Amira's blouse

The blouse meant first bigger challenge. First of all - it had much more complex embroidery than I had done so far (and last time I ever did any embroidery was grade 8 I think almost 15 years ago.. and I was horrible at it).

Second (and much bigger problem) was that the embroidery design was not constant in manga. It looked nice and in "same style" but not the same. I was just browsing the mangas over and over again to figure out what are the common parts of the design but in the end, I just went to copy machine and copied (with magnification) around 30+ pages, set them on the floor and tried to make sense that way.

The honest answer: no - there was not a common theme or pattern. Some of the manga images, that were next to each other had same kind of pattern but from scene to scene  but they were never same from place to place in manga. Very different and varying (you could argue that she had more than one blouse put :P). Therefore.. I decided not to figure out the exact style from multiply images but I went with the cover of first volume. It only shows half of the sleeve, so.. that was my reference. I used other scenes to see how usually one side correlates to another side and "created" the parts that were not visible on the cover by myself. Let's just say - it took more time and effort than I first thought.

 Then. Starting with the blouse. To be honest, the first try was counted as failure in the end but let's go with the flow as I did. I first cut out the pieces of nice red linen, sewed them together (not the right move, will explain later) and then started doing the embroidery.

Mess in the floor when I try to figure out the pattern

The pattern was very simple as from my research into Turkmenistan national costumes, I did not find any specific patterns but what was stated was that they did not had anything too complex and usually blouses consisted of just simple slightly modified rectangles. So, I went slightly above it for better fit but I did not use any specific pattern from outside sources. From the front I have triangles at the sides to fit better with breasts and on the back, I actually used three pieces (one central, two at the sides) with slight curves for better fit in waist. I could probably have used rectangles there too but I thought, as it is going to visible anyway, that separate pieces give better fit and look nicer. Sleeves were very simple rectangle shapes with matching curves at the top to fit the bodice.

Mock-up. Looks good but way too long

Ah, I just had enough fabric :D

 For the choice of stitch for the emboridery, from my research, I thought, chain is the most suitable. On most of the images from manga the embroidery on blouse was like a line, therefore chain would fit perfectly. In very few rare pictures the embroidery on blouse did looked like satin stitch but that goes into the line of inconsistencies from author. I used the same machine embroidery thread for chain stitch as I used for underwear (3 threads together).

Putting sewn together blouse into a frame and drawing the pattern guide

I started with the blouse, did the collar first, then the bodice in front, moved to back (not the right move, will explain later).. Then I did the sleeves that were not sewn onto the bodice. As I said, the first try was failure.

Not the best embroidery..

The main reasons:
 *I had not use the specific chain stitch tool that was historically used in the area before so I would highly recommend practicing a lot. I would say my first bodice was my "trial piece" in the end.. I just wish I could have chosen easier route.. like just random straight piece of fabric

*The tambour embroidery requires it all to be very stable and tight. As in the image above- it was not. Sewing everything together was my biggest mistake in this step! Embroidery first, then cutting out.
*I tried using machine embroidery stabilizer (to overcome previous problem) but when tearing it off, it just ruined the embroidery and did not worked very well at all. Waste of time!

So, when I finally got to sleeves, my embroidery skill had developed a lot. I finally managed to have nice tight framing of the fabric (as nothing was sewn) and everything looked just so much better.

Actually, if you look one of these, the bottom embroidery around wrist is much better on left one but much lower quality of right one

Close up.

So, after I finished the sleeves, I just could not bare looking on the bodice, I went back to the fabric shop, got more of this red linen and did it all over again. Considering I spent 2-3 weeks on bodice, that was a blow but I was just so much better on this now.

So, first of all - I did not cut anything out before the embroidery. It was huge amount of fabric to move around but it worked so much better this time. Much less tearing and unevenness after the embroidery

 This is the nice compassion of the improvement of my skill. The top one is the second try, the one at the bottom is the first try

 And the back redone. Yeah, here I actually had to do some sewing as I decided to have three pieces but it was still quite flat and in some places I used smaller frame.

Then I did some sewing. First it was the top of the front and backs (and completed the lines at the sides that you can see on back but not in front). Then I sewed the sleeves into the bodice but sides and sides of the sleeves were open. I also needed to add the line for the sleeves. I did not dare to do it before sewing them together to make sure they are evenly distanced from the seam.

I sadly do not remember exactly what was the problem but those lines were huge amount of work and I redid them at least twice. I think the distance from the seam was the problem. Other than that - just stitch the line and then those little nods after some distance. Making those nods match was also not possible before sewing it together.

Then the lining. That was the moment I was heavily thinking if I would afford the silk or not. It should have been silk but silk was so expensive. I looked on artificial silk but it was not the right color, looked very weird (the quality) and was also much more expensive than I would have liked. So, in the end, it was the common lining material I used. Little unauthentic but practical thinking won - if I would have gone with silk, it would have cost a lot and noone can see it as it is lining. Probably not many people know anyway about the right materials so.. yeah.. something in me feels sad about this compromise.

Stitching the lining together (you can also see my super cute pin holder seal :D)

 

I set the lining, fixed it with pins and handsaw everything together. It all looks super nice in the end and it felt so nice to finally finish it. It took me around 2 months to do it. Most of it was embroidery that is just super time consuming. I spent all my weekend almost non-stop doing it and the first failed attempt was a blow.

The only thing left was how to close the blouse. In one or two images I can see buttons in manga. In majority of images there are nothing as it is easy to draw clothes to be "just on". Historically it is a mix. For the chyrpy it is no question - hook-and-eye closure. I found material about that. I did found other nations around the area who used hook-and-eye for most costumes around 19th century. But buttons were also heavily used on surrounding areas, specially for blouses. So, in the end, I could not find one certain answer for this and I went with "look". As on manga, you cannot see button on the cover, I use hook-and-eye to hide the openings and it would make it easier to but it on and take it off.

Posts:
*Getting started
*Underwear
*Skirt and trousers
*Blouse
*Coat
*Jewelry
*Boots
*Accessories
*At Animatsuri
*At Eurocosplay

Amira's skirt and trousers

After the underwear, I did the trousers as I found it to be "easier" than other prospective parts. The pattern for them was very easy as I found from the literature that very simple and wide trousers were used. I actually even found a drawing (small drawing in scientific paper) how the trousers looked. So, I did the pattern, keeping in mind that the trousers seemed to have a buff around the boots. (The thing I did not consider was how the trousers affect the boots :P I did remembered it luckily in the end when I made boots).

The sewing was very simple. I did not use waistband as there were none mentioned in the literature - only cords. The bottom was covered with embroidery inspired by the refernce:

So, the result:

The skirt was trickier as I started to realize that different images in manga have different embroidery for the skirt. My main reference had two layers of spikes and the first test I did for the skirt (that was probably way before I actually started making anything and while I was still doing the research) was done with machine:

It was way too big, not natural and did not had this feel I desired. (Plus the red was off but I mean, I hadn't found the right die from literature yet).

So, I dropped the idea of machine embroidery for skirt quite early and the underwear actually only convinced me that this was the right choice.

The reference problem remained:

 My main reference (right) had this more complex embroidery but the secondary (left) had embroidery style that was much more often used in other covers and on manga. So, I was little torn. Do everything as in one image or use the most "common" style. I went with common at this point but later (with the blouse), when I realized there is no common ground, I continued using only the main image.

Then.. it was just hand embroidery and lot of threads of red mouline. It took me around two months I think? I loved that on the volume 2 and 6 cover I could actually see the stitches and mimick them :) It was much nicer than just figuring how to fill a red line.

On reference the skirt has really nice volume so instead of just full circle I used three halfs. It had nice volume on its own but in the end, the hard coat is "taking down" the volume. (I ofcourse hated the three halfs due to the fact that it took 1/3 more time to do the embroidery. Imagine.. everything else had some variety. With skirt it was just same thing over and over again for meters. I think I actually measured the outer side of the skirt. I do not remember precisely but was it 8 meters? And three lines + those spikes.. It was very monothone).

 Again, no waistband as it was not used in the area On this image above I have horrible modern cord. In the end, I found nice cotton cord that had this kind of natural white (not bleached) look o fit perfectly with the fabric of the skirt.

(Later I actually found image from manga where Amira's skirt is visible that proved me again that cords and tunnels were used and that fact was also known by the manga's author):

(This image has different closure to the top than my version but as I said - I discovered this much later. I actually think it was in August? I was making skirt and trousers at the beginning of the year. That was one of the surprising things. I thought I covered the mangas very thoroughly before I started but during the process, I sometimes were just flipping pages and I found new details I had missed like tens of times before..) 

Here it is: trousers and skirt. Looking very nice :) I really love the volume of the skirt and I was little sad the coat pushed it down so much.


Posts:
*Getting started
*Underwear
*Skirt and trousers
*Blouse
*Coat
*Jewelry
*Boots
*Accessories
*At Animatsuri
*At Eurocosplay

Amira's underwear

The first thing I did with the project was the underwear. It is slightly stupid, considering that no one can see it as I would be wearing it under everything else. But on the manga, it was visible and it sounded like a great idea how to try out the fabrics, methods and get started.

I went with simple cotton for the fabric for the underwear. It could also have been silk. When I did my research into the central Asia clothing, there were almost 0 information I could find about underwear. So, I had to use my own imagination. For me, the central asian clothing sounded very practical and it had to have materials that were available. Therefore the choice for me was between cotton and silk. Considering that silk is more fragile and clothing should be durable, I though using the cotton sounds more feasible.

Then, the embroidery. The manga nicely shows the details of Amira's underwear and my original plan was use machine embroidery. So, I designed the embroidery files for machines. I do not have fancy machine. Quite simple and very basic Husqvarna 600e so my options were limited. Specially with the top. I wanted those little arrows to have very specific angel for embroidery to match their angle on design. Sadly, my program that came with the machine did not allow me to have this. Also, some of the arrows were really nicely converted from design to embroidery design but some needed a lot of extra work

Main embroidery files, all together..

Also, some of the embroideries, like the top and bottom border needed more than one frame. Oh my.. switching between frames and trying to get it match. Some fancier machines, as I googled, do those control stitches so you can make sure everything is fine. In my case, nothing like that. And I can only have four frames - no larger designs that would obviously become very big problem later in the project.

Anyway, somehow I got my designs into the program and started the embroidery. It took ages. Again, I had used the machine for smaller projects before but this.. The needle became blunt and started to break the thread (ofcourse I did not know that breaking thread can be caused by blunt needle.. I endlessly tried to figure out what is wrong with machine settings). The connections were super hard.. in many cases I just had to fix the connection points in the end by hand. And then the main motive. Now, I am super sure that it should only have the outline embroidered but back then I thought all of it should be covered. It took quite long...  many hours..

In the end, all the embroidery was done, connection points fixed and I laid patterns (that I actually just made out of nowhere just looking on the reference on the manga) over the embroidery. That was one part where I did not had too much troubles. When the patterns were in position, I did the little holes at the back of the top.

Sewing was easy part. Trousers came out nice. I decided to line both the top and bottom. I would almost be sure that if central asian people wore underwear, it was not lined, but it hid all the bottom side of embroidery and having this nice material against my skin felt so much better than leaving then unlined.

The only challenge with the trousers was the fastening. On the manga, it looks like the trousers have no channel for the fastening - it is just trousers and then robe is used to keep it on place. Sounds actually feasible as my research showed that they used very simple patterns all around their clothing. Having only robe over the fabric to keep trousers up - sounded very unsafe for me, so I did make a tunnel for the robe to have safer fastening. The shape is off compared to how the fabric looks on manga but yeah.. I like to keep my trousers on.

The top was more problematic. I used the mannequin to do the pattern and check it. I did sew a mock up without the holes that also looked fine. But when I had everything tone for the top and I put a ribbon at the back to fix the top to place, I realized my mannequin (even if having smallest possible settings) is slightly larger than me.. so, the top is little too big. I hope to go back to it and fix it before the convention when I have time.

The ribbon at the top.. Again, you can almost see the texture of it in the manga. First I did a ribbon from yarn following simple braiding. Then, as I looked more and more on the texture I realized that i could probably copy that, So, instead of simple and very quick braiding with fingers I did some research to figure out how to braid that specific pattern. It took some time and it required much thinner yarn than I originally had but in the end - again - super happy to have more of the original details on the costume.

The one thing that bothered me slightly was that somewhere later I discovered that the design should probably not be filled but only the edges like in rest of the costume. And the propositions were off. So, it was always "to redo" list but I never got to it before Animatsuri as, yeah, it is underwear. No one can see it.

But after animatsuri, I went back to it. First, I undid the machine embroidery on trousers. That took days. I would not recommend it to anyone. Then, I went back to tambour embroidery to redo the central part with only outlines and better propositions. I actually took the design from that reference image, used perspective crop in PS, got it out of perspective and printed it out few times to get right dimensions. Doing the embroidery itself was easy.

I also redid the top to match it more like in source. I added in top of the current "tunnel" new side that can be "rolled" and that is sewn over the first tunnel making it look nicer but is more secure than just having this rolled top.

Also, after local qualification I did the socks. There were two images from the manga I found. One was the reference I used for long trousers and the other one was randomly discovered. They seem to have matching designs. I know that probably somewhere else there is another design as I saw one cosplayer to make very fancy socks. Sadly, I could not discover the reference (maybe it was not in the volumes I own and when switching between online scans, I missed it). I would have loved that design but hey.. I had to stick what I found.

So the first step was figuring out the pattern. I was sure that there is the main edge motive at the top and probably another where sole and main body are connected. But the motive on the socks was hardly visible on both images. So, I just looked the generic shape, looked on authentic embroidery done in Kazashtan/Turkmenistan and used my own imagination.

For the fabric I planned to use cotton I also used for the skirt (after I ruined a nice light cotton I specially bought for socks while trying to "weather" it with black tea. It worked little bit too well and white became brownish beige). My plan was to do the embroidery during a weekend before Eurocosplay when I was in countryside but somehow I had not put the fabric into the bag. Like seriously. I had everything else I needed and more and not this fabric. Luckily I had put another white fabric into my "make Amira costume while traveling" bag. It was super nice and super expensive linen-silk blend that I first got for the scarf but as it was so expensive, I only got it like for 25-30 cm that would have been one length of the scarf and I found it not to be long enough for this complicated thing she has at her hat. So this super expensive small piece of fabric was left without purpose and somehow forgotten in the bag. So, now it was perfect time to use it. It would be little bit fancier than I would have assumed for common socks (that can be expected to be worn a lot and probably be worn out quite quickly).

Anyway.. To to one side of the embroidery took more than 2 hours. So, 8 hours for total during the weekend. Then I got back home, I cut out the socks based on pattern that was deducted from foil/tape I used for boots patterns.  Sewing it together.

And then, next two evenings - non stop embroidery to the sides and top.

And then the weathering. I was much more careful with black tea this time. I got some darker spots but it did not do what I wanted. I tried to use spray bottle and black tea but still not exactly. In the end, I just went to the basement in the apartment where is concrete floor and lot of dust- that actually did miracles and I just danced around little bit on the basement until I got some wear on the areas foot is touching the ground. I used sanding paper a little to help to get some extra wear for the sole.

Back to the apartment and some washing and the socks looked like they have been worn by real person not just made like in the image at the top.

So, the socks were actually finished night before flying out to Eurocosplay and when they were drying, I just hoped I will not forgot them as otherwise last week of non-stop work would have been waste.

But yeah.. I started with underwear and finished the costume with socks :)


Posts:
*Getting started
*Underwear
*Skirt and trousers
*Blouse
*Coat
*Jewelry
*Boots
*Accessories
*At Animatsuri
*At Eurocosplay

Amira from Otoyomegatari

(I started working on this dress on October 2016)

So, after Lucrezia Dress and this little feeling inside me that I want to do even better, I was not sure what will be my next project. I do not even remember what was my thinking but at one moment I was sure - it is going to be Amira from Otoyomegatari.

Otoyomegatari is probably one of the only mangas I have ever read (ok, I think I have read two? And then, after watching Attack on Titan, I did read that one too). Like probably everything connected to anime and japan, the influence or the push came from my husband. He said I would love it. The costumes have so much details, they are historically accurate etc. So, yes, I did read it and I did love the costume. Actually, when I was Japan doing the research for my PhD, I actually went to manga shop and bought myself first volume of Otoyomegatari (with first volume of Gangsta manga that was a thing at that time)

Anyway.. Amira. This is really interesting project in a sense that it is almost like doing a national costume as what she is wearing there on the cover is very similar to Turkmenistan national costume. (When I started, I was not aware that author has stated that Amira is from Khazastan. I found out about it during my research when I had decided that her costume is mostly similar to Turkemenistan. I did looked very closely into Kazakhstan costumes in 19th century. Yes, the emboridery was close to that but the colors and the pattern of the coat was still very much Turkmenistan) And I think that was actually the idea - author wanted to show interesting historical costumes and settings in a way that everyone could enjoy and read about them. So, I had the manga as a source material. I had the information about the national costumes (lot of research - my inner scientist kicked out). And actually, there have been quite a few people who have done the costume before (by just googleing I found three-four really good cosplays of the same character. All had different approaches and very different results but it is good to read someone else's experience of the costume making and learn from that before making the costume myself).

As I had never used manga before as a source, I soon found out two main troubles - there is no continuity. Costume may be drawn one way on one image and totally differently on a second one. (That became huge nightmare, to be honest). The second aspect was "wearability". Some aspects of the costume that are very easy to draw are not possible on real life. That was the case especially with leaves.

Okei. I had made up my mind on the costume and I used the cover of volume 1 as my main source of reference. During the project I actually ordered volume 2 and 6 also for easier access to the source as using internet was not as convenient than having manga to switch between pages. In the end, I even actually went and photo-copied some of the pages with enlargement to see the details more freely and having the ability to lay multiply pages side by side to figure out the patterns etc.

I did not use any premade patterns for this one. The main reasoning was that at the time (19th century) the patterns used in the region are so different from the ones you get from Burda or Simplicity. So, I decided to go step further and do the patterns myself, using the same guidelines I found from internet (the magic of costume history - there are actual scientific papers on costumes, how they were made, which materials were used... and probably the scientist on me surfaced and before I even started, I spent days (I think it was more than a month in the end spent purely on research) just reading about the costumes on the area where the manga took place. I think the locations on manga and the locations on real life were little off but the general look of  Turkmenistan costumes was closest to the styles I see on manga).

Then it was finding the materials. From my research I knew the fabrics that were used on the region. So, it were the common picks - cotton, wool, silk. I found really nice and strong natural white cotton fabric for the skirt. I think that was the first fabric I committed myself to. Getting this natural (not bleached white) was a problem. Also, lot of those more natural cotton fabrics were very light. I would not imagine that this kind of dress would have had very light skirt. So, it took some time before I got the perfect fabric.

The wool was easy - black for the hat and the robe that is actually called chyrpy. That chypry robe is probably the most intriguing part of the costume for me. The one in manga is way more wider and with slightly different pattern than it used to be in real life but the similarities between those two are unmistakable. I think I found perfect wool fabric on first visit to the first fabric shop when I went for hunt for a wool. It was quite lightweight (as wool tends to be heavy - I think the cotton and wool have similar weight), had nice texture and was not that expensive (considering it was wool. Usually I would have never bought so much wool with such a price).

Then was the red cotton for the shirt and trousers. And here my troubles started. The feedback for my Lucrezia was that the color of reference was off in real life (the printing - I would blame). Anyway. I took the manga cover with me when I tried to find the red. I also had to consider the background. There was a lot of red in national costumes in the area and after my research I found this "Uiran Boyau" that was the main color achieved using locally accessible dies. The die color and the manga were little different (I would say that die was more vivid). But then I saw that on other manga covers the colors were not the same. I saw someone with volume 1 cover from other print than mine - again. The color was different. I was in panic! So, I decided to compromise between the die and my volume 1 cover. And I think what I have is quite good. It is not perfect match. I think the color is slightly too saturated (more like a die) but it was the best I could find after visiting (almost all?) fabric shops in the city over one month. I just felt, at that point, that I have to start working on the blouse or I never will.

In the end, the red I got is this kind of light but still strong cotton with nice texture. And the red also looks like a natural tone that could have been achieved with techniques available at the time for fabric coloring.

The last type of fabric was the silk for lining. I bleed when I looked at those prices. The natural silk, even with 50% off was more for a meter than the wool. The artificial silk had this kind of weird texture and not the right color or had limited amount of it on sale - not enough for the project. So... I made my heard a stone (and said no to the silk) and bought this kind of common lining fabric that was not artificial silk. I went for the overall look. It looks smooth. It is soft to touch, it has the reflection you expect from the silk and it had reasonable price. I mean, it is lining. I was willing to spend a lot of money on wool and that white natural cotton but that was the limit.(specially as almost noone can see the lining ever).

So, I had my fabrics.

The next things I went to acquire before actually starting were the embroidery tools.I had not done embroidery since school.. like 15 years ago? And I was bad at it back then. (I was also bad at sewing and everything crafty. At school reunion I actually met my craft teacher and showed her some of the dresses I have done and she hardly believed that I, who was hardly able to pass her courses, was now able to do that. I think the key is motivation. Back at school, making common skirt or blouse did not sound existing at all. Doing my first ever elf dress for LARP was much more exciting).

During my research I came across different embroider styles used in the area. There were two main common stitches - the chain stitch and so called Turkmen stitch (Also called double chain)

That double chain, done very closely, almost like for filling, was often used with chyryp. Chain stich by itself was also used a lot. There were also some other stitches (satin stitch, also cross stitch..)  plus some stitches that were not so easy to identify (mentioned in literature but never anywhere shown how to make them or had photos where they were used. Only mention. Google had nothing on them either. I came short of ideas how to identify them and I dropped those).

Anyway.. Chain stitches were the main ones. During my research I found that they had a specific tool for the stitching (not only this common needle we would think nowadays). I sadly did not write down the name they had for the tool but I found that something similar was also used in India for sari making, in Ireland and nowadays it is most common with people working with pearls. The tool has many names but I found a nice tool under the name "Tambour embroidery". US company named Lacis has a nice set that I ordered in the end. Took some time to arrive. Took some practicing but wow.. that was much faster and easier in the end than using the needle (I did use the needle at connection points between different pieces were getting required tambourine effect was not easy to achieve).

 I used common cotton stranded thread (also known as moulinè) for most embroidery. On the blouse and on undergarments (where I did machine embroidery before switching) I used machine embroidery thread that is more silk looking (having reflective surface and feels very thin and light but strong)

What else did I get? FIMO clay and silicon mix (for the casts) for the jewelry (that was the hint I got reading other people blogs how they made the jewelry) as the idea I used with Lucrezia (ordering pieces online) did not work here for their really custom shapes.

I did actually got one piece of the internet. When I was trying to find one coin to use for cast making, I found a full bracelet of antique coins. As it actually was authentic, it was quite expensive for a set of random coins, but the temptation of using authentic real old coins was too big and I ordered it.

So, that was probably the materials/tools I started with.

Later I added pvc for jewelry, wood for the bow,  leather for the boots and quiver.

I actually did some calculations of the material when I had finished my costume for local convention:
In total:

• 7 m of white cotton (skirt)
• 7 m of black wool (+10m of adhesive fabric for strengthening) (coat)
• 5 m (+2 m for redoing) of red cotton (blouse, trousers, undergarments)
• 10 m of lining
• ~1 m of artificial leather (boots)
• ~300 pieces of red cotton stranded thread (moulin?)(8m each, around 2.5km)
• ~50 pieces of natural white cotton moulin? (400m)
• ~1.5 km of natural white satin embroidery machine thread (for embroidery on blouse and undergarments)
• 3 rolls of machine embroidery stabilizer (doing embroidery on wool was nightmare. More of this later)

Posts:
*Getting started
*Underwear
*Skirt and trousers
*Blouse
*Coat
*Jewelry
*Boots
*Accessories
*At Animatsuri
*At Eurocosplay

Lucrezia Borgia at "Animatsuri"

This blog post is going to be about my first ever time participating in cosplay competition and my second time ever being in a convention.

So, I managed to finish the dress just as I was to fly to UK for a conference for a week. So, instead of packing my travel bag I also had to back everything I need for the convention. I was little worried about the wig, to be honest. I hold it on the foam mannequin head I forced into old broken tripod and the hairstyle felt so fragile so i was worried how it will survive the transportation (the convention was like two hours from my city by bus).

Anyway. I packed everything, flew to Northern Ireland, had great conference, got to met Game of Thrones dire wolfs and did many other great things and then, on Saturday morning I had my flight back. I never actually expected to arrive on time to go to the convention on Saturday despite by hopes that maybe.. maybe.. I will be in Tartu on time to go and listen few of the later presentation. Shappi was having a talk and I really wanted to hear about it.

The first leg of my journey went fine but then in Dublin airport my flight got delayed like almost two hours. So, that was all of my hope of getting to Tartu on time. Anyway, in the end, the flight took off and back at my country, I had my dad meet me with the other luggage and taking me to bus station. So, I just changed one briefcase to another one and took wig in a separate bag. And then, another 2.5 hours on bus. Jupii.. *irony*.

Anyway, in the end, it was 7 pm I think (I started my travels at 6a.m in UK timezone) when I finally arrived. I was tired, hungry and very sleepy. Off to a friends place, going out for dinner and off to bed. I had no more energy than that.

So, the convention for me only lasted for a day. I had actually bought 2 days ticket and in the end, I did not managed to do anything else than deal with the cosplay competition so I would think it was slight waste of money.

So, the doors opened at 11 or 12, I am not sure anymore. I was there slightly before but managed to get in to start with putting the costume on. The hardest part, I thought, would the zipper as it needed help to be pulled up. Somehow, there, at the convention, it was the only time zipper behaved. The real trouble was the wig!. I never actually tried it on after I started with styling. It was on the wig head, traveled to the paper bag I used for transportation and I took it out on site and put on first time. It looked brilliant and it had not suffered during transportation but... Because of the styling all the hair were at the back and the wig was very out of balance. I tried to use hair clips to control it but it was very hard to do by myself. I asked my husband to help me but he was slightly frightened by the request and did not understand what exactly did I needed. I also had the wig clue and I tried it on the lace and sides to keep it on place but it did not help either.

Anyway.. somehow the wig hold but it was falling back all the time and I needed to go to the mirror and fix it every now and then.

Also, I learned that I should probably do makeup not on site as they lack mirrors.But I thought I need wig before makeup.. Oh.. Anyway.. lesson to learn: try wig on before going to convention! Even if it looks so fragile!

Then, when the costume was on and makeup was somehow done (I think the lesson I also learned is trying to practice more makeup. I never wear makeup in real life as my skin just cannot handle it, but I can do it for a day (and suffering later)), it was time for meeting the judges.

I would be lying if I would say I was not nervous. Specially as I was in a wrong location first. Somone told me to go that way. It was actually the spot where cosplayers who have seen judges come out. Ups. Anyway, I found the right queue that was really long and there I stood and waited nervously. Some people were having trouble with their costumes that were falling apart all the time. I think my main worry was are my sleeves looking alright and does the under-dress give enough volume.

Anyway, it was my time to enter and I was greeted by three very friendly judges. It was much more relax atmosphere than I though it would be. They were very friendly and very impressed with my costume. I do not remember actually that if they asked me few questions. I think I just talked mostly myself. I do remember they asked me how long it took to make it and to be honest, I did not remember - months.. but it was never continues process. It was like having a mood for making the dress and then not having it..

It was also quite quick process and off I was. Then there was another queue for stage trial. I mixed my potions, realized that there was no table that I asked for (but that got solved as another contestant had a table and she was willing to borrow it). I went on the stage, realized it is quite small, somehow managed to do all the dance moves as I planned them.. It felt great :)

Photo by: Visual Culture Club

Then I did have some time. I went and saw few of the market stalls but nothing stood out. I talked with few other cosplayers (including the ironic conversation with the girl who was going to win Eurocopslay category telling that there is no point participating in Eurocosplay as we all know who is going to win - hinting that there are two very strong cosplayers who are probably going to take the main prize) but I knew almost none of them and to be honest, none of them actually tried to make friends. It looked like few of them know each other and they all stayed as groups. So, as a total newcomer I fit to nowhere.

Random shot with few people I knew and their friends.
Photo by Triin Kolga

And then was the competition. I was on the second half so I could wait for a long time and got nervous again. I think I was more nervous off stage than actually when I was up there. Up there it all just went so fast. I was probably thinking about my next move rather than worrying how am I doing. Irony was that all the tests I did at home and the stage test on site, I never overmixed my potions (I had baking soda and vinegar for making poison) but there, on stage, I did.. so some of it spil on the stage and it does not have the best smell. Ups.

 

 

Photos by Visual Culture Club

Anyway, I was done, happy (and not crying as one girl - I am not sure even why. She did not have any visible mistakes, as much as I understand dancing) and relaxed. All done. The show went on for a while, then there was group photo and maybe hour and a half before the closing ceremony.

Some people got their costume on. I took it off, mostly due to the wig. It was just falling back too often. So, I think it was mostly people sharing their thoughts. I actually took few bakeries I had in the bag as it was first thing I ate after light breakfast and clock was like 5pm.

Anyway, then was the closing ceremony and awards. Was I nervous? Not sure. I thought, after meeting the judges and getting the feeling that they were impress with my costume (but who knows, maybe they did it to everyone?) that I am going to win something. But I was also very contempt with the idea of not winning as there were so many so great cosplays and this was like first time for me.

The first awards for cosplayers were actually defile category. And two of the main favorites actually got placed there (the rule is that you can only win once and if you win in lower category, you cannot win in higher category). So, for a second I was little panicking that really, did I win eurocosplay (I actually planned only to take part in defile but when I sent my application, they told me to switch because of the quality of the cosplay). Luckily, not. It went to amazing cosplayer who did DragonAge Inqusition and after I saw her in-progress pictures... just wow.. that costume, the details, the work. And she did really well in the EuroCosplay finals too. So, I totally think the right person won it! (And someone who was not in the main 2 favorites - I really think there should be some way to encourage people to participate even if there are few who have done this for like 10 years and are so much further ahead than those who just started. If those who just started will come and see that no matter how much effort they put, they just cannot compete with 10 years of experience, they will quite. I think people should be encouraged not pushed away.. Everyone loves to win. They do not have to win main price. I actually loved those judges favorites and other small categories. Maybe more of them next year?)


But actually, this year they also had three judges favorites so.. I did managed to win one of those for the "best sewn costume". I think I was little stunned on that moment that I actually won something that I was little off, maybe.. but it all sank in later.. I mean, my first ever competition. My first ever really complex cosplay project (that was more than just sewing magical girl like Irisiviel :P) And to be honest, I think, it got me wanting more. More complex costume. Even better skills.. Doing better next year (getting into defile winners or even.. girl can dream :D)

Still little shocked that I did actually won something
Photo by: Visual Culture Club

 So, after few days of settling in, and thinking over the whole experience again, I started to realize that this competition, for me, lacked feedback. Yeah, some people get awards, most get nothing. How could they know how to improve? I think in Eurocosplay final they actually release scorecards or something that shows you were you can improve. There was nothing like this about Animtsuri. So, I took my courage and I actually wrote all 3 judges and asked where could I improve. All of them actually answered to me within days and 2 of them gave me long and very detailed feedback. The main thing was that my makeup was not good. To be honest, I accept that critique. I think people who make up themselves everyday do not even think about the troubles I am thinking. Anyway, I went on to buy more stuff, watched tons of videos, took a course.. so I try to be better on this next year.

The second problem that one judge brought out was the color of the fabric. The were given printed reference images and who knows the quality of the printer. The color they had on their paper was different from the color I had on my dress. All my hard work calibrating and printing before sewing was blown to pieces. The suggestion was that next time I will bring my own print out so I do not have to worry about that factor, especially if I did put so much effort finding the right color.

So, overall - being in a competition takes the whole day. No time to eat, sit or enjoy the convention. I did love the experience but I would love to enjoy the convention also. So, hopefully next year, I will not miss Saturday and can go to workshops (I would love to go to worbla workshop and learn new skills).

• Start
• Main dress
• Sleeves
• Decorations: Wig, jewelry and pearls
• On convention 

Lucrezia Borgia - Decorations: Wig, jewelry and pearls

So, when sewing was done, the dress was not.

The first step was the pearls. When you look at the reference images, there were a lot of pearls. So, again, it was much cheaper to order them from ebay than to buy them locally. I did not knew which size would be best (or which white tone), so I ordered few different sizes of green, two different colors of green and two different colors of white. Pearl white was perfect with my yellowish main fabric and the moss green worked fine with my mint green fabric. It was not perfect but close enough.

I started adding pearls to the bodice. I followed the reference image as closely as possible but because my bodice was slightly longer I had to do some creative modification. Then, I added silver stripe to the bodice and pearls there too. Even though it took some time, I actually loved adding the pearls. It was that kind of relaxing activity. Not very complex, things going all right and the result was really nice.

Then came the pearls on sleeves and it was trickier as I had to make sure that the pattern I had for the pearl groups would fit into the circle around the sleeve. So, I did not follow the pattern all the time, trying to hide the "mistakes" to the not so visible areas. (and then I discovered that sleeves have to be slightly larger and I undid the stripes and pearls..)

And then the dress was mostly done. As I removed the undergarment sleeves from the undergarment and sew those into the main dress to make sure they stay in place, I also decided to do something similar with the undergarment visible under the bodice. I used pre-gathered lace for the most part and in the front, I sew rectangular piece of fabric, with elastic ribbon and pre-gathered lace. All done by hand. Worked well enough.

Then came the accessories. The main thing was the wig. I ordered two different blond wigs - one with lace front, other without it but slightly more yellowish tone and slightly longer. While they were on post, I started to work on the netted caul. The pattern I used for the base dress came with a guide for the caul. I thought it was going to be short, considering the refrence for the headstyle I had.

 

So, I made it larger at one end. I used a pillow as my base for working and used pins to position the same silver thread I used in the dress to make the net. When the base was set using pins, at every junction, I had to sew the pearl and sew the junction together. Again, it took ages to do it. But in the end, I actually had the net and pearls. It tooks lot of pearls. Then, I used the same green ribbon I used thousands times with this dress again to do the sides. It is a nice little piece of caul that I got but it took hours to make.

 Then I got my wigs. I decided to go with the lace one as I thought it will be easier to do the hair line as the hairstyle was drawn back. I did few not so successful tries trying to figure out how the hairstyle could be made (I mean - I saw it on the reference images but it was not so easy to redo it. I started to get quite desperate at one point. I mean - I can sew. I have learned so many new aspects with this projects but hairdressing.. I now need to learn this).

Oo my.. it looks almost brownish on this photo

So, again, few hours of research and I decided not to start with the braided hair at the top but to curls at the bottom. Then I just tried to add a lot of volume to the wig and figure out how much hair I can use for the braids. I handsew the caul into the wig to keep it in place and it most have been 101 try with the braids when it started to look like it actually reminds me what I see on the reference. To be honest, wig was nightmare. And I have no idea what I can do to gain more skill in the field. I guess it will be testing and testing and testing.

 

I also added two small ribbons of green with pearls at the bottom of the wig. i did not sew them in (as it thought it will not work). So, on the con, acutally, i was losing one of the ribbons all the time.. somehow I always found it and asked someone to put it back.

The jewellery. I did not made the details myself. I spent hours in web trying to find close as possible components. I think I am 99% happy with what I found. Not all of those components were on the right color. The jewels were most off. So, I bought some transparent glass colors (the jewels were plastic but I thought it will work) that were meant to stick after you heat them in oven. I could not heat plastic in oven so I just hoped it will work and add this kind of more bluish feeling to the color. It worked brilliantly. And due to the fact that I had multiply colors (blue, black, white), I was able to mix different shades and the result was much better than it could have ever been with purchased colored items.

I colored the jewels and beads, I put it all together using small wire, clewed in the endings, tried it on and realized it was too long. Damn super clew! It was hard to take it a part, remove few beads and do it again. But the result was good. I am super happy about the earrings as I do not have piercings I managed to find components that look like piercing but actually are not


The final element that I missed was the ring but I was off for a conference just before the con and I did not managed to deal with it. Luckily, while on conference, I managed to do some shopping and find very similar ring for just few pounds.

Final set of jewelry

• Start
• Main dress
• Sleeves
• Decorations: Wig, jewelry and pearls
• On convention 

Lucrezia Borgia - sleeves

So, when main part of the dress was done,  the next step were the sleeves. When I started the project, the sleeves were the one thing I was most excited about but it was nightmare to make in the end. Any other kind of sleeves during Renaissance area would have been easier to make, I think.

First, I started with the bottom part of the sleeves that is solid and reminds common sleeves. I used pattern from another dress to make this. Then, i modified them slightly to facilitate the buffs at the sides. I tried the pattern on and it looked fine. I made first version of the sleeves, sew (by hand) the ribbons and silver thread on them, added lining and strips and tried it on to realize that the wrist area is way too small when trying it on with underdress and huge sleeves on it. So - REDOING!

I made the wrist area much larger and I was afraid it is too large (no, I should have made it slightly larger). I had limited supply of the green ribbon (I was so lucky I found ribbon with such a matching color), so I undo it from the first run of sleeve and sew it again on the second run. Silver thread took a lot of time, again.

For the lining I used the base fabric I used for printing (lightly yellowish) and I added adhesive fabric to it to make it stronger and keep the shape. I went to fabric shop and got myself the strongest adhesive fabric I could but that was way too strong and it did not stuck to fabric. I tried it on some other more natural fabrics and it worked very well there. But it was almost like a board. Very stiff. So, I used slightly stiffer adhesive than I normally do but not the super strong version I thought I will use.

So, the main parts of the sleeves consist of three layers - printed fabric, adhesive fabric and lining. It was still lightweight but nicely keeping its form.

Most of the time I worked with flat sleeves but in the end, I needed to sew together the some of the sides and make sure that the ribbon (using pattern to make sure it is straight was really good) and the pattern match on both sides was slightly tricky. I am just not good at all doing things very precisely. Again, basting.

The top part of the sleeves, around wrist, I sewed by hand - it was easier to control the hole situation that was slightly tricky.

Then, when the bottoms were done, I started working with the ribbons. As the main sleeve was lined, so were going to be the ribbons. I considered cutting the lining from the yellowish fabric I used for the printing but I was not sure it is stiff enough and could I be sure that all the ribbons are going to be exactly the same size. So, instead of using the yellow fabric and adhesive fabric for stiffening, I bough right color ribbon from the fabric shop. I had to visit few of those to get ribbon with right color and width. Again, I needed a lot of it. 12 stripes per sleeve. So, that made sure that all the stripes are going to have exactly the same width. Then, I cut out the main stripes from the fabric. Using the patterned fabric, it was easy to make sure they are straight. With mint green, it was trickier. In the end, I had lot of strips. Again - hand sewing! I needed to apply silver cord to all the sides. That was 24 meters and more I think. I managed to ping-watch another show while doing it (was in Narcos?). Then, I basted the main stripes over it and used machine to sew those together.

 

And when the cords were done, the silver thread came. It is visible from the reference images that the patterned fabric on the sleeves is covered with silver thread following the pattern. For one stripe it meant two silver threads that have to follow the shape - (not many straight lines). At one point, the both threads follow single line. I first tried to come up with a solution where there is only single thread on those places and two on others. But due to the material trying to unwind as soon as I cut and using knots was the only way to keep it in form, I decided to go with two stripes and trying to hide that there are double cords on the areas where only single line is visible.

Finished stripes with silver cord and silver thread

So, 12 stripes with 2 threads per stripe. Another show ping watched (I think it was Underground?).

Then, when the stripes were finished (I would say the stripes took longer than tiles on the skirt), I needed to make sure I have them in right length. Because I had no pattern for it, I did some research and the way people seemed to do those were that they used usual pattern for sleeve and just enlarged it (mostly to the height). So, it was just gathering the stripes, basting then to the ribbon and testing to make sure I have normal looking sleeve. I realized that most of my stripes were too long. Even now, when I cut them, I think I could have cut them slightly more.

Preparing the sleeves. Gathering at the connections points and sewing them all to single line

When I had perfected one sleeve, it was easy - just undoing the basting and copying it to the second set of stripes. To keep the ribbons on place, I used machine to sew the gathered stripes to the green ribbon. I got those kind of flat sleeve looking things. Then I needed to connect them - at first, again, I did not thought about the underdress. They were fine on their own but the underdress and its sleeves actually add a lot of volume. I only discovered it when I already had some pearls added (I needed a break from the sleeves at one point so I went on adding the pearls. It was more fun than dealing with those nightmarish sleeves)  - so it was not very comfortable to redo it. Luckily I had enough ribbon at this point.

The second problem, again, me not thinking, was that the sleeves were sewn to the main part of the dress and did not used ribbons to connect as I first had assumed. So, I had to undo the armpits of the main dress and sew the ribbons to the lining and then, carefully, handsew the green fabric to its place. The result was nice :)

Sleeves connected to the dress but they are not holding the shape

One problem arose - the sleeves were losing their shape when I put it on. I did some research and It seemed most people sew the undergarment sleeves onto the main dress and connected it to the sleeve to keep the shape. I wanted to have the fluffy feeling so I had two options - have three layers of fabric (stripped sleeve, fluffy undergarment and base sleeve) or have two layers and use stripes to keep the sleeve shape. I went with the second. But that mean that I was going to redo the underdress (as the itchy fabric was horrible to wear, it sounded like good prospect). I removed the sleeves, sew them by hand to the main part of the dress, fixed the fluffiness by basting it to the ribbons connecting the stripes on the sleeves. Then I added to ribbons per sleeve to (one at the top, another at the bottom) to keep the sleeve in the pace. It was lot of inventing but it worked.

The final step of the sleeves were to hand sew the bottom part of the stripes with bottom sleeves. I made the undergarment sleeves slightly narrower at the end so that they would fit into the bottom sleeves. I loved the volume they added to the stripes but it was too much extra volume for the bottom.

• Start
• Main dress
• Sleeves
• Decorations: Wig, jewelry and pearls
• On convention