[Brunetteyes's Sketchbook] It always takes longer than I think it will!

By brunetteyes. 01/02/13, 11:27 am

[WATCH THIS SPACE] Shocked

I've been meaning to make a sketchbook for the past few months so I thought if I put this lame message here it will make me get onto it sooner Razz

Most of the time I get as far as taking a few pictures of my progress and then stopping there. sweatdrop

I'll try do better!

I'm debating whether I should put up all of my cosplays to date, or just the more recent ones with progress shots, or just what I'm currently working on. I think I'll just do the latter >< Just thinking about it wants me want to procrastinate further. -_- I'll try make it pretty with lots of pictures later Razz

I also have a cosplay facebook page which I'm slowly updating: https://www.facebook.com/brunetteyes
and a deviantart: http://brunetteyes.deviantart.com/

Any feedback is very welcome!

whee

[IN BRIEF] whee

- I've made a Xmas Vocaloid Meiko outfit from Project Diva for a group shoot we had in early Jan.

- For ACP I made Rei's school uniform from HOTD.

- I've started on Christie from Tekken (just her pendant thing that holds her bikini together)

- I've bought everything for Prince Gumball from genderbent Adventure Time.

- I'm current hunting for fabric for:
Shin from Nana
Christie from Tekken
Maria from Shinsekai Yori

- I also have a lot of maybe ideas but nothing else decided for sure yet.

By Kuri. 01/02/13, 02:14 pm

Ah, I'll follow this all stalker-ish and like mwaha. *o* I would love to see your cosplay of Maria from Shin Sekai Yori. Great anime of the Fall 2012 season<3
Ahem...really hope this isn't out of place or anything. o-o Anyhow you have some great cosplay on your facebook page. Very Happy

Just curious, how long have you been sewing for? Ah, anyway, keep it up! ^.^

By brunetteyes. 01/02/13, 03:55 pm

^ I've been making my own cosplays for about 3 years now. Thank you!

I thought Shinseki Yori was still going, with episodes released each week. I've watched up to episode 17. I love it too! Such a great story and amazing anime art and clothes designs ^^

By chiken_skratch. 04/02/13, 02:06 am

Yay!! You made one!!
Any progress shots would be much apreciated XD

By brunetteyes. 04/02/13, 08:16 am

^ Which cosplay are you referring to?

I'll get some progress shots up soon :)

By chiken_skratch. 04/02/13, 08:25 am

^Christie from Tekken!!

By brunetteyes. 04/02/13, 04:05 pm

^ ok I'll get pics soon XD Its not very impressive so far.

I used a modelling program called Solid Works to sketch out a 2D image and with that laser cut some PMMA. Atm it just looks like 3 pieces of transparent plastic. I scaled all the dimensions from her picture.

By chiken_skratch. 05/02/13, 03:41 am

^ Jesus that is intense. Now I really can't wait to see it. See, I would nhever think to use something as big as modelling pogrammes and PMMA, lmao.

By brunetteyes. 05/02/13, 03:38 pm

^ Its not really all that intense to me. I do engineering so we are taught how to use modelling programs and I use the laser cutting at my work Razz

By chiken_skratch. 06/02/13, 06:12 am

^ Hahahahaha, that's just beyond epic

By brunetteyes. 09/02/13, 11:03 am

Updates!
I apologise in advance for my failure at resizing photos.

Maria from Shinsekai Yori

Spoiler:

Today I went fabric shopping with Iris as we are cosplaying Saki and Maria. We bought matching fabric and we plan to pattern uniform together and help each other ^^=

Very exciting for me as I've never worked on matching cosplays alongside someone else before. I plan to make the group number shoulder patches so they match and she's going to cover our buttons with the skirt fabric so it all matches ^^

We have a few other friends that might be cosplaying the other characters. If you're interested in doing one of the other characters let me know! ^^

Christie Monteiro from Tekken

Spoiler:

I'm in Tail's Tekken Ladies group for Hamilton Geddon ^^ So exciting!
If I can, I'd like to take a Capoeira class to get a feel for her fighting style. I need to look into that Razz

The biggest difficulty so far is trying to find fabrics that I'm happy with. For the bikini top I want stretchy metallic pink fabric with honey comb pattern OTL I dont want to do anything too tedious. I was thinking of 3 possibilities for getting the pattern:
1. printing it on -but with stretch the print might break apart a bit.
2. find netting thats similar and sew it ontop - Idk if I could find it, and unlikely i could find one that will stretch
3. fabric paint it on with a stamp

I finally got some progress photos of her pendant! I really want to be careful with how I make it as it is the focal point for the bikini's structural intergrity Razz

In other words, I dont want want my boobies falling out Razz

This is the image I used for scaling the dimensions:
[Brunetteyes's Sketchbook] It always takes longer than I think it will! Christie_pendant_by_brunetteyes-d5uaaou

[Brunetteyes's Sketchbook] It always takes longer than I think it will! Christie_pendant_by_brunetteyes-d5uaaou

These are my first attempts:

Spoiler:

As I said before I sketched it out in Solid Works, converted it to a .dxf file and laser cut it out of PMMA. You can sell the smaller pieces were where the correct dimension were completely lost when converting the file so I ended up with a mini-me version Razz

The larger pieces I wasnt quite happy with the dimensions.

These are the pieces I'll actually be using:

Spoiler:

I tweaked the dimensions a bit. The 2 C shaped pieces will be put underneath so I have something to attach the fabric to.

And here is what it looks when its put together:

Spoiler:

Next I need to sand the crap out of it so there's so sharp painful corners, drill a hole in the top piece, and use cyclobutane (I think it was) to stick it all together. This chemical is super awesome as it reacts with the PMMA and bonds it together stronger than any adhesive. It can even be used to create water tight boxes ^^ This stuff is all available at my work. Man I love my job Razz

I'm not sure how well PMMA takes to paint. I may try using stickers to colour it and then seal it with something waterproof.

By PIe. 26/02/13, 01:12 pm

Hell yes SSY cosplay, after knocking Shun's Karma Demon version from my ChCh line up due to heat/not really wanting to wear a mask the entire day and deciding to do his uniform, I am very keen on knowing when you plan on wearing Maria and Saki if you'd be okay with me doing so?
Such a great series (I wish I had even one iota of hope that the novel would get a full translation), it needs much more love.

By brunetteyes. 02/03/13, 04:16 pm

^We are planning to do SSY at Auckgeddon and I would love for you to join us! Shun is one of my favourite characters Very Happy

Yea it would be pretty hot wearing the mask all day though it is super cool and creepy. But I really do love their uniforms XD

I would so love it if the novel was translated as well! And I find it hard to believe its not more well known. Googling cosplay images of it, I've barely found any.

Do you have plans for Auckland already? I think I recall you were doing the smith from Sword Art Online? I've recently really gotten into it and I so badly want to cosplay from it!

By PIe. 02/03/13, 05:43 pm

brunetteyes wrote:: ^We are planning to do SSY at Auckgeddon and I would love for you to join us! Shun is one of my favourite characters

Yea it would be pretty hot wearing the mask all day though it is super cool and creepy. But I really do love their uniforms XD

I would so love it if the novel was translated as well! And I find it hard to believe its not more well known. Googling cosplay images of it, I've barely found any.

Do you have plans for Auckland already? I think I recall you were doing the smith from Sword Art Online? I've recently really gotten into it and I so badly want to cosplay from it!

It's been picking up interest as far as I know now that stuff's going down but it doesn surprise me that there isn't that much interest in the series (although I know episode 8 caused a large number of western fans to drop it). The costumes in the show are all so great, I really like their fashion. I would love to join your group.

At the moment my Auckgeddon plans are definite Erza for the competition but everything else is kinda free. I did wear Lizbeth last year and am cosplaying Sinon (who's design will probably be different when the anime design comes out and I will cry) to ChCh. I've been thinking about doing Lisbeth's ALO version or Klein's SAO outfit so I could definitely do more SAO at Auckgeddon but it'll probably be half day'd because I seem to be making more costumes than I have places to wear this year.

By brunetteyes. 03/03/13, 04:31 am

Thats a shame people didnt like the 8th episode of SSY. I love the different elements of it. And yes! I am so in love with the fashion designs. Such a cool modern twist on traditional Japanese fashion.

We havnt decided which day yet. I'm in a lot of groups for Auckland but it should be fine working out a day ^^

I think I'm going to have the same problem as well! Too many cosplay plans for the amount of days Razz

I dont think I'll bother changing halfway through the day though. I'll probably just end up having lots of shoots. :)

My friend is in love with Kirito's SAO jacket so if I have time I was thinking I'd like to make a Kirito cosplay for her and make Asuna for myself. Such amazing costumes XD

By brunetteyes. 09/03/13, 10:12 am

Christie

So I've changed my mind about the colour scheme for Christie and decided to go for her original colours in gold and silver.

Her pendant is all sanded nicely and stuck together very thoroughly with dichloromethane, all ready for painting.

I've had real difficulty trying to find the correct fabric but I've finally found one that is close enough for her pants:

Spoiler:

The image shows a small sample of the fabric in direct sunlight and shade. I'm currently haggling with a person from trademe for a better deal Razz

Dance and swim fabric is much more expensive than what I'm use to paying.

Pants!! for Prince Gumball from Adventure Time (left) and Shinichi Okasaki from Nana (right)

Spoiler:

After making these I've now perfected my male pants pattern! yay! My seams would always be a bit misalligned, or it would'nt be roomy enough for my girl butt.

For Gumball's pants I made pockets for the first time, nice deep pockets! Not like girly pants that can barely fit a cellphone. I didnt really do the belt loops the legit way they're meant to be made, but I think it looks tidier this way.

Shin's pants also have pockets and I put in a zip for the fly for the first time! Very Happy

Gone are the times of my elastic-waistband-for-every-cosplay pants Razz

I havn't quite finished these ones yet. I'm going to add an extra wide waistband to fit my huge studded belt, with a button for the fly. I'm also going to add buckles and a long strip of fabric around both the knees for a punk-bondage look.

By chiken_skratch. 09/03/13, 01:03 pm

Your pant making skills are very impressive. I hate making pants with a passion cause so much can go wrong!!!
And the Christie pant material looks very cool and very close to the origianl design scale pattern. Keep haggling!!

By brunetteyes. 09/03/13, 01:32 pm

^ Thank you! I've always had pants that had something a little wrong with them but hopefully not again Razz

Its probably easier using a pattern but I refuse. I'm just cheap lol.

By brunetteyes. 02/04/13, 06:02 am

EASTER BREAK PROGRESS! Woot!

I've mainly been focusing on Christie except for one fail makeup test for Gumball.
(I think I've decided on pale foundation and matt pink eyeshadow for more subtle pink skin. My sensitive skin kind of hates me after applying bodypaint a few times which ended up looking streaky and uneven. And I dont really want to get expensive bodypaint if it'll just aggravate my skin.)

Anyway, so Christie. I've got all her materials now thanks to my Spotlight voucher birthday present ^^

Pendant
I've finished painting her pendant. It came out a lot paler in the photo than I thought it was. I might repaint the pink to make it brighter before I seal in the colour.

Spoiler:

Pants
More pants!
The bottom one is the mock-up. I moved the inner seams around and experimented with the size of the side slits.
The for-real-sies one has extra flair in the legs which needs adjusting and I've yet to put in the slit or waistband.
I'll continue with the pants once I have all the butterfly and twirly details sewn down the legs.

Spoiler:

From bottom to top shows how I developed the stencil for the butterfly thats on Christie's thighs:

Spoiler:

I started drawing straight onto the mock-up to get basic dimensions. I traced that to get clearer lines. I traced again using a ruler and finalised all the lines. I traced again because I changed the size of the slit which changed the angle of the butterfly wings. Aaaand from that I finally got I stencil to cut out the fabric.

I tried to make it as close as possible to the reference images but its kind of tricky because she always twisting her legs around which warps the butterfly.

So I realised this was a bit of a stupid idea.
I'm trying to applique 2 very stretchy fabrics with a satin stitch with some interfacing behind it.

Spoiler:

I suppose it doesnt look too bad but it is a bit bumpy and bunchy. Its going to get a lot harder when I get to appliqueing on the finer details. I'm not sure if I should continue.

I'd really like some suggestions. Should I try finding non-stretch fabric in the same colours? Or maybe use thicker interfacing? Maybe a less tight zig zag stitch? It is sort of cool that the whole butterfly design stretches.

I'm not really sure what I should do.

By Icarus. 02/04/13, 10:05 am

ohwow! I love seeing the amount of effort you put into the smallest details!

For the applique you can try getting some stuff called Heat and Bond, you iron your detail piece onto one side and then iron the other side onto the base piece. It makes the fabric thicker/easier to stitch around and keeps it glued in place.
but you did pretty well at tackling that stretchy fabric! Would've been intense to deal with

By chiken_skratch. 02/04/13, 10:20 am

Her pendant looks good, and the painted jewels look good as well. And yeah, that pink looks a little pale in the photos, but if it's the same up close and personal then it should be fine.
Those pants look like a disco ball exploded on them lmao.
And those butterflies!!!! They look boss, and I can't help you on the sewing side cause I'm a crafter by nature, lol. Hope everything turns out the way you want it to!!!

By azeria. 02/04/13, 02:50 pm

This might be helpful?

http://crashcult.blogspot.co.nz/2011/01/costuming-stretch-applique-tutorial.html

By Pura. 02/04/13, 03:20 pm

Try putting news print underneath the fabric, it makes it sturdier and you can just rip it off afterwards. It makes a big difference (: (pulls it less).

I've never actually made pants before properly. I made a proper pair Thursday/today and now I'm really keen to make some more, hahaha! I'm amazed you put so much effort into them xD

By brunetteyes. 03/04/13, 03:02 pm

thank you everyone so much for your advice and compliments! ^^<3

I'll look into all your suggestions asap. So many choices of what to do now Very Happy

By brunetteyes. 28/04/13, 04:23 pm

UPDATE!

I've been sewing non-stop the past 2 days ~~and ignoring uni and work stuff.~~

I finished a mock up of my Christie bikini and started on the real thing. The trickiest part was trying to strategically position all the padding to create her under boob. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out as it was a bit of a feat with my little boobs Razz

WARNING: Spoiler contains boob cleavage!

Spoiler:

I've also been working on the butterfly appliques which are finished and ready to go onto the pants. I'll take pictures of it later. I ended up using the tutorial that azeria linked me.

@azeria Thank you thank you! It was such a great tutorial and worked really well with the stuff I already had.

**Sponsored content**