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.

Supanova on the Gold Coast

It feels like it has taken me all week to recover. Last weekend, I attended Supanova Gold Coast - one of the first in the round of conventions for the year and actually one of my first costume events this year. Summer is just too hot and humid in Brisbane to be comfortable costuming. I didn't get to take any photos over the weekend as I had a very unfortunate phone smashing incident where only the bottom right corner is now usable. I'm still waiting on my new phone to be delivered. However, I did actually costume the entire weekend and was lucky enough to have Pandom Images snap some photos for me.

The weather here has started cooling down in the evenings, so I decided I could handle the heat of wearing my Saber Lion cosplay. It's a super comfortable costume and fun to wear, even if there are very few people who know what it is. 

Then, on Saturday, I debuted my new Diablo 3 Monk costume. It's my first time working with armour and if you follow my facebook page, you would have seen some of my progress shots. There were only a few fabric elements to the costume and the rest required my forray into working with foam. I've learnt a lot and will definitely be trying my hand at it again. I based my armour pieces off game screencaps. Basically, I created a new female Monk and every time I got a new piece of armour or weapon, I screencapped it - giving me a huge pool of images to pick and choose my armour from.

And finally, for Sunday, I wore my new Game of Thrones costume - Margaery Tryell in her mourning outfit. I loved my previous Margaery costume and was sad to see it die so it was a no brainer when choosing to make another GOT costume. I decided on her mourning outfit because I just haven't seen it made before by other cosplayers and I loved the look of it. This time though, I took steps to make sure that it would be a lot more durable than my last Margaery but that is all for a later post and tutorial. I was pleased with it though and so happy to find a Joffrey cosplayer for a few photos.

Supanova After Dark

This year, Supanova decided to hold an evening event at Dreamworld - one of the theme parks local to the Gold Coast. I dressed up in my Saber Lion costume for the event, which probably wasn't the best idea as I had to keep taking off my headpiece and wig for each of the rides. It because a little irritating after a while.

It was a great evening getting out onto the rides in the dark. I had a really nice time and was so happy to ride the roller coasters. I adore roller coasters and think there should be more readily available around the world. At any rate, we had a blast.

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!