Catchup Time

It has been some time since I last posted on here. All I can say is that life changes. I haven’t done a whole lot of costuming since I last posted. In fact in 2018, I only made three new costumes and one of those was simply finishing one that I had started two years prior. It’s not that I gave up sewing, in fact my wardrobe is a testament to that fact as I have spent rather a lot of time sewing up general clothing (for work and the like).

So to catch things up:

In September I attended OzComicCon. Things were a little crazy at work as I was acting in another role, and packing to move house at the time and I didn’t have the inclination to make anything new. So I polished off a couple of my older costumes and wore those: my Beauty School Dropout from Grease and my Ravenclaw Uniform and Robes.

   

Then came Supanova in November. Still acting in another role at work, but finished moving house, this time I managed to whip up a new costume. Based on artwork by Savannah Alexander of human form pokemon (Gijinka), I dressed as her 1930s style Ivysaur. I had originally planned to turn the plush toy into a bag but he was just too cute to butcher.

  

Since then, I have only been working on my own outfit sewing. I spent quite some time making new pieces to take on my recent trip to Japan. I was there for three and half weeks in March. Now, I do plan to make a start on some new Cosplay projects.

I also attended Supanova on the Gold Coast this year. It was a few weeks ago in April, and as I was freshly back from Japan I didn't have time to whip up anything new. So, time to pull out a previous costume, I wore my Saber Lion.

  

After moving my stash of fabric twice recently, I definitely want to have less of it next time I decide to move house. So, my goal this year (and in those to come) is to sew up the fabric that I have there. Everything that I made for Japan came from my fabric stash, so that’s been a bit of a blessing. But I have big rolls of fabric tagged for historical costumes and large chunks of fabric for cosplays.

On top of it all, I have been trying to downsize the rest of my stuff. Moving house really hits home that you have too much stuff. But part of this are my costumes. I have some that I am still attached to, but they don’t fit anymore. Is it any wonder when I made them five or more years ago? Health issues and weight gain, plus the general changing of my body shape means that these costumes just don’t fit me the way that they were made to do. So, I have slowly been listing onto my Etsy store. I plan to go through everything again and pull out the ones that I have been hanging onto despite not being able to wear them.

So despite not costuming for the last few months, I have been busy enough to keep myself going. But stay tuned because more costuming is to come.

OzComicCon hits Brisbane

The next major event that I attended earlier this year was Oz Comic Con Brisbane. It’s a wonderful con to be a cosplayer at – there are panels, photobooths with photographers available, various backdrops to pose against, some of our Aussie cosplay personalities and a repair station. The organisers have really tried to include cosplayers in their planning process. Plus it’s a wonderful con and there are so many amazing costumes on show. Not to mention the cosplay competition which, if you win the Australian leg, will get you sent to the US to compete. Our Aussie winner from last year, Major Sam (and yes a fellow Brisbanite) actually took out the championship with her amazing Sikozou Necromancer Juliette.

Some of my fellow cosplayers:

Unfortunately it turned out to be a swelteringly hot September weekend, which made costuming quite the challenge. It’s only a two day con, but I spent quite some time in the lead-up flip-flopping about what I was going to wear. I had one brand new costume lined up but was planning to re-wear the other day.

In the end, it turned out to be a bit of a Disney weekend. First, I pulled out Periwinkle from Disney Fairies to wear on Saturday. It’s one of my cooler costumes and I love wearing the wings with it. My bestie Gael Storm quickly threw together a Rosetta as well so that we could pair it up for the weekend. And while she was working that afternoon and night, we did manage to find some time to take a few photos in one of the gardens around the carpark. I’m particularly in love with the ones that I snapped of her Rosetta.

Then on Sunday, I joined a group of fellow cosplay ladies with our mash-up cosplay of Hogwarts and Disney. Or Hogney if you prefer. Basically we each chose a Disney character and sorted them into a house. My love of Lottie from the Princess and the Frog made me desperate to turn her into a Hufflepuff student. I put my own spin on the uniform and made a 1920s style slip dress out of linen and velveteen. Paired it up with a blouse and tie, cloche hat and topped it off with home puff robes. I adore how this turned out. And we got some great group photos by the amazing Rebecca Burton.

All in all, I had a fantastic weekend which inspired me to get cracking on more costumes. Unfortunately there was only six weeks until the next one and my original plans were a bit too ambitious with me working full time. But I did put together something new. All in due course.