'Mo's Adventures In Playing Dress-Up

[Rebecky_Mo]

Eh, what the hell. Since I'm gonna get kinda serious with cosplay, I guess I should make one of these. XD;;

So, back history? I started cosplaying with my first Con experience, as Kazuma Kuwabara way back at Anime North 2003. I chose to go as Dark Tournament Kuwabara, with the white coat/pant outfit. Small, old photos and a young me under the cut.

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First photo was taken around Halloween 2002, when I made the outfit. Coat was made from a college labcoat/craft paint, sword was crappily done with carboard/craft paint. My hair…is actually pretty long here, just flipped forward, bobbypinned and sprayed to hell to keep it up. Plus some orange hairspray.

Second pic is me and my group at Anime North 2003. Hiei = My Younger Sister, Kuronue = the cosplay goddess of our group, Youko Kurama = My sister's BFF since high school, Yusuke = friend's sister (who wasn't really into the cosplay in the end.)

I actually made a new sword for the con, with resin and dye (oh God, THE MESS I MADE). I swear I still have it around here somewhere. If I find it, I'll take new pics of it if you guys are interested.

Unfortunately, after that I went really half-assed with pretty much all my cosplay (save a Paulie outfit). Usually because I was roped into my sister's group cosplays, which I wasn't always into. They were the stuff cosplayers tend to mock; thankfully, photos of these were rarely taken, and to my knowledge haven't seen the light of the internet...OHWAIT. My sister had some pics of me. Joy. Well, might as well...

! Horio from Prince of Tennis

! Paulie from One Piece

! Jozak from Kyo Kara Maou

…Meh.

Due to illness, I missed last year's AN (I went into withdrawls and everything), and I'm determined to make this year count. My next post will have my project for Anime North 2011.

[omnichild]

KKM cosplay <3 I really wish they would make another season for that anime. T.T

I can see where you need improvements! But it isn't too bad for a start! Trust me, Chris and I are not that good with costumes yet either!

[Rebecky_Mo]

@omnichild:

KKM cosplay <3 I really wish they would make another season for that anime. T.T

I can see where you need improvements! But it isn't too bad for a start! Trust me, Chris and I are not that good with costumes yet either!

KKM was a FABULOUS anime. So much fun (my sister and I are with you on the 'one more season!' thing. TwT). The Jozak costume was literally made a week before the con, due to my sister's wheedling about how I HAD to cosplay with them.

My problem with cosplay was that I had NO money/sewing experience, so I was stuck with finding thrift store stuff that worked. And if I DID sew (like the Paulie cosplay), I had no clue about my measurements, hence they were way too big or too small. Nothing was ever really polished.

I took some weekend sewing classes last spring to improve, but my illness prevented me from using them. I'm hoping I'm not too rusty for this project (might do some simple pants/tops for practice).

Speaking of which…

[omnichild]

lol my daughter is my sewing practice. XD I have tried to get my husband to teach me how to sew….but he is a horrible teacher. XD So I just pick out really simple cosplays for my daughter to do and then those are my sewing practice. XD

I was for awhile relying on him to do my cosplays for me, but he always procrastinated on them until a month or less before the con and then I would get upset because nothing was done. Which would make him rush and either not finish everything or half ass it. T.T

And hey! There is nothing wrong with thrifting your cosplay! If you can actually buy a piece for your cosplay instead of making it, then do it!

[Rebecky_Mo]

Anime North 2011 Project

Series: Kinnikuman Nisei (aka Ultimate Muscle)
Character: Checkmate
Why: Because I'm insane. But no, he's actually one of my favorite characters from this crazy series. Guy kinda got the short end of the stick in the most recent arc, poor thing. pets

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The boots were bought online, and as of now, I've started work on the helmet, and the two chess pieces that go on his shoulders. The sewing will be held off another month or two, as I plan to lose some weight, and want this sucker to actually FIT.

The Helmet

! To build it, I grabbed a plastic, dollar-store St. Patrick's Day derby last spring, and cut off the lip all around it. I then used poster board and cut it to the shape of the helmet, taping it all in place. A couple layers of plaster gauze were put on top of the whole thing.
! Inside of the helmet (the silver is the derby piece):
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! From the front:
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! Side view:
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! Oh look, me in the helmet (HI, ME!):
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! I still need to smooth it out using bondo, and give it a few coats of paint/sealer. This is one of the goals for February.

Chess Pieces

! These pieces are being made by carving a polystyrene block I bought years ago, so they'll be light on my shoulders; they'll attach to my costume by using velcro under the pieces, and on the shoulders of the costume.
! I'm carving them using 2 exacto knives (one large, one small), plus a hot wire tool meant for carving styrofoam
! The block pre-carving:
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! Rough carve of Rook piece:
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! Rook piece fully carved, painting in progress (may go back and re-smooth pieces of it, still not 100% happy):
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! Knight piece:
! This piece, I plan to take my time with. Never even DRAWN a damn horse, let alone carved on from styrofoam.
! Starting out:
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! Roughing shape:
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I'm hoping to have all three of these pieces done by the end of February (I have a few three-day weekends coming up, so that should help). Next will come the gauntlets, crown, and belt.

[MoonNeko]

OH MY GOD CHECKMATE XD AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! It's looking AMAZING SO FAR O_O I love it! He was one of my FAV'S too!!!! I loved Mantaro's retarded ass the most, but Checkmate was truly AWESOME!!!! Kinnikuman Nisei doesn't get enough love. EVER. Cannot WAIT to see this done x3

[captain usopp]

ah welcome back becky. I never thought of styrofoam. good luck with those.

[Rebecky_Mo]

I knew you'd like it, MoonNeko; yay for fellow Kinniku fans!. ^^ And you're right, Kinnikuman never gets enough respect here in North America. Though I can kinda of understand why the cosplayers shun them; all super-muscular guys, or very random, hard to do costumes. My sister's decided to go as Jeager/Jade in order to support me this year though.

Good to be back, Cap'n Usopp. I'm eager for Anime North this year; I need to make up for missing last year! And styrofoam was pretty much my first choice, since it's easy enough to be shaped and strong enough to HOLD said shape, and anything heavier and I'd be exhausting myself pretty quick. Only problem is getting things smooth…

Weekend Progress Report for w/k of Feb. 6 : Unfortunately, I didn't get anything completed this weekend, since Saturday was my only day off; and other things were higher on the list (like, y'know, buying food).

But next weekend is the first of my 3-day weekends, so I'm hoping for at least one full day dedicated to cosplay (plus bugging my cosplay-goddess friend for advice as I help her pack. XD;)

[Pancake-Fairy]

MAn, I haven't watched this show in YEARS, I'm real excited to see how this turns out.

[Rebecky_Mo]

URGH, SO BEHIIIIIND. I'll have to work on this at doubletime pace this month, to make up for the last minute interruptions in February

Okay, so last weekend I got a TINY amount of work done on my cosplay before leaving for a week. To smooth out my helmet, I decided to use bondo (as others have done), so I put on an application before I left; I also put some Modge Podge onto my Rook chess piece (which is fully painted) to seal it and give it some shine.

Coming back today, the bondo is cracked in some places, but isn't a disaster. Sanding it down and adding a second coat should fix it up.

I'm not happy with the Modge Podge results though; in some nooks and crannies it's dried too thickly, giving it a translucent white appearance . I've decided to repaint over the MP, and after that I'll decide if I want to reapply the MP or leave it as is.

[Rebecky_Mo]

Ugh, forgot all about this thing. WHOOPS.

Okay, so last I wrote here, I was working on my Checkmate cosplay for AN'11, and I completed it! I was so proud of myself; it looked almost exactly how I wanted it to! So I went to Anime North, confident in my work for the first time in years.

Aaaaaaaand then I had a major wardrobe malfunction. My two shoulder chesspieces (a rook and knight, respectively) didn't stay on at all; I had used velcro to keep them on, thinking it would be enough. But even though they were polystyrene, they were still just too heavy, and too awkward on my shoulders when I moved. They didn't last more than a few hours on the first day before they came toppling off, breaking the horn off of the knight piece piece the first place.

I was crushed, but continued to wear the rest of the outfit for the next couple days. It wasn't so bad…but I wanted those pieces to work, damn it! I vowed to return to Anime North '12 with the same costume and be triumphant! I fine-tuned the costumes glitches:

• shortened the checkered cape by A LOT, since it heavy on the shoulders and getting way too muddy/dusty being at floor length (and it kept getting stepped on. URK~!)
• made a new belt, since the old one didn't work too well
• added belt loops to the vest to keep said belt in place
• got new boots and learned how to shine them properly

and fixed the shoulder piece problem; I deepened the shoulders grooves for them to sit better, and hot-glued strips of sewing elastic to them (black, to work with the costume colors), using them to go under my arms and keep them in position like costume butterfly/fairy wings. It worked alright, but they were still so large they flopped too much around when I walked. What to do…? Taking a risk, I added small pieces of the same velcro that betrayed me back in AN11 to the back of each piece, and cut a long strip of elastic, hot gluing the opposite part of the velcro to each end. I then put the pieces on my shoulders again, connecting the two of them with the strap of elastic just behind my head, and prayed...

I still had some vision issues on either side of me, but the elastic kept the rook/knight from going to far to either side when I walked, and when they tried to droop forward, the elastic band would hit the back of my helmet and bounce them back into place.

BINGO! I returned to AN'12 triumphant; the costume/and the shoulder pieces lasted the entire con,barring one moment when the glue on the back strap gave way. But that was an easy fix after going back to the hotel, and I was back in form within minutes.

Even better than getting the costume done and able to wear all of it? I WAS RECOGNIZED. I had a good 30-40 people taking pictures of me all weekend, going 'OMG, I've never seen Ultimate Muscle cosplay before, I loved that show!' and asking me questions about the chess pieces and helmet and stuff. One of the AN staff actually gave me a ribbon for my cosplay to acknowledge how much she liked it; she even asked if I was in the cosplay fashion show, because I should be. Considering the crap I'd been wearing before AN'12? I was floored by that.

Checkmate hasn't been retired just yet; for all the work put into him, I plan to wear him again someday. Maybe even next year, though maybe only for one day; I have plans for other characters next year…which will be in another post later on, I think. Until then I present my finished work, alongside my sister (who was kind enough to actually do one of my cosplay shows for a change) as Jade/Jeager:

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[Rebecky_Mo]

There were four separate costumes I wanted to do. Then I slapped myself for being crazy and cut one costume off the list, leaving me with one fairly easy one and two that are harder. The fourth costume may or may not come back into play depending on the other three being completed. Two of the costumes have to do with my all-time favorite character ever. The last one is a character from One Piece.

The first costume is Princess Jupiter's dress, that you can see best in Sailor Moon Artbook IV. No one understands how much I love this dress. Hell, I may base my wedding dress on this someday. But for now I want to make it for Anime North's Moonlight Ball, with a mask to match it. I bought a ton of the stuff for this today; not cheap either. Lousy satin… But I got white roses I can dye to match the green of the fabric and the pink of the earrings. I'll need to make her necklace and Jupiter forehead symbol too.

The second is a Sailor Jupiter fuku of my own design, Infinite Sailor Jupiter. It always ticked me off that the Eternal Senshi uniforms were all completely the same apart from their colors; all of their earlier outfits had their own unique touches to them, why throw those away?! So I made a different uniform design with metallic accents and their own planetary treasure (ala Uranus' sword and Neptune's mirror). I'm going to use the same green fabric as the princess dress and I bought the gold fabric for the accents/bows today, and I found used boots that I can paint. But for the life of me, I cannot find a white leotard or leotard sewing patterns! I'm going to have to order one online, as well as a wig and rose earrings.

The third costume is for Doctor Kureha, one of my favorite women in a show full of awesome women. ;D I'm thinking of cheating with her, getting a jean jacket to match a pair of my pants and dyeing it purple, then adding accents and stuff. Plus getting a plain white t-shirt and adding cloth/paint to make it like hers. Already got her hair, nose, glasses and boots, so score on that one! I need to get a plastic-y win bottle though; not going to risk a glass one in a con like AN.