What's Next...

Costumes are great but I would love to get better at sewing and actually make everyday wearable things. Stay tuned as I begin my journey!

2012 Projects- Rainbow Bright, Hobbes, Wilfred

Halloween this year brought on a few more projects.

Remembering a beloved doll and TV show from my childhood, I decided to be Rainbow Bright this year. 

I didn't go for 'super accuracy' since it would be a costume to wear to Halloween dances around Portland and I was worried about how warm I would be from the sleeves and boots, so I simplified those aspects while keeping the dress as accurate as possible.

(I apologize for the Instagram kitchen photo)

I also helped out a couple of friends with their Halloween costumes.

First up: Hobbes (the tiger on the right) from the beloved series, Calvin and Hobbes. 

 I even threw together a Calvin costume for myself one night to go with Hobbes. Don't worry- we were totally the best Beer Pong duo at the Halloween Party

Then moving on to the next costume: Wilfred from the hilarious TV show, Wilfred

Here's a shot from the show:

And here's how my costume turned out. One of the most frustrating things was finding a semi accurate, grey fur fabric! We checked 3 different fabric stores, online and finally found one that looked somewhat like it.

Here was the result:

Both the Hobbes and Wifred costume were similar ideas (footy animal pajamas...) but I felt proud of myself because I had made my own patterns to create them.

also...

Wilfred and Hobbes support the Blazers!

Disney Costume 2- Tink

Tinkerbell is sassy and fun and was my Halloween costume of choice for my Sophomore year in college. Unlike the Alice costume, I wanted to stick to accuracy once again for this costume. I had a few issues with the top of the dress, but loved making my own faerie wings from scratch and the shoes were so cute!

Disney costume 1- Alice

I LOVE Alice- she has to be one of my favorite characters of all time.

 Thus I knew I just had to make a cute Alice-esque costume for Halloween one year.

I decided to turn inspiration from this, and the Japanese fashion craze known as Lolita (doll style) and make a costume. Here were the results:

 This costume had a lot of detail, so it took a lot of patience....some WIP:

 It was also my first time working with ruffles and pleats. It was a great costume to learn from

Cosplays 2007-2009

Here is a collection of costumes I have made throughout the years. They are all cosplay- as that was my main hobby during this time in my life.

'Anbu Kakashi' of the comic series Naruto (Early 2007)

As time went on I became more and more obsessed with getting details accurate, for hair and props:

'Roxas' from the game Kingdom Hearts (2007) 

*Keyblades made with help from Dad*

I became more obsessed with getting details accurate for makeup: 

'Allen Walker' from the comic D-Gray Man (2007)

I became more obsessed with getting details accurate for posing:

'Kakashi' from Naruto again (2007)

Um..I mentioned props right? 

'Simon' from the show Gurren Lagann (2008)

*robot made with help from friend, Zach Marsh

'Apollo Justice' from the Ace Attorney series (2008)

I helped friends with costumes as well

'Machi' (myself- left) and 'Lamiroir' (friend-right) from the Ace Attorney series (2008)

'Soul Eater Evans' from the show Soul Eater (2009)

After this costume, I decided I wanted to start actually dressing up like a girl. It was a struggle at first as all my favorite characters were boys. 

'Kiyoh Bachika' from Gurren Lagann (2009)

'Amemiya Sayaka' from the game Ouendann (2009)

And besides a few more costumes not pictured, that's about all for the cosplays. I lost interest in attending conventions shortly after 2009 but have wonderful memories from attending. 

With every costume...I started with a basic pattern and altered it or made an entirely new pattern to fit the shapes that the character's clothes needed. This process taught me a lot about how, for example, sleeves look. Sewing is like a big puzzle. You have all the pieces and need to put them together.

 I strove to be as accurate as possible. I would run into issues a lot of times and trial and error became my method (the roxas costume pictured here was version 3)...things don't always work out, but I did the best I could. After every costume I had learned many new things. It was a great experience.

Roots - Sally Stitches

I began sewing in 2006 when a friend introduced me to 'cosplay' (costume play). At the time it was a fun way to take a fandom to the next level where I could create something and be artistic. I am thankful for this nerdy time during high school because it was what got me so interested in sewing.

The whole idea behind cosplay is creating a costume replicating exactly how a character looks whether they be from a from a comic, tv show, game or movie. So through the process I learned to be very detail oriented and creative.

One of my first costumes was Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas (Halloween 2006).

(Please excuse the bad makeup / photo quality. Those skills were developed later on)

I built it on top of an existing dress. I remember studying the movie intently taking notes to see exactly how certain lines fell looked on. To this day I still love wearing it as it is more accurate than a lot of other Sally costumes that stores sell.