Costume Breakdown: Female Protagionist

I'm a big fan of the Shin Megami Tensei series and wanted to cosplay it with my friends. So we had a small group for Persona 3, since we had all played it and liked it. This was actually my first SMT costume, before Hua Po, worn and made a few months a head of time.
 

The outfit seems pretty basic. It's just a uniform shirt, skirt and blouse right? For fabric I chose a basic twill. I ended up having a good amount laying around, it wasn't extremely lightweight, but it worked well and had the right look for a uniform. The skirt wasn't really an issue. The skirt itself was just a basic box pleated skirt. For a pattern I used Butterick 5285 and adjusted the length to what I needed.

The jacket was a challenge in itself. It was a somewhat odd shape, it didn't have the normal lapels like a normal jacket would, it had this odd box shape around the top. So I ended up taking a normal shirt pattern (simplicity 8523) and modified it from there. There was a lot of modification from that and this is what I ended up with.

 
Here's a basic pattern for the jacket and skirt. The jacket ended up being a bit large, as in not fitted after I drafted it and put it on.

 

As you can see the jacket is pretty large and a bit too long from the initial pattern. I needed to take it in a bit more and adjust it so the fit and proportions were right.

 

With the fitting, everything looked much better, and wasn't so odd and baggy. You can see a bit of a top panel, with some studs in place, that was just sew into place on the longer flap, so they don't really move or adjust. To keep the jacket closed, I added in a zipper. I wouldn't recommend doing it like I did...I ended up getting an invisible zipper and sewing it in so that the end was at the top of the jacket, so I need to pull the jacket over my head. I would not recommend doing that, it makes things just a bit more difficult.

The two lines on the jacket are just bias tape. The one is just sew on the right hand side, while the left one is sew as close as I could get it to the zipper, so it wasn't noticeable there was a zipper there.

 

The bow was just made and then a strap was added around my neck. And the blouse was just one that I had laying around. While I wouldn't recommend this for everyone, I used my own hair for this cosplay. I figured I could get it good enough to pass. This is the best I can explain how I did my hair. I pulled my hair back into a low ponytail, twisted and pulled it up, clipping it to my head with a claw clip. The hair that hung out, I teased and pooffed out a bit so it had a bit more volume. The banged were styled with a bit of product and hairspray.

The patch, and the armband were pre-bought, and the envoker was made by a friend!

 
Here's a good shot, how my hair was styled. 


And a nice full body shot of my costume. The socks were bought from sockdreams!

Costume Breakdown: Fuu Hououji

It's been a while since I updated. And I'm a bit late in posting about Otakon, so I might not even make a post about that. Instead I'll just talk about some of the costumes I wore for Otakon this year. This Otakon was a rather simple costume year for me, I didn't really go all out and make something extreme, though most of my costumes have an element of simplicity to them. But with this year my friends and I decided to do a Magic Knight Rayearth group. But rather then do the default outfits, we decided to make something from one of the artbooks.

 
I had wanted to cosplay Fuu for a long time now, and I just love making maid costumes, so it was a win/win situation.

We all needed matching outfits, so we all decided on a cotton sateen, so it was a bit nicer but without a shine. We also made sure to match patterns. We decided on Simplicity 3618, since it had a lot of what we needed in one pattern.



For reference we went off of the pirate costume. We used the skirt, vest and the included bloomer pattern for our costume. The vest and skirt was modified, so that they were attached and one piece rather then separates, which was a really easy adjustment. The skirt itself is just a basic circle skirt pattern, I have about 2 and half panels on mine. I also added a nice fluffy peti to make it poof out a bit more. There's a zipper on the size so I can get in and out of the dress. And for the edges around the bodice I just faced them and used just a bit of glue to hold it down.

 
 
The blouse we decided to just make from scratch, that way we could all have the same blouse. We used Simplicity 1941 and then adjusted the sleeves so that they were puff sleeves rather then the normal ones they have.

The shoes I had a bit of freedom on. Since you can't see her shoes I could pick whatever I wanted. But since I'm in actuality the shortest person in the group I needed something that would give me a bit of height. I found these really nice green heels that not only matched my dress perfectly but gave me just a bit of height so I could be taller then our Hikaru and match height with our Umi. The stockings come from We Love Colors. My only issue with them was that the fit was suuuuper tight, like almost impossible to keep up without rolling down. And it was the first time that sock glue didn't hold them up.

 

The ribbon around my neck is just a plain satin ribbon we bought in a spool, so we all had matching ribbons and its pinned to the collar of the shirt. And the ribbon on my head was made from leftover fabric from the dress. All together it was actually a rather simple costume to make. The work was making sure we were all coordinated, getting the same type of fabric and patterns.

Costume Breakdown: Hua Po

Hua Po was one of my dream costumes for a long time. A lot of the aspects of the costume are really simple but it was one, when I first started cosplaying, that seemed impossible for me to do at the time. So finally last Katsucon I decided I had the skill set to actually accomplish this and make it.

 
Hua Po is a demon from the Shin Megami Tensei series, she's featured in several of the games and probably one of my favorite demons, even though you get her along the lower levels. Her outfit basically breaks down into the suit, shoes and wings.

For the suit I found a pattern that was a basic jumpsuit pattern and modified it to what I needed. I ended up going with a vintage pattern: Butterick 6015 Vintage 60s Easy Jumpsuit Pattern, though the size I ended up buying was far too large and ended up seriously sizing it down, and of course cutting down the legs to create shorts. The frog details were purchased separately and attached to the costume, the jump suit itself was closed together with a series of hook and eyes, a small piece of black fabric added behind it to keep anything from showing. The black lining was done with bias tape, the hook & eyes were hidden under the bias and lined up to match each other.

 

The designs on the sleeves were done with fabric paint, for this I used Tulip Fabric Paint. I ended up drawing the design on the sleeve and then painting over it. The best way of doing that was taping the fabric down before sewing it (other then hemming the edges) and just painting on directly. Once it dried I attached the sleeves to the suit. When your working with the fabric paint make sure you use several layers to get an even coat.

 

Now for the skin tone. I wanted to try and create the red orange tone the best I could in the easiest way possible. So I decided to do a face paint, tight combo. For the face paint I went with Ben Nye, because of the variety of colors you could get and the ease of use. When I was working with it, I had to do several layers on my face to get the smooth look. I just took a small makeup sponge and applied it on my face until I got the even coat. The lips and eye details were just done with regular makeup I had sitting around. The upper lip was some eyeliner I had, while the white details were basic face paint from a Halloween store. I probably wouldn't recomend doing it again, because the details tend to rub off over time. But the Ben Nye stayed really well after using powder and sealing it properly. Make sure you get the sealing spray otherwise the makeup will get everywhere! The make up is really easy to wash up with some basic face soap and water. I kept some make up remover cloth to help take it off. There was a few places along my face, like by my ears that didn't come off right away, so be careful.

 

Rather then paint my legs I decided to go with tights. But the color was pretty unusual. So I needed to custom dye the tights to match my face. For the tights I bought a pair of white dancer tights so I wouldn't any awkward lines. For the dye I used Jacquard Acid Dye, because it would take the best with the nylon material. I really lucked out with the color because it matched pretty perfectly to the face paint.



I wish I could say I made the wings but I didn't. I sort of lucked out and found something pretty close color wise on ebay. Maybe when I have more time or money I'll make new wings that actually have the right shape to them.

The shoes were worked off a base of an old pair of flat shoes that I never really wore. I just took yellow fabric and covered it over the shoe, gluing it down with hot glue. I probably wouldn't recommend that for any long term solution, but it worked really well for my wear at the con, since I didn't wear the costume for a long period of time.

 

And last but not least the small clips on my head were just make with sculpey and attached on a small hair clip. They're fairly small and light so I didn't really have to worry about them breaking or anything.

And last but not least is the final shots of the finished costume! Hopefully I'll be able to get nicer shots in the future!

 
 

Also as a side note, I've been reading this cosplay blog here, it's pretty great for some tips and tricks on all aspects of cosplay!

Airi (Meru Puri): Costume Breakdown

Another long while since I posted! Life stuff getting in the way, but hopefully soon I'll get the chance to start working on stuff for Otakon! For right now I'll break down two of my more recent costumes, Airi from Meru Puri.

Airi (Meru Puri)


Airi was a bit tough to start off with. Not because of the dress but the apron. She has one of the most unusual aprons I've seen in a while. I really had to decide how I wanted to break it down, since it didn't seem normally possible. She didn't have the normal straps like most do...they seemed to wrap around her neck and then just sort of hold there.

I ended up breaking it down into two main parts. The dress and the apron. The dress was very simple. Just something high collared and long sleeved. It was probably the easiest part of sewing the whole thing. I think my favorite part ended up being the sleeves and how the shape turned out for them! The base of the dress, like most of these types of dresses I've had to make is based off of this pattern. I like that pattern because the skirt is really full and perfect for putting something like a peticoat under it.
  

The apron was the most interesting to tackle. Originally I tried to make it all in one piece like they had in the image, but I had to made an adjustment which created the seam in the middle. I created the pattern myself, and broke it into three parts. The middle and then the two sides that extend towards the back. I used snaps to hold the apron together in the back, over top of that I had a bow pinned there, to make it seem as though the apron was tied in the back. The parts around the neck were all held together by snaps, and wrapped around my neck. So when I had to put the apron on I had to stick my head through what wrapped around my neck and then snap it in the back. So the snaps held it together on my body! It stayed really nicely. 

 

The ruffles were all done by hand. I keep saying someday I'll invest in a ruffle foot and I have yet to do so! But I created the ruffle all around the apron and the stockings. The middle black part is just bias tape sewn to the center of the ruffle. For the stockings the ruffle on them was added later. I created the ruffle and sewed it onto the stocking while I was wearing it. It just needed a few little stitches to attach it to the material and stay on.

 

And last but not least was the headband. it was a fairly easy mod from a pre-exsisting headband. I added the ruffle and then glued the white cloth on top. The other little touch is the ribbon on the shoes. I was using a pair of shoes that I tend to use in nicer occasions and I didn't want to modify too much. So instead of attaching the ribbon to the shoe, I instead attached it to the stocking. I wrapped it around my foot and tied it around the back. To get it to stay I just created a small, easily cut away, stitch that I could remove at the end of the day. That way I didn't ruin my shoes or stockings!

And then the final product...

Katsucon 2012

Another late post. This time on Katsucon. I had a lot going on, mostly that I was sick after the con, so I wasn't able to get the con report up as quickly as I liked. But here it is!

As before with the previous report, Katsucon is in a gorgeous location. The Gaylord is a beautiful hotel, with many different backdrops and areas for photos. They have this really lovely jungle area, a water location, and all sorts of elegant looking areas. Beyond taking photos, its really just a nice area to be around. It's pretty easy to get around and find different areas to hang out in and just relax.

This year I'm sure it's gotten bigger. Its pretty natural with any con, but you can definietly see the crowding in the Saturday crowd. Luckily the hotel and the convention area is still pretty big enough to hold the people there. They keep the programs/events pretty separate from the main areas so that people aren't crowding around them.

I didn't really attend many panels, again the trend of many different cosplay panels were there though. More and more you'll see more pop up. It definetly show the shift towards the importance of Cosplay within the con scene. And because of that, and the location, people seemed to want to bust out their biggest and best cosplays.

Some of my favorites from the con








And the rest can be found here. Don't forget to check out the subfolders for more photos!

Katsucon

Hey there! This is a pretty small post but I'll be at Katsucon this weekend! I'll hopefully have a con report up asap as well as my photos. As for what I'm cosplaying...



Fri
Airi (am), Karina (pm)

Sat
Karina (am), Maya (am), Hua Po (pm)

My first big con of the year! So I'm super excited. It might be a little bit afterwards before I head to any con, due to some really exciting and important life stuff going on. I'm not too sure what my next con will be, but I'll probably still be working on cosplay inbetween. Anyway, I hope to see some of you guys there!