The Dragon's Treasure

I’ve been talking a lot lately about my love of the power tools I’ve been acquiring, but there are a couple awesome new tools I’ve been working with that don’t fit into that category. So they’re going to get some love now. ^-^

The first is my quick-change airbrush, a surprise from my last birthday. It’s pretty simple as far as airbrush set-ups go—much as I love it, I know I won’t use it enough to justify owning a compressor, so I run it off of compressed air cans. It can also get a bit finicky when it feels even a little gunked up, something it’s prone to, but that’s usually fairly easy to fix, especially now that I have some proper airbrush cleaner. I’ve only been messing with it for a few days but I think I’m getting used to it, and it’s making my coloring projects go really nicely.

The second, another birthday gift, officially gets my Sexiest Tool I Own™ award. It’s just called the Ultimate Craft Tool; essentially it’s a hot tool that comes with a number of different points that let you do projects ranging through wood burning, stencil cutting, and soldering. I got it primarily for the stencil cutting and it works so much nicer than the other proposed method for it (exacto knife). It was literally as easy as putting a hot knife through butter. Of course that also means that you need to be real careful to stick to the lines you’ve put down, because it’s real easy to melt away where you don’t want to, but it’s still pretty awesome. It heats up incredibly fast, though, so you also have to mind that. (I wondered if I’d be able to tell it warmed up, but the hot-melty smell the metal begins to emit is pretty unmistakable and crops up after only about five minutes, if that.)

Great tools I’d definitely recommend if you’ve got projects that could be served by them!

(And while I’m at it, I’ll also recommend the supply site that I linked to here, Dharma Trading Company. It is most awesome, with good pricing and service, and a ridiculous amount of great supplies.)

I’ve been mentally putting together a list of tools I’d like to acquire sometime in the near-ish future to help me get better with my crafting, and costuming in particular. After a little bit of by-hand embroidery for gift exchange I realized that an embroidery machine was near the top of the list—I’ve got some large patches I’ve got to do this year and doing them by hand would be ridiculously difficult. (Plus, I know they wouldn’t look as nice, which would only be more noticeable because of the size.) So I was talking about this with my mother and found out, much to my surprise, that my sewing machine is actually built to do it already! All these years I’ve been using it and I had no idea!

I’m so happy I won’t be taking the financial hit for a new machine for a while yet. Now I just need to start practicing—consulting the book, thankfully, tells me it’s even simpler to do than my mother thought it would be (she’s had the machine longer than she’s had me, but never used it to embroider). That’s like a bonus.

I’m officially calling myself done.

I finished all of the Bleach costumes, so everything new is taken care of. I’ve got some Hellsing patch-ups left that aren’t necessary but they’ll get done before Friday. This is the first time I’ve had so much breathing room before a convention; it’s kind of nice. Now the only thing I have to worry about is making sure that everything of mine still fits properly. It shouldn’t be a problem I have to worry about but, at the very least, I have to check on how all of Gin’s clothes cover to make sure I’m not flashing thigh in my hakama.

I wound up having to braid Tousen’s wig by hand (rather than a braider I had) and I’m really happy about it—it just took a good while. XD And there shouldn’t be any problem with the gloves, they stayed on well enough when I was working with them. (Though I think I’ll always feel bad for mutilating something that costs twenty dollars. x_x) Though I’d have to say the roughest part of the Bleach costumes was the waiting. Every time I pricked myself hard (as tends to happen a lot) I had to wait until the bleeding stopped completely to make sure I didn’t get it on anything—too much white fabric! @_@

But lets hear it for actually having the time to pack properly! Right now I’m looking forward to the bath I’ve got running (so in need of a soak) and the celebration lunch Lexi’s taking me to later today.

Or: “Oh, my God—you’re flat as a board!”

I got the new binder for my chest in today! *squees* And, now that I’ve finished play-testing it, I can say with confidence that it’s fabulous and the best thing I’ve ever owned for the purpose. Once I get it on and adjust myself a bit it’s marvelously effective but, more than that, it’s comfortable. It’s a compression shirt so there’s no uncomfortable squishing (the kind that shouldn’t happen) and no horrible stays to leave those terrible marks after a long day. >_< .

Of course, because it is a shirt, it won’t be ideal for some things—like it would show under an Envy/Wrath cosplay, for good reference. But since I personally don’t wear costumes that skimpy (and not every costume that some of you wear isn’t) I’d totally recommend it if/when you’ve got the cash to spare on cosplay under-things. You just need to know your measurements and then take them here to look about. The one that I chose was the tri-top but y’all might like something different.

The quotes above come from my mother who was very supportive and happy for me but then spent the rest of the night quietly creeped out. XD She’s never seen me quite so flat before and was having difficulty getting used to it. (I suspect certain cancer-related procedures might be the root of this. ^^;) I'm so happy though, I can't wait for my second shipment to get here! ^^

Tried working on Tousen’s wig tonight but found that my wig comb has disappeared. -_- I’ll be tearing things apart a bit later to try and find it.

So, the hakama arrived today! They look so nice, I can’t wait to order my own pair. But even more fabulous than them just arriving is that they arrived with a little instruction booklet that tells us how to put them on and fold them up again properly. Yay!

But the real thing that saved my day today was the finding of the wig I wanted to use for Gin. It was originally going to be dyed and styled for Zorin but completely untouched—the style in white—it was easy enough to switch it over to Gin. The only problem was that I had lost track of it in my wig-shuffling and I needed to try it on to see if I’d need to add any hair to it. (It would be for the bangs, primarily. The length of them seems to change slightly from wig to wig that I get in that model.) But—to my great happiness—I found that it’s just perfect that way it is! All I’ll need to do is chunk out the bangs properly and voila! I’ll also have to trim some of my wispy hairs at my ears and nape but I’ve been meaning to do that for better wigging for evers now.

Now I just need to get on the stick about the swords. I’m a good bit intimidated for the use of new supplies and tools, and I need to get over that.

So, over the last week I finally got to do some of the more hardcore supply-shopping that I need to do. My first stop was my local Rags. The first section I tried to hit was the pattern cabinets but once there I found that they’d completely stopped selling Simplicity patterns, which is what I use—at least as a base—for the vast majority of clothing that I make. Right there my fabric-buying for the day was almost entirely fucked; without the patterns I really had no idea how much of each fabric I was going to have to buy. So I had to scratch that. The fabric-buying was further hampered by the complete lack of plain, matte orange. You’d think that no one ever wore the color ever for how little there was of it! And what they did have always had some sort of pattern on it; it was very daunting. -_-

The really fabulous thing about the Rags shopping, though, was that I found several things that I wasn’t expecting to find that will make certain items endlessly easier for me to make! The number one of which being the gold bias tape, because it means I don’t need to hand paint my own to get it. @_@ The second of which being a pattern that’ll be perfect for some of Miine (read: the cutest, girliest thing I will have ever made). I also scoped out the fabrics I’ll be using for Aya’s white kimono. Hopefully the outer fabric won’t be too sheer, because I’ve fallen utterly in love with a brocade that I want to line it with. (He doesn’t usually wear patterns on the outside, but I think he’d flash out the inside.)

Later in the week I decided to hit up my most-local Wal-Mart’s fabric department in an effort to avoid ordering more patterns online. But Wal-Mart turned out to be more good to me than I ever could have hoped! Not only did I find most every pattern that I needed but they had a perfect shade of plain matte orange and all the colors that I’m going to need to line my Bleach Captain’s kimonos in! They match exactly! It’s a dream come true. Now I just need to find a proper white. x_x Wal-Mart had one, but it was rather obvious that there wasn’t nearly enough of it. So I’ll have to do a little more searching. But for now? Victory!

My shinigami socks came in the mail! Which rocks because it helped me gage what the sizing would be like, how much give is in the material, etc. (Also that the site appears to be wrong about the warning that they may not fit a wider foot—I know I tend to have fairly wide feet—which was something that I worried about.) My eyeliner and professional brushes showed up too, a few days later, and I’ve started giving them a shot. It wasn’t nearly as difficult as I’d feared, I’m doing well with it already, I just need to work on not poking myself in the eye with the brush when I do the left side. ^^; I’ve got a good feel but I’ll have to start practicing full face-ups for Gin soon which will probably require help from someone else when I do my eyes. (I actually dreamed the other night that I’d gotten it perfect—I knew it was a dream because I could see how it turned out with both of my eyes closed. XD *geek enthusiasm*)

I also got to go on my first official craft run of the season over the last few days—I love that feeling! Afterward I realized I must look like the most random-ass craft shopper ever when I do that. XD There’s no one project you can make from the assortment of supplies I got. But, with them, I’ll be able to start working on the bitch-ass shinigami sandals and—even scarier—the swords soon. *crosses fingers it all turns out well* Plus I finally remembered to bring home the wig that Brandi sold me (at slight discount, yay!) last week for Tousen, so I can start working on that in earnest once I do some experimentation with my methods.

And finally, I’ve come to the conclusion of which Aya I’m going to upgrade to this year. It’s going to be my favorite of the artbook scans. I’ve always loved the outfit and so, since I’m going to be making a bunch of white kimonos this year anyway, I decided why not? My excitement continues—hopefully I’ll be able to get to my Rag Shop within the next week to pick up fabric supplies!

Since we weren’t sure until recently if anything was going on Saturday, Brandi was thinking of coming over to hang out. We weren’t sure of what we’d do aside from girl talk, which prompted Lexi to say, “I love how our version of girl talk is talking about cosplay.”

After a minute a realized, “Hey—clothes, make-up, and hair. Where’s the difference?”

I officially have my first cosplay commission!

I knew that Kyle wanted my business, I have for a while, but it’s all nice and official now as he’s put in his proper order a few days ago. He decided on Kaname Tousen, from Bleach. I was so excited when he told me—much chicken-headed bouncing and shouts of “Kyle wants to be Tousen!” were had—because not only am I getting paid for doing something I love, but it’s a character that I know and love too. Double bonus!

It’s interesting, though, since it is my first commission, because I’ve never had to figure out how much to add for time and labor. On one hand it’s pretty cool but on the other I feel a little bad—where the wig’s concerned, for example, I know I’m going to have to tack on at least an extra twenty dollars since I have to dread the thing (the picture doesn’t do his hair justice, it’s long!). Thank goodness I have a few little appliances to help me, or else I’d be worried. ^^; But I may be able to factor in a tiny price break (yay, no shipping!) thanks to the grace of Kittens.

So exciting!

A few of my cosplay misadventures for this last round:

About three days before the convention I was working with my sewing machine and noticed (rather quickly) that my bobbin just wasn’t…bobbing. So I fiddled with everything I knew to fiddle with in an attempt to fix it—re-threading the bobbin, fucking with the tension, etc. Nothing worked. So I started thinking to myself, “Fuck, I do not have enough of this coat sewn to finish it in time by hand!” But my mother (based on her reaction to other situations earlier in the year) must be rubbing off on me because almost immediately afterward I started thinking to myself, “Okay, well, I’ve already got a proper suit and the glasses—if I play with my hair a bit I can pull off Brazil!Alucard; I just need to paint a tie!” This seemed a fairly sound emergency plan but, just in case of a miracle, I worked on the machine a little bit longer. As I was poking at the bobbin again I happened to look up and notice it—one missed step in the threading of the upper level of the sewing machine. I thought to myself, “There’s no way that could be the problem, it’s in the top of the machine!”

I spent the next ten minutes simultaneously overjoyed and headdesky, happy I was able to fix it after all but annoyed as hell that it had been such a stupid mistake in the first place.

The last thing I had to do—as I’d planned—was style my wig. I left myself plenty of time to handle it since I knew it would take a while; the best way to accomplish the style that I was going for was to root more hair into the scalp of wig to be spiked accordingly later, a long and repetitive process. I got one row of bangs in—the most important part, I feel, because they hang into his face so it’s what you’d see most. Thank goodness I’d finished the row! When I went back to start again after a short rest for the sake of showing my in-progress work and getting it on film for tutorial purposes my needle broke on the first extension. Since it was the only one I had of proper size that meant stopping early. (I wasn’t overly worried since I know I’ll be wearing Alucard again, so I’ll be able to add more for then.) I cut the bangs to the appropriate choppy lengths and, after trying it on, I decided to forgo the gel for now. (When I get the rest of the hair in I’ll spike it up proper, for just the bangs it looked good without.)

Despite starts, stops, and a few misfires, everything turned out pretty damn well. I’m looking forward to future additions and improvements.