Merry Christmas! (Days 417 - 421)

So I went to my boyfriend's family Christmas party last night (Christmas Eve), and there was a White Elephant gift exchange. I made a Pikachu hat for it, and a lot of people were very amused by it. It ended up going to a kid, which I intended. Kid's don't participate in the White Elephant, but parents do, and the kids seem bored during it.

Anyway, for Christmas, I got my 12-hole Destiny ocarina ^-^ I got it Christmas Eve, and I'm learning to play it and read the music really quickly. Hopefully I'll learn enough to bring it to AOD.

I've been re-inspired to finish my femme!Link cosplay, I figured out the missing piece. I'm going to use silver/metallic lace in place of chainmail. It's going to be difficult to find the right kind though. I'll need a piece off of a bolt (like how fabric comes) that looks similar to chainmail, but not enough like it to be mistaken for it, to put underneath the top amd bottom of the dress so that it'll show through the slit. Then I'm going to put lace edges around the bottom of the dress and the sleeves, to imitate chainmail sticking out from underneath. Hopefully this works, I'll really have to search for the right stuff, especially since I don't think lace usually goes with the type of fabric that I used for the dress (a blend of 95% rayon and 5% spandex). We'll see what I can find.

As for all of those hats that I was supposed to make for $100, it still hasn't happened. I thought that my friend wanted them for Christmas, but he didn't contact me about them, in fact, there was barely any communication on his end, and we never set a permanent date that they should be done on. So I'm going to try contacting him again, but somethign tells me that this isn't going to happen. Which sucks because I really need the money for Fanime.

READ MORE - Merry Christmas! (Days 417 - 421)

New Hats! (Days 396 & 397)

So I put my fleece hats on sale for Christmas, $15 each, with some exceptions. For example, a friend of mine is buying nine hats, so I'm selling them to him for ten dollars each. 'Cause I can't ask for that much money from a friend. =[

Anyway, my sister requested a kitty hat, so I made it for her as a Christmas present. =] I'll ship it to her once I get her a couple more things (she lives in another state D=). My friend that wants nine hats wants all of the Eeveelutions, so I made one of them (an Eevee).

It didn't go that splendidly, first I cut the base piece too small. I probably should've just stopped there and cut another piece, but, no, I am persistent! Then I cut the ears too small, but it's alright because they turned out alright anyway. Then I sewed half of it inside-out -.- That was just dumb. Once I got it all together, I realized that not only is it so small, but it has no tail! Guh. So I'll be making another one. The first one is adorable anyway, and would be good for a kid. ^-^

READ MORE - New Hats! (Days 396 & 397)

Days 321 - 328

Remember when I mentioned that school was kicking my butt? I wasn't lying. I'm still dead. But I have been sewing some! Not much, but some!

I made another Pokemon hat, a Charmander, which I've made before, but didn't get a picture of before it sold. It's on my website now, which is essentially finished! I just don't have all of my "other products" up, like my cat ears and my new product =O

I went to Japantown the other day (yes this story is relevant), and I saw these little felt hearts. They were adorable and for some reason, I really, really wanted to buy one. But they were $2.50! $2.50 for a little, tiny freakin' heart that I could make myself for like 1/100th of the cost! So I did. Probably about a year ago, my mom brought home a giant bag of felt for me for either no reason or at least a reason that I don't remember, and I used some of that. =]

Each heart takes about a half hour to make, I make two at a time (so an hour per sitting), and most of it can be done while sitting on the couch or laying in bed watching tv. I like projects like that because they're so mellow. I haven't finalized a price for them yet, we'll see how many I can make with the materials I've got first, and how much of a selling potential they really have. But currently, they're $2 each or 3 for $5. I really like doing "x-amount for $5" deals because they sounds so appealing, and many people do have exactly $5 laying around or in their pocket. The first one I made is pictured to the right.

The little heart things will be added to the site shortly, and the site will be linked here now! Everybody go "Yaaaaaay!"

READ MORE - Days 321 - 328

Super Lazy... (Days 257 & 258)

After nearly putting my Ho-Oh hat through a paper shredder out of sheer HATE, I haven't been working on hats. It was horrible what happened that day... Everything was going well until I couldn't turn the first wing I made inside-out because it was too small and thick. When I finally got both done (after way too much time and effort) I realized that they looked ridiculous because they were so small. I didn't want to remake them, so I thought I'd just have a Ho-Oh without wings. First of all, now you can't tell what it is... When I went to finish the last bit (the rim that goes around the bottom) I realized that I had no bright yellow fleece. After that ridiculously long trip to JoAnn's to buy all the fabric I needed, I forgot to get bright yellow. I held it up next to the same orange that I used for the body, but that just made it be too orange, so I left it.

I began a Dratini hat, but by that point, I was just too frustrated to work on anything and had to just walk away.

In other news, I'm also out of pink thread.

In other other news, I feel like I have three non-paying jobs. My hats, Game-Zone Recreation (aka Kin-Yoobi Con), and my mom's and my vending machine business. I'm over worked and, not underpaid, but not paid at all. Although my mom did bail me out of some pretty bad overdraft fees via US Bank. She said that was my pay =/ I don't think she would have paid me that much money, but oh well. At least I don't owe them $150 anymore o.o

In cosplay news, there's a ridiculous surplus of red men's suits at the Thrift Store near my house. Mile's Edgeworth anyone? =]

ALSO! (My goodness, this feels like a lot.) I'm almost finished with my beach cosplay of Swimmer Girl from Pokemon Platinum. All I need to do is paint the beach ball I got like a Pokeball and maybe find a red hair tie, because I didn't know hers was read, I thought you couldn't see it, but now I know ^-^

I've noticed that some of my cosplays I just don't take that seriously. Pikachu is definitely one of them, though I've learned to love it beyond belief. Swimmer Girl is going to be another one. I feel like my brain might explode if I take on too many serious cosplays. I need some that I can just play with and have fun. Although, I must say, I totally lucked out when finding my Swimmer Girl bathing suit. It's not quite exactly the same color, and the bottoms are cut a little higher than they appear to be in the one reference picture in existence, but for just walking into Target and finding them, they're ridiculously good! My only other option was making them and there's no way I was going to do that.

READ MORE - Super Lazy... (Days 257 & 258)

Cosplay Group Progress & Drama (Days 221 - 224)

Now I remember why I don't have many close friends; I'm not willing to put up with drama. At all. Maybe I'm just lazy when it comes to it, but when people start causing problems for me, I just cut them out of my life. But now I'm stuck with it. Nothing major, just "high-school" drama.. Out of high school xP BLEH!

Anyway, fabric, hot glue sticks, and a shirt were bought for Blinky, but nothing was done on it because I got sick, and am too lazy to do much since I've been feeling better.

READ MORE - Cosplay Group Progress & Drama (Days 221 - 224)

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)

I Loves Mah Clyde (Days 145, 146, & 147)

Things were slow after I got the fabric, I didn't really work on anything, but I finally worked on things today!

I essentially finished Clyde. I covered all of the outside with fleece, made and glued on the eyes, covered the facial opening with mesh, and added extra fabric as padding behind where my head goes. The padding helps keep the box upright when I wear it too.

I'm already very happy with the outcome. I love working with both cardboard and fabric, the result is always brilliant, in my opinion. My mom would be so disappointed, she's a paint purist.

I wish I could work on Pac-Man, but I need more cardboard. Mom said she'd bring it, but she keeps forgetting. So the next thing will probably be the clothes. The decision has been made to wear short sleeves, so I'll be buying those whenever I get the time and money.

READ MORE - I Loves Mah Clyde (Days 145, 146, & 147)

Of Fleece & Felt (Day 144)

I got to go to JoAnn's today! Finally -.- It was not without it's bumps though.

Originally, I wanted to cover both Clyde and Pac-Man and make the other ghosts and the fruit on the shirts with fleece. The universe always has different plans for my costumes than I do, though. The smallest amount of fabric I can buy is one-quarter of a yard, and I didn't want to buy all of that to use a 4"x4" square. So instead, I bought felt. It looks and feels a little different, but it could be worse. But of course, they didn't have the right colors of felt. They had most of them, but not all. So now I'm using felt for some things and fleece for others. Great.

Also, they had the color fleece I wanted for Clyde, but not for Pac-Man. They had the perfect color anti-pill fleece for Pan-Man, but not for Clyde. So I had to get one of each. I felt like the color was more important than matching material, but it still bothers me. The material isn't too different at least. You have to either put them one on top of the other or touch them to tell the difference. I am jealous though, Pac-Man's is softer than Clyde's. =[ That's not fair.

I did, however, find the perfect lettering for the shirts. Mine will say "CLYDE" across the back of the shoulders, and my boyfriend's will say "PACMAN". I'm very excited for that lettering. It's possibly my favorite part of the costume, which is kind of sad, haha.

I wanted a sheer fabric for the fronts of the costumes, so that we could see out of the boxes covering our heads, but, again, the universe had different plans. I couldn't find a sheer fabric that was sheer enough. This one was too solid, that one was too thick, ugh. Instead, I bought some net-like fabric. It's decent, see-through, and breathable, but you can't see the color very well. It's definitely better than nothing though. It should be alright. =]

I had the intention of covering Clyde with fabric today, but it didn't happen. I dyed my hair instead, but the dye didn't take, so that was a lot of wasted time.

READ MORE - Of Fleece & Felt (Day 144)

Ghosts have Skeletons? (Day 143)

I made the "skeleton" for my Clyde costume out of cardboard. I already love it. It's all pixel-y and old-school. Not to mention UNCOMFORTABLE! But I'll fix that later.

It's already turning out better than I had hoped though, and even though it's uncomfortable right now, it's easier to wear than I had originally thought too. It's bigger than I would have liked, but since my boyfriend and I decided to go with the pixel look, we decided 1 pixel = 1 inch, and each character is 14x14 pixels. Eh, it could be a lot worse.

I ran out of cardboard though, so I won't be able to work on Pac-Man until I get more. My mom says she has some at her work (she's an art teacher), but she doesn't go back to work until Tuesday.

I'm hoping to go to JoAnn's tomorrow to get the fleece I need. I need at least a yard of orange and yellow, and maybe a quarter yard of white. Then as little as I can get of a bunch of other colors.

I'm also hoping to get some white iron-on letters, but that's a sort of secret ;)

READ MORE - Ghosts have Skeletons? (Day 143)