-clears throat- Oops

      Ahhh I never fully finished my vest project (I need to finish sewing the lining to the vest around the armholes and just haven't gotten around to it for whatever reason lol) and despite it not being an expansive amount of time, Ohayocon has already come and gone and I haven't even shown you guys photos!
    Ohayocon 2013 was January 18th through 20th; this is my second attendance, my first being 2010 for Saturday only, and this was Taka's first Ohayocon experience! For class and badge pickup that Friday, I dressed as Isabella Yamamoto from Paradise Kiss (Live Action) by raiding my closet and wearing one of my newer wigs while Taka did a thrown together Ruki of the GazettE look - we wanted to be comfortable but still feel personally cool lol. Saturday and Sunday were the days we wore our planned costumes, Flandre Scarlet and Patchouli Knowledge from Touhou 6: Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil. We would have had a Remilia Scarlet, but our friend who had begun to commission us for the costume (and even purchased the contacts and wig) couldn't afford the costume nor the badge price so the poor dear couldn't even attend. I think I would have enjoyed being Remilia had our friend not planned to, but I'm still happy that I was Patchouli.

    

  Despite enjoying the cosplay, I had some issues with it that had me panicking last minute and/or have me bothered even now. First issue I have is the stripes - the underlayer of the dress I did, I had sewn the stripes and skirt pieces together but found it to be too tedious so I tried fabric spray paint. Needless to say, it bled and caused me a lot of stress which led to taking the light pink fabric and dying it to a purple that was darker than the overcoat. I nearly cried because of how awful I thought it looked, but when I had it on the dress form and took a photo, the stripes didn't look nearly as bad (I recently acquired my dress form and am hugely thankful for it, especially after working with Patchouli's dress). The second issue is the sleep bonnet which merely bothers me because I feel it's too small (while Taka feels hers is too big lol). I've been thinking of ways I can make it larger with the fabric I have left and I have an idea in the works, but we'll just have to wait and see - the friend who attended the convention with us took these photos and wants to get better ones when spring comes around.

      Patchouli took 14.5 yards of lace, 11 yards of fabric for the bonnet, overcoat, capelet, and boots, 7 yards of fabric for the dress and a foot or so of ribbon (along with random bits of elastic and felt lol). Taka thrifted the blouse and already had the white skirt/petticoat beneath the red skirt from a previous project. I believe she purchased 6 yards of red, 3 yards of white and a yard of yellow? (I used to know, but now forget lol). The wings are set on a backpack harness and made of wire, Christmas lights [oh yes they do light up!], and glossed/painted tissue paper while the gems are made from plastic folders and acrylic paint. Her father helped her with the wings and I think they did an amazing job - so many people stopped her, even those who don't know the series.

      Some singles in which my face is covered because my wig and face were being goofy lol

     In more recent events, I finally went ahead and bleached my hair - I had decided on doing my hair and makeup but it took me a week or two to actually get around to it. The photo pictured was taken Thursday February 7th

FIT 110 and a mix of halloween white cream makeup were used for the foundation
Maybelline cream liner, black shadow and black pencil liner were used on my lips and eyes
a Maybelline palette was used for contouring my nose and brows

teasing brush and nylon brush with a flat iron to flip out some layers - my hair had slightly fallen for this photo but it was the best shot of the makeup

I'll try to get back into the swing of things and work on more projects <3
Thanks for reading,
Hachi

11.16.2012 Project Idea!

      I've got a couple weeks before I can order the violet and dusty pink broadcloth for Patchouli, so I've been going through the fabric I have currently and deciding if there is anything I can do with it. I have enough felt left over from Cynder that I could probably make a jacket if I really wanted to and I also just have lots of scraps from fabric my mom has used in the past and scraps of my own fabric all in this large, purple tub.
     Whilst on my search, I found black crushed panne velvet (from a panda costume mom and I worked on for Halloween a few years back) and I found this upholstery/tapestry-like fabric which is a beautiful gold colour with a floral pattern that my mom had used to make Christmas stockings and a robe for a St. Nick doll a long time ago. The gold fabric has been around for quite some time but is nice and sturdy and the velvet is slightly stretchy so it'd be wonderful for movement.

      The crushed panne velvet ~ I'm glad I was able to get a shot where you could see the texture. It stretches in only one direction so if I were to use it and want that give, I'd have to keep checking the grain while I was sewing since I've never really worked with the grain in mind.

     The upholstery-type fabric ~ as you can see, it's a really nice Christmas fabric and looks great against our fake pine branch lol this is another fabric where I'd have to be more conscious of how I sew since I want the pattern to look nice. It's a bit of a free form fabric, but I wouldn't want it to look completely hectic and uneven.

      Finally, a look at what the two fabrics look like together! I'm still unsure if I have enough of the velvet to really do what I want to do, but I think I can search a little more and work with the patterns I have to get the best results.
     I really want to make a vest! Even if the textures and colours are more wintery, I'd probably wear it even in warmer weather with more spring or summer like pieces to offset the wintery/fall effect. The floral gold would be the front of the vest while the velvet would be the back so I could have a little bit more movement than I would if I managed to make the vest entirely out of the gold fabric. Hopefully I can begin work on this and come back with the results, especially since I can't work on my next cosplay just yet.

     Wish me luck ~

Videos, Tutorials and Cosplay

     Yeah about those videos.... :/

     I have videos recorded regarding FOAF's upcoming plans and a tutorial/watch me do this makeup video for my own personal YouTube. I would have them posted already, but my phone, being the only source of high speed internet, says the files are too big and cannot be posted without wifi. I don't have wifi...thus my dilemma.
     For this blog, I'll probably do step by step in photos with pictures of my products which honestly will probably work out better for those interested than the video of me doing it. It took me about 6 and a half minutes and there wasn't much in the way of actually tutoring any of you. I sped it up to about 3 and a half minutes, gave it a little music track - I was pretty proud of it lol
   Anywayyyy ~ for the step by step photos, I'll be sure to take my time. I couldn't tell you why I rushed through it - I can speed it up so the video is shorter etc etc; I suppose it's just my own habit as I'm usually speeding to get ready as to not keep anyone waiting. The video I recorded may still be posted on my personal YouTube, but a nicer, more "professional"(lolwut) video will probably be done at a later date as well as more of my tutorial ideas being posted here photo by photo.

     As for FOAF (Freaks Of A Feather), as much as we want people to help make it a bigger group, it really has been just me and Taka (I guess that works out for Trinity Moon Commissions - our little duo work set up). We have had a decent amount of friends becoming interested in commissioning us and joining in on current and future plans which is great! Now if only they would give us a definite yes or no so we don't get too excited and too ahead of ourselves!
     Ohayocon 2013 is closing in and within the coming weeks, I will be purchasing fabric to begin work on Patchouli Knowledge from Touhou (along with Taka's fabric as she's a bit short right now; she'll be paying me back later). One of our friends has commissioned Remilia Scarlet and Taka will be taking that up while I talk to one of her co-eds about a Jet Black (Cowboy Bebop) cosplay for Whittcon in March. QUITE A WAYS I KNOW! But best to plan much too soon than much too late, right?

     After Touhou - Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil, we want to work on costumes FOR Whittcon - Taka's probably going to do a Sailor Gijinka group with the "Remilia" as Sailor Zapdos (I believe?) and another friend as Sailor Moltres while she's Articuno. I wasn't quite sure I could swing that many costumes in a year as we hope to attend Colossalcon for the first time and are definitely attending Ikasucon 2013, I decided that I would work on the costumes we intended to wear for Colossalcon from the series:

     (~*^*)~ digimon!! As of late, Taka has been extremely excited to begin work on Sakuyamon from the Digimon Series. I was stumped for a while before deciding on Wizardmon (just this past weekend actually). The character has been portrayed with varying shades of hair colour so I was thinking of purchasing a burnt orange wig to be later used for Fujimoto from Ponyo. If I work on Wizardmon for March AND June, I'll be saving myself personal work AND money as I'll be eliminating one costume - an idea that has been increasingly appealing to Taka aside from the fact she's unsure she'll have the money to work on Sakuyamon around Whittcon time.

 

      I think the most difficult part for Wizardmon will be getting the small details like that of the inside of the coat and the zippers etc etc along with getting the hat to stand just so and have the cape cover my face in a certain way. I'm most worried about the designs on the lining, but that's to be thought upon on a later date ~
     I hope to be better with progress photos and fabric shots with Patchouli and maybe even Jet since I'm excited to work on him and will be asking around for help with the boots and arm, but until I get the fabric, I won't really be sure! Until then, I'll just keep telling myself to photograph progress so I can continue writing and hopefully review some wigs, fabric and maybe even contacts soon *^*

Spyro the Dragon: Cynder

     I was a humanoid adaption of Cynder the dragon from the Spyro the Dragon video games for Halloween while my friend was a humanoid adaption of Spyro. This was the first time either of us had done wings - she had her father's help while I did them myself and had his help later on. Her dad heated the PVC and bent the wings into shape while I cut the PVC into pieces and connected them with elbows. My downfall was not having the glue - while they stayed together at home, fast movement and the wind conditions on "release day" proved that they weren't sturdy enough without it. Before beggars night in my friend's town, her dad screwed the pieces to the elbows to give it a little more sturdiness

.

                              (sorry for the image quality; most of these photos were taken from my phone)




     The horns gave me issues as well - the first set was made of Softee Dough and the next with Crayola Model Magic. They were glued to a headband at the base; the larger horns had a floral foam base while the smaller horns were baseless. They lasted through the evening on both accounts, I just know for next time to use model magic and definitely have a sturdy/sturdier base for all horns. My friend used Crayola air dry clay with a foam and wood base and screws were drilled through the headband and wood to keep them in place.
     The flesh of the wings and the tail were made of black felt and the lining of the wings was red costume satin - my friend had wire for the fingers while I went wireless just for ease of sewing and lack of supplies. I used a shirt I already had but made the coat and skirt - the base of the skirt was black broadcloth as was the outer part of the coat. The lining of the coat was more red costume satin and the mesh pieces of the skirt were black and red netting.

     Thank you to the photographers at the Ikasucon 2012 Rave - a few others took our picture, but these were the only two posted. This was the first time I had done the makeup for Cynder (and you can tell the claws on the wings weren't sturdy yet either; my friend's dad added wires to them for me later so they actually stood up). On beggars night, I tried something new and was much happier with it, but I wasn't able to get any shots that night either. I also had a black tank top for beggars night which made me feel much more comfortable along with red fishnet tights after being unable to find them for the rave.
     The wig I wore to the rave and for beggars night was a wig I received from a friend - I haven't a clue where she got it or for how much, but it came in handy to me despite how shiny it looks in some photos.

     Overall, I'm very pleased with the results - this was our first time doing something like this and it turned out rather well for a first attempt. My friend wants to remake most of her outfit - it turned out nicely, but some mishaps took place and rips kept appearing at the seams (costume satin is cheap and it really shows but on a tight budget it suffices).

Plato's Closet

     I went to Plato's Closet in Huber Heights with a friend (second time going; her very first visit) - we spent a decent chunk of time in there and came out with a pretty good haul. I have new shoes (flats! I desperately needed fashionable shoes that weren't heeled) and a few tops (spent about $40) while she faired amazingly and basically gave herself a new wardrobe ~ good thing she had a nice paycheck ~
     I'll probably post pictures AFTER this thursday as we're planning to go back and bring her mom with us this time. I'm getting some of the nice/brand name clothes and shoes that just hang in my closet in hopes to make a little money - I'm really hoping they take some of them and I can make my $40 back and then some lol

     In the mean time, I started work on my halloween costume. I'm doing a humanoid Cynder of Spyro! I have a Spyro and we want to make my niece Sparx (she's only two and a half; we'll just dress her in all yellow with some wings and put her hair up in little pigtails atop her head lol). I started cutting the pattern for the coat and found myself missing the sleeve flange (a little cap that extends the shoulders and gives the sleeves just slightly more Victorian style and a little more pizazz lol).

   The wings will be made from PVC for the boning, felt and costume satin for the fleshier parts and probably backpack scraps for the harness that keeps the wings on me. My friend and I are trying different ways to make the wings as this is our first time doing it. I hope to post progress shots for you all and give you a good idea of how to do it when I get it done. (It took me FOREVER to find helpful tutorials and tips).

     Hopefully next post will have photos ~ this was just a little update ***

Pantene ProV Breakage to Strength Product Review

     I've been using Pantene Pro-V Breakage to Strength for a few months and I'm quite surprised with how well it's treated my hair. In the months that I've used the shampoo/conditioner combo, I've coloured my hair, thermal styled, backcombed, and have generally just been rough with my hair lol
     I'm beginning to run low, both bottles nearly empty, and I would definitely recommend this to someone. This past month, I've been able to get away with just shampooing my hair and towel drying my hair to find that it is soft even without conditioner or any leave-in treatments.
     This set isn't really needed for those with healthy hair; you'd probably just end up weighing your hair down with the extra nutrients then be lacking the volume most people desire from their hair. It is definitely for those who need a revival from a breaking state. Don't go thinking this will work overnight; I used this Pantene product for at least 5 months (though started to really feel results around the end of the first month, further into month two) - just to note, I go through shampoo and conditioner pretty slowly lol it takes forever for me to run out.

At about $4-$5 per bottle, the price is pretty good on the wallet - there are cheaper products out there and sometimes you gotta do whatcha gotta do, but it's best to steer clear of the $1 VO5 and White Rain, especially if you're looking into this product to save your hair.It also smells great, in my opinion. I was walking outside today and the breeze wafted my shampoo smell into my face. I was pretty pleased with how clean I smelled hahaha

All in all, I'm happy with the product; I'm sure most of you have longer hair than myself and will probably get to the bottom of the bottle more quickly than me but definitely give it a few washes before making an opinion yourself.

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt - Chuck and Brief too~

This is about a month late, but here is me with my Panty and Stocking group! I made the costumes for Brief (the ginger cosplayed by me) and Panty (the blonde cosplayed by a friend ~)

For the most part I used cotton or cotton blends, even with the protopack - it is sagging in this picture since I really wasn't sure of what I was doing; it was my first time really working with props.

Taka (my friend and fellow sprouting seamstress) made her Stocking costume (purple and pink hair) along with our friend's Garterbelt costume (afro lol). I'm pretty sure she used cotton and/or cotton blends as well lol

Finally, we have a humanoid Chuck who is actually a zipper dog in the series; our friend made her costume and the tail and ears herself - I think they came out rather well lol

Our Garterbelt is actually white lol Taka did most of his makeup while she, our friend who was Chuck and I all had a hand in the facial hair at one point or another ~ There were many compliments on his makeup and a few people in disbelief that he is caucasian lol

For Panty's dress, I used a simple halterdress pattern; I had to estimate measurements then finally take it in to fit her when she came for a visit. The dress was a birthday gift of sorts lol

With Brief's outfit, I used a hoodie pattern and a scrub bottom pattern - his design in the show is similar to Ghostbusters so the outfit should have been more like a mechanics uniform, but I had no pattern for that or really any general idea to go about it. I have, however, been given the advice to look for the Kwik Sew 3389 Pattern which is a jumpsuit I assume lol I intend to look this up in the future if I ever want to recreate Brief or just work with more jumpsuits lol
His protopack was made with an altered backpack pattern but next time I want to see what I can do with papier mache - someone who I was talking to before tackling the protopack had actually used a styrofoam cooler lol

Given the things we, as a group, knew could have been done better, we are still quite proud of ourselves as we received an honourable mention; it means a lot to us to get recognition for our hard work. I don't know what we plan to do for Ikasucon 2013 if we rally to go, but I hope we just keep working and improving (:

(photos aside from the first group shot taken and edited by me)

For a further look at Taka and what she does, venture here:

https://www.facebook.com/KagakuCosplay

For a look at our group work visit these:

www.youtube.com/user/FOAFproductions

www.facebook.com/TrinityMoonCommissions