time for some old old old updates!!!

wiring the 'flaps' before the shoot last saturday. ughhh.



and cut the wig for like 1.5hours to get the fringe and the strand on the side right. yes i fail, even for such a simple wig. =.= and i forgot i needed the cut hair for my doll (for grell) and threw everything away. DAMN.



and the original wig

i did this like the previous week and was only able to finish it later on after i got my zip. cut the zip ends off and accidentally zipped the zipper out... twice. couldn't put it back and was too pek chek so went to buy a new one to sew on instead.

left hand side is the separate parts, on the right is how it looks like when combined. gonna be draped on my boots anyway.



oh yeah! doing this is so much more cheaper than getting new boots! it's almost free! (well i have a lot of pvc...)

and since my mom managed to help me get an expensive anodized bronze spray paint (like RM 10.50...) from malaysia, i could start to paint the bow structure i made from wrapping masking tape around like 4 hard wires.



at least it's much more decent than the one which i made before from just paper (which has been mysteriously thrown away...)

i made a hugie discovery that kureha had these white flannels on her skirt side pockets. so of cos i had to add it to my costume grrr







wonder if they are supposed to be part of the skirt or just flaps though. bluarghs.

then i saw that she had some white laces on the back



so i made a detachable lace for that (if not i won't be able to unzip and zip it right...)





and in that same back photo it seems that the zig zag part had some brown underlays. go on, surprise me kureha. zzzz. i'm too lazy to add that part though. and it's only visible in this photo (yes i convinced myself by searching for more pictures which doesn't show the underlays)

now it's just the bow. and where is my freaking boots!!! i realised i spent about $140+ for this costume... and it's gonna overtake ryuuki if i buy another pair of boots!!! GAHHH. and i'm not sure if i want to cosplay kureha after all. (-_-`) oopsy. yeah... so why did i repair it.

attempted to fix my kureha costume over the weekend while watching choon hyang with my sister. (well, since my sister was watching it on her laptop, i joined in for certain parts as well, so i now know roughly what happens in the whole story ahhaha)

first i sewed that stupid zig zag part at the edge. which my mom thought i was doing some sort of dinosaur costume. grrr. i just sew the zig zag lines, cut the excess and flip it around, then sew along the edge again. this was then joined to the main top.

at least now it looks zig zaggy, not flipping randomnly like the last one.



then i mended the edges for the sleeves



replaced the satin fraying ribbons with the lacy ones i bought at arab street



added a little lace on the ribbon and velcro on the underside so it's detachable. that way i can reuse the hairband for other stuff.



ooh i love all the lacy stuff. they add depth to your costume. but i think the satin was better for the ribbon though... arghhh whatever. i'm not gonna unstitch again. i'm wasting SO MUCH TIME unstitching all the costumes. yikes.

gonna start fixing all my other old cosplay works as well...

and finally the finished choker for kureha.




have finished this long ago, just thought for completion's sake i'll put it up. see the added pearl? took me so long to find it. snipped it off from an earring heh.

someone is forming a group in the forum... and i managed to grab these pictures.





their character designs are really nice!

kureha shining wind

orange cloth: $2.50/m x 3 = $7.50
brown cloth: $2.50/m x 1 = $2.50
beige cloth: $2.50/m x 1 = $2.50
brown ribbon: $5 per roll
white boots: $35
satin hairband: $2
white bow strings: $2
jade earrings: $3
green pearl earring: $3
body tape: $13.90
masking tape: $1.50 x 2rolls = $3
brown long wig (taobao): $33.46
white applique: $1.20 x 2m = $2.40
white 18inch zips: $0.70*2 = $1.40

total: $116.66

reflection/lessons learnt
i've tried to create a bow but it was so flimsy. i guess my weapon making skills aren't there yet.
i bought body tapes so my top wouldn't drop out or anything, haven't tried using it though...
seams for the zigzag pattern under the skirt.
folding in of cloth for the petal pattern to keep the threads from loosing.
the skirt is too damn revealing. especially cos of the flounce. gahhh.

here is the skirt that i've repaired. painstakingly went to sew the edges for the jagged part... then attached to the main skirt as an underlining.





whee. i think i'm coining a lot of terms myself. undercoat? underlining? lining? whatever, you know what i mean. or rather, i know what i mean haha.
here you can see a lot of the extras from the white cloth, which will be sewed in by another cover-up layer (another self-coined term). had to use the pins to mark the white cloth in place:




lousy zip i found from my stash. had to attach extra cloth to it cos it was missing the metal stopper zips usually have at the top and bottom (to prevent 'over-zipping').





here you can see that the white lining is not split up at the zip part.





the zip is actually at the front of the skirt. i figured that's where it'll be covered better since the top i made has a flap that would cover it better rather than when it's on the sides or back. a better choice would have been a hidden zip though. but my principle is to save as much and still create something presentable :p





and the skirt from the back. nothing special. just for the sake of completeness i should show the 360degrees view eh.





and i redid my choker too!
used a smaller enzyme (it looks enzymic to me...) button. best thing is last time you could see the stitches from the outside but now i've used hidden stitches so you can't see them now :D





the arrowed ends. last time it was just a cut-out, this time i sewed it inside and turned it around to hide the stitches, then sewed the semi-circles onto the long strips. some parts still protrude and doesn't look too good though. i also used leftover satin for the white part instead of ribbons like before so i can overlap the orange parts.





and my completed choker (without the jade pearl in the middle)





YAAAAAAAYYY~

i redid the whole top! yay i feel so happy. i bought the template and could do the top that had the boob shape. whee~ this is more wearable than the other one.

the buttons were a mess. it was originally at the side but i undid the whole thing and shifted them to the back, while adding a zipper. much more neater.











basically just did the edges and ripped the bottom part from the old top.







and the last one - the petals! i realised that ironing is also part and parcel of sewing. i went to iron the petals so the edges are inside and i can sew them better on. it's so much neater than the last one now.

uh.. i managed to scrape a wooden bow but it's too flimsy. i shall post it up anyway i think it looks good wahahah. well if your fingers can take it you might wanna make one then, frit-zo.

using hard magazine papers and masking tape, then wires to curve the ends. finally top off with corrugated strips to hold it upright... well it's not very upright but oh well!



after spray-painting a couple of layers... plus i spray painted my door silver as well... and my brother's accessories. it was paint-day! man i almost died of sniffing paint.




then attaching the strings... it makes it look so much curvier... bleah.

now, i worked a bit on my presentation for saturday and i got up around 930 and started making my chocoflakes. then i made almond agar. then i made my cosplay stuff. man i did A LOT on this sunday. has been very fruitful. oh and i managed to eat the munchy donut denzyl got at causeway's cold storage on saturday night. yum!
k let's see, i'm so proud of my big obi and ribbon!! yays! it looks so neat. but the satin ribbon overlays are getting haywired since i snip it in half for a smaller width. i bet it'll be fraying mad when i get it to wash.



i completed my so-called flouncy skirt with the trimmings too.

was a bit big and not very flouncy but flouncy enough. uhhh i did my best. don't really wanna redo!



sewed these petals on but it looks a bit distorted. oh well.



trimmed the hem so it has a wide v-shape at the bottom and is a little longer than the skirt when worn over the skirt. not very straight but guess should be alright. these stuff are so hard to measure... maybe i should learn how to use a measuring tape next time.



this is the bow which kureha wears on her hair. intend to get a white hairband and glue it on top, or use a satin ribbon instead of the hairband and sew it on, whaddya think?



did this while watching ugly better. the x-stitches are pretty obvious but it still looks quite nice. and sturdaaaaaay. need a green pearl button next!
*yawns* ewww my phone cam's colors really make it look awful, except for the choker. half-decent, as bahamut would say.

ok! i have not been blogging for half a week! WOW! (-_-`) so do you miss my posts?? anyway i have been working on a new project, kureha from shining tears x wind.


and no, zhifu won't be doing souma, but zero!!! looking forward to the wings. hee.




i spent my entire sunday working on the sewing machine! this will be my first ever costume to be machine made... haha! hope the quality is better. when i'm done, i will probably repair all my other hand-stitched costumes... ;p i got the cloth from arab street, $2.50/m it's kinda velvety and shiny on the back, and not too soft. maybe i can use the shiny part for my PVC armour?



still haven't trimmed the hem.



did the lining the day before, and completed yesterday!



now i'm working on the skirt. but it seems straight cut however i wear it. how do i make it flouncy?!