Thrift Store Fabric (Day Ninety)

Buying fabric at the thrift store or second hand shops can be a gamble. You don't know if it's the full three yards they claim it is, or if there's stains or tears, but in the past, I've had constant good luck with it. I trust my favorite thrift store to have decent-quality items, and it's rare to find gross, stained, or torn things.

So today I bought two types of fabric at the thrift store. One white fabric, which I've actually used before, though I have no idea what it's called, and one iridescent, blue-purple, sheer-ish fabric with moons and stars on it. The white fabric is for a Lolita shirt, which is to be worn with my Chi (Chobits) dress as a Lolita outfit until I can get the wig. The blue-purple fabric is just because it was really, really pretty.

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Meh (Day Seventy-Eight)

I finally got the stockings to go with my Chi dress =] They're not exactly what I wanted, but I'll live. I also got a "Tattoo Pen." It's not the greatest thing ever. I was hoping that it'd be cosplay material worthy, for pretty much anything that'd need a tattoo, but it's basically an expensive Sharpie. D= Dries better than a Sharpie though... And is harder to get off! xD

I was supposed to go see my boyfriend in his college play today, but noooo. We got looooost. Pfft. Going tomorrow instead. Meh.

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Back to Chi Again (Day Seventy-Four)

For the record, I'm not making the dress pictured here, it's just the closest one I could find to what mine looks like now.

Ah, Chi's dress is almost finished! It is definitely the frilliest, girliest thing I own. And I love it to pieces. Is it sad that it's probably the prettiest piece of clothing I own? I was shocked when I put it on after working on it today. I didn't expect it to turn out so gorgeous. It's definitely worthy of Fanime's Black & White Ball now, which was about eighty-five percent of the reason I wanted to spiff it up. All that's left is finishing a few loose ends. Like lace ends that need to be stuck together or covered with ribbon. They just don't look finished otherwise.

I'm thinking of adding some gold onto it too. Just a couple little gold ribbons or something, but it really depends on what color my Hideki's jacket is going to end up. I mean, I know it's supposed to be yellow / gold, but until we actually buy the fabric or jacket, I can't match a proper ribbon color to it.

In other, slightly related news, stuffing a bra is fun xD And surprisingly effective if done right. Even though I'm not flat, I feel like I make a flat Chi (I mean, come on, she's like an E or something). I can stuff so that I actually have cleavage showing and it doesn't look misshapen. =D Proud of my self for no real reason.

Tomorrow I want to finish off the parts of the dress that I can, then work on Ammy some more, since Chi will be in a wearable state and I will be wearing Ammy three weeks after Chi's dress.

READ MORE - Back to Chi Again (Day Seventy-Four)

Day Sixty-One

I've seriously become so lazy... Although today felt a little crazy. I woke up and went to class, my mom was out of town all day, so my boyfriend came over because my mom didn't want me to be home alone at night. She's insane, I'm eighteen, but whatever xD At least I got to hang out with my boyfriend. =]

I don't really feel like working on any cosplay until I get more Heat Bond to finish my Chi dress. Maybe I'll get my mom to drive me back to the fabric store tomorrow so I can buy some...

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Chi Collar (Day Fifty-Six)

I feel like I did a lot more today than I did. I made a Lolita-style collar to go with my Chi outfit. I can't find a picture of what I was going for, but it's basically just a collar with rounded edges. It doesn't attach to the dress, it's just worn as a necklace basically. It's white with a big, black button. I'll get a picture on Cosplay.com soon. I don't know if I'll wear it with the costume or not for sure, but it is rather cute.

I'm not finished with the dress, it needs more black accents, but I didn't have enough ribbon, lace, or fabric to come up with something, so it's back to the fabric store tomorrow.

I sorta of forgot about my Amaterasu mask today, but I checked on it and I'll probably add another layer of paper mache before covering it with the felt / fur, just to make sure it's stable. I'm hoping to get it finished over the weekend, but I never know.

I have a convention meeting tomorrow at nine and then it's off to the fabric store. After that, I have a doctor's appointment and I'm going to the mall with a friend who's fallen on some rough times. She needs a pick-me-up and I need a headband and white thigh-high tights. =]

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Chi's Dress (Day Fifty-Three)

I worked more on Chi's dress today. A lot more. This is probably the most detailed project I've ever done, and I'm not even making it from scratch, I'm just altering something.

So, I added some ruffles to the back of it to match the train of the dress. I did some detailing with black ribbons as well (I felt like it needed more black than just the bow in the front). And I ran out of lace T_T It was nice lace too. I have about six inches left of the five yards I started with. Never in my life did I ever think I would wear five years of lace. Doesn't even look like five yards...

Even though this dress is not an exact replica of Chi's dress, I am so proud of it. I love it's design (my mom helped a little with that), and I'm so proud of my creativity with it's design and the materials I had.

I can't decide if I'm done with it yet, I want to do more, but I'm not sure what. I may work on the fit of the dress some more, though that'll be hard now that it's one giant ball of POOF.

I'm also really glad that with it's new design, I don't have to wear a petticoat with it. Petticoats are ITCHY! No fun.

So now what I have to do is get a new wig (hopefully I good-quality one), Make the ears (which I'm really looking forward to for some reason) buy and possibly alter a pair of wight thigh-high leggings, and somehow get ahold of some bloomers. I hope they're easy to make, because I think the only place that'd have those would be a second-hand shoppe, and let's face it, ew.

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Chi's Beginnings (Day Fifty-Two)

I sewed today! Yay! It made me happy =]

I spent several hours altering a dress just to make it fit! Ugh. I got really frustrated because I didn't feel like I was making much progress. But then eventually I finished that and got to work on making it look more like I wanted.

I will be cosplaying Chi from Chobits for Fanime on Sunday, May 30th. I will be going to Fanime other days, and I'll list what days and costumes when it gets closer. I chose Chi for Sunday though because this year, I really want to attend the Black and White Ball, and Chi has some formal-ish dresses. My boyfriend will be cosplaying as Hideki in his work uniform that day so he can attend in cosplay as well. I'm super excited! After high school, there isn't much opportunity to attend formal events, so this makes me really happy. =]

On a side note, I tried to make a collar that matched the dress, just to wear around my neck, not attached, and I kinda, sorta managed to super-fail a little bit, so I gave up, haha. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow when I'm thinking better.

I may wear Chi other times too, but I'm still in love with my Amaterasu costume and haven't had the chance to wear her with the wig yet, so that's set for Animation On Display in January for sure. I'll probably wear Chi for Kin-Yoobi Con in August, since I'll be staffing and want something comfortable and easy to move in. I need a new wig though. I completely messed up the one I had T_T

READ MORE - Chi's Beginnings (Day Fifty-Two)