Kuchiki Byakuya [Bleach]

i should celebrate my highest no. of repeated cos - byakuya, with a little review.

for whoever do not know him... DIE. here's my lovely byak-kun anyways.



he is cold-hearted but i really he has a soft spot, especially when it comes to rukia. but he doesn't really smile a lot. whoops.

1) byakuya v1 (2005)
event: streetfest
place: orchard

errors:
-no make up (drooping eyebrows, au natural face)
-hand-sewn outfit, no seams, flailing threads
-scarf made out of tattered tshirts (tucked patterns inside to cheat)
-crayon drawn '6' symbol and rim patterns
-only 1 gloves, and a chui one.

the first time i did byakuya was at orchard during a streetfest in 2005 i believe. seriously it wasn't very good because i hand sew the whole outfit (so no seams, and flailing threads), and my scarf was made of connecting tshirts (tried to hide the prints inside). amazingly though, the scarf actually looks pretty real eventhough the idea was chui. i had no idea about make up at that time. it was also my 2nd cosplay after i did rinoa. so you see my face is au natural with drooping eyebrows, and even the captain cloak's no. 6 and the 01 patterns at the rims were drawn with cloth crayons (which washed out after i sent it to the machine).

but i still manage to get a pretty nice picture with the winner of the competition, saber


2) byakuya v2 (2008)
event: AFA
place: suntec convention

errors:
-used frank's sword, hilt was wrong
-white layer of sleeves, inside should have been white, sleeves should be double-layered
-eyebrow seems too long
-gloves broke halfway (just one of them though)
-hair was a bit wrong... and brown gahhh
-trousers very long, covered my sandals

improvements:
-fixed the entire outfit by machine sew, so it had seams and stuff
-scarf was made anew
-had make up now!
-2 gloves on both hands :D
-stitched on the '6' symbol and patterns. no smudges now!

i think this appeared so much better than the first! but my 3 streaks of hair in front were a little thin.


3) byakuya v3 (2009)
event: photoshoot
place: chinese garden

errors:
-hair! hair! hair!
-sometimes, my sword
-make up. need more eyeliner

improvements:
-the 3 streaks of hair in front no longer so thin... in fact i think it's pretty accurate. maybe a bit short?
-did an inner white sleeve
-repainted my sword. brought 2 swords there in case
-shortened my trousers, can walk without tripping now
-more accurate eyebrow.. i think

you'd have thought i'd have no errors now but with photoshopping, it might appear so! used my own hair so i had brown and silver streaks at random places, the back view pictures highlighted my brown hair especially since the cloak was white. however, the front view was all pretty ok, especially if they aren't close ups. overall, it was still a pretty good experience. here's my favourite photo. oh yeah, i combined the 2 swords together. pretty neat eh. xp OH, and my face seems to get rounder by the year. sucks.



i still wish i had some sakuras flying around for my chire shots though. oh well.
here's our groups photo thread if anyone's interested: http://sgcafe.com/showthread.php?t=61514

spent my good friday pondering over whether i should fix my byakuya for the shoot the next day. so i spray painted a metallic silver for my old bokken and fixed the ribbons on top... sort of. i didn't really know how to tie it. and the tsuba pattern was chipped, so i had to replace it with a cut out board fit to it, and spray paint over. ended up spray painting my kitchen floor and the washing machine as well because when the spray paint is about to be used up, it apparently will go into a frenzy and spray in the weirdest directions.

so warning there, spread like a whole lot of newspapers if you're trying to use an almost-used up spray paint. varnish remover might help clear the stains... but not by much.


and at about 1030pm, i decided to cut some white cloth (left over from kyoko's dress) and create a fake white inner for my byakuya. wahhaha. finished about 1115-1130ish.


was worth it!

byakuya bleach

black cloth: $2.50 x 4 = $10
white cloth: $2.50 x 4 = $20
straw sandals: $10
bokken: $35
filmblood (100ml): $19.80

total: $94.80

reflections/lessons learnt
i used scrap cloth for the scarf (some of it actually had patterns so i took extra care to not get those patterned parts caught on camera.
used pins for the keisenkan, worked quite well.
perhaps i really need make up to accentuate the male features.
my inner cloak showed my horrible white stitches! had to redo the whole set.
sewing the patterns is hard work.

i'm so bored. anyway i've recently remodelled my byakua costume. last time it was handsewn with lame alternate stitches, so i took them off and replaced it with machine stitch, sewing up the edges as well. also replaced my crayon drawn patterns and six symbol with black cloth (which was a pain to stitch on). looks so much better now!
from last year the unchanged objects were the kenseikan,





and the straw sandals,





and the new remodelled stuff!
first the top




a closer view. i replaced the string ties to enzyme buckles.




and the sleeves. made it so that the white stitches doesn't seem so obvious from the iside.




the pants. initially it was sewed on to another real pants, but i separated them and made the waist size much smaller. (it was like waist 50 ahahah overestimated due to the pleats.)
here's the front of it,




and the back of it.




not much difference except the back has this buckle.




also the taichou coat. the inside is black! last time you were able to see a lot of white stitches from the inside. but now i've hidden them all :D




the back of the coat with the six symbol.




a closer look at the six symbol. this was hell. it was not only difficult to sew on but because of the crayon markings previously, it turned my sewing machine black (my hands too). and it made a lot of smudges around. gotta send it for bleaching soon.




same for the patterns.




lastly, the shawl. not much to look at. it is very very long.




same for the obi.