Pre and Post Otakon, Secret Sewmageddon, and NYAF
Otakon is done. That fact feels so bittersweet.
Hello all, it has been way too long! (As usual) Let this long post bring you up to speed on pre-Otakon, a short summary of Otakon (Since I will be making a separate post on it), and post Otakon.
PRE OTAKON
Sewmageddon ended when I started working two part time jobs. I was sad to see it end, especially because I hadn't completed everything that I had hoped to do, but a few things made me feel at peace about it. One, my cousin dropped out of Otakon which made my load easier by three cosplays. Two, the Otakon fashion show looked like it wasn't going to happen after all. And three, our FSS cosplay was pushed back to the NYAF. Heh.
At the beginning of July I 'heard down the grapevine' that the fashion show was happening. My mind exploded. All the outfits that I wanted to debut at the fashion show were...well, either not completed or not started. (I went through the process as though I were absolutely designing for the show, even though I didn't know until about two weeks before Otakon. I wanted to be prepared!) I wasn't sure how many outfits I would be allowed to show, but I knew what I'd ideally show: Ice Cream JSK, new Cupcake JSK, Deco Dandy, Rococo 'loli' and one, if not both of my VK outfits (Jabberwocky and/or Gold Raven).
Ice cream was pretty much done, I had started the new cupcake jsk, the deco dandy was not in existence, I had been fighting with Rococo for-ever and the two VK's were totally chilling in the corner all civilized like.
At that time, my outfit break down looked something like this:
Ice Cream JSK - done, buy/dye shirt pink, find pink shoes, hair???, accessories - check, tights? socks?
Cupcake JSK - need to finish, purple shirt?? dye?, need purple shoes!!, pink tights - check, need to stylize/accessorize afro wig, accessories - check
Deco Dandy - need everything!: button covered vest, knickers, patchwork tailed coat, socks? stockings?, shoes???, hat, wig?, accessories???
Rococo JSK - kinda done, need more lace flowers, hat?? - lace flowers, scarf - need to make a bajillion lace flowers, caplet - done, need pannier, need arm cuffs, customize shoes...
MC2 Cosplay - Start: dress, arm gear, leg gear, sword, find wig and shoes
And I know that I'm forgetting something in there, but that was the basic break down coming into July. The first week was extremely productive and I was feeling pretty good about everything! I think I was able to complete my pannier, arm cuffs and rococo shoes. I also started my button covered vest and took it EVERYWHERE with me so I could sew on buttons all the time. The second week came along and I made my knickers, finished my cupcake JSK and was preparing all the accessories for the show. My deadline was that week because the next week was dedicated to MC cosplay. At this stage, all my fashion show pieces were about 80% complete, with the exception of the Deco Dandy. (The tailed coat wasn't made and I wasn't going to start it until I finished everything else...more like IF I finished...)
I was also buying a heck of a lot on egl comm in order to prepare for this show. Once my shirts came in, I started dying; my purple one came out beautifully, but my pink one was not so beautiful. I will need to redo that.) I bought pink shoes and white shirts from almost everyone that I could find! LOL. (Spent WAY too much) I was still looking for purple shoes for both my cupcake and deco dandy outfit and would not find them until the week of Otakon...
Things had seemed to be going very well, but there was a slight miscalculation; a large portion of my time ended up being spent on making lace flowers. Good outcome: I was able to use TONS of otherwise-useless-to-me scrap lace I had collected since I was ten years old, which was very refreshing. But it took so long!! The time that I had wanted to do other things were spent making lace flowers. I was taking them to my D&D group so I could make them there. I took them to dinner with me, they were with me while I watched movies and had conversations with people; these things were attached to me. (It was kinda funny) In the end, after I was 70% done making these flower, I had to hand the rest to my cousin so I could finish what I needed to do. (That was awesome! Thanks Car!)
Week three came and it was MC cosplay time! I was kinda comfortable with were my fashion show pieces were, but I knew that I needed a good week for Melissa Tiss. The hardest part was making the pattern for the 'dress'. After I went through four or five quick mock ups, I started the real deal. I was working pretty fast too; everything looked good...until there was a small disaster. (Which happened twice!!!) I was making Melissa Tiss during my heavy dying process; I had already (stupidly) dropped a large jar of purple dye bath in my garage studio a week before, which coated everything in it's path, so it was only fitting that another dye related disaster come. Let's just say that I had to restart my Melissa Tiss. And because of that MC2 was stripped from my Otakon cosplay list and moved to AUSA.
Last week of Otakon was more stressful than I can describe; models were dropping out left and right, I found that I was going to show even more pieces than originally planned AND I couldn't NOT have my patchwork tailed coat! Ha ha ha, I have no idea how I pulled through that last week.
OTAKON
I will say a few things to summarize Otakon: Otakon could not have been possible for me without the help of SO MANY PEOPLE, the fashion show went AWESOMELY and my models, though hard as heck to find, were perfect!! <3 <3 <3 Thank you!! Will make more detailed post to properly praise everyone who helped!!
POST OTAKON
I'm already planning for other things now that Otakon has passed; I will NOT be designing for the NYAF though. I need to shift focus to my client based work and devote all my 'spare' time to my cosplays: NYAF- Megaera, Prince Robipri (maybe) and AUSA -Melissa Tiss and perhaps Lady Amalthea? (Melissa has super priority)
Sad and Mere might not come to NYAF after all, so I will be out a Queen Nami and Princess Zoro; might have to cancel this cosplay unless I find a (small, but masculine male) Princess Zoro fill in. (I will be making the cosplay; have womens size 10.5/mens size 8.5 'glass' shoes, but can get another pair if I know in time!!)
And back on track...Envi and I are planning when she can come up to work on FSS together, I need to start making my new merchandise for NYAF, I have tons of cleaning/organizing to do after the month of DEATH...ILLEGAL, and I'll be busy working on house repairs. So, that's where I am right now. Tired and more tired.
Hello all, it has been way too long! (As usual) Let this long post bring you up to speed on pre-Otakon, a short summary of Otakon (Since I will be making a separate post on it), and post Otakon.
PRE OTAKON
Sewmageddon ended when I started working two part time jobs. I was sad to see it end, especially because I hadn't completed everything that I had hoped to do, but a few things made me feel at peace about it. One, my cousin dropped out of Otakon which made my load easier by three cosplays. Two, the Otakon fashion show looked like it wasn't going to happen after all. And three, our FSS cosplay was pushed back to the NYAF. Heh.
At the beginning of July I 'heard down the grapevine' that the fashion show was happening. My mind exploded. All the outfits that I wanted to debut at the fashion show were...well, either not completed or not started. (I went through the process as though I were absolutely designing for the show, even though I didn't know until about two weeks before Otakon. I wanted to be prepared!) I wasn't sure how many outfits I would be allowed to show, but I knew what I'd ideally show: Ice Cream JSK, new Cupcake JSK, Deco Dandy, Rococo 'loli' and one, if not both of my VK outfits (Jabberwocky and/or Gold Raven).
Ice cream was pretty much done, I had started the new cupcake jsk, the deco dandy was not in existence, I had been fighting with Rococo for-ever and the two VK's were totally chilling in the corner all civilized like.
At that time, my outfit break down looked something like this:
Ice Cream JSK - done, buy/dye shirt pink, find pink shoes, hair???, accessories - check, tights? socks?
Cupcake JSK - need to finish, purple shirt?? dye?, need purple shoes!!, pink tights - check, need to stylize/accessorize afro wig, accessories - check
Deco Dandy - need everything!: button covered vest, knickers, patchwork tailed coat, socks? stockings?, shoes???, hat, wig?, accessories???
Rococo JSK - kinda done, need more lace flowers, hat?? - lace flowers, scarf - need to make a bajillion lace flowers, caplet - done, need pannier, need arm cuffs, customize shoes...
MC2 Cosplay - Start: dress, arm gear, leg gear, sword, find wig and shoes
And I know that I'm forgetting something in there, but that was the basic break down coming into July. The first week was extremely productive and I was feeling pretty good about everything! I think I was able to complete my pannier, arm cuffs and rococo shoes. I also started my button covered vest and took it EVERYWHERE with me so I could sew on buttons all the time. The second week came along and I made my knickers, finished my cupcake JSK and was preparing all the accessories for the show. My deadline was that week because the next week was dedicated to MC cosplay. At this stage, all my fashion show pieces were about 80% complete, with the exception of the Deco Dandy. (The tailed coat wasn't made and I wasn't going to start it until I finished everything else...more like IF I finished...)
I was also buying a heck of a lot on egl comm in order to prepare for this show. Once my shirts came in, I started dying; my purple one came out beautifully, but my pink one was not so beautiful. I will need to redo that.) I bought pink shoes and white shirts from almost everyone that I could find! LOL. (Spent WAY too much) I was still looking for purple shoes for both my cupcake and deco dandy outfit and would not find them until the week of Otakon...
Things had seemed to be going very well, but there was a slight miscalculation; a large portion of my time ended up being spent on making lace flowers. Good outcome: I was able to use TONS of otherwise-useless-to-me scrap lace I had collected since I was ten years old, which was very refreshing. But it took so long!! The time that I had wanted to do other things were spent making lace flowers. I was taking them to my D&D group so I could make them there. I took them to dinner with me, they were with me while I watched movies and had conversations with people; these things were attached to me. (It was kinda funny) In the end, after I was 70% done making these flower, I had to hand the rest to my cousin so I could finish what I needed to do. (That was awesome! Thanks Car!)
Week three came and it was MC cosplay time! I was kinda comfortable with were my fashion show pieces were, but I knew that I needed a good week for Melissa Tiss. The hardest part was making the pattern for the 'dress'. After I went through four or five quick mock ups, I started the real deal. I was working pretty fast too; everything looked good...until there was a small disaster. (Which happened twice!!!) I was making Melissa Tiss during my heavy dying process; I had already (stupidly) dropped a large jar of purple dye bath in my garage studio a week before, which coated everything in it's path, so it was only fitting that another dye related disaster come. Let's just say that I had to restart my Melissa Tiss. And because of that MC2 was stripped from my Otakon cosplay list and moved to AUSA.
Last week of Otakon was more stressful than I can describe; models were dropping out left and right, I found that I was going to show even more pieces than originally planned AND I couldn't NOT have my patchwork tailed coat! Ha ha ha, I have no idea how I pulled through that last week.
OTAKON
I will say a few things to summarize Otakon: Otakon could not have been possible for me without the help of SO MANY PEOPLE, the fashion show went AWESOMELY and my models, though hard as heck to find, were perfect!! <3 <3 <3 Thank you!! Will make more detailed post to properly praise everyone who helped!!
POST OTAKON
I'm already planning for other things now that Otakon has passed; I will NOT be designing for the NYAF though. I need to shift focus to my client based work and devote all my 'spare' time to my cosplays: NYAF- Megaera, Prince Robipri (maybe) and AUSA -Melissa Tiss and perhaps Lady Amalthea? (Melissa has super priority)
Sad and Mere might not come to NYAF after all, so I will be out a Queen Nami and Princess Zoro; might have to cancel this cosplay unless I find a (small, but masculine male) Princess Zoro fill in. (I will be making the cosplay; have womens size 10.5/mens size 8.5 'glass' shoes, but can get another pair if I know in time!!)
And back on track...Envi and I are planning when she can come up to work on FSS together, I need to start making my new merchandise for NYAF, I have tons of cleaning/organizing to do after the month of DEATH...ILLEGAL, and I'll be busy working on house repairs. So, that's where I am right now. Tired and more tired.