Granado Espada - Asoka WIP

so i spent my previous weekend working on a costume that i didn't wear eventually... but it is actually still not done yet. haha.

it actually looks pretty easy at first glance, but it became a great test of patience once i cracked the parts down. starting from that criss cross stockings. ughh. 

i had to buy a criss cross stocking from taobao to start with, wear it on myself and paste all the pearls on it. i think i spent 2 days to paste about 60% of 1 leg. and getting glue stains all over myself.

i think it doesn't look too bad. i kinda gave up a little because i had to yoga to paste those at the back and i was too lazy to continue and waste more time on it.

the photo on the right is where i went to buy a nude ankle socks to cover the bottom part... but my shade was too dark!!!!!! BLEAHHHS waste of my $4.40. T_T

next is all the stone like thingy she has all over.... where i cut and made out of foam

and after spraying, pasted on the pearls

took 2 of the smallest ornament for the shoes. bought the transparent strapped heels from tb and the pearls were all just pasted on. quite straightforward.

working my way up! here's the shorts. i just cropped an existing legging of mine then sewed the flower trimmings on.

and the main body parts. hoh, i'm actually puttting lining on all my stuff now. the one on the left is the skirt, then the top and on the right are the 2 shoulder parts.

so starting with the skirt... created the flappy thing that's like 10% visible at the back. also added white ribbon trimmings for the flaps and silver trimmings for the skirt.

so the final skirt looks like this

and now the back of the skirt... it is split into 3 layers -

this skirt is crazy and has like 2-3layers. bleah.

pasting/sewing on all the appliques and lace...

and the last outer layer is another pearl frenzy again

at least this was easier to paste while watching my drama

and sewing on the appliques...

the last step is more of the 2 tails behind and not so much a layer. i got the material from tb, and it's 100% silk.. so i only bought half a metre and it was already above $20. ughh.

combining all the skirt layers... had to fold the 2 tails in half again and cut off some length as i realised it was a tad too fat. my silk!

and now the top... the blue cropped corset was easy. i used velcro for the sealing, and sewing black trimmings all around.

decorated the front with flower trimmings

then i made the 2nd layer which was a chinese wrap.

and sewed both together

last was the sleeves. more pearly frenzy... yes i pasted on all my pearls. while watching drama. it's actually a pretty lazy exercise that you can do with half the concentration.

then i sewed them on and pasted the flower trimmings as well as the lacy edges. oh.. i bought my flowers in the wrong color - they're supposed to be white but i used them anyway bleahs.

and my top set is done! after i added on all the extra black laces.

last part of the clothing is the obi... and it was seriously a pain. the base is fine, i used leftover blue gradient cloth, brocade lining and chiffon overlay to soften the colors, then white satin ribbon trimmings all around.

the painful part was cutting outt all these circles.... stuck black wallpaper over transparent pvc and thanks for my rotary cutter i was able to slice out perfect circles.. i must have cut over 1000 circles that day.

they were then lined over the long obi base

and i folded a ribbon on it and pasted the largest ornament on the front

completed front look.

some miscellaneous accessories - pearls and 'feathers'

sort of reused all the laser cloth i peeled off from previous gwendolyn cos heheh.

then strung them together on a pvc transparent 'belt'

here's an overall outlook on the finished product~

150606-07 Minnacon & SEA Games

... so we got the news just a week before that we gotta put up a performance for kenshin. and we all just met up in the weekend for 1 rehearsal, decided on the music/plot/actions and carried out the whole sequence, form about 1-10pm. it was really fortunate that monday was a public holiday, if not we wouldn't even have time to gather.

the thing i learnt about performing is not because 1 wk is too short to actually plan for anything, but that because i didn't exercise regularly, so to have continuous action scenes for the whole day gave me body aches the next 4 days. our next rehearsal was on friday, just after i've put in the sound effects so we could all rehearse once again with the actual music.

i was working on GE costume over the weekend (which i didn't even wear in the end). it was exhausting.

and saturday was minnacon at NTU, but i had invigilator duties in the morning till about 12pm. i couldn't bring anything too heavy but it should at least look decent, since i was invited to judge there. judging for the first time actually brought me lots of butterflies in my stomach since friday night - the tension seemed worse than participating in the competition itself!!!

i really chionged all the way down but NTU is so big i was lost and climbed mountains to reached the area. for the cosplay to bring, i wanted to do GE/belle/sailor cosmos/shiro, but in the end i did isis hahahah..

i want to thank my helper for sticking around the whole time to help with many things! like bringing my stuff around, getting me water etc. it would have been much more tiring without her. excuse the horrible make up i think it looked hideous so i didn't take a lot of photos.

here's the co-judge esther~

and our guest of the day, sailor grandpa!

and here's the panel of judges~

we also had one more special unannounced guest, eki~~~

met a partner from our monochrome factor group so super long ago, ching hui. bishonen now *_*

2 more event photos, from khai khai and hyunbin (which eki beautifully edited, on the left! - looks like a slim, korean version of me arhhh. maybe i should go get some plastic done. bleahs.) 

after the event, we hung around coffee bean before heading over to city hall for dinner. stopped by eki and hyun bin's super grand hotel!!

accidentally left the flowers i got in her room.... whoops.. it was quite nice of minnacon to give cards and flowers to the judges as a token of appreciation..

we stayed till about 1030-11 to explain to the guests their schedule for the next day, before i went home for the day.

the next day was at SEA games, and i had to prepare for rehearsal in the morning on the actual stage. so i reached the place at 11am and there was already hoardes of people swarming around the carnival. whoaaa. it was raining (again!!!!) but at least the place was not wet and dirty. phew. it was pretty cooling too.

waited for my team members to come over and had starbucks for breakfast before we changed.

sosososo i was kenshin for the day.

my beloved maria ~ can you tell she used her real wig. almost chua tio when she realised her wig was left at home, but made do with her real hair!!

dear zhenglan as my lover, i quite like this photo~

our other 2 villain characters by jokumi and lefty

and our team~

here's the rest of us, with our guest of the day eki as hestia~ and hyunbin her photog, as well as kanoe the singer!

we went out to prepare around 3pm, and started off with eki's fan meeting, then our performance, followed by photography session with the public.

i really like this photo - it''s so funny!!!! look at the symmetrical action of sailor grandpa and shishio, and how me and maria were both outraged with the situation. lefty looks embarrassed to be there and zl is just being her cute self. eki is like stuck in the middle and ignoring all of us. the photo is processed so nicely too! look at the colors~~~

after the event, we rested at manhattan for a while and here's a last photo of me and eki before my hp died.

and drinks at manhattan after we all changed out~

we sent the people back to the hotel, then met up with lopez around 8pm later on at marina square for the last dinner. rode on jukoomi's sheryl bike! wheeee

post-dinner and some chat over at the hotel, i reached home close to 1am. ughhh super loooong day and am still aching all over now. TwT hoping our performance video will be released soon, even with all the mistakes i think it was a good job for a 1wk / 2 rehearsal production...