#cksaul

Avatar Wan Cosplay WIP

About to head to Seattle to see friends, family and attend SakuraCon 2014 with my usual band of proper villains. This will be my 9th (HOLY SHIT) SakuraCon (I've been going ever since it has been at the Convention Center downtown), and though I've cosplayed every year but two (last year when everyone's cosplay plans fell through and the year before where my friend and I sold art in the Artist Alley) this is my first all-sewn/all-created cosplay! (Minus the thrift-store girl boots...)

In the past I'd either purchase full costumes/components or cobble together things from thrift store finds. Though I know how to hand sew, I had no fucking clue how to use a sewing machine... Huge shoutouts to my friend Heather (silhouettes1) for letting me borrow her sewing machine and teaching me how to use it. I wouldn't have been able to do this without you! Shoutouts to Vicious Cosplay's "How To Shop At JoAnns Like A Boss" post as well, for saving me some serious $...

Originally I intended to cosplay Mitsurugi from Soul Caliber, to fit in with this year's collective group cosplay. However, tax season kicked my little freelancing ass and so I was left with less "extra" funds than expected. With a time crunch and a budget I decided to go for Plan B, and to take this opportunity to learn how to use a sewing machine, even if it was super last minute... 

LOTS of learning and fuckups along the way, and I'm still nailing down last minute details before I fly out tomorrow, but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. (#1 Rule of Cosplay - It ALWAYS takes longer than you think it will...)

More pictures and such later perhaps.

In the meantime, bonus pics of some of our past group cosplays:

Hello Kitty Patrol (SakuraCon 2010) 

Source John Lu (Flickr)

2/3 Scale Onix (SakuraCon 2011)