Minako Aino

I still haven’t gotten back into my good blogging habits.

A few weeks ago (in May) I decided to attend the Madman Anime Convention in Brisbane. Cancelled plans meant that I could actually go, and of course that meant that I wanted a new costume. Enter a frantic week of sewing, because yes I made this decision late on the Friday night a week out. I dug myself out of bed on Saturday and headed straight for my fabric stash. I had chosen to do an outfit of Sailor Venus (a casual one).

    

My fabric stash proved on point and I was able to pull out five pieces of fabric perfect for my plans. I needed to get together a t-shirt, a tank top, a skirt, a petticoat, necklace, hairbow and wig. I started by drafting up my patterns. Thankfully these were all simple pieces so didn’t require a whole lot of technical challenge. I started with the t-shirt and cut into my stash of white cotton lycra. Of course the first t-shirt I made has the wrong neckline, so I quickly fixed my pattern and cut out another one (to be later sewn on Monday evening after work).

   

I then stitched my skirt and petticoat. It wasn’t until I was almost done and I tried it on that I remembered the skirts might be too long, so I hacked off what wasn’t needed and rehemmed them, leaving the waistband hand-sewing and closures to later. I generally try to focus on getting my machine sewing done on the weekends. I then made the tank top (twice, because the first one didn’t fit right). I’m still not happy with the tank top and am planning to re-make it, but it just goes to prove that you really should spend the time doing a mock-up. The final piece to make was the hairbow. I cut up some pieces of red linen and made the pieces, adding some wadding into the top part of the bow to keep it structured.

Unfortunately I had to work on the Sunday, so it was a lost day for sewing. But in the end I managed to scrape it all together in time. And thankfully my wig was a previous cosplay wig restyled. I’m rather pleased with how the costume came together and it just proved to me that when I put my mind to it, I can get this stuff done in no time. (Doesn’t mean that I have started on the next project though).

  

As for the event, it was small but a vast improvement of the Brisbane anime conventions I attended years ago. There was a good range of sellers, and artists section where I spent most of my budget and entertainment. I went with my brother, and we were done after about 2 hours. I do think though that they are on the way to something great. We ended up grabbing Vietnamese for lunch afterwards before heading back to my brother’s apartment for an afternoon of gaming.

K-ON in Sydney

Late, I know, but I got the dreaded con sickness and have been pretty ill this week. This is probably the first moment I have had of clear-headedness, since I got back. I am tracking my whole trip to Sydney, including the the touristy stuff over on my travel blog if you are interested: http://pkholidays.blogspot.com.au/ but otherwise, here's how it goes.

Last weekend, I made the trip down to Sydney to stay with my fellow costuming buddy the wonderful Wendy. The intention, to visit Supanova - our round of Aussie pop culture conventions. I flew down very early on Friday morning to avoid the mishaps of last year (4 hour flight delay). Though, it probably helped that I chose to fly QANTAS instead of Virgin. I arrived rather early in the day and spend my time doing the touristy thing around Paddington (inner-city Sydney) before getting ready to head on out to the Olympic Park where it is held.

I decided to make it easy on myself and go light on the costumes this time so as not to stress myself out over luggage weight allowances or sewing deadlines (one was bad enough). So, for Friday night, I chose to re-wear my K-ON uniform. You've all seen it before, worn as the characters Yui and Mio, but this time, I decided that I wanted to be Tsumugi. The real difference between the characters in their school uniforms is the hair and the socks. Thankfully, I had bought the blonde wig some time ago, so I simply pulled it out of my wig box. The only problem I had was that being winter in Sydney, and nighttime, my legs were freezing.

There were a number of great costumes out for Friday night, so I managed to snap a few of them. I had planned to line up to buy some autograph vouchers, but the line was insanely huge - snaking around at least 10 times. There was just no way I was going to stand in line for 4 hours. But it was great to be there for the opening night, catch up with a few people and grab our weekend pass wristbands - to stop the queuing in the morning. 

Supanova Brisbane 2012

And yet another Supanova has come and gone. In case I have not mentioned it before, Supanova is a pop culture convention held in Australia. We get television and anime personalities out and the costumers and cosplayers come out in droves. Naturally, I am there the entire weekend, and in costume.

It starts on Friday. I knocked off work early and got all done up in my Saber Lion suit for the afternoon. By far, this has to be my cutest costume of all. It's quite comfy in that I don't have to worry about corsets, however the sports bra that flattens my chest out underneath can get a little uncomfortable. It's also quite a warm costume - being made entirely of polar fleece (not the best thing to wear in spring in Brisbane), but luckily the weather had turned to wet and breezy, so I wasn't too overly hot. The costume was received well and I was actually recognised. Something does not usually happen with this costume in Brisbane. My brother and I took the opportunity to shop to our hearts content as there is a much smaller turn out on Friday, the crowds around the stalls aren't quite so bad. We made it to the opening ceremony where they announced that they are planning to have Eliza Dushku come for Gold Coast Supanova in April next year. Afterwards, we headed out for some Thai food before calling it a night.

Saturday morning, I rose bright and early ready for a full day out and about. I decided to wear my K-ON! uniform as the character Yui. The wig was a new addition to change the costume up from when I last wore it. It was a rainy and wet day, so I thankfully didn't get too hot in the full tights, skirt, skirt and blazer ensemble. Again, my costume was a success with many people recognising me. A couple of girls even said that my Yui was perfect. A huge compliment in my eyes. My brother and I spent most of the day in and out of talks. We saw James Masters, Felicia Day, Billy West and John Di Maggio. Best of all, James Masters let slip that he will have a reoccurring role on Warehouse 13 next season. We shopped some more and rounded out our evening by attending a small James Masters concert. He is a great singer and I really like his style.

Again, I was up early and ready to go on Sunday morning for the final day of Supanova. My brand new costume had been sitting on my mannequin ready for me to wear. I started to get ready with my mum helping me to get dressed. Then the zipper jammed. We soaped it up, got it done up all the way and then it decided to split open. From there, we had to cut the zip to get it off me. My wonderful mum then took the dress from me and unpicked the zip (I was by far too stressed and freaking out). I replaced the zip (not using an invisible one this time) and got all dressed again. Thankfully I was only a half hour behind my original schedule. I tell you though, that is the very last time I use and invisible zip - evil things really. But in the end I was determined that I was going to wear my dress - especially after all the work I had put into it.

It was for Lottie from Disney's The Princess and The Frog. For those who haven't seen it, Lottie is Tiana (the princess)'s best friend. It was a real chore putting this costume together. Underneath I had made an underbust corset to support all my undergarments and was wearing my mum's oversized crinoline and my full ruffled petticoat. The dress itself took about 4 mock ups to get the pattern right. The bodice has a sweetheart neckline in front but a full back panel with a sewn in collar and huge puffy sleeves. It's made of taffeta and georgette with a faille sash. I stuffed the sleeves with toy fill so that I would not be constantly puffing them up, and the collar has a piece of buckram lining it as well as a bone that goes from the top of the collar to the bottom of the bodice to help hold the collar up. I didn't want that thing to flop or go anywhere. It was so stiff and in shape I almost took out an eye. :D It does up with a zip and some hooks and eyes under my left arm. All in all, aside from the zip issue, I was very pleased with how the dress turned out. The wig itself was another drama that I will cover in a tutorial - but it did take me three goes to get it right. I knew that I had gotten the dress right when I got out of the car and before I had my wig on - someone pointed to me and said "hey look, it's Charlotte from The Princess and The Frog"

We eventually got to the event where I promptly lined up for my photo with James Masters. Afterwards I met up with my fellow big skirt and Disney crew. We had a Tiana (my cousin), Cinderella's Fairy Godmother, a Steampunker and Kaylee in her Shindig dress from Firefly. We were held up with photos for quite some time. I then spent most of my day wandering around the stores and catching up with my friends, two of which were visiting from Sydney.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. I spent way too much money, but I had a blast. I am looking forward to the Gold Coast on April next year now. The costume plans start now!

M Time

It has been something of a week. This time last week, I was madly baking to prepare for my Birthday party. This time, I had chosen an 'M' theme. So I spent a couple of days before hand making up all my m theme food, and finishing the last of my costumes off. The evening came around and everything was ready to go. The bunting was strung - yes, I was insane enough to make my own bunting, balloons were in place and an assortment of food on the table. We had macarons, melting moments, mexican dip, macadamia crusted chicken, meatballs, money bag, marble cheesecake, chocolate mousse, malteasers, milky ways, m&m's and my minnie mouse theme cake.

As for the costumes, there was a wide assortment, and I was amazed at what everyone came up with. As for my family, my Dad was dressed as the Mad Hatter, my mum was Mother Nature in a brand new regency dress that I made for her, my brother was a my little pony - again, I styled his wig and tail and made his wings and ears. And I was dressed as Mio from one of my favourite Anime's K-ON!.

It was a fantastic birthday and I am so glad that so many of my friends could make it along.