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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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

Weiss: Basic dress for Weiss - the making of.

Hi everyone. 

I finished the dress for Weiss, so of course here is my walk through of how I made it. As always with loads of pictures - just for you ;-) 

The dress is a simple dress with a bodice and a circle skirt.

The bodice has a sweetheart neckline with boning - if you want a full tutorial these are very easy to find on youtube. Personally, I used a pattern I had bought and altered. In the end it would probably have been easier without the pattern but lesson learned. The dress itself wasn’t extremely challenging, but as I hadn’t made one before it took some time.

Choice of fabric: 

I know that many people who cosplay Weiss choose to use satin or silk, I agree that this is an obvious choice when considering the personality and upbringing of Weiss. In the series her outfit doesn’t seem to shine and when you think about it, it would probably be a pain to fight in satin as it would be ruined by the smallest of things. And even though Weiss is very aware of her looks she is not stupidly impractical. 

These considerations brought me to the conclusion that I would make her dress out of cotton. I admit that I was biased because I would much rather sew and wear something made out of cotton than of satin or silk – also I admit to being paranoid about the dress getting dirty and cotton is easier to clean than satin or silk.

As the lining of the dress is either white or not visible I decided to use the same cotton fabric for both layers, this made cutting easier and it also insured me that the fabrics would behave similarly.

First I cut 4 of each piece except the front piece which I cut 2 of, as it is placed on a fold.

After cutting, I collected all the lining pieces and ironed interfacing on. The interfacing was cut a bit smaller than the lining pieces to avoid bulky seams. Then it’s time to sew the pieces together, leaving the back seam open. The next step is to make room for the boning. 

You can either buy bias tape or make your own. I decided to make my own out of the same fabric as the lining. The strips need not be cut on the bias as no stretch is needed. I ran the strips through my 16 mm bias tape maker and ironed them. The strips should be as long as the seams in the bodice and there should be a strip for each seam. When sewing the strips on, I was careful to sew as close to the edge as possible and to sew in a straight line. The boning need to fit!

After the channels were sewn I cut lengths of boning. Each piece of boning was cut to the length of the seam minus the seam allowance – they were then filed down so they were smooth and not poking through the fabric. After the boning was placed in the seams I basted the edges to avoid the boning falling out while working. I then understitched the lining down at the top of the dress. When the boning is been inserted the lining is done and it’s time so sew the outer layer of fabric.

The outer layer of fabric got sewn together the same way as the lining with the back seam left open. The lining and outer layer were sewn together at the top.

When the two layers are attached you can sew the skirt on. The skirt I made is just a basic circle skirt. I did this with a normal seam placing right side to right side and then turning inside out. Now all the dress need is a zipper. 

The easiest method is sewing it in a seam. I decided not to, which just made my job harder and left me with a small fold at the bottom of the zipper. This is – as of now – the only visible mistake on the dress and overall I am quite happy with the project as it was my first dress with boning and lining. Yay me!

When the dress was basically done I sewed the black piece on. This is made from a piece of lace and some black cotton I had lying around. I just topstitched it, being sure to only sew in the lining.

I need to shorten the dress and the petticoat, but as I'm hoping to find a rolled hem foot this weekend I'm procrastinating.

The basic dress is now done and ready for dyeing and embroidery. 

This is all for now. I expect to have a new blog out next Wednesday - so until then...

- Miliyia

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MiliyiaCosplay
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MiliyiaCosplay

Weiss: Petticoat done! First pictures.

Hey guys

After some weeks worth of work I have made the basic dress. Colour and embroidery will be added later. Blog post about the dress is in progress and will be out next week. 

The petticoat is completely finished and I here give you the walkthrough of how I did it for those who are interested. 

From now on the blog will have all the progress whereas my facebook page (Yeah, I have a facebook page now. Wuuhuu) will have the finished piece and perhaps a few progress pictures. 

As for the petticoat, here goes: 

To make Weiss’ dress as big as necessary I needed a petticoat underneath. I decided to make the petticoat myself as I welcomed the challenge and my last underskirt was a bit of a failure. The shape of the dress changes, but overall it has a clean A-shape. I decided on a one-layer petticoat, with three sections, each 10 cm wide.

Ruffling a 12 m piece of fabric.
Can you tell this is my first petticoat? 

Traditionally each section is ruffled to fit the next. I started by ruffling one of the long layers (12 m). As you can see on the picture this is somewhat uneven and it was quite an overwhelming experience to try and make it even. I decided that I do not like this look and thus changed it on the other sections.

Instead of ruffling I decided to pleat the layers. To reduce the strips to half the length I used my wonderclips as spacing, pleating every other (see picture). 

Pleating. Lots of pleating.

This is not the traditional look but as the petticoat is hidden anyway I really do not mind as this makes it even and less time consuming in my opinion. When the 12 m strips were pleated they were sown on to the 6 m strips which were then pleated to fit the 3 m strips.

The 3 m strips are to be sown directly onto the lining and thus they must fit it.

The lining:

The lining is a simple circle skirt cut out of 1 piece of fabric therefore it doesn’t have seams. Since the fabric is non-stretchy I made the lining 105 cm so it’ll go over my butt. It will get an elastic waistband so it fits my waist. I hemmed the bottom of the lining and attached the layer of tulle at the top. Hereafter I made a waistband by folding over the fabric and sewed 3 channels for the elastic, leaving every other empty.

Channels for elastic. Every other will be empty.

Sewing with the elastic inside
the channel.

I decided to sew the channels with the elastic in them with a zipper foot attached to my machine. This was to avoid pulling the elastic through with a safety pin as it has a hard time gliding on the cotton. The waistband was sewn onto the lining and the last step was covering all the seams with ribbon.

Ribbon getting sewn onto the seams.

I will need to shorten both the dress and the lining of the petticoat, but as I'm going to a needle work expo next weekend I will wait and see if I find a rolled hem foot for my machine.
Here you can see the finished Petticoat (picture also on facebook) and how much it changes the dress when worn underneath.

With the dress and petticoat done this leaves almost no sewing left of the costume. I need to sew half of the seams of the jacket before dying, but as I will buy the dye in February I'm not really stressing about it. My facebook page has finished pictures and also pictures of the skirt with the petticoat underneath.

So until next time! Cya

- Miliyia

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MiliyiaCosplay
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MiliyiaCosplay

Life update and cosplay planning!

Hi again guys.

As you might have read on twitter, life hasn't really been stable for me. I was living with my boyfriend temporarily as my apartment was unavailable and as it happens we broke up. This caused me to move in with my mom while my apartment was being renovated. Besides the stress of that there is a lot of sickness in my family right now (cancers and broken bones) so I have had to deal with all that before going back to cosplaying. I am now in the middle of getting back on my feet and getting my life together and I am ready to just enjoy life :-)
This of course means that I have more time for cosplay ^_^

As for getting back into my cosplay I have begun working on Weiss Schnee. In this post you will get an overview of the Weiss build and the planning behind it. Later, as I am building the cosplay, I will share my more detailed plans for each part and I will share my notes as well.

For me, a cosplay build starts with a lot of research. I divide the cosplay into different parts and plan the build according to my schedule. Usually the train of thought is as follows:

1. I divide the cosplay into different parts and I research each part separately to determine which materials, tools and techniques will be needed for each part. This step is really important to me as I otherwise would get overwhelmed with the whole thing, as most cosplays consist of many parts and lots of different techniques.
I am also not very artistic in general which I make up for with careful planning and researching!

- In this step I usually write and draw a lot on paper. I will show you these notes at the appropriate points during the build.
- This is also the time where I estimate the cost of the build and also figure out important deadlines for online shopping.

2. I start buying materials and tools I will need. This is to ensure that I spread the cost as much as possible. This process sometimes takes a week, and sometimes months ;-)

3. Slowly I start building. Usually I will start with fabrics and mock-ups. I usually start with the most time consuming part of the build.

4. While building I frequently stop and do a bit more research or evaluate what I'm doing, just to ensure that I am working as efficiently as I can.

5. I'd like to be done at least a week before the con, just to be able to redo some things and such. This almost never happens - but I try and plan for it, so there is room for some delays!

This is the overall plan for every cosplay I build. During the Weiss build, you will see this in a lot more detail and - I hope - get a view of how I think and plan my builds.

Weiss:

Meet Miss Schnee. 

Weiss is from the Rooster Teeth animated series RWBY. I fell in love with this character during season 1 and have been going strong ever since. She is strong and dignified, but with a troubled past and difficult family relations and her look really suits what I have been wanting to do with my cosplay for a long time, so the decision to cosplay her wasn't hard at all. 

So - first of all, let's break her down into pieces as to not get overwhelmed from the start.

At a first glance Weiss has

- A bolero

- A dress

- A wig

- Boots

- Myrtenaster (the sword)

I divide these into 4 categories.

Clothing: The dress and the Bolero plus the belt and her small bag (not shown)

Bought accessories: Wig and contact lenses

Shoes: Knee-high wedges.

Props: Myrtenaster, the hair piece plus jewelry.

Mind you. These categories will expand as you research - all these research details are included in my notes. But as an example - think of the wig: It is a long white wig - but to actually replicate it you first need to pick out the wig, then consider if you need extra wefts to hide where the ponytail attaches, you have to cut the wig, restyle it and then make her hairpiece. There are so many small details to look out for, and the wig is the easiest when it comes to that. 

Clothing: I bought this pattern at a local fabric store and I will base my work on this and then modify to my needs.

Obviously the bolero need to have bell sleeves and a tall collar. The dress I will make as is, and then put a petti skirt underneath. This is the part of the build I am planning to do first and I plan on having the first update in a week or so. I will do a mock up in a cheap fabric first just to get to know the pattern before moving on to satin. 

Bought accessories: For the wig I will buy Arda Wigs' Jeannie in pure white and perhaps some loose wefts as well.

The contacts will be the 'Ice Blue' from EOS

Shoes: I haven't really figured out the details for the shoes yet, but I will buy a pair of generic wedges and then modify them. My shoe-making skills aren't great, so look forward to that struggle ;-)

Myrtenaster: I will not go into detail about Myrtenaster here as it deserves its very own post when I begin building it. I am currently gathering materials for this and trying to make a space where I can actually work on it, instead of having to travel 1.5 hour to borrow my Mom's garage :-P 

Basically, this is the whole cosplay planned out in very broad terms. As we go along I will go into detail about everything, but to do it here would definitely be an overload of information. 

Also, if you want a more detailed explanation of planning a cosplays in general, write it in the comments and I will see to it.

So until next time

- Miliyia

Twitter: @MiliyiaCosplay