Betsy's Cosplay Blog

Doing the placement on this was probably one of the most stressful things I've had to do in a matter of seconds due to the glue drying so fast!⁠ ⁠ I started by creating my vector in Adobe Illustrator and then moving it to the Cricut Design Space where I drew and cut a paper mock up for sizing on my hat. Once I was happy with the size I created a paper template and cut some 3mm foam with my Cricut Maker using the Knife Blade. I chose to use this blade as opposed to the deep cut since technically this can cut even deeper and an exacto knife is what I would use to cut foam normally.⁠ ⁠ Using the paper template I created I glued down all the pieces in their spots and hoped for the best. Overall I'm super happy with how it came out since I really suck at cutting foam freehanded, and know that this will work for more projects in the future. ⁠

Thank you so much for the love on my last post of starting to put my hat together! I totally forgot to take more photos while I was working on it but here's some of it completed! It honestly was a huge pain in the butt since I went through a ton of sewing needles and ended up having to hand stitch parts together to complete it! ⁠ ⁠ This is a modified version of the leather pattern from @dieselpunk.ro 's Etsy shop and was so easy to work from! Next I'll be making some of the gold decoration from the front that involves the Oda clan Mon out of foam!⁠ ⁠

Getting back to an old project I've been dragging my feet on; Nobunaga! I started working on her hat this week in an adventure of new things to try with my Cricut.⁠ ⁠ I first started with a digital pattern I purchased from Etsy that was originally meant for leather but modified it slightly for my purposes. From there I took my digital pattern and used the machine to cut the pieces out of pleather (bottom right) for a quick mock up.⁠ ⁠ From there I learned quickly what modifications I needed to make to the pattern and the sewing technique so that I would have clean edges and no floppy brims (yuck!)⁠ ⁠ After modifying the pattern I had my machine cut stabilized poly poplin for my final product as well as a mystery sew in stabilizer I found at the fabric warehouse to give it the stability it needed to stand on it's own. I added some premade bias tape to the brim to finish the edge and couldn't be happier with the look so far! ⁠

Okay finally some visible progress to show while I'm deep in Otakon crunch and inspired by the new season announcement for Golden Kamuy! I managed to finish all the handsewing as well as reinforcement stitches for the blue parts as well as started the embroidery. At this point I still need to do 2 more designs on the sleeve and the corner pieces on the edging. The finally I'll be able to move onto the 2 sets of back embroidery and the headband. This whole thing was such a learning process and working with the different materials to come together as one piece.⁠ ⁠ I'm still working on putting together a tutorial for how to fake the chainstitching with a machine but might have to put it off until I have a bit more down time to write out all the steps.⁠ ⁠ Only 20 days left; let's do this!⁠

Starting con crunch early to try and avoid some stress later but it's been a hot minute gathering fabric and inspiration for months while working on other projects. I finally bit there bullet and got started with my final fabrics for Asirpa and sewing the final garments. ⠀ ⠀ I chose to go with a linen I found at SAS for the base since I love the look and flow of the fabric and how it worked for previous projects like Sayo. I put together an extra large yukata with some modified pieces for the base to play with my natural proportions and get a baggy look.⠀ ⠀ Since her design features gathered fabric, it was very easy to find that a full length yukata would lay the same way when tucked into the back of the belt. Because of this I didn't need to play with the pattern too much and didn't need to separate all the pieces for the right look. For security I'll be adding a loop or hook and eye to secure everything down and not have to worry about slippage from under the belt.

Going hand in had with proportions for the jacket I had a hard time really wrapping my head around this back design and how I wanted to split it up. When working with patterns like this I like to do my mock ups in Illustrator so that I can easily scale and move lines around but keep a digital copy of my design in case anything happens to my physical copy. Once I blocked out the main colored areas I created guidelines in various forms for where blocks will be cut, where I will change stitches, as well as creating a 'roadmap' for hand embroidery. The red dotted lines in particular work like a connect the dots so that if I start at the top center I can follow the path all the way down with only a few breaks in the stitching to jump to a new line. This will help with getting a nice continues look and while I am nervous to do the actual embroidery, anything I can do to plan and try it before working on the actual garment is great practice for getting just the look I want. If you are interested in learning about the creation of Ainu items from frpac, check out the link in my profile!

This week I'm focusing a lot on a few different parts for Asirpa. The headband design is the first place I'm starting, with a vector design that I can transfer to the fabric and embroidery. The second is working on mockups for the outer coat. This is an Attus, made from the fibers of the Lobed Elm tree for the area. The Foundation for Ainu Culture has a great book online about making these clothes and using modern materials and techniques. This Attus I'll be making out of a cotton or linen material to get a similar look and feel to their clothes. The under kimono is a currently a place holder that is recycled from Sayo to give a more accurate shape to how the outer garb will fit. My big question working on this, is would anyone be interested in the repeating patterns/motifs if I were to make them available for download?

Next project (and probably my biggest one for the year) will be Asirpa! If you like history (looking at you fellow fate fans) I really recommend checking out Golden Kamuy! I'm in love with so many of the characters, as well as the art, and the amazing story telling that Noda has put together for this series. Since he works closely with the indigenous people of Japan for accuracy in his series I'll be trying my best to match not just the patterns but the look and feel he was going for when creating this, and have already fallen knee deep into references and studying. I've found a lot of great information while simply just researching the series and the clothing they wear and can't wait to get to work on her! . . . #cosplayprogress #cosplaywip #coswip #sewing #cosplay #asirpa #GKcosplay #goldenkamuycosplay

Cosplay complete! I had Mash sitting around almost done for a week so after getting everything in my sewing area in order, I sat down and busted out everything I needed to for her. As easy and straight forward these patterns are I chose to make life hard and picked a sweatshirt material that had very little stretch in it to get the look and feel I wanted, causing me to have to get creative with the cuffs for the bottom of the garment and the sleeves. It was honestly worth it though since this is one of the softest jackets I've ever worn and is fully functional to wear outside of cosplay. I'm planning on doing some photos for her shortly once some small things come in for her and am excited to finally be Chaldea's best kohai! ❤️ . . . #cosplayprogress #cosplaywip #coswip #sewing #wipwednesday #cosplay #fgo #fgocosplay #fgoコスプレ #azcosplay #madewithjoann #handmadewithjoann #joannfabrics

In hopes of ending 2018 and starting 2019 on a good note I've been trying to pair down my fabric stash and make simpler costumes in between some larger ones. I'm going to be using some cotton fabric from my stash to make pattern new look #6299 for Mash. After another a day of work all the panels are together and trimmed, ready to be pressed and serged. #fgocosplay #fgo #mashkyrielight #コスプレ #fgoコスプレ #azcosplay #cosplaywip

Quick 2 day project on my list this weekend and man do I love when the details line up nicely. #cosplay #cosplaywip #sweatshirt #sewing #handmade

On the note of my previous post something easy you can do to help the look of your cosplay without any skills is to brush your fur for cosplays! Nekomimi and tails are really popular design elements and by simply brushing out the fur in all directions will give it a different look. Here you can see the fabric as is on the bolt and then compared to after it is brushed for an ear. I used a cheap cat hair brush from the store and after cutting out the fabric pieces brushed the fur in all 4 directions to separate the fibers. Since I wanted it to stay flat I opted for a light coat if hair spray before setting the whole piece in place. #cosplay #cosplaywip #nekomimi #cosplaytutorial #cosplaytips #foxears #fur #costume

It's all in the details from here on out! Here are my tools for making some matching scrunchies for my cosplay. I used the same materials from my shorts and thigh highs for a cohesive look. For more wip photos from this costume check out my profile for pinned stories from the process. #wip #cosplaywip #cosplay #cosplaytutorial #fategrandordercosplay #tamamo #sewingtips #sewing #azcosplay

IRON👏YOUR👏FABRIC Working on Tamamo I decided to make some fabric by piecing together 2 different knits to get the design I wanted, and with a project like this I can't emphasize how important it is to take your time and take the extra step to iron your material as you go because it can vastly improve how your garment looks when finished #cosplay #cosplaywip #sewing #fabric #sewingtips #cosplaytutorial #fategrandordercosplay

Commissions underway and with that patterning is complete and I can move onto fabrics! This will be for Sakura's starting class from fire emblem and can't wait to work with some very wonderful fabrics for this. 🌸🌸🌸🌸 #fireemblem #fireemblemfates #fireemblemcosplay #hoshido #sakura #nintendo #cosplaywip

okay here's an actual photo now that I found my camera; This is gonna be for FE: Sakura #coswip https://t.co/JflcWgCqL5

Making new patterns to stream line bag making #coswip https://t.co/2mu9JN5EIZ