19 posts tagged “sewing”
Why hello there commission!
The first picture shows a mock up of the bodice. In the original image, Isabella is wearing a semi off the shoulder type of dress. The dress is reminiscent of Victorian tea time. After examining the style of the bodice, I figured out how to do the bodice for sure. The blue is supposedly representative of something lacey or something ruffley. The bodice top is supposed to have two rows of ruffle. This will be an interesting feat to accomplish, but I'm ready for anything. ^.~
The skirt is pretty much what it is. I'm going back and forth whether or not to make the skirt and bodice attached or separate the two. For one thing, there will be a belt (with big bow behind it) covering the waistband. It is of the same color (light / ocean blue). The skirt has yet to be hemmed, but that will be figured out once fitting time comes around.
And this is for a dude.
I had originally planned to do a Princess K costume in 2007 when I first heard about The World Ends With You. Though most of my friends boasted about the Enix game, they informed me that there was a Lolita character who ran a shop named Lapin Angelique (Angel Bunny!). I checked out the character design and I knew I could pull it off eventually. I've had Princess K on my "To Do" list for quite some time.
In 2009, several of my friends cosplayed from The World Ends With You at Fanime's Cosplay Spectacular. Since then, I decided to get the ball rolling on Princess K.
This outfit took two different patterns. I used a patter that I think every costumer should own (Butterick 4954). This pattern has been used on many of my costumes (Sabrina, Akiha, and Roberta). With a few ample modifications, I was able to pull off the bodice.
For the skirt, I just used the skirt part of a dress pattern I had (McCalls 5094). It was the closest I had to a circle skirt. I extended it a little bit more to have extra foofy-ness.
I got all the fabric and supplies from the Los Angeles Fabric District for less than $30. The appliques cost the most @ 2.50 for each one. If you look closely, the appliques have much more design to it than the reference image. I went with a fancier cross applique because the plain white crosses looked boring. Lolita fashion is meant to be opulent and elegant. I also added a ribbon because it has been consistent in most Lolita fashions to have a bow on the outfit.
In reality, the fabric only cost less than $10. I re-used lining from other projects. I did not want my scrap fabric to go to waste.
Luckily, I already that the tiny hat in my closet. I bought the tiny hat at Anime Expo 2005.
The bodice still needs work. I'll have to figure out how to make the ends.
The skirt still needs a zipper. If you look closely at one of the progress pictures, the hem on the flounce part of the skirt looks scallop-y. If anyone could tell me how to fix this problem with the hem, let me know. I've been having this problem with other projects.
Next Projects
Aizen - Bleach (com)
Isabella - Paradise Kiss (com)
Country Style Lolita
I blame re-entering the Sailor Moon fandom again. Hotaru Tomoe has always been one of my favorite characters from the series. I've been intrigued by her duality in the Sailor Moon S series. I do not know when this will debut, but I'm hoping for an Anime Vegas debut.
The fabric was relatively cheap, but the quality was top notch. I have bridal satin like quality to the skirt. Can you believe I got it for $2 a yard? I also got a nice quality navy fabric for the top. It's not too blue, neither not too black. I still have yet to figure out how am I going to apply the pearls.
The biggest challenge was - yet again - hem rolling. It's a shortcut my mom taught me. I've been trying to figure out what is the best way to hem curved ends for a skirt. I like how the skirt is very flow-y rather than being a straight A line cut. I'm still figuring out the top.
So far, I have Professor Tomoe to cosplay with. We're hoping that Deb can be our Hotaru Tomoe.
I hopped aboard the Pokemon Gijinka bandwagon a year later. It was exactly a year ago today, Oscar Night, that I have heard of the Gijinka designs. I strayed away for a while thinking it was another trend, like Animal Magnetism in 2001. Well, I decided to do a Gijinka variant of Persian.
Mind you, this version of Persian is different from the art design in the infamous set of fanart. From a costume designer's perspective, the outfit must reflect what the character is all about. The original design lacked creativity and character. A yellow skin tight suit? No thank you. If Persian is the "classy cat" Pokemon, it calls for sophistication and elegance.
I purchased the fabric from Kashcool's and a hole in the wall dollar store. I used a pattern originally intended for a Breakfast at Tiffany's cosplay, but I realized it was the wrong design. It was a vintage Vogue evening gown pattern. The trick was getting the bodice together. It had a very unique shape to it to put together - like most Vogue patterns.
I was able to complete the dress in one day. Again, I detest doing curved hems, but I'm still impressed by the amount of work done.
And next on the "To Do" list for Persian is figure out the gloves. I really don't know how to make custom gloves. If anyone can point me to a tutorial or a basic pattern for opera length gloves, it would be very much appreciated. I do have a blonde wig (for Elle Woods and Miria) to go with the yellow color palette. A cigarette holder doesn't sound too bad.
And you're never fully dressed without the neko mimi (courtesy of Cosworx).
"Are you wearing that to the Oscars?" - Victoria's mom.
I never thought I would be working on another CLAMP related project for a while. Then again, I did finish up Karen Kasumi in less than two days time. This is a Christmas present commission. I wanted to see if I can do this under $70. The lining was already leftover from Project: Disturbia. So, all I had to get was the bias tape, zipper, pattern, and main fabric.Suffice to say, I was able to score all of the above for $25.
Of course, this is just phase one of the progress. There still needs to be a few more embellishments and a few parts to make it longer need to be added. On first glance, it looks more like Edward Elric from Full Metal Alchemist. Not the intention at all.
The bias tape was not as bad working with as I thought. Bias tape makes everything look nicer.
And in other news, Eva Friedel is 100% complete.
Upcoming Projects
Elle Woods - need to finish up the belt, no rush
Sabrina - I have a ton of scrap fabric enough for this project. Yay! Decided on just using my standard black boots.
Gijinka Persian - next fabric shopping trip
Yuuko - next fabric shopping trip
This was originally my Lorraine McFly costume. Seeing that the Back to the Future group fell apart, I decided to modify the dress to create a Ranka Lee. This is her concert outfit when the finds out the truth about Alto and Cheryl. Dun-dun-dun! She also gets to sing "Aimo" in this outfit.
I took the skirt apart. Added a new bodice, interfaced and lined.I re-gathered the skirt into two tiers. I also made custom trim for the skirt. I double layered that. That was the hardest task on this project - getting the triangular (hah!) trim to work.
I'm still waiting on the wig to arrive~!
This will be debuted at Pacific Media Expo. Hopefully if the wig ever comes in on time...
I owe it to Justin, Deb, and Kat for getting me to do this costume. Thanks, guys!
This is my hardest costume to date. It looks simple, right? Wrong.
Kat suggested I use a Folkwear Tibetan Chupa pattern. Easily, it was the most expensive part of the costume. The fabric was found at little nooks and crannies in the Fabric District. The fabric for the pants were from originally from a canceled Rei Hino uniform.
I really like the blue fabric used for the base!
The belt was actually from my Hinamori Momo costume.
Choker was used by multilating a bracelet and scraps from my opera Faye Valentine outfit.
The costume is scheduled to debut this Halloween. I will be wearing it to Disneyland. Good thing I have very comfortable boots for this costume. I won't be wearing a wig for that trip, yet I'm going to test something out by using my post-shower hair.My hair then gets a lot foofier.
This is how it looks by far! Pics taken on Photobooth.
Another Avatar comission. Why do I keep getting these requests? I don't mind. I love this series.
This is Sokka's outfit when he trains in Season 3. If you recall Sokka painting a rainbow among mountains, that's the one. I decided to go for a Folkwear Pattern - easily the most expensive part of this costume. I settled for an Ao Dai. Yet, the design was custom tailored for women's wear. I decided to get rid of the darts and have it look more Chinese and manly.
The biggest challenge was the black tunic. Getting it to work and working for a male fit. Pants are easy. The frogs were purchased at Michael Levine's. The yellow trim is actually scrap from my Grandis costume.
