Finished Pac-Man Shirt! (Day 171)

I finished my Pac-man shirt! Yay! I sewed on the rest of the fruits and finished ironing on the letters, because they kept peeling.

I also gave up on painting over the box for Pac-man's head. The marker just kept bleeding through. So I set to fabric over it and looked to see what showed through, then removed the fabric and glued printer paper over the marker lines. It worked rather well. =]

Tomorrow, I hope to cover more of the Pac-man head with fleece, if not finish it altogether. I'd really like to get the black jeans I"m wanting so that I can paint them. For some reason, I'm really looking forward to that. I think I just really like the puffy paint. =]

READ MORE - Finished Pac-Man Shirt! (Day 171)

Pretzels Are Not a Fruit! (Day 167)

SO I put a second coat of paint on the side of Pac-man that needs it. It's going to need at least one more, maybe two. Then I started sewing the fruits onto the Pac-man shirt. I hate that pretzel! It was quite possibly the most complex thing I've ever sewn. And it's not even a fruit! Rawr.

I finished sewing on the pretzel and the cherries, and sewed most of the orange (still have to sew the orange leave though). I also got around to cleaning up the sewing room a bit. Only to have my mom trash it seconds later. Ugh. Ah well.

I also tested out the puffy paint that I bought for the white dots that will be on the jeans (you have to wait for it to dry, then activate it with steam). Omg, I love it. They're all puffy and 3D and squishy =D. I also figured out how to use the steam on my iron! Yay! It's not hard, I just never needed it before.

No pictures today, sorry D= Didn't really finish anything, so I didn't feel the need for pictures.

READ MORE - Pretzels Are Not a Fruit! (Day 167)

Waka Waka Waka Waka (Day 165)

After a trip to JoAnn's today, I finally got around to putting Pac-man into his final(ish) stages, or at least catching him up to Clyde. (Some of the pictures are funky colors or odd angles. Sorry D=)

Initially, I was shopping for iron-on letters, because to write both "CLYDE" and "PACMAN" I need two C's. However, I did not want to pay $9.99 for an entire package of letters, just to use one C. While looking at the letters in the store though, I realized that a C is just an O with a chunk cut out. I wish I had thought of that sooner. I still ended up walking out with a roll of fleece (requested by my mom), a bra extender (because I can't find the one my mom bought me, I think she stole it), two tubes of fabric paint (one blue, one white), and of course candy.

When I got home, I had my boyfriend try on the Pac-man shirt so that I could place the fruits, after which I began ironing on the letters to the back. For some reason, they did not want to stay on though. I ended up messing up a couple of them, but overall, it's not too bad..

While waiting for the letters to cool, I finished putting cardboard pieces together for the head and began covering it with fleece. I ran into a little snag though. Turns out yellow fleece is see-through. Who knew? The cardboard on the side I was covering was predominantly white, but had a navy blue oval and lettering on it. Luckily, I was able to cover both seamlessly with a sheet of printer paper cut to fit and hot glued in. Unfortunately, I'm not so lucky with the other side. In the process of making the head, I turned the cardboard into a grid with a black pen, and then drew where I wanted to cut with colored Crayola markers, both of which show through the fabric. Thanks to my mom's suggestion, though, I will be painting over it with white paint. It'll take a few layers though, because the marker bleeds through.

After messing with the lettering some more, I decided I was just making things worse and gave up. It's not like they're going to fall off, I just wish that the corners wouldn't peel so much. I tested out the fabric paint I bough on a piece of scrap fabric, and I rather like how it turned out. The white puffs up with steam, but I have to wait until it dries to test it. My boyfriend and I thought it would would look cool and give it a more intense 3D effect. I like the colors I ended up with too, I was worried that covering an entire pair of pants with an intricate design might be too distracting, but I think the colors are just dark enough to give a subtle effect, without blending into the black.

READ MORE - Waka Waka Waka Waka (Day 165)

Fruit Arangement (Day 160)

I finished making the fruit for Pac-Man's shirt today. I may attach them tonight, but I probably won't until at least tomorrow. I really wanted to put the name on the back of the shirt before putting the fruit on the front, but thinking about it now, I could do it in either order.

It took me a little while to figure out how to organize the fruits on the shirt, since there's seven of them, and I'm a big fan of symmetry, but I think I figured out what works. The image of the left is the felt and fleece fruit I made on the black shirt my boyfriend bought. I personally think it looks like a snapshot of them from the game, but maybe I'm just taking too much pride in my work. ;D The pear looks a little dark in the picture though.

READ MORE - Fruit Arangement (Day 160)

Fruit Galore! (Day 155)

I made almost all of the fruit for Pac-Man's shirt today =] They're really cute! My cousin says I should sell them, haha. But in their current state, they're completely useless and not marketable at all. If I could make a little wristband or something, maybe, but they're really time-consuming. I spent about two hours making five of them. And that's not including the little white pieces I had already cut out.

Anyway, I still have to make a banana and an orange and then I'll be able to sew them on the shirt. I still have to buy more iron-on letters to put on the back of Pac-Man's shirt. See, I didn't really think about it, but to write both PACMAN and CLYDE, I need two C's. Oops. I wish I could buy just one letter, but I can't.. Ah well. Maybe my boyfriend will pay for it >_> It is his shirt after all.

I can't finish the Pac-Man headpiece until my boyfriend comes over so I can fit him into it, and he's been sick a lot lately =[

Tomorrow, I'm going to the mall with a friend, and while I'm there, I plan to visit Hot Toys again to talk to whoever it was I talked to last time (I know his name, but don't want to post it, and I don't know his title). I'm wondering how much I could help out with Hot Toys, because it sounds like something really fun to get involved with. But that's for another time, I suppose.

READ MORE - Fruit Galore! (Day 155)

COSTUME INFO: Tohru Honday (Fruits Basket)

Brief Bio: Tohru Honda is a first-year high school student, whose parents have both died prior to the start of the series. She is taken in by a family whom Tohru soon discovers is cursed, and turns into an animal of the Zodiac when hugged by the member of the opposite sex.

Despite her hardships, Tohru is very happy-go-lucky, and she always looks out for others before herself. She is very hard on herself when it comes to work and school, and feels like she is betraying her mother when she gets bad grades or does poorly at work. For a full biography, check out Tohru Honda's Wikipedia Page.

Why?: I never really sat down and decided "I'm going to cosplay Tohru." In fact, I never even really liked Tohru. The real reason I ended up cosplaying her was that I wanted to be a schoolgirl for Halloween in 2004. Fruits Basket was one of the first mangas I ever read, and so, I thought it proper to model my school girl uniform after the ones in that series. Shortly after, I attended my first anime convention, and saw everyone in costume. At the convention after that, I decided it would be fun to dress up too, and most people just assumed I was Tohru herself.

Construction: The bulk of this costume was made in one night, mostly by my mom. The blue shirt was a jacket that my mom sewed shut in the front. The skirt was originally longer then cut short, but I later found one that was already short and properly hemmed. The white tie and back.. Umm.. Flap? Is actually a pillow case that my mom cut and hemmed. Later, I decided not to let a good costume go to waste and bought a wig. The Momiji(rabbit) backpack was bought at Comic Arts & Anime Teen Expo 2007

This costume is 95% complete.
I would like a new shirt because the fabric is all wrong, and I'd like a new tie because the lines got smudged.

Convention Info: I believe that this was only worn on one or two occasions, at Comic Arts & Anime Teen Expo and/or Holiday Anime Faire 2005. I don't know if I'll ever wear her again, though, especially not without a group.

READ MORE - COSTUME INFO: Tohru Honday (Fruits Basket)