Can I Get a "HELL YEAH?!"

So I finally got off my beautiful ass and made the central piece to the entire Rydia costume.

I used a Green Pepper pattern for figure skating costumes. The leotard pattern was in two pieces but I elected not to do that and butchered the pattern to my own desires. I used olive green jersey knit which is soft and glorious!

It turned out to be alot simpler than I had in my head. Thank goodness. That is one more costume mountain made into a molehill. It fits perfectly with no adjustments. I elected not to finish the edges because the fabric won't unravel and I feel like it would look clunky with finished edges.

The straps are brought together with a gold metal wire star with jewels on either sides. The capes are also attached at the shoulder.

The gold sash was a cop out. I was going to use the same fabric I used for Lenna's sash and then realized I can't two costumes at the same time, and Katherine won't be wearing Lenna at AZ after all so I borrowed it from Lenna.


As for the capes... they're probably my favorite aspect of the costume. I used 30 yards of wired Christmas ribbon I got on sale after New Years. The base fabric is a light green crinkle fabric that is light weight and sheer. It's close to the white most people elect to use while doing this costume but without the harsh contrast. The ribbon is patterned and frankly it's pretty amazing in person.

Now left on the Rydia TO DO list:

• Arm bands for under sleeves.
  
• Thigh highs, this will require a friend to draw/paint on them while I wear them.
• Hair beads.
• Earrings.

And that ladies and gents will conclude Rydia!!

Rydia Makeup

So... I'll let this speak for itself:

Rydia's Sleeves

I have a huge stack of fabric from which to draw from for Rydia. I have collected since last fall for this costume and I've amassed quite a collection. But the fabric for these sleeves came to me while sitting in my closet.

Yes. While sitting in my closet.

I got terrible nostalgic one day and allowed myself to be floored by a green kimono in my costume collection. I made this kimono my senior year of high school. I hadn't worn it often and it wasn't very special to me. While I may say I did do a tremendous job on the stitching of the garment. The last time I wore this kimono however was the last time I spent with a good friend of mine, one of my first friends I made while attending college at Lees-McRae. Last summer she passed away.

I don't think I ever got the chance to fully mourn her. I did so in that closet last week.

While touching the fabric I was flooded with memories of her, of our time together, of her amazing strength. She was one of the few people I could always count on, and truthfully I think I took her for granted half the time.

So I took the kimono down and I cut the sleeves off. I figure if I am to put so much time, energy, and love into this costume it should hold just as many memories.

So Kasey... this is for you.

I began by cutting off the bottom edge of the sleeve. I then took spray fabric paint to the first sleeve. It literally just painted one sleeve. Don't waste your money on spray fabric paint, it's great but there isn't enough in the bottle to make it worth it. Instead I moved to using watered down acrylic paint.

I painted it nearly perfectly, I let it dry overnight. The next day I decided it was way too stiff and to my absolute stupidity I stuck it in the washer.

Needless to say, it washed completely out.

So the next day again with a blank slate I set to paint the sleeves again. This time I set the paint with heat and it wasn't nearly as stiff this time around.

I then attacked the sleeves with great vigor using a hot glue gun (out of laziness) and spray painted plastic beads. I created pretty swirly patterns to mimic the stars on Rydia's sleeves, but to put my own spin on the look. I then finished the sleeve bottom with trim.

I attached crystal like gems to each side of the sleeve and hanging stars onto the trim.

I am thrilled with the result! Here are some teasers. I also think Kasey would approve and yet think I'm completely nuts as she did.

Rydia Wig and General Head Progress

So the constant struggle with this costume is to decide which version to do. The classic Amano concept art version or the DS Re-release version. I still haven't decided but I needed to start working and since this week is the week of giving good cosplay head (lawls) then I decided to start. At this rate I'll have both versions >.<. So without any further ado:

General process here:

Starting with the feathers, the largest feather was an after Christmas sale find at Michaels. I painted a black feather gold with gold leaf for the second feather. The third non feather thing was a fake flower arrangement I attacked with gold spray paint back when I was doing Lenna. I love gold.

The flower is a clip I got at Claire's last September as part of a 10 for $10 deal. It was an odd shade of green and involved feathers and rhinestones. Not something I'd actually wear outside of costume mind you. So I added gold leaves from the fore mentioned flower arrangement, tipped the blossom with gold leaf and glued on a once white, now red rose also edged in gold.

The crown is foam and hot glue spray painted gold. I glued on green beads as the jewels, and attacked to two pins that hook to m hair under the wig.

As for the wig, I haven't done anything to it. I saved this beauty from my friend Stephanie who didn't love it as I love it.

So that begins Rydia! Lets see if this weekend between apartment hunting, bike riding, and website updates I can get some more progress on at least one of my costumes done!

Psyduck Headband

Whoa! Two progress posts in one night?! Crazy... guess I got off my lazy ass.

So this is quick... ribbon tied around the forehead to meet a hair comb in back with three hot glued feathers and a cute bow in the same ribbon. This creates the feather's on Psyduck's head and gives it a cute flapper look! I hope it's more flapper than cliche cartoon indian >.>.

Sophitia's Hair Clip (Do Da Diddy)

So as most of you know with Soul Calibur if you're not actively playing the game and pausing alot (which I'm not) then you have one basic reference photo. In this case:
Which is great for almost every other aspect of the costume... but what is up with that hair clip?! From this I could deduct that it is silver and has three things jutting from it. Word...

So I searched teh googles and found some fan art...
Okay... still have no clue what to do. So when I don't know what something look likes... I MAKE SHIT UP. So for this one I channeled all my own creative energies I had in this current point of the day (which honestly wasn't much) and I took things I already owned in my craft arsenal.

First was the silver glitter leaves, I chose these because I could build the look of the three silver jutting items and they seemed Grecian (leaves and all), they were also feather shaped. I edged the leaves with gold leaf to have them translate better to the next piece.
Then I added a pink piece of molded plastic leftover from god knows what, I painted the top gold with gold leaf (I use so much of this stuff I'm going to get cancer one day).
Then a blue glass bead to pull from the other blue details in the ensemble. I aged the bead with more gold leaf to give it a battle scorn look.
Glued it all together and then glued on a hair comb and voila!

Pictured on my brand new wig bought for the costume. It was super cheap (less than $20) and it's so soft, thick and beautiful! I got really lucky. The wig is un-styled, I just braided it really quickly and fastened with a flower since I have ONE ponytail holder to my name now.

Psyduck Progress

I'm trying this new thing where I take more photos of my costumes while in progress and take more detailed records of how I make them. Here goes!

Before I dive into today's project, here is the original design by Katherine Stocking (Cosplay Pirates and Best Friend)
It's adorable right?! I don't plan on deviating much from this design other than the wig. I'm opting for a more flapper feel to go with the head band so a short blonde bob wig.

So today I started at the bottom with Psyduck: the shoes.

I began with an old pair of gold flats I loved to death but they were starting to look rough. Because they were still comfortable and I'm a fan of recycling and cutting costs with Cosplay I saved them from a trash can fate.

I started by making a pattern with construction paper then I used the pattern I created to cut out pieces of craft foam. One for the sole of the shoe and one for the top. I hot glued them onto the shoe and brought the pieces of foam together with black gaffing tape (photographer sign numero uno). I then covered the shoe and foam with a natural cotton fabric of a khaki color using hot glue (my one true love).

Here's the end result:

I chose to photograph the shoes with the fabric for the main garment. Perfect colors in my opinion.

So stay tuned for the next part of Psyduck... or any of the other costumes on my docket.