Epic Loots { oo1 }

Got a bunch of cosplay goodies in the mail this weekend :). Its been exciting XD, so I'd thought I'd share :3!

I got the patches I ordered for Frontiers SMS jacket and they look pretty neat! Admittedly I plan on cleaning them up a little here and there, otherwise I'm really pleased with the quality of the patches because they were pretty cheap ^^. Shipping was amazingly fast too!



If you were curious, I purchased the patches here and here. They were wonderful with the communication as I messed up on the patches on my end, but they fixed it immediately and shipped it out! I got it all only a week after ordering it I believe.

I also got in my wonderflex that I ordered from Cosplay Supplies. Also incredibly fast shipping and now I wish I had a costume to use it for! The one I had originally planned I changed my mind on so now I'm back to brainstorming!! Otherwise I ordered some Kimono fabric from Kimono Flea Market Ichiroya, and it's beautiful. The shipping was fast and they were totally on top of things! I opened the fabric and almost started drooling. It's sooo luxurious and soft, and beautiful. I definitely intend on purchasing all my fabrics for future projects from them! The pictures don't do the fabric justice and now I'm fired up and ready to work on Kaoru!




Even if you can't afford it, I highly recommend browsing their wealth of fabrics and kimonos because they are all sooo lovely!

sheryl nome v. 1 { o1 }

Sheryl's coming along fabulously! Admittedly there's very little that I'm actually sewing together-the SMS jacket-but still! I'm more happy then anything else that things seem to be coming together relatively fast and smooth for this costume. Cosplay doesn't usually happen that way does it?!

I've received the shoes in the mail from Ebay and was delighted at how lovely and absolutely perfect they are for the costume! They are also amazingly comfortable on the feet! Which usually doesn't happen :O. Anyway I need to add the red ribbons to the shoe so that they can tie around my calf :3. I'm going to try and do them in a way that is attachable so that I can wear these shoes everyday! They're too fabulous to pass up--and that's what I love. Buying shoes >___<.

For the pants, I bought a pair of correctly colored over sized men's cargoes from Old Navy that were on sale and proceeded to rip them up. I ended up making a small cut with my shears and then proceeded to rip the rest of the seam to try and get it as deconstructed as I could to look like the picture. They've been through the wash and dry phase to try and get them looking even more ripped up. I just need to run some hidden darting through the waistline now so they stay on :P, no accidents while walking around con hopefully ^^;;;.

Other then that I've decided to go with a more expensive bra from Victoria's Secret, but hey why skimp on something that I can repurpose after cosplay? Every girl needs a good bra besides, and since I'm so dang flat I need all the help I can get in that department. Unfortunately I'm too flat for the cute bra's so I'll be buying a plain pink Miracle Bra and going through and covering it with dark pink lace which I plan on hand sewing on.

The first mock up for the SMS jacket has been made, and the patches I purchased on ebay. :3. My boyfriend has had a quick try on session but I still need to fit him and then make one more mock up. I'm pleased to see that I can repurpose this mock up as well for all general men's uniforms.

Other then that I've drawn a sketch of the design on her thigh. It's a bit big but I'll make it smaller, I was just hoping to get the design ironed out before anything else.

Will add pictures to this update later :3.

Sheryl Nome { v. o2 }

Name:	Sheryl Nome	Progress:	1oo%
Series:	Macross Frontier	Total Cost:	$86.oo
Version:	Newtype Artwork	Related Posts:	here

Reference Images
So yes, this costume is a bit more daring then I've ever attempted...-okay fine waaay more daring then anything I've ever dreamed of doing. Still I've loved it since I first saw the artwork, and I wanted to try something new and different. I have Sheryl's normal outfit, and now I wanted something that represented the other side of her character. I wanted a cosplay that exuded Sheryl's star side, the glamorous, sexy, confident Sheryl that I love so much. I only hope that I can manage to pull it off; I feel it'll help my confidence levels as well--since, well, it's easy to be confident when you have something elaborate and wonderful on but much harder to do it when you have less on. It'll be a challenge, but hopefully I can manage to bring Sheryl to life! My ulterior motive on this costume is also a kind of 2 birds with 1 stone viewpoint. I've been meaning to make the SMS uniform for my boyfriend to wear, and since Sheryl's jacket looks to be oversized I'm making it to his size so that this costume is essentially a 2fer1!

Jane Porter

Name:	Jane Porter	Progress:	1oo%
Series:	Disney's Tarzan	Total Cost:	~$5oo.oo
Version:	Main Yellow Dress	Related Posts:	here

Reference Images
Jane was my first major project-cosplay wise. I also consider my first cosplay because this was kind of it for me, I'd dabbled in things here and there or had help with my other costumes but for this one I made it all by myself. Jane has always been one of my favorite Disney heroines, and ever since the movie came out I have always longed for her beautiful yellow bustle dress--so I at last decided to make it. I made it as historically accurate as possible, and I admit it now--I was totally in over my head. Thankfully Heather at Truly Victorian was incredibly helpful with suggesting me patterns that would work, and even was lovely enough to give me advice as to what fabric choices would be best for period accuracy as well as the type of dress I was making. I owe a lot to her expertise ^^ and highly recommend there patterns to anyone looking to work in historical costuming. My boyfriend was a huge support as well in the endeavor and I greatly appreciated his unfailing belief and support in me! Anyway, overall I have a bustle petticoat, two petticoats (one basic, one fashion), the main skirt, the bustle overskirt, and the bodice. I have combinations, a corset, a detached collar, belt, kidskin gloves, a cravat and hat as well. I still need to make her parasol--which I may eventually get around to. The whole costume is made out of cotton muslin for all the under layers, and silk dupioni for all the yellow and purple. The dupioni is from Silk Baron and it is lovely and wonderful! It is much prettier in person :). I made a wig for her, but it looks a bit off as I am admittedly not very talented at wig making...so...I'm using my natural hair for now until I muster up the courage and cash to try again ^^. Anyway since I made this costume before I started blogging, I'm just going to link my cosplay.com page where I posted everyone as I went :); and here's the link!

Tifa Progress Post { o1 }

The boot bottoms have been painted black, and then sealed with Pledge floor wax. I'm a little bummed it's so shiny but hopefully that'll go down over wear and tear! The metal bits have been cleaned up so all that's left is to put in the black shoe laces and the armor piece.



On another note last night I opened my Tifa wig at last! It's a Delilah in Black from Arda Wigs. Akwardly I've had it for a week, but I've been terrified opening it imagining all the horrible things that could go wrong within seconds of opening it, that would all ensue in a rats nest of wig that would require weeks and weeks of detangling eventually leading to me despairing and just buying a new one. Overdramatic much, right?

Anyway I womaned up and finally opened it. Thankfully none of my horrible premonitions came true, and I spent the evening detangling it in preparation for later :). It took four hours, so I have now learned to do this during the day rather then starting in the middle of the night XD. Anyway here are the pictures in progress.


Straight out of the bag! Not too bad :).


Halfway done! And it's looking pretty good. At this point I was thinking that next time I should totally watch a show while doing this ^^;.


All finished and looking nice and detangled.

Anyway now its braided nicely and sealed away for later styling purposes ^3^.

Painting Shoes: Leather

Alright world,

This is going to be my first official post, so bear with me and my awkardness ^^;. I've decided to post about the project that I've been focused on for the past couple days: painting shoes! As a cosplayer it's something that I've never attempted until now, and it was a little bit nerve-wracking. I've been wanting to try it for awhile, and finally found a project that required the skills, Tifa Lockhart.

Armed with a wonderful tutorial located here, and some boots I dove into the experience! After agonizing for a long time over what base boots to get for Tifa I finally decided on Dr. Marten's Dark Brown Sorens. I felt they gave a good base structure for the look Tifa really has in her shoes--and they were all leather (not to mention at the time I was lucky enough to be ordering right when they were having a promo on sale items ^3^). I had decided to go with leather shoes because I was too chicken to try all the tutorials I found for painting shoes made out of synthetic materials, and wanted to ease into the experience with paint made for the purpose of painting leather.

Anyways, I HIGHLY RECCOMMEND this! It worked fabulously, and I pretty much followed the tutorial I linked above for fantastic results. I'll be posting my own kind of mini-tutorial on this later too (with some tips and tricks and things I found out during the process).

Here's a picture of my shoes before I painted the bottoms black, and tidied up the metal bits :3.

i n ♥ p r o g r e s s

Here's the section for all the cosplay's that I am currently working on. It's set up to take you to the main post when you click on the image ^^.

Obligatory Intro Post

Hey world!

This is just going to be a blog chronicling my ups and downs experimenting in the world of costuming and cosplay. I started cosplaying last year, something I've been longing to do for years :). I'm hoping to post up my successes and failures so others out there can learn from my mistakes, and share the tips and tricks I learn through the process. That and get advice from you guys out there :).

- Ashelia <3

c o m p l e t e d ♥

Here's the section for all my completed costumes. Click on the image to take you to the entry for each finished costume.

p l a n n e d ♥

Here's the section for all the cosplay's that I have planned for this year. They're either costumes that I have not started on yet, going to complete later, or gone on hiatus.