Progress towards July

So taking two accelerated grad classes in the month of June while working on the majority of my costumes is probably not the best idea ever. But I'd like to be done with school by next Spring so them's the breaks.

Since the last time I updated, I finished a bunch of pieces for the con.
Lots of pictures below the cut.

Anime Expo in a Month!!!

As usual, real life reared its ugly head these past few months. Since I started grad school, I was extremely busy with papers, readings, and presentations. Only these past two weeks have I been able to make everything in lightning speed.

Picture heavy post below the cut.

Swag, AX 2013 Plans, and Update

Finally an update! 
Goose and I got a ton of things from this year's Otakon.

SWAG!

 (Warning! Picture heavy post ahead!)

Let AX 2013 planning commence!!

So right now we're super motivated and getting our ideas together for next year's con already! We'll see how long this keeps up for me >>

This is our costume list for now. We're doing an MLP group and a Pokemon group as well. I'm also going to be making a Battle Angel Alita/Ganmu costume. As in Gally in the Last Order series with the crazy damascus blade butterfly knife.

So onwards to reference photos!

(I may or may not be slightly buzzed from inhaling alcohol fumes while cooking, and Nave had me try one of his favorite beers. Beer + Me = CAPSLOCK)

Massive Productive Weekend!

This past weekend was the only full weekend that Goose and I had for cosplay, so we made the most of it by working from 8 am to 10:30 pm on Saturday and 7 am to 10:45 pm on Sunday. Here's what we did!

(Warning! Image heavy post after the jump!)

FMA progress, an Inara vest and a Malcolm coat!

So ever since I got this new phone, I've been taking a lot of my progress shots on instagram and posting them on twitter.

Warning: IMAGE HEAVY!

Here's what's been happening:

More Progress

Since this weekend was a long weekend, Goose and I were extremely productive. After I finished cutting out the squares from the last post, I stitched together the panels for the four sides of Ilo and Milo.

(Picture heavy post after the jump. But all the stuff I've posted to Instagram.)

Mini progress update!

I finished cutting the squares for Ilo and Milo's checkered patterned fabric.
First I figured out the proportions for both Ilo and Milo versus my and Goose's measurements. That makes Goose's squares 13" and mine an even foot. With one inch on either side for the seams and a little give, Goose's squares were cut at 15" and mine at 14".

My cardboard template

I finished cutting all four colors in about a total of two movies and one season and one episode of Pushing Daisies. Then I'll need to work on sewing four panels for each side of both mascots. Here I go!

One night's work of tracing and cutting

The squares are done!

One More Thing!

Source: Uncle from Jackie Chan Adventures

Or three more things...

Garnet Rod + Update

I'm getting very excited. Not only because I'll get to see a bunch of otaku and awesome cosplayers, not only because of all the guests and premiers, but especially because I get to see my friends who I haven't seen in a few months to a year and spend some quality otaku time with them.

Warning: Image Heavy Post After The Jump!! (PC, you've already seen these images on Google+)

Weekend Update

Goose and I worked very hard this weekend, trying to get things done.

First off, we finished making the Sailor Sleeves, which I have lovingly nicknamed "arm tacos" since the fabric is shaped like a taco shell and then filled with a bunch of quilting batting.

On Saturday, I worked alone on them, but the technique I was using wasn't working on the fabric I was using, particularly because the darts wouldn't crease neatly like 100% cotton would.

So that was a day of work that didn't amount to anything.

The next day, Goose joined me and helped me measure out the taco shells based on my, Lira's and Kaye's measurements. Then we cut the quilting batting to shape for each taco shell, stuffed the shells and pinned them together like wontons. Then I sewed them, hoping that they wouldn't twist too much and that the lines would appear properly.

Left to right: Completed arm taco for Akira, stuffed wontons for Lira, shell and stuffing for Kaye

They came out better than my first five or six tries, so hopefully this will be the last time I make anything arm taco-y.

Left to right: Akira, Kaye, Lira (I left extra room for Kaye and Lira to stitch onto the leotards)

Goose finished sanding and painting the Pluto earrings we were working on. He sprayed the fronts with the Cherry Red auto paint. After they dried, there were a few air bubbles, so he sanded the surfaces with very very very fine grit sand paper. Auto paint is awesome, because it dries into a hard layer that sands as well as the resin. So he sprayed a second layer onto the front and after that dried, one on the back to make the color look uniform.

Here are the earrings after drying the second layer. I love the shine that comes off them.

All of the Garnet pieces are done drying, so I'm working on the heart shapes to sand them down to the proper shape. Goose says that he can do measuring and cutting based on measurements and stencils, but he hates freehand work, so I'm working on the shape with a dremel and a respirator since I'm still getting over a chest cold I caught in June. Blech.

While I work on those, Goose is working on making the details for the staff part of the rod.

Our Portal costumes are both ready to go and Goose just needs to fix a small electronic problem in the Portal Gun for that to be ready.

Right now, our only focus is on the rod and it's only time consuming because of the drying times we have to account for the Bondo, primer and paint.

More pictures as we make more and get closer to Otakon!

Tomoyo's inner kimono in steps.

So I despise using patterns. It's mostly the pinning and cutting part. I ended up making up my own pattern for the inner kimono.. hence the odd placement of the darts to make it lie flat against my body. So here's the progress in pictoral format once I got the pieces cut out:

The two front pieces and the back pieces with the sides and shoulders sewn, and darting.

Flipped inside out

Sleeves pinned on

... beginnings of the collar. I know, it looks funny

And what it looks like now, after strategic darting of the collar. I need to hem, add snaps and sew up the sleeves still, but that took about five hours of work :)

Update from Akira

It's been a long time since I updated.
Between my last post and now, Goose bought me this super sweet new sewing machine. It's a Brother SE400 and does embroidery from templates on the machine.

My new baby

Then he gave me another surprise by giving me this (ridiculously expensive) software to make your own templates or from images. These are the patches that I'm using for one of my cosplays and the template was made by Goose. (He's such a software-phile. He loves to mess with stuff like this.)

Pretty patches! Easily resizeable too

I'm pretty pleased with the results. Besides the embroidery function, the sewing capabilities of this machine make my old machine look like a kid's toy. Auto reinforcing, auto cutting of threads, tons of different stitches, powerful machinery behind the shell; this machine makes sewing things super easy. (shameless plug)

It's just a matter of me buckling down and actually sewing. After I get into a routine, it should get easier to schedule my time for cosplay creation.

As Kaye said, she and I will also be working together to make sailor senshi costumes. I've recently bought from brass sheets from the local hardware store and will be trying my hand at that very soon. Pictures will soon follow.

Goose, Kaye and I have a pretty sizable list ahead of us, so there should be many updates to come along too.

Next Year Cosplay

With Otakon 2010 over, I'm feeling a little more optimistic about my costumes for next year. I want to be able to change on different days because wearing one costume was fun, but it got tiresome to hear all the Portal memes over and over again. (One can only hear "The cake is a lie" so many times before going insane.)
I've already changed what I eat in hopes to lose extra weight and have already lost a couple inches from my waist.
For next year, I want to make three costumes for myself and two (so far) for Goose.
I'm working on one of them with Kaye, so right now I'm gathering materials for one I am working on alone.

Oooooh, fabric!

The fabric was all washed last night, thanks to Goose. Tonight will be pattern cutting and fabric cutting. I still need to fix my sewing machine from my last cosplay :x
If you can guess what these will become, good for you. I'll post again with more progress photos after some pieces gets sewn together.