Saber Alter Cosplay

So! It has been a while since I have written anything, and advance warning, this one may be a little long. Because, you know, all my blog posts are just studies in brevity.

Anyways. This is about my cosplay of Saber Alter. Those of you who know me may remember my previous Fate/Stay Night cosplay of Saber herself, but what can I say. I adore this anime and Saber in all her outfits is my favourite. Now, this was an even more ambitious cosplay than Saber, because Saber Alter has an awful lot more armour and it's all full of spiky death spikes.

First, materials. The over dress is a dark indigo wool suiting material, and the underdress is plain black polycotton. I chose these because the suiting material is amazing for draping elegantly and being swirly when I spin. It also has an undeniable look of quality to it. The underdress, on the other hand, just needed to be comfortable and, as usual, cheap. Polycotton is great for lining things or for part of a cosplay of which very little is on display

One of my biggest problems with the dress is that I was 100% unable to find any pictures of Saber Alter without her armour. So I had to kinda imagine it, based on the other Saber outfits, and what you can see of it. I knew that the armour might fail, or simply be uncomfortable for a whole day, so I wanted to be able to go armourless if necessary. Particularly because I had done such a botch job with the original Saber dress and had been forced to wear armour all day.

Photo taken by Manga Girl Photography

If I had more time and money, I would have lined the whole dress (wool suiting is pretty but can be a tad itchy - also, lined outfits just look better) and would have made sure the sleeves were more pointy. They were a lesson in frustration and almost made me give up the project entirely at one point! In the end, I use a fabric stiffening spray to help them stay up. But I think when I rework the outfit, I will put something, like card, inside to stiffen them, in the same what that collars are stiffened. Also, the neckline wasn't 100% perfect and needed some tidying up that I unfortunately failed to do in time.

Now for the armour! One day I will have the money for a full worbla set of armour. But for now, I am still sadly bereft of such funds, and so am forced to make do with my trusty craft foam method. I actually really like working with craft foam, and while the pieces have a ridiculously childlike look until painted, the colour coding of different sides of the piece can be incredibly helpful

Shown here almost all the armour including armour for Saber Lily

The bracers made me feel somewhat like a childish dragon warrior!

This is the tutorial I always use for armour making, so do check them out. The one thing I tend to do differently is the 'sealing' of the piece. I use a 1:2 mix of PVA glue and water, and the number of coats depends on the piece. The large pieces, like the tassets (the skirt armour) got about eight coats in order to ensure they would stay shaped and would be safe from dents and all that. The smaller, fiddly bits like the gauntlets and the bracers only got about four. Partly because time was running short, but truthfully, four was enough. The bracers were made separate to the gauntlets, but in such a way that when worn together you can hardly see a join. For the gauntlets I sacrificed a cheap pair of leather gloves and gluegunned the pieces directly onto them. The pieces were all very much trial and error, but one day I may do a walkthrough of them.

Top view of gauntlets

Showing full articulation of gauntlets

First, the thing that looks like a bend in the foam on the thumb is just shadow. Annoyingly I didn't notice on the photo at the time. The white dot is 3D fabric paint which is AMAZING for rivets, line-based detailing etc. Just remember to leave it for a LONG time to dry fully. Overnight at least. The gauntlets were basically my favourite part of the whole costume - they were articulated enough that I could do anything normally possible with gloves. While also being spiky doom armour.

In the first picture (sorry that's the only one I have that shows them) you can see my boots. There were just normal (unfortunately brown) boots of the right height, with covers made for them. They would need a little tweaking to be reworn, but were super cool, and slotted easily onto the boots, with the help of elastic and velcro

Breastplate, painted

The breastplate was the most difficult piece of armour. I tried really hard to make it big enough, but I learnt a valuable lesson with fitted breastplates - always make them bigger than you think you need. Particularly when you're going to wear multiple layers underneath. It wasn't bad for a first attempt though. It attached at the side via velcro - next time I will use a corset lacing system for more security. The pieces all have scraps of spare polycotton between them, to give the two levels needed, and to make it a bit more flexible. The spare material around the bottom has velcro on for the tassets to attach to

As you can see, not quite all the foam was painted - we were rushing towards the end and some of the edges got missed. Still looks cool though, right?

Finally, the black face stuff. I was super happy with this. It's a sports balaclava, which I wore while my boyfriend drew the outline on, then took off and we cut to size. The thin pointy bits are kept in shape by being stick with tiny bits of spirit gum to my face. Not the most elegant solution, but it looks super dramatic, was exactly what was needed, and made the unarmoured version look a tad cooler too. (also, please forgive the tiny bits of my blue hair you can see trying to break for freedom at the front - the wig is too small for my head and I had no wig cap)

IN CONCLUSION:

Things I liked about the cosplay:

• Gauntlets/bracers. Those things were awesome
• The face thingy
• How cool it looked even unarmoured
• I succeeded in an armour cosplay! My most ambitious project to date and it looked amazing!
• The wonderful sword made for my by my incredible boyfriend

Things I will change for the next outing of this cosplay:

• Better breastplate, with corset lacing at the sides
• Pointier shoulders
• Fix that neckline!
• A wig that fits and doesnt give me a headache
• Actual black boots so they blend with the boot caps better

And finally, here's a couple of photos of me and Askaluna, my amazing cosplay partner, as Saber Alter and Saber Lily

Both armoured! That didn't last for long though...

Back to back poses are the coolest thing still, am I right?

Dark Saber likes hugs just like everyone else!

Mask the Second

So I decided to take a break from making things for Christmas and just paint another of the masks I had waiting.  The theme I went with was a vague fire influence. Originally it was going to be all black and gold, but having painted one half... I think it looks better like this :)

It will need varnish or something - the black keeps coming off weirdly. But in terms of the design i think i'm pretty happy. It was super quick and easy to do too! Painted entirely with Posca paint markers again of course.

So yeah, you can see the couple of white speckles on the black which is where the black hasn't 'stuck' properly. I guess if I was doing this completely properly, I would paint the mask with a white base coat first. But that's a lot of hassle for a practise design really.

This was my first time using this particular 3d paint for the lines too. The one I usually use stays rounded as it dries, unlike this. I'm not sure if i like this new paint as much, but it worked and was a LOT easier to draw smooth lines with

In Summary:

I still love painting masks
I am really pleased with the design
I need to look into getting clear varnish asap
I have many ideas for other masks now!
Posca paint markers are still the best thing ever

Christmas Robins

These were super quick to make and ended up totally adorable! They're made of brown felt and Christmassy fabric with gold ribbon

See? Super cute right?!? I used the red based fabrics that I have, though I might also make some with the green and gold fabrics I have cos why not?

Close ups of each of them because they are equally adorable. Also, they are both double sided for twice the cuteness!

I used little seed beads for the eyes because they looked sad without eyes and who could inflict sadness on such a cutie?!?

And here's where I show off their true potential as adorable chocolate holding tree ornaments. Only a smallish chocolate, true, but they could equally be filled with a heartfelt message to a loved one, a pinch of fairy dust, or any other tiny gift. And then of course they will hand nicely on your tree

The chocolates shown here are about the same size as a quality street/roses chocolate, so all the traditional Christmas chocolates should fit in here. But not all at once. That would be ridiculous. The robin is also fairly free-hanging in this picture, showing that the chocolates do not make him weirdly weighted or anything.

So there you have it. I'm thinking of putting these on my etsy in time for Christmas. No idea how much to sell them for. They take about 30-60 mins each. Thoughts?

Summary:

Cute as anything

Successful start to my Christmas crafts adventures

I can totes draw things! (yes I designed these entirely by myself. I'm as amazed as anyone!)

Gonna make so many more of these

Also have so much more confidence about the other stuff I wanna make

Venetian Mask

So I went to Venice in the summer. And loved it. Which is unsurprising as I have wanted to go since I was 12 years old and first read City of Masks. Which is still an amazing book.

Anyways. I decided while I was there that I would try and learn how to make pretty masks in the same style as the ones i saw when I was there. And that is what I have done. I bought a basic mask with no prettiness to it and made it pretty. One day I might learn how to make the basic mask too. But I suspect the only way to do that at an affordable cost it so make several million of them at once in a factory. So for now... not gonna happen!

I have two versions and I would like people to tell me which they prefer

The one with silver/pearl is the original, then I painted gold over the detailing for a more traditional colour pairing. I think I prefer the original though

In the future I intend to be a bit more adventurous and stick interesting things onto it in true Venetian style. But for now just painted prettily. I have a plan for a Harlequin inspired one that i'll be working on once I have all the paints I need. This was mostly a test run to make sure my techniques worked how I thought they would

I really like curlicues, and practise drawing them a lot which turned out to work well because it means I now have a very steady hand for them, which was important here. The design was come up with as it went along so the side shown above is a bit less neat than the side below, because after one half I had gotten enough practise to do it better

Really I was very impressed by how pretty this came out looking. Though there is stuff I could have done better, of course.

I used gold acrylic paint over the detailing and while I think it works alright, the pearly colour did work better I think. Serves me right for trusting tradition over my own unerring grasp of colour matching I guess!

In Summary

These are quick and fun to make, if you ignore the several days worth of drying time.

They also come out looking very pretty indeed.

This week I will get the paint for the harlequin mask and see if that works just as well.

I still dislike gold as a colour. Not sure if that will ever stop being true...

Please, let me know which mask you prefer - is it just me not liking gold or does the pearl actually work better?

Duck Cushions

These were made as a Christmas present for my mother. My parents were in the middle of building an extension to their house and the new downstairs room (now called the 'porch' although it's large enough to be another lounge) had very little in it. The walls had been painted yellow and there was talk of getting a sofa for it, so I made these to go with the existing colour scheme

Cute, aren't they? I thought so too, and so did my mother (thankfully!). I chose ducks because my mother thinks they are adorable, and I can't fault her judgement there! I didn't want to make them identical, so mirrored the ducks and swapped the yellow fabrics over in the second one. I still can't tell which way round I prefer. Possibly the one on the right? Who even knows...

Tadaa! A zip to make it easier to clean the cover! It's almost like a professional cushion cover! The zip was stitched in by hand because that seemed to be the best way to keep it looking so neat. The cushion pad inside was bought from a local homeware store I think...

Plain white material on the back to match the front middle square. Really this is a ridiculously simple yet good looking design!

Aaand one of the little duckies! I learnt blanket stitch for this project to keep the edges from going horrible and to add a touch of class. The duck was then hand stitched on in yellow which you can't see because I was a genius and hid the stitches! Ahahaha!

In Summary

I actually can't think of a single thing about these cushions I am unhappy with. And that's pretty much a first.

My mother was pleased with them, so I completed my brief

I am happy I learnt a new stitch! Always love it when a project teaches me something new.

These cushions are so easy to make. I could literally make a dozen in an afternoon I think. 

I am happy with these. And happy I decided to write a post about them and remind myself that sometimes, everything works out, and I have enough time, fabric and thread to make it as perfect as I ever could

Red top

This was, I think, my first ever self-patterned top. Although I'm not entirely sure it deserves that title. I have a very similar one in green that I bought in Camden. But I did create the pattern all by myself, even if I did use the green top for inspiration. And it took lots of trial and error and wasted paper to get to an actual working pattern

To be fair, I was genuinely just overjoyed that this thing even fit at all when I wore it. I had been convinced that it never would but hey, I surprised myself! It actually fits pretty well. The neckline is slightly less wide than the inspirations one was, because I felt slightly uncomfortable with such a wide neckline.

One thing I'm not proud of is my choice of lacey edging. I had no idea how badly the silver lace would react to being washed, even by hand, and it curled up and stopped looking as stunning as it had done at the start, after only one wash. In future, I wouldn't use a metallic lace at all, but only softer ones. Probably in black.

I do like my change to the hemline, making it go down slightly more at the back than at the front. The original was straight across all round, but this just makes it a bit nicer I think. 

Crushed velour seemed like the natural fabric for an awesome gothy top, and it definitely looked right in the end. I'm always unsure with crushed velour, but I'm figuring out bit by bit ways to use it and not feel like it looks cheap and tacky. It's all about what you use it for, and then finishing it right with edging, or something like that.

This top would be awesome with a black underbust corset (sadly mine is kinda broken), but does not work for clubbing, because the fabric holds heat a lot better than you might expect for how thin it feels. Or it can be a more casual top with jeans, like in these photos. Or with a black skirt/trousers. It's pretty versatile actually!


In Summary
Woo I made a thing! All by myself!
Different edging would have been better.
I like jewel tones of fabrics
Crushed velour is actually really nice to work with
I have a LOT of crushed velour. I might be able to make more of these...
Fake corset lacing at the back might set it off nicely
I feel like it's actually not un-flattering to my shape - which I hate, so that's another plus!

Russian flag bag

This was actually made quite a few years ago. It was for a cosplay, and for various reasons, the Russian flag was something the character liked. Cosplay is always difficult with bags - you need money and stuff, but you don't want a bag to ruin the effect of your pretty costume. That was why I decided to make a bag that would work if caught on camera. And here it is!

It is entirely made of cotton, for the very sensible reason that cotton was the only material I had all three colours in. Also, it's light and easy to work with. As you can see, the strap, also cotton, was two toned, with white on the outside and red on the inside. I mocked up an entirely white one and it just looked weird, so I added the red layer and it looked a lot better! Same red as on the flag of course. I actually ironed the entire bag before these photos - two years stuffed at the back of a shelf is not good for anything! The strap was particularly badly off. Next time I make a bag like this, I will use a thicker material, or add a layer of interfacing in the strap to try and stop it from scrunching so much.

Zip along the top! White, to blend with the flag. Blue thread because... I ran out of white. Turned out I had less than I thought. Still annoyed about this. It's a tiny flaw my perfectionist mind won't let go... But I had no money to go get more thread at that point so eh. I had to make do.

The lining! I was so, so proud of myself for this! I figured out all by myself how to do it neatly and prettily! I may have gone round to all my friends after I'd made it, and showed them the bag, saying 'Hey look! Lining!!!'... none of them got why this was exciting... Anyways. The terrible blue thread from the previous photo is not visible on the inside... because it's not there! I figured out (all by myself) that it would be much better to use two colours of thread in the sewing machine, one from the top, one from the bottom. So the inside was sewn with red. Which makes me a lot happier than if it had been blue too.

The length of the strap had been awkward to figure out too - I didn't own many bags in those days. That was done mainly by trial and error in the end. It turned out good!

In Summary

I really, really need to make sure I have the correct threads for things

This was an excellent learning project

Thicker fabric for strap

Practise adding pockets inside the bag

For once, I actually started making this a whole week before I needed it, and had it finished within a day of starting it. That made for less errors or making do than usual. Except the financial-caused ones...

Overall, very proud of this piece. Definitely going to be making other bags in this style over the next few months

And now, I guess I'd better stop going over old projects and deal with the one currently spread out on my floor! (which I am super excited about being able to show you in the next week or so... hopefully...)