fdksfads

Insert lots of dark muttering here.

I also need to go to Joann's and get the right color thread for Lira's costume. The one I got was too red because I neglected to bring a scrap of fabric. BLARGH.

Somehow, I need to jury rig my garage into a temporary work space for sculpting/carving/what have you of my Tomoyo head dress.

Excuse me while I go off and mutter some more.

Progress? Maybe?

So Akira and I have managed to figure out why 95% of senshi costumes aren't quite right; either there's something wrong the the skirts, the collars (Akira used up a lot of the muslin I have to make templates because I was that picky about the shape of the front), the bows, the piping... there's quite a bit that can go wrong. I'm having issues with the freaking skirt piping. Tomorrow is going to be trying to finish all four of the skirts (attempt number THREE at making the piping properly and actually cutting and pleating my skirt), applying the grosgrain ribbon to the collars and .. maybe the bows?

I also maybe sort of really need to look into purchasing a dremel. Derp.

My Tomoyo cosplay is limping along somewhat. I pretty much said screw it to hand embroidery and am going to draw out the design so Goose can make patches with Akira's embroidery machine and go from there. But I have solved the mystery of what to do with the awkwardly and not realistic knot work that hangs from the belt! I consider that to be an improvement.

T-minus three months for finishing my parts of the sailor senshi cosplay (then mailing them to Akira for her final touches), styling Kitaku's Sailor Moon wig, about 90% of my Tomoyo costume and all of Nave's Syaoran costume. I am SOOOOO screwed.

Sewing sewing sewing...

So Goose and Akira are visiting me and Nave in our sweet digs. We're currently working on the sailor senshi costumes. Akira has two collars sewn out of four, and I'm working on pleating the third skirt out of four.

...

Silly Sailor Moon skirt is stupidly complicated.

End of January - Little Progress...

The end of January is quickly approaching and so far, I have made little headway with any of the things I said I would.

My Athena Glory costume has the dress made, but I have not hemmed it at the bottom and I have not painted the pattern on it. The shirt had a second iteration, but this version was also not quite right. I'm giving it another go, but also being extremely slow about it.

For the Sailor tiaras, I'm trying to figure out how to make the edging on the sides of the tiaras. I'm using brass and I have mapped out the shape of the tiaras. The edging is just holding me back. At first I was thinking of making some kind of stamp out of wood since the brass sheets were pretty soft, but it hasn't developed into anything.

As for Super Sailor Pluto's boots, I just need to get around to buying the fabric. I just recently paid off my Christmas present bills. That's just a matter of my cash flow starting to build up again.

So that's that. I have 5 more days in January and I highly doubt I will get a shirt made, a dress hemmed, patterns painted, tiaras stamped/folded/magicked into shape and polished, and boots made. If any progress does go well, I will post an update with photos soon.

My goal right now is to finish my shirt base, get around to hemming the dress, work out the stencils for the painting and getting to the store for some black stretchy fabric. (No, Goose, not for a slinky black dress, ya goof!) As for my previous plan, it all is getting pushed into February. This includes the completion of Athena's uniform, the Pluto boots and figuring out the edging of the tiaras.

I realize that these are more excuses, but I will do better next month.

umm..

I'd like to think that I have a fairly valid reason as to why I haven't touched any of my costumes, planning or otherwise, since early September. Long story short, I made a huge life change in October, which included changing to a new job in a state that's 2000 miles away from my old one. I moved in with Nave and things have been pretty hectic since then.

I'll post some progress shots of the embroidery once I get the first one finished and once we have internet at home. Stupid comcast.

Excuses and New Year's Resolutions

It's been a long time since the last Pokoteng update.
As usual, regular life comes first and there hasn't been any progress on my end. I started making my shirt for one of my cosplays, but it didn't work out. Needless to say, I have to remake it. Oh well.
Kaye got me a sweet dressform for Christmas, so I predict it will be seeing a lot of use very soon.
The holidays take away a lot of my funds, so I have very little to spend on cosplay at the moment. Also, work is very busy as the holiday break is coming.
Plus, I've just been lazy. After a long day of work, I don't want to have to break out my sewing supplies and start up my project.
But after the holidays are over, I need to get my butt in gear. I have 6 costumes to put together and I need to be productive in the new year.

So here are my New Year's Resolutions for 2011:

1. I will keep my room and work area fairly neat. When it's messy, I don't feel like doing anything and fall back in the same routine. Cleaning a few things every time beats cleaning a crap-load of stuff all at once.
2. I will keep as closely to my cosplay schedule as humanly possible. I may have been over-ambitious with my schedule, but as long as I do a little every day or every other day, all costumes should be complete by Otakon 2011. And with some buffer time, there's time to go slowly and be careful. I work the best with nothing hanging over my head.
3. I will physically work on no more than two costumes at a time. Even if i get bored with one kind of fabric. I have a habit of getting bored with the costume I'm currently working on and look into another costume. Then another after I get bored with that one. Then yet another one when I get bored with that one. And then I have three unfinished costumes and more work for myself. Which is no good, because I either forget where I am in the project or I don't like where I was going or I just find some reason to scrap it and have another go. This starts a new cycle of what's listed above and I'm left with piles of unfinished, unhemmed, unfitted non-costumes.

Well, those are the cosplay related resolutions. Let's hope I actually stick to them.

Things to look forward to in January 2011 (to give myself some accountability):

• Super Sailor Pluto boots
• Various Sailor Moon tiaras
• Athena Glory's Orange Planet uniform

There, two costumes at a time.
Until next time!

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.