torsdag den 30. marts 2017

Miraluka repairs - lots of pictures!

Hello again!


As you know, I've made a costume of my own Miraluka character from Star Wars: The Old Republic. 

I’ve loved this game for a long time and thus decided to make the costume for Copenhagen Comic con 2016. 
Life decided to interrupt my build and I rushed to finish the costume. My experience with wearing it at Comic con made me want to redo some things before wearing it again.

As I am nowhere near done wearing this costume, and as I still had some kinks to work out I’ve decided to repair it for J-popcon this year. 

This blog focuses on what I need to do and how many things you reassess when having worn a costume for the first time. Not every costume needs this amount of re-work but I rushed to finish it and it was done on my old sewing machine which had a problem with the bottom thread.

As you see, it looks too cheap.
The things I need to do:


Blindfold
- Make a whole new blindfold from two parts with one being darker than the other. Exchange foam staples for polymorph plastic. Attach piece of worbla or polymorph plastic at the forehead for sticking it to the forehead with spirit gum.

The innermost skirt which needs a slit.




Skirts
- The Miraluka has 3 skirts, the only thing I need to do is cut a slit in the back of the innermost skirt, so I can actually move my legs. This was a huge flaw in the costume and cost me a lot of mobility at Comic Con.



Lightsaber
- Make a whole new one out of PVC pipe and craft foam.

Silver belt
The belt is made out of craft foam
with acrylic paint on top.
- Get rid of the foam belt. It is far too bulky.
- White straps coloured silver, preferably adjustable.
- Make pockets out of silver fabric and interfacing.
- Make the front pocket with a core of craft foam so it works as an actual pocket.
- If possible – make attachment for light saber.
The fabric is elastic
which was a huge
disadvantage

Brown belt
- Make a new one out of non-stretchy material. With Velcro or zipper as it will be covered by the silver belt.

The too small gloves.
By the end of the day
my fingers were sticking out.
Gloves
- Redo as they are too small.
     - Make them a more accurate colour.
- Actually make the details on them.






Arm guards
- Redo completely. They need to be a different colour and bulkier. 
The arm guards.
they are... bad! 
They have to fit with either velcro or a zipper.

Robe
- Replace the foam with fake leather 
- Inspect all seams
- Move buttons to more appropriate places.


The brown bits need to be leather. 
I haven’t yet decided what to with the shoes and the hair– and I probably won’t until after everything else is decided. For the shoes, I’m considering a pair of black wedge heel sneakers with silver laces. The hair depends on my own hairstyle at the time of the convention.
Innermost shirt. I'm not proud of it.
But it worked.

Front part of wool shirt. I need to make a
new design for the over-the-shoulder strap.









The backside where I had to widen the shirt.







If I finish all of this I will also make new under garments. The ones I have now are fine, but not good and there are some issues with them staying in place and looking like on the character. With the making of new undergarments I will also add the two strips of fabric running across the upper body as well as a series of buttons to keep all in place. 





I'm really looking forward to doing details on this costume as I'm really excited to wear it! Follow my facebook for updates when I start working on it.

- Miliyia

Ps. I also uploaded the last of the lens reviews on my youtube channel. Go check it out :-)

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onsdag den 15. marts 2017

Lineup change for J-popcon 2017

Hey Guys!


My original lineup for J-popcon was

Friday: Miss Goldenweek
Saturday: Weiss Schnee
Sunday: Mine (Amnesia)

However, after presenting the lineup I have decided to compete in the crafting competition at the convention. Naturally I’ll be competing with Weiss and as the competition is on Sunday I dare not wear her on Saturday. The dress is white and I am far too afraid that something will happen to the costume – besides I really want to present 3 costumes that weekend so wearing Weiss twice is a no go 😉
To compensate for only wearing her on Sunday this April, the plan is to wear her all day Saturday at the July convention. Instead I will keep Miss Goldenweek on Friday and then wear the Miraluka on Saturday, thus removing Mine from the lineup.
There are several reasons for the change of lineup. I have wanting to compete for a long time and I feel that Weiss have the potential to be good enough to not embarrass myself. The work I’ve been doing on Mine hasn’t been going so good and I’d rather fix the Miraluka instead – as this is also more weather appropriate I welcomed the change.
This of course means that I have completely halted the work on Mine until after J-popcon and I have pulled the Miraluka from storage and am figuring out what needs to be done. This includes a new belt, a new lightsaber and some work on the blindfold.
Besides the logical reasons I feel like the Miraluka is more of a ‘Saturday costume’ than Mine is, so I am quite happy with wearing Mine either Friday or Sunday at the next convention.
So the final lineup for J-popcon (at least as of now) is

Friday: Miss Goldenweek
Saturday: Miraluka
Sunday: Weiss Schnee

Honestly I am quite happy with the lineup now as it fits both the weather and my desires.
Now all need to do is finish Weiss, make the third version of the hat for Miss Goldenweek and repair all the things on the Miraluka.
(I will of course post updates on my facebook profile as the work continues but as it is I have paused all other projects because right now I have the need to finish something and Weiss is the obvious choice.)
So until next time

- Miliyia

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MiliyiaCosplay
Twitter:     https://twitter.com/MiliyiaCosplay
Youtube:   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOiu4mU6N9oMLdGsleqY70A

fredag den 3. marts 2017

Weiss: Dyeing fabric!

Hi everyone!


This is a short walk through of how I dyed the fabric for Weiss’ clothes. There are no progress pictures as this was my first time dyeing anything and I needed to focus and be careful.

Let’s jump right in!

The dress and the jacket have a soft ombré from blue to white, so I had to hand dye the fabric. I started by making the whole dress, cutting out the basic form of the sleeves and the front and back of the jacket. I sewed the front and back of the jacket together as they had to be dyed as one piece. I also quickly cut out some lengths of cotton for her sash
.
I bought a can of ‘Evening Blue’ liquid Rit Dye. For the dye bath, I used about 4 L of water and 1-1.5 caps of dye. Otherwise I followed the directions on Rit’s webpage.
I ended up dyeing the dress twice as it was too light the first time. After the second time dyeing I found some blue stains which I later removed with chlorine.
After dyeing everything this is how it looks.



I am happy with the result and will soon be embroidering the details on the sleeves and the back of the jacket.
I am sorry that this update is so short, but I’ve been really sick lately and this is all I can currently manage.

If you want to know more about the progress, write it in the comments and I'll do a more thorough post.

- Miliyia


Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MiliyiaCosplay
Twitter:     https://twitter.com/MiliyiaCosplay
Youtube:   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOiu4mU6N9oMLdGsleqY70A