I'm... Finished? (Day's 239 & 240)

WAT? For the most part, I'm DONE with everything I need to have done for Fanime. I'm in shock. I thought I'd be working until the last minute. Tomorrow, my boyfriend needs to buy a white dress shirt for Hideki, which I may or may not add pleats to the front of, and that's it! Yes, I never really "finished" my raver outfit, but then again, I stopped caring.

So, yes, the Hideki jacket is finished, and I am so ridiculously proud of it. I look at it now and it's hard for me to imagine that it was once just a pile of fabric. Yup, I made the entire thing by myself. Well. I didn't make the fabric. But the rest of it!

I re-made one of my Chi ears that didn't fit right, and bought an epic push-up bra for Chi. Don't get me wrong, I love my girls, but Chi is like a G-cup (I kid you not) so they needed a little boost. When Victoria's Secret says they'll add two cup sizes, they mean it. I may or may not add black ribbon to the leggings for my Chi, we'll see how much time I have tomorrow and if I feel like working on things.

I also bought an awesome pair of knee-high socks for my raver outfit, just because I could. My raver outfit is black, white, and hot pink. Tomorrow, I'll probably start packing a little and doing last-minute costume touch-ups if I think I need them, like brushing my Amaterasu o.o

I've been working on compiling a personal Fanime schedule for me and my boyfriend as well of all of the events we'd like to go to. The Black & White Ball dance lessons are what's taking up the most time, unfortunately. I didn't want to go to any of them on Friday, since I'll be Amaterasu and have my mask, but I guess I can just take it off while in the lessons. The feet too, I'm sure.

After Fanime, I may or may not take a costuming break. I have two outfits I'd like to make over the summer for Yaoi-Con (young Miles Edgeworth and Franziska von Karma), but I don't know when I'll start those. Yes, I'm going as a girl to Yaoi-Con. I HAVE OFFICIALLY GIVEN UP CROSSPLAY. Even all of my old crossplays are retired. I'd rather gender-bend, I just can't bind anymore.

In any case, back to planning out Fanime~!

READ MORE - I'm... Finished? (Day's 239 & 240)

Giving up on Crossplay (Day 150)

Mom took me bra shopping today. And I came to the realization that I will never be flat. Which is, outside of cosplay, probably a good thing, but I'll never be able to pull off young girls or any boys xD Eh. At least Phoenix Wright has a thick shirt and jacket. Hopefully a sports bra will suffice.

I'll stop now. One can only complain about one's boobs being too big for so long. I also got very pretty-smelling perfume, but that's irrelevant to cosplay or crossplay.

I really wanted to work on cosplay today, but it didn't happen, of course. I wanted to hang out with the friend I hung out with yesterday too, but things got in the way, as usual. xD

I need to go to the bank to deposit money into my debt card to be sure that I can have enough for the Fanime hotel, and my contacts for Chi, which haven't been thought of for a while. I'd like to make my appointment with the optomitrist soon, but alas, my body has other plans. Need some moles removed from my back. Ew. It's expensive ($50 a mole D=).

Anyway, I'm rambling. I have Spongebob PJs! That is all. =D

READ MORE - Giving up on Crossplay (Day 150)

What better way to recycle bugs?

I meant to post this a few days ago when I finished it. Here's Princess Agitha's bug necklace...(that I still might touch up because ONE bug is facing the wrong way and yah..)

Also...I tried on Keika's wig for her Leon Magnus crossplay. I love wearing short wigs, they're sooo easy to deal with. -__-;



Hehe.
Oh! I did a cosplay tag video for Youtube, but it won't be up until tomorrow or so. ;( Sorry.

READ MORE - What better way to recycle bugs?

What better way to recycle bugs?

I meant to post this a few days ago when I finished it. Here's Princess Agitha's bug necklace...(that I still might touch up because ONE bug is facing the wrong way and yah..)

Also...I tried on Keika's wig for her Leon Magnus crossplay. I love wearing short wigs, they're sooo easy to deal with. -__-;



Hehe.
Oh! I did a cosplay tag video for Youtube, but it won't be up until tomorrow or so. ;( Sorry.

READ MORE - What better way to recycle bugs?

Ayame Sohma Prog 1-6-09

I finished my pants for Ayame today. I kept messing up though so it took a while but now they look nice! ^~^ I also worked on the jacket. It's almost done...I just need to finish sewing on the buttons and adding white along the collar and sleeve cuffs. I didn't finish because I went to a party that was held for my Uncle's birthday.... We played boardgames all night and it got pretty intense. I love my family XD

I'd say I'm about 90% done with my Ayame cosplay. Pretty easy cosplay though.....but it'll be really fun being one of my favorite male characters. :D!! THAT's what matters.

Anyway...got to go......bye! (Sorry for no pictures....well aside from the crazy one at the top. XD)

-

Sheik

READ MORE - Ayame Sohma Prog 1-6-09

Ayame Sohma Prog 1-6-09

I finished my pants for Ayame today. I kept messing up though so it took a while but now they look nice! ^~^ I also worked on the jacket. It's almost done...I just need to finish sewing on the buttons and adding white along the collar and sleeve cuffs. I didn't finish because I went to a party that was held for my Uncle's birthday.... We played boardgames all night and it got pretty intense. I love my family XD

I'd say I'm about 90% done with my Ayame cosplay. Pretty easy cosplay though.....but it'll be really fun being one of my favorite male characters. :D!! THAT's what matters.

Anyway...got to go......bye! (Sorry for no pictures....well aside from the crazy one at the top. XD)

-

Sheik

READ MORE - Ayame Sohma Prog 1-6-09

Ayame Sohma Prog 12-16-09

MAI SHEWZ.

...and then the top half I sewed together today. ^~^;

Just going to add the golden buttons and then the white fabric around the collar and cuffs (I don't feel like making a white shirt for underneath when hardly ANYTHING shows.

Ahh...Still need to make the pants but I got to buy a zipper first. :3

So yeah....hope all who read this that cosplay have cosplay progress D:<

READ MORE - Ayame Sohma Prog 12-16-09

Ayame Sohma Prog 12-16-09

MAI SHEWZ.

...and then the top half I sewed together today. ^~^;

Just going to add the golden buttons and then the white fabric around the collar and cuffs (I don't feel like making a white shirt for underneath when hardly ANYTHING shows.

Ahh...Still need to make the pants but I got to buy a zipper first. :3

So yeah....hope all who read this that cosplay have cosplay progress D:<

READ MORE - Ayame Sohma Prog 12-16-09

We fail at making up our minds. (-__-);

Indeed we do. So unfortunately we will not be doing our Ouran High School Host Club (Long name -__-) crossplay for AOD. FORTUNATELY...we've gone back to doing Ayame and Shigure (Kay-chan and I) which makes me very happy because I love Ayame. I'm year of the snake too...not that it really matters. XD

Heh heh...Oh yeah did I mention...I BOUGHT MY SILVERY WHITE WIG FOR AYAME TOO?!?! I couldn't handle it. I found one on sale for $26. An ebay store online was having a wig sale for these coming Holidays so I took advantage and purchased it!
Tis a lovely wig indeed, I must say.

Outfit I want to do. I will hopefully look man enough in it.


The wig I got. :]

READ MORE - We fail at making up our minds. (-__-);

We fail at making up our minds. (-__-);

Indeed we do. So unfortunately we will not be doing our Ouran High School Host Club (Long name -__-) crossplay for AOD. FORTUNATELY...we've gone back to doing Ayame and Shigure (Kay-chan and I) which makes me very happy because I love Ayame. I'm year of the snake too...not that it really matters. XD

Heh heh...Oh yeah did I mention...I BOUGHT MY SILVERY WHITE WIG FOR AYAME TOO?!?! I couldn't handle it. I found one on sale for $26. An ebay store online was having a wig sale for these coming Holidays so I took advantage and purchased it!
Tis a lovely wig indeed, I must say.

Outfit I want to do. I will hopefully look man enough in it.


The wig I got. :]

READ MORE - We fail at making up our minds. (-__-);

"Because I'll make a maaan out of YOU!"

Why am I reading more manga? All it does is make me add more to my "Future Cosplay List"
Okay. So I haven't exactly crossplayed yet but I want to.

I now have 2 characters I want to crossplay...and now THREE. Who? Squalo Superbi *~* From Hitman Reborn! He's sooo....awesome and HAWT. XD Rofl.

Ahh....


I just hope I could pull him off. Could I? :[


Btw. I'm going back to my black hair. I'm tired of this..weird mixed brown. ;/

Buono notte.

READ MORE - "Because I'll make a maaan out of YOU!"

"Because I'll make a maaan out of YOU!"

Why am I reading more manga? All it does is make me add more to my "Future Cosplay List"
Okay. So I haven't exactly crossplayed yet but I want to.

I now have 2 characters I want to crossplay...and now THREE. Who? Squalo Superbi *~* From Hitman Reborn! He's sooo....awesome and HAWT. XD Rofl.

Ahh....


I just hope I could pull him off. Could I? :[


Btw. I'm going back to my black hair. I'm tired of this..weird mixed brown. ;/

Buono notte.

READ MORE - "Because I'll make a maaan out of YOU!"

Surprise Kay-chan!

So my friend Kay-chan was sick today so Ne-chan and surprised her with soup and
of course, our presence. :D
She was very surprised and happy to see us. We mostly talked about our crossplay plans for AOD and looked at pictures online of other crossplayers and characters we might also crossplay as.
It was fun. I just hope she gets well soon.

Oh! We're not doing Ayame and Shigure anymore. It's official. :[ (Although I will probably do Ayame later on...) Anyway. SOOOOOOO....Wanna know what we have chosen? Oh and I must say. Every cosplayer has to do AT LEAST one cosplay that is totally OVER-done. XD
You ready for this...........huh huh huh?!?! XD
..Okay behold..thy characters:

Ne-chan & I as:

Kyouya & Tamaki

Kay-chan as:

"Mori"

Ahh yes. This is indeed the Ouran High School Host Club. Very over done BUT we won't be wearing the usual uniforms we will...be...waiters! :D


We also plan on carrying around trays with items on them. XD

Ahh....I can't wait to be a man. I will have squealing fangirls. o.o; Oh god..
Oh god...........

-Spazzes-

I'll be ording my blonde wig soon.

READ MORE - Surprise Kay-chan!

Surprise Kay-chan!

So my friend Kay-chan was sick today so Ne-chan and surprised her with soup and
of course, our presence. :D
She was very surprised and happy to see us. We mostly talked about our crossplay plans for AOD and looked at pictures online of other crossplayers and characters we might also crossplay as.
It was fun. I just hope she gets well soon.

Oh! We're not doing Ayame and Shigure anymore. It's official. :[ (Although I will probably do Ayame later on...) Anyway. SOOOOOOO....Wanna know what we have chosen? Oh and I must say. Every cosplayer has to do AT LEAST one cosplay that is totally OVER-done. XD
You ready for this...........huh huh huh?!?! XD
..Okay behold..thy characters:

Ne-chan & I as:

Kyouya & Tamaki

Kay-chan as:

"Mori"

Ahh yes. This is indeed the Ouran High School Host Club. Very over done BUT we won't be wearing the usual uniforms we will...be...waiters! :D


We also plan on carrying around trays with items on them. XD

Ahh....I can't wait to be a man. I will have squealing fangirls. o.o; Oh god..
Oh god...........

-Spazzes-

I'll be ording my blonde wig soon.

READ MORE - Surprise Kay-chan!

Cosplay, Race, & BodyType

Today's topic: Cosplay, race, and body type
(I'll try my best not to offend, but I think I'm too blunt for my own good sometimes.)

I'm going to start out by outright saying, I do not discriminate against anybody. I honestly believe that any race or body type can cosplay anything or anybody they want.

HOWEVER! I do not enjoy seeing extremely overweight people half-naked. I won't make rude comments or gestures at them or behind their back, but it's not enjoyable to see, and I definitely won't ask for a picture. On the other side of the spectrum, skinny people don't look good as overweight characters, and it even makes them hard for me to recognize sometimes.
I also greatly admire people who use cosplay to motivate themselves to work out and lose weight. I'm thin, but even I've worked out to make a cosplay more accurate (getting abs for crossplay).

I know that race can be a tender subject, but here goes. I'm less likely to ask for a picture of a cosplay if the person is not the "correct" race. There are exceptions though, if the cosplay is just spectacularly made or I get to know them and they're just an awesome person that I want to remember. Also, I once saw a really dark African-American Link (The Legend of Zelda) cosplayer with a blue tunic, instead of the main green one, that complimented his skin tone so well, I would have died to get his picture. In any case, I am no less likely to compliment their costume or talk to them. I also don't particularly like when people use makeup to change their skin tone. It has to be really well-done and really convincing.
That being said, as with cosplayers who aren't the "correct" weight, I still do not make rude gestures or comments.

As for body type and skin color affecting my cosplay choices, it honestly does. I' a people-pleaser and a perfectionist, a terrible combination for a cosplayer.

I could never bring myself to cosplay a heavier character because I'm so ridiculously tiny and I'd be afraid I'd offend someone. (The words "but there are so many skinny anime characters" come to mind...) I get grief about my weight as it is, whether I'm cosplaying a character just as skinny as myself, or even if I'm not cosplaying at all. People seems offended by my size, as if I'm purposely perpetuating the stereotype that only skinny girls are pretty, Yes, I'm skinny. Yes, people say I'm pretty. Yeah, there might be some correlation, but, really, I wish I weighed more. It affects my health and I'd really like to get people the F off of my back. But that's my problem, not the cosplay world's.

I'm less particular about race though, probably because I've never had real problems with race. I've been toying with the idea of cosplaying a darker-skinned girl with the same body type as myself, but my skin is so light, camera flash reflects off of it, and on top of that, it's a fairly revealing cosplay. I'd have to get a tan, which is near impossible, though I'm not entirely against fake tans, good ones, I mean, but that's money. Anyway, it is mostly the skin that's holding me back, not how revealing it is. I'm not against altering the costume to make it less revealing, even if that really did hold me back. It's easier remedied than skin color.

So, does skin color matter in cosplay? Yeah. Do weight and body type matter? Yeah. Should you let that stop you? No. Does that give people the right to be rude to people whose bodies or skin doesn't match? No.

After all, if a boy can be a girl, and a girl can be a boy (crossplaying), why can't a skinny person be an overweight person, or a white person be an Asian person?

READ MORE - Cosplay, Race, & BodyType

Crossplay vs. Genderbending

I finished the skirt for my Halloween costume! YAY! It's not anything like my original design for it (aside from the pleats), but I love it just the same. =D
My next project, beside Mello's vest, which is at a dead standstill, is making a green Luma (Super Mario Galaxy) plushie from my cousin. But it's a Christmas present, so in all actuality, I've got a LONG time to make it.

Now, for the past couple of days, I've mentioned ways to get your parents to accept cosplaying, but today I remembered that I had mentioned Crossplay vs. Genderbending. So off we go~!

Crossplay is when someone cosplays as the opposite gender (a girl cosplaying a boy, or a boy cosplaying a girl).
Genderbending is when someone takes a character of the opposite gender and makes the character into their own gender. For example, a girl changing Mario from Super Mario Brothers into a girl, or a boy taking Princess Peach from Mario Bros. into a boy.

I personally have an immense amount of respect for either, when they're done right! Crossplaying is much harder than regular cosplaying, no matter how you look at it. Not only do you still have to make the costume, but you have to temporarily switch genders, meaning more makeup for contouring and changing the look of your face, binding of girls, and, erm, tucking for boys. Now, as clarification, just not doing these things, does not mean the person is genderbending the character.
A character that has been genderbent well will have any of the character's identifying pieces of clothing, Mario's red shirt and overalls, of Peach's pink outfit and blonde hair, but anything else that can be changed to the other gender should probably be changed. For example, I've seen Marios with overall skirts instead of pants.
I've genderbent Mario myself, and I actually kept the overalls as pants. I put knee-high boots over my overalls and wore long white gloves, much like Peach's, instead of his normal white gloves. I then accessorized with an invincibility star on a necklace. I'm rather proud of my genderbent Mario (or as I call her, Maria) as she was not only well-loved at the convention, but even won the costume contest.
However! Mario was a fairly easy character to genderbend and still be recognized as. Genderbending a girl into a boy is more of a challenge (especially if she wears all pink...).

In any case, there are plenty of reasons to genderbend instead of crossplay. For example, it's much harder for a boy to be accepted as a crossplayer than a girl. Also, some people just aren't as comfortable with themselves to take on such a feat as to dress as another gender.
I do not believe that genderbending is lazy or "an excuse not to bind."

READ MORE - Crossplay vs. Genderbending

Day Eight

First day of October! The best month ever! I swear, Halloween is like Christmas for me.
I however did nothing cosplay-related. I played with makeup for my possible Halloween costume change, but I didn't really like it. I managed to burn my finger while ironing in my Costume Construction class. NOT fun. I can't type much though, due to the finger (I burned the tip), which is a shame because I had a good topic for today's post too. So sometime in the next week: Genderbending vs. Crossplay!

READ MORE - Day Eight

Cosplayers & Halloween

I'm starting to regret starting this blog at this time. I'm not doing anything cosplay-related... I played with makeup this morning, taking the color out of my lips for crossplay, and practicing my makeup for Halloween.

I've heard that some cosplayers actually don't like Halloween because of all the "amateurs" and people that buy poorly-made Halloween Store costumes. I like to think of Halloween as a break from cosplay. I can still get into costume, which is usually something random and baseless, and still get complimented on my creativity, but it doesn't take nearly as much effort.

This year's Halloween costume is an upgraded version of my costume last year, a butterfly. I bought small, children-sized butterfly wings, a black mini skirt, and black knee-high pleather boots from a second-hand store, black tights with various colored butterflies on them, a lace jacket, and various colored hair extensions from Hot Topic, a pink tank top from Basic, and found a butterfly mask that my mom had bought a few years ago at a flea market, I believe. The mask, however, goes on the back of my head, held on with chopsticks through the eyes. I'm thinking of buying better, plastic chopsticks from a Japanese store called Daiso, but money is unbelievably tight, so I'm stuck with wooden ones for now.

I know it's early to plan my costume, but the Spirit Halloween store just came back into town for the season and I'm planning a Halloween party as well.

I feel like I've got a lot on my plate, what with YaoiCon and Haloween literally at the same time, and me planning to do both, YaoiCon the day before Halloween, of course, as it'll take all day to prepare for my Halloween night scary movie / costume party.

READ MORE - Cosplayers & Halloween