x to guard

So let’s talk about what it took to make World’s End Dancehall. I choose this cosplay because I have by far, the most progress of it saved.  It has been my most complicated and detailed costume I’ve made to date.  I made it in Late 2014 and won 1st place for it in Dokidokon 2017’s Intermediate division.

For those of you who don’t know where this costume comes from, it is from “Hatsune Miku Project Diva F” for the PS3. This is Miku’s “Emerald” Module for the song  "World’s End Dancehall". You can watch the Video here.

So here’s a rough breakdown of what she cost:

If you add it all up, supplies cost me around $277, what it would be if I bought everything new but I didn’t so I roughly spent $250, because I had the twisted red cord already and I used left over white fabric from another project.

** Side note - I bought a brand new machine for this project. It was the first completely new machine I’ve ever owned.  I bought a  CE1100PRW  Brother Project Runway 100 stitch

So my project costs were closer to $400

___

I started this project by collecting more reference than I probably needed, by downloading the music video of World’s End Dancehall off of Youtube and print screening crap out of it.  I also sourced this image  a lot.

So I started with her sleeves, because I had an idea of how I wanted to do it but I wasn’t sure if it would work so I figured if I could get her sleeves to work then I could do the whole dress.

So I patterned out the sleeves and marked on the fabric where each part of the gradient should go with a pencil.

They ended up looking something like this:

I sewed these pieces together and prepared my first dye bath. I got a little bucket I didn’t care about, filled with the hottest water I could and added some salt for brighter colors.

This was the combination I used this time. I wanted everything to come out teal but it wasn’t the right color the first time I dyed them so I ended up making a second batch and dyeing them again.

There were lots of test swatches done in the process of finding the right color. They ended up coming out like this:

I left the bottoms in longer than the middle, I would watch it with a timer and slowly bring it out the water little by little to give it that gradient effect.

(Please always remember to use old towels and wear gloves when dyeing fabric)

With that done I had to wait to do the next step because things needed to dry, but once they were ready I got to work.  

I looked for my now almost impossible to see pencil guides and laid down the dark blue fabric I’d bought and pinned it to the bottom of the sleeve after taking them apart so they could lay flat.  I drew the design I needed to be on the bottom of the sleeve in with a white colored pencil.

* Please use a dressmaker’s pencil instead. It washes out until colored pencil, I was lazy. Don’t be like me.

After putting in my guidelines I sewed them all in place and removed the pins, once they were sewn down, I carefully pulled the fabrics apart from one another and cut out the pattern:

I ended up putting the gold lines down first so I had a place to match the leaves to, I also used white ribbon for the border at first but I hated it so I took it all off and started over.

I used this stitch for the golden lines:

Of course I didn’t use it in it’s original programming. My Machine is computerized so I made it much tighter together so it would look cleaner.  I don’t remember exactly what I sat my machine to, but it was much smaller than it’s standard version.

But since I down right hated the ribbon, I tore it all off and started again. I later ended up putting a white braid on in it’s place.

From there I needed to put the leaves in and I did it one at a time. Basically I used the following stitch. I let it make one full leaf, stopped it and moved it to the next spot to continue the pattern.

Here’s a really terrible video of me trying to show how I did it on my facebook. I didn’t have any way to film at the time other than my phone and the apartment’s lighting was really awful.

*at this point I was working on the dress *

The sleeves with the new white braid and leaves ended up looking like this:

What I was doing was running the braid over the unfinished edge of the blue to cover it. It took a few minutes to sew on because I had to slowly wrap it into place.

Here’s some close up on the detail:

So from there, I lined my sleeves in the same blue fabric I’d used at the bottom of them and I put it around the top in the same way I’d added it to the bottom. A golden line was sewn down the middle of the blue at the top and then I added braid to the top and the bottom pieces. At this point the sleeves were done and I was so proud of myself.

So then came the complicated part.  

I had to replicate all the work I just did on the sleeves, on to the dress.

One sleeve was close to 8 hours of work, consider 5 of them were spent just sewing all the golden leaves into it.

I knew this was going to be a lot of work.  4 months went by with having no chance to work on things, but eventually I got back to it.

So I started by patterning out the dress, which took a few fittings to see how it worked since I didn’t own a dress form at the time.

I ended up with something like this, pencil guidelines and all.

I had to pencil in where my bust hit in the dress so I didn’t dye past it and from there I dug out an even bigger tub I didn’t care about and went to trying to replicate the same color in a second batch of dye.

I used this:

to brew this:

I emphasis, please use towels, and wear gloves when dyeing fabric. I can still remember the dripping trail I made when I drug my dress to the sink.

I dyed my dress much in the same way that I dyed my sleeves, in that I slowly brought the dress out of the water little by little to create that gradient effect. It took a lot longer, because I was stupid  and dyed a dress in almost cold water so I had to leave it overnight.

PLEASE DYE IN HOT WATER, THE DYE TAKES FASTER AND IT WILL SAVE  YOU TROUBLE.

But eventually I got the dress to the correct color and I took it a part at a seem so it could lay flat.

I laid the blue fabric on top of it, pinned it in place, drew the design in with a white colored pencil. (Again, don’t be me, don’t do it.)  I had to not only reference the picture I posted at the beginning but I had to turn on the game (Project Diva F) so I could have the model to turn around.  

After sewing one side in place, we got here:

Rinse and repeat, it’s on the next side and soon enough after doing it all over again, we were here:

I’d started putting all the gold lines in but they took some time because again, I had to reference the model. I would be spending a lot of time with the model in coming days, little did I know it.

So once I got all the lines in I had to start the process of putting the leave in one at a time, all over again. The problem with doing it this time, is I had to check the model to make sure the leaves were flowing in the correct direction, so I couldn’t just sew them in. I had to make sure all the tips were pointing the correct way.

So  it was a very

Slow

process.

Many Mountain Dews and sleepless nights later, I finally got all the leaves sewn into the dress. So from here, section by section I had to wrap the white braid into each section and sew it in place.

This also was a slow

Process.

I stood on many chairs to take these pictures, but after a while the braid was in and I put the dress back together to work on the top.

I had to put in the “boob window” as my husband likes to call it and again it needed a test fit, things got pinned for measurements while on me, because remember no dress form, and then penciled in later.  Eventually we got here:

After putting that part into the top of my dress, I put on the blue parts much in the same way as I did the rest of the dress. With placing things where they needed to be an anchoring them as I went along.

The golden designs were put into the top of the dress with the same stitch I’d used to make the gold lines for the leaves. After which I covered all the edges with white braid just like I did everything else. I’d killed about 4 , 5 /yd rolls by now.  

After that I placed small grommets at either side of the opening at the top and them four for the closures at the side slant of the dress.

I created a collar for the dress and installed it, complete with blue and gold detail with white braid.  After which I added a zipper up the side of the dress.

It was complete! The dress was done! Four months of work and finally she was complete.

From there I styled my wig - which was a chibi in Ocean Green from Arda Wigs + 2 long pony clips in the same color.  (Apparently they no longer sell it in that color, but it’s available in teal)

I ended up taking the side ponytails that came in the way out and pulling them up higher, since Miku’s pigtails set higher on her head with this costume.

I did some light styling to the bangs like trimming them and bringing them to tips where they needed it but over all it didn’t need much work.

I bought my stockings from a local adult store, and my hair clips were purchased from a vendor we found at Youmacon 2014’s artist alley. (I wish I could remember their name)

My shoes are just standard plain high heels.

It wasn’t until I realized I’d forgotten at the con, that I made small black wraps for my legs to mimic the straps of Miku’s shoes.

And at last Miku was done!

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! If you would like me to breakdown more cosplay for you guys, please tell me in the comments!  

As Usual, thank you all for your support! It really means the world to me!

005 , SPLASH OF RED

—— ROLL FOR INITIATIVE!

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DESCRIPTION:

So...here's a template for your beloved D&D character! With all the stats, magic, and extra goodies you could dream of! Easily spanning levels one to twenty! I was worried people wouldn't care for pageless templates, but I've been happily surprised by how many people want them! It's the best to have as much room as you need for all of your content, long or short! Bring your TTRPG adventurer to life with a template that grows and changes with them as they level up. Delete anything you don't need! Add anything you want! There is endless room for your endless creation.

CLICK ME FOR THE TEMPLATE

Who doesn’t want to know the Homestuck Title they would have in the game? 

EDITED: Added more Aspect info, Changed how Rage and Doom work, and added one Syllable Titles!

Edit 2: Added A better 1w9 title, and one syllable ones for different genders if needed. 

More edits: Alt titles added

This is something I’ve been creating for a long time, and finally got to a place where I feel like the test is pretty solid. 

The Test is 3 parts long.

Your title is based off your enneagram type and wing. You can take the test here(first test/button): http://www.eclecticenergies.com/enneagram/test.php

When looking at your results, it is the first result in the form #w#, rather than Type #. 

However, if you already know your enneagram type and wing, you can skip taking the test!

The Titles are as follows (6 are non-canon):

1w9- Spark(alt:Fiend original:Agent) 1w2- Heir 

2w1- Maid(male:Serf) 2w3- Star 

3w2- Prince(female:Queen) 3w4- Thief

4w3- Page 4w5- Soul (original:Poet)

5w4- Seer 5w6- Mage

6w5- Knight 6w7- Witch/Ace

7w6- Bard(female: Voice) 7w8- Rogue

8w7- Chief 8w9- Sage

9w8- Sylph(male: Duke) 9w1- Monk

The next part of the test is determining what level you are in your enneagram type. 

Go to http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/ and click on the number that corresponds with the FIRST number from your title.

For example, I got 4w3, the Page, so I’d click the link to 4- The Individualist.

Scroll down to the ‘levels’ and choose which one sounds like what level you are at.

I am level 3. 

The last part of the test is your Aspect, based on the cattell 16 factor test here: http://similarminds.com/cattell-16-factor.html

Here’s where things get a bit complicated.

First, look at Tension and Anxiety. Take your score in Tension and subtract it from 100. This is your new Tension score. Do the same thing for Anxiety. 

(Ex. If you got 30% on Tension, use 70% as the number representing it.)

ONLY TENSION AND ANXIETY ARE WEIRD.

For picking your aspect:

If you were level 1-4, your aspect responds to your highest factor.

If you were level 5-9, your aspect responds to your lowest factor.

The aspects are as follows (4 are non-canon):

Warmth - Light /  Intellect - Mind 

Emotional Stability - Blood / Aggressiveness - Blaze

Liveliness - Life / Dutifulness - Form

Social Assertiveness - Breath / Sensitivity - Heart

Paranoia - Keys / Abstractness - Space

Introversion - Void / Anxiety - Doom

Open-mindedness - Hope / Independence - Time

Perfectionism - Zen / Tension - Rage

So, since I scored highest on Open-mindedness, I am the Hero of Hope.

After finishing the test, I am the Page of Hope! (Jake’s Title yay!)

IN THE EVENT OF A TIE BETWEEN ASPECTS:

If they tied for highest, choose what you think is your greatest strength, or what you think represents you best. If they tied for lowest, choose what you think you need to work on the most to grow.

Symbols for the 4 non-canon ones here: http://thepageofhopes.tumblr.com/post/14384024069/here-are-the-4-symbols-for-the-non-canon-handles

Costumes provided by the lovely seyvee here: http://seyvee.tumblr.com/post/23967844858/god-tier-request-list-closed

So what does all this MEAN?

Kanaya remarked that the titles were meant to CHALLENGE. The game of Sburb is all about growing up and becoming the best you can be. 

What do the Titles mean?

The titles represent what you need to learn through the game.

Sparks need to work to bring change and to set a good example for others

Heirs need to learn to communicate and organize and work with others to get things done.

Maids/Serfs need to take care of others, even if they go un-noticed. 

Stars need to learn to share their talents without getting caught up in self-importance or narcissism.

Princes/Queens need to learn to become less image focused and less narcissistic.

Thieves need to learn to trust others and become less image focused.

Pages need to learn to get out of the background and showcase themselves.

Souls need to learn to focus and expand/utilize their creativity.

Seers need to learn to utilize their intuition to guide others.

Mages need to learn to realize their skills and not get caught up in self-deprecation.

Knights need to learn to stand by their friends and remove the mask they put on for others. 

Witches/Aces need to learn to inspire and motivate, as well as stay optimistic.

Bards/Voices need to learn how to spread mirth and help others enjoy life.

Rogues need to learn control and independence.

Chiefs need to learn to channel their aggressive nature productively and to coordinate others.

Sages need to learn to calm their aggression into silent power and wisdom

Sylphs/Dukes need to learn to take care of others with their inner strength and power.

Monks need to learn to balance between others and teach others.

Well, where do the aspects tie in then?

FIRST: I don't particularly like the names the test site gives the 16 types. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16_Personality_Factors gives better names and descriptions of what each factor is. 

So, after looking at your factor:

For levels 1-4, it means utilizing what you are best at. i.e., Feferi, the Witch of Life utilizes her high liveliness to motivate others and stay optimistic. 

For levels 5-9, it means growing in an area that you need more of. i.e, Tavros, the Page of Breath needed to get out of Vriska’s shadow and come into his own by growing more bold and standing up to her. 

For Doom/Rage, it works a bit differently as well. 

For levels 1-4, Not having much Tension/Apprehension is a double-edged sword. Being completely laid back doesn’t get much done, and not having any apprehension means leaping into things that might cause big problems later. For these, you are not only utilizing your LACK of Tension/Apprehension, you also have to learn to grow some of it.

For 5-9, it means gaining control over said Anxiety/Tension: becoming more confident and less stressed. 

Other examples-

Eridan, the Prince of Hope needed to be more open-minded to the changes happening, like how the hemospectrum became obsolete. If he had done this, and become less narcissistic, he would’ve been able to better handle the challenges the game presented him with. 

Dave, the Knight of Time, needs more independence (Terezi mentions this a couple of times) so he can better stand by his friends and eventually remove his 'aloof cool-kid’ mask. 

Now go! Reblog what your title is! I’m quite curious to see which ones are common!

Hopefully, this gives you stuff to think about! Enneagram and the 16 factors are interesting to look into!

Have a question about your non-canon aspect, or aspects in general? Check the Explanations of Titles/Aspects link on the side! 

Have a question about what your title means? Ask a question! READ THE RULES ABOVE THE ASK BOX FIRST.

Want to learn more about your enneagram type/wing? The personality cafe forums are the place to head!

I am currently writing a fanfiction that is a battle royale between every god tier title. Maybe yours is there, or will be next! 

http://archiveofourown.org/works/473542/chapters/819909

Hello! I’m Homestuck Examination, and for a while now I have been doing Class and Aspect analysis stuff. With the advent of the Canon Aspect Quiz and some pretty interesting explanations of each Aspect, I decided to make a Class Quiz, which you can take following this link:

HSE Class Quiz

Ever since I made this Quiz, people have been asking me to go more in-depth about some of the Classpect Combinations, and until now I’ve been answering them separately- But then, given they just kept coming and repeated ones kept popping up in my Inbox I thought, what the hell? I may as well do every single one of them broadly and get it over with!

Below I’ll post links to analysis for each Class individually on its own, and a broad view over how each Class Pair would interact with each Aspect.

Creator Classes - Sylph / Maid - Aspect Analysis

Giver Classes - Knight / Page - Aspect Analysis

Visionary Classes - Seer / Mage - Aspect Analysis

Innovator Classes - Heir / Witch - Aspect Analysis

Taker Classes - Rogue / Thief - Aspect Analysis

Destroyer Classes - Bard / Prince - Aspect Analysis

Master Classes - Muse / Lord - Aspect Analysis

A foreword about this analysis, the pairings may not exactly match up your personal Headcanons, specially talking about the Knight/Page alignment and the Sylph/Maid and Heir/Witch pairings, but I do explain my reasoning in the analysis, and you should check this if you want a more in-depth analysis about the reasoning between these pairings and power ideas.

Furthermore, Classes sharing the same Verb are similar enough with their powers that they may be interchangeable- So what a Bard of Time can do, a Prince of Time likely can, and so on, so if you don’t exactly agree with my analysis, make sure to check the Passive/Active counterpart!

Hope my analysis helps you come to terms with your own Classpect, or think of fun interactions and things Players could do within a Session!

Kudos to @revolutionaryduelist for his amazing analysis of Homestuck as well as the little Class Cards, and to homestucking-girl for the base sprite I used for the Mage Class!

And if you want to see my original Post about the Class Quiz, you can find it over here!

011 :: LUCIFER

He even tucks the thumb

oh boy