be shredded to pieces. Normally I wouldn't go and try techniques I'm uncertain of in a pretty wig like this. Let's see where this ends up!

Snowtrooper: Third step (Part 1)

These posts might make you think that the construction of the Snowtrooper costume was well planned ahead. But really, it wasn't. I'm just trying to make some sense to it dividing the process in a reasonable manner. It wouldn't be pleasing to read if I had described it as it really was. Maniac.

Let presume that all the ground work is done. Huge amount of references have been collected, material purchases has been done, all the patterns have been drawn and work spaces have been prepared. It’s time to start!

Third step: Production- Soft components

I started from the shoes. The base shoes were fake-Crocs we had bought for 5 euros per pair from a local supermarket. Yoki detached the back straps, because we had no need for them. I made the patterns using scrap fabric wearing the base shoe, like making a shoe cover. This is the idea behind shoe covers by Sarcasm-hime. To make the pattern work, it is recommendable to make a trial version and try it on before cutting it out from the real fabric. Also during the process it doesn’t take too much effort to try the cover on with the base shoe just in case. You might have sewn too similar pieces together and the cover just doesn’t fit on the base. Happened.

Preparing the Crocs.

Based on the references, I chose to do the seams on front and back. Before I started sewing, I authorized Yoki to attach backcloth for each cover piece, while I hot-glued sheet cotton over the top of the sandals to cover the holes and to make them little warmer to use in the wintertime. I sew the shoe covers and linings for clean look. I cut openings on the curve seams to make them set better. To imitate the look of real Mukluk’s I topstitched the seams. This also makes the seams more durable.

Inside of the shoe.

In the back of the shoe, I sew heel tags from fiber fabric for the look, but also to make the shoes sturdy to use, because there was only a sandal as the base. I also kept durability in mind. In our experience, the heel is usually the first to suffer. Because the design for the shoes is loose and the base is a sandal they needed some attachment. We measured rubber band around our ankles and sew them on the sandals to prevent them from falling. Before I attached the cover to the base, I sew on three straps with Velcro for each cover and stitched round shapes on the tip of the shoes.

Complete shoes.

I attached the cover to the shoe with hot glue. It worked with the materials, but I don't recommend hot glue for fake leather or leather covers and base shoes. They tear easily. After the covers was attached I cut all the excessive seam allowance I had left on the bottom of the cover. I glued strips of craft foam around the base of the shoes for finished look. The hollows which were left between the foam band and the sandal I filled with hot glue. At the time I couldn't think of any other filling material which would be easy to apply in small gaps and which would be somewhat flexible. Yoki painted flat studs with metal grey miniature for the details on the back of the shoes. Note to self: buy latex paint for the soles, because spray paint will flake.

Pouches I chose to do mirrored. Some people make them identical.

Next I moved to the clothing made from flannel. In other words everything, pants not included. For the pouches I used pattern from The Definitive How To - Snowtrooper. For finished look lining was added. In the movie the gloves was originally gardening gloves, but because I like to do everything myself, I made them. Pattern I used can be found from here. I had to enlarge it about 5%, because the proto made from the original pattern was quite tight and I worked with woven cloth. Lastly, I added trimming from tricot.

Gloves with the armor plates.

The jacket was relative easy to sew. Structures were easy to accomplish, even if the corners on the front took some thinking. I seem to forget how to make strict corners, even if I have done them repeatedly in my projects. Velcro attachment I sewed in the interface of the topmost flap so that the stitches would not be visible on the bodice. For the lining I used white batiste and flannel on the hem part. I wanted it to look and feel little heavier that what it would have been with batiste and of course, because the inside of the hem is rather visible. Batiste would have looked ridiculous. I added shoulder pads for build look between the bodice and interface.

Velcro attachment.

I topstitched all the borders of the jackets few millimeters from the edge. Based on the references, I topstitched the hem about centimeter from the edge. Because there was some added looseness on the lining of the top part of the jacket, I added reinforcement stitches on the waist seam to prevent the hems flannel lining "dropping and sagging". Belt loops I added after we had our armor parts ready for right alignment.

Front view of the duster.

Back view of the duster all wrinkly.

The pants I made full length. I sew the zipper on the side of the pants for comfort. I didn't want add it under the crotch piece of the armor for obvious reasons. I thought about adding half lining on the pants, but in the end I didn't find them necessary.

Jabba approves!

I will gladly give more detailed information about making of the clothes, their structures and patterns if there's interest.

For the love of instructions

I stumbled on this thread at Cosplay.com forums. "Public cosplay do's and dont's?", started by Amanita contains good points for beginners, but also for "seniors". Convention season has started, so I think this is a good time to recall and think over these issues. Events usually take place in locations where there are outsiders and we all like to give a nice impression as cosplayers, right?

All the colour!

Oh yeah, it’s not even June yet and we have rather many finished items for our cosplays! It's really refreshing to be ahead of the schedule. Usually we have made the last, finishing touches to our costumes minutes before heading to a con. Even if things are looking good now, I think I’ll go with the presumption that we will stretch the completion to the last day as always. But I don’t really care. I enjoy working on these current costumes.

Why? Because I can use my expertise and imagination with them. The great thing about Joxter and Muddler is that we can lean on many sources. More than copying the appearance of the characters from the animated series, I use them as inspiration. Usually we try to copy the design of the character as exact as we can. With these Moomin characters there is a lot more “feel” to them than any other costumes we have done. Using Tove’s writing and all the visual sources available we try to bring them to life in a way which would honour the original work, but also satisfy us as fans and me as a costume creator.

When we were searching for the fabrics we didn’t only look based on colour, but also feel and texture. For us Moomin world is all about nature, so we chose only natural materials from cotton and linen to wool. These materials would also be easy to weather to suit the mobile and carefree lifestyle Joxter and Muddler have. Because Moomin world isn’t modern, I used old folk clothes as inspiration for the designs on the clothes. Most of the details aren’t visible, like Muddler shirt which I patterned based on type of a peasant shirt and the robe attachment on Joxter pants. It just matters that they exist, because it brings more “real” to the characters.

Here are some real and almost ready stuff. Next I’m going to start dyeing and weathering and Yoki will start knitting Muddler’s scarf. We also need to solve the footwear issue as soon as possible.

Radioactive hat.

The wig is at the moment cutted. Finishing touches and styling lacks.

Shirt from linen for Muddler.

Muddler's leg warmers in action.

Back in business

First things first… All the English readers this question is for you! Is it possible to eat a chocolate covered waffle with strawberries whole in one sitting by yourself? We thought that we have to try them while in London and possibly out of greed and gluttony bought one for each. That shall never happen again, trust me on that. It was really good, but not in big portions. So, are they meant to be shared? Next time we are going to split one and enjoy them with delight.

Now, back to business!

Because our first duo’s costumes are looking quite good, I think I can reveal that we are going to be Joxter (Juksu suomeksi, Joxteren på svenska) and Muddler (Hosuli suomeksi, Rådd-djuret på svenska) from Moomin in some summery convention. Ha-ha, I must say. We moved the completion of Snowtroopers to the fall because they would be hot to wear in summertime. Instead we are going to wrap ourselves in wool, leather, thick cotton and multiple layers of clothing. No mask is the best improvement I can think of.

Here are some pictures from the progress. The most interesting parts including Muddler’s “shoes” and headpiece are still under planning, but I think they’ll start to take form during this week. The real problem we are facing with these guys are their lack of carriage. We can’t possibly drag along a giant tin can, so we need to think something else. I suggested to Yoki, that she could carry a paint bucket, which would actually be a purse. We are still going trough Tove’s cartoon strips and books in hopes of finding some references. Hope we bump into something which would solve our problem. Moomin fans, suggestions are welcome.

Highly recommend!

Straigtening project for Joxter's wig.

Yoki collecting reference pictures.

Joxter's hat in the making.

Yoki knitting Muddler's leg warmers.

Costumes for summer 2010 concluded

During the weekend we discussed about our costume plans for the summer. We decided to put our Snowtrooper costumes aside for the spring and work on them in summer. I’m relieved about that. First reason for my relief is that we won’t suffer horrible heatstroke. The Snowtrooper costume, with helmet and all equals HOT. Second one is purely construction related. In summer we can work outside. I think Yoki is still finding foam dust floating in her room and we worked with the foam over a month ago. Third is that we would be in a terrible hurry and I want to make the costumes perfect before taking them to public. Looking at our schedules for the next three months, the process would be scattered here and there. And for this costume its bad, with all the different requirements for space and materials. We noticed that it’s lot easier to work continually for two weeks than try to achieve something during the weekend, then put everything aside to take them out and start over the next weekend. According our current planning, the Snowtrooper duo will be debuted next autumn.

With this long explanation and convincing arguments, I think we are now justified to start working on new costumes, yes? Yes! We have a lift off!


Because our plans for conventions are still wide open, we chose two duos to be made. It might sound weird that instead of one and a half costume we have now four. But these ones don’t include plastic sheets or spray paint fumes. It’s mainly sewing, which sounds great to me. I have the structure and pattern plans almost done. And this gets better. We have the wigs ready for every costume, thanks to my collector soul! They need to be styled, but we don’t need to see the effort of finding nice wigs and use hilarious amount of money on them. The hardest part is finding shoes. Lately I have been really keen of observing the shoes used in cosplay here in Finland. I think having believable shoes for the character is one of those finishing touches beside things like cosmetic contact lenses… which are also on their way to the nearest post office.

I fight the urge to reveal our complete plans. I need to have some result before I can do that, like some pieces of clothing. But I dare to give some info and I’m actually quite sure that we’re going to finish these guys easily for the summer cons. Yes, guys. Yoki didn’t get to show her feminity still. One duo is actually listed on my earlier post. The second duo is from an older series and it’s going to be a nice splash of colour for our monotonic costume history. There is actually no plain black or white clothing on either person from the duo.

The result of spontaneous material shopping.

We have already collected some materials for our colourful duo. I have cut almost all main pieces for the clothes, while Yoki has started the knitting project. But the real work starts after Easter. We are going to jump on a plane and get a head start to spring, eat a lot of (English) chocolate and enjoy the holidays! Happy Easter everybody!