THE MAKING OF HMC part 01
Ahahaha yes I realise that another convention has come and gone since Supanova, but I also realise how busy
alita_b_angel is and, uh, how *ahem* lazy I am D:
After much procrastinating and putting it off I decided I'd better get my arse into gear and post something before Alita goes INSANE.
So in our never-ending quest for sheer awesomeness and our dwindling options for cosplaying anime we have both watched (thanks to me who has not seen very many series at ALL *cries*) and our desire to re-show the Spirited away costume due to it seeming a waste to only display it once and then doom it forever to the dark musty confines of my wardrobe, we decided to lay off on the yaoi for one convention and do a two-day Miyazaki tribute.
Oh yeah, thats right. Spirited Away AND Howl's Moving Castle. For the lols.
And this is where it gets a bit gay again. You can never take the gay out of a yaoi fangirl >:)
You see, Alita wanted to be Howl and was all "You can go as Sophie, or the scarecrow lololol" to which I was like yeah but no. I didnt want to do the easy girl cosplay, oh no. For some crazy reason that I cannot fathom I came up with the batshit insane idea of OH HAY I KNOW, I'LL DO BIRD HOWL OH YEAAAAH >:D
Why. Why people, WHY. WHY MUST I ALWAYS GO FOR THE HARD COSTUMES *flail*
So while I was trying to figure out what the heck I was doing Alita decided to journey on without me into unexplored cosplay country. Diamonds on a jacket you say? What what?
I SAY. This probably required a lot of time and thinking out, none of which I was a part of lol. All her efforts ended up in this...
...piece of fantastic awesome win. This is where Alita would like you to know how much time she spent ironing this shit to make it perfect. God forbid someone else show up to the convention in a better Howl coat than her. Ey jill, ey? *NUDGE* Oh, the irony how it kills me :DDDDD
And this is with sleeves, and lining! Which totally did not fit the jacket, as I found out when I sewed her collar for her. We are still dumbfounded as to how they are different sizes as Alita claims she used the exact same pattern for both parts of the jacket. IT IS A MYSTERYYYY.
ONTO THE SHIRT. This took some figuring out as she wanted the shirt to be billowy and if you take a look at the character he actually has gathering underneath the scoop of his collar, so we had to do some adjusting to the pattern so that it could be gathered later, which you will see what I mean.
The unspeakable collar itself. Again, Alita wants me to let you know how HARD and TIME CONSUMING it was getting the hem of the collar to look right, and to get the frilly layers of lace to sit down on the shirt properly. she angsted over it for an hour, gazing at it, pinning it and then unpinning it, gazing at it some more, asking me my unhelpful opinion, re-pinning it, then some more gazing... which she will tell you was totally worth it.
Because it turned out like this. All perfect, and shiny, and full of win. Seriously, if you ask her which part of the costume she was the most proud of it would be her perfect shirt. Although she will also tell you it will take an army of soldiers, a large tub of lard, and some cranial squashing to get her insanely large head in it. How she made the collar of the shirt just too small to fit her skull is a technical faux pas she is not letting me in on.
Seriously she loves it. She says its the best thing she's ever done. And thats what I meant by the gathering underneath the collar, which she was also quite proud of accomplishing.
SLEEVES OF DOOM. Comes with cuffs of win :D
A close up of the collar. I think she almost cried when she finished this, she can now do collars all by herself and with confidence. Although somehow she still seems to get stuck on the sleeves occasionally...
And a picture of the whole shirt because IT IS THAT AWESOME. and because Alita wants you to know how awesome that is :P
And now onto the jewellery! Which I also had no part in :/ these babies Alita did all by herself, too bad they didnt match the necklaces we bought. But no matter, I stumbled upon a bead shop in my local area that happened to have two blue tear-shaped pendants that DID match these. Only two mind you, so it was a lucky find. Unfortunately I dont have a close-up picture of the necklaces, but you can see theme in the pic below:
Aaaaand thats one part of the costume done. While Alita was doing all of this I was busy shaving my arm hair that I had let grow out in the winter break...
Or you know, not. Wow those giant hairy arms make my waist look so skinny. Unfotunately due to the rugged look of the black shag I had purchased for this and the impromptu monkey noises and chest beating I frequently partook in for the duration of this construction, it is now known as the gorilla suit. Oh I may be laughing in this picture now, but come three weeks down the track when I had to try it all on and realised just HOW much of a hairy chicken/gorilla with wings I looked like, I was not a happy chappy D:
And because this is getting too long I'm going to continue the rest of the making-of post in part 2 :)
alita_b_angel is and, uh, how *ahem* lazy I am D:
After much procrastinating and putting it off I decided I'd better get my arse into gear and post something before Alita goes INSANE.
So in our never-ending quest for sheer awesomeness and our dwindling options for cosplaying anime we have both watched (thanks to me who has not seen very many series at ALL *cries*) and our desire to re-show the Spirited away costume due to it seeming a waste to only display it once and then doom it forever to the dark musty confines of my wardrobe, we decided to lay off on the yaoi for one convention and do a two-day Miyazaki tribute.
Oh yeah, thats right. Spirited Away AND Howl's Moving Castle. For the lols.
And this is where it gets a bit gay again. You can never take the gay out of a yaoi fangirl >:)
You see, Alita wanted to be Howl and was all "You can go as Sophie, or the scarecrow lololol" to which I was like yeah but no. I didnt want to do the easy girl cosplay, oh no. For some crazy reason that I cannot fathom I came up with the batshit insane idea of OH HAY I KNOW, I'LL DO BIRD HOWL OH YEAAAAH >:D
Why. Why people, WHY. WHY MUST I ALWAYS GO FOR THE HARD COSTUMES *flail*
So while I was trying to figure out what the heck I was doing Alita decided to journey on without me into unexplored cosplay country. Diamonds on a jacket you say? What what?
I SAY. This probably required a lot of time and thinking out, none of which I was a part of lol. All her efforts ended up in this...
...piece of fantastic awesome win. This is where Alita would like you to know how much time she spent ironing this shit to make it perfect. God forbid someone else show up to the convention in a better Howl coat than her. Ey jill, ey? *NUDGE* Oh, the irony how it kills me :DDDDD
And this is with sleeves, and lining! Which totally did not fit the jacket, as I found out when I sewed her collar for her. We are still dumbfounded as to how they are different sizes as Alita claims she used the exact same pattern for both parts of the jacket. IT IS A MYSTERYYYY.
ONTO THE SHIRT. This took some figuring out as she wanted the shirt to be billowy and if you take a look at the character he actually has gathering underneath the scoop of his collar, so we had to do some adjusting to the pattern so that it could be gathered later, which you will see what I mean.
The unspeakable collar itself. Again, Alita wants me to let you know how HARD and TIME CONSUMING it was getting the hem of the collar to look right, and to get the frilly layers of lace to sit down on the shirt properly. she angsted over it for an hour, gazing at it, pinning it and then unpinning it, gazing at it some more, asking me my unhelpful opinion, re-pinning it, then some more gazing... which she will tell you was totally worth it.
Because it turned out like this. All perfect, and shiny, and full of win. Seriously, if you ask her which part of the costume she was the most proud of it would be her perfect shirt. Although she will also tell you it will take an army of soldiers, a large tub of lard, and some cranial squashing to get her insanely large head in it. How she made the collar of the shirt just too small to fit her skull is a technical faux pas she is not letting me in on.
Seriously she loves it. She says its the best thing she's ever done. And thats what I meant by the gathering underneath the collar, which she was also quite proud of accomplishing.
SLEEVES OF DOOM. Comes with cuffs of win :D
A close up of the collar. I think she almost cried when she finished this, she can now do collars all by herself and with confidence. Although somehow she still seems to get stuck on the sleeves occasionally...
And a picture of the whole shirt because IT IS THAT AWESOME. and because Alita wants you to know how awesome that is :P
And now onto the jewellery! Which I also had no part in :/ these babies Alita did all by herself, too bad they didnt match the necklaces we bought. But no matter, I stumbled upon a bead shop in my local area that happened to have two blue tear-shaped pendants that DID match these. Only two mind you, so it was a lucky find. Unfortunately I dont have a close-up picture of the necklaces, but you can see theme in the pic below:
Aaaaand thats one part of the costume done. While Alita was doing all of this I was busy shaving my arm hair that I had let grow out in the winter break...
Or you know, not. Wow those giant hairy arms make my waist look so skinny. Unfotunately due to the rugged look of the black shag I had purchased for this and the impromptu monkey noises and chest beating I frequently partook in for the duration of this construction, it is now known as the gorilla suit. Oh I may be laughing in this picture now, but come three weeks down the track when I had to try it all on and realised just HOW much of a hairy chicken/gorilla with wings I looked like, I was not a happy chappy D:
And because this is getting too long I'm going to continue the rest of the making-of post in part 2 :)