(And this way I can spread them out a bit and pretend like I post more often then I actually do.) 

This part  will cover most of the construction, pattern drafting, and basic parts. Post two shall skim over the details, and have photos of how it looks finished. I’m not sure if I’ll actually be able to get nice photoshooty pictures of it, but I’ll attempt to loop a friend into taking some at AnimeNEXT. 

…..

I watched both seasons of Rosario Vampire a few months back with my brother and father, since we wanted to try out another anime on Netflix. The series proved to be pretty silly, the plot wasn’t very strong and the panty shots were insane…but I still found myself giggling through it.

What really stuck out of the series, to me, was the character Mizore…she is something really special (or at least I think she is).  Usually I pick characters from series I really enjoyed, or ones whose outfits I find appealing. It’s rare for me to actually cosplay a character just because I like…well…them! 

…..

Mizore is generally pretty quiet but not in a shy sort of way,  she is a bit of a stalker and tends to only jump into conversations to make creepy comments. She is also, quite literally, an ice queen. 

…..

That being said, this costume was actually decided on by a whim; A few days back I realized I didn’t have a costume planned for the Friday of AnimeNEXT. Most of my costumes are quite heavyweight, or quite uncomfortable, neither work well for a summer convention and five hour car trip!

The thought of making an entire costume in two weeks, (plus finishing another) seemed absolutely insane, but also the best option. Mizore came to mind since I had suitable materials around already, and her outfit looks amazingly comfortable.  Plus I really enjoyed her character and had a wig that would work perfectly.

…..

I actually had most of the materials around already! The white and navy jerseys were picked up for separate costumes, but luckily I got a yard extra of each which gave me plenty to work with for Mizore.

The purple jersey I originally bought since I found the colors very pretty, and wanted to attempt making stockings in the near future (since I require them for an upcoming costume) as a bit of a test. I didn’t originally buy them with the intention of cosplaying Mizore, so the colors’ lining up so well was really lucky!

I picked up the teal jersey and homespun cotton plaid for the skirt at Jo-anns.

In total I think all the fabric for this cost around $25, since most of the materials cost $3 a yard. Which makes this BY FAR my cheapest costume. 

…

I decided to start on the skirt first, pleated skirts suck to make but are quite easy and generally a good confidence boosting way to start a project.

Plus, you can do all the tricky bits while sitting in front of the TV.

The Rosario Vampire uniforms skirts are closer to belts then skirts with how short they are, but I’ve found that 15 ½” is pretty much the shortest I can make a pleated skirt without It rising up or showing anything inappropriate, so for me that is the “ideal” length, and the length I chose for this.

I added in the seam and hem allowance and cut two 17” by 72” strips, the remaining material will be used for the waistband later on.

After this was done I hemmed it an added all the pleats. I opted for 2 ¾” knife pleats on this one; *Technically* 2 ½ inch pleats would have been more accurate since Mizore’s skirt has 12 pleats, my waist is 29” (29 divided by 12 = 2.41 inches) but when I actually played around with it, I felt the slightly large ones looked much better.

Since this is a loose weaved material, and you know…plaid, the pleats aren’t super obvious in this photo. But they are there, I promise!

Then I cut out my waistband and interfacing. Interfacing isn’t really necessary, but I find it makes things look a bit sharper so I tend to add it anyway.

Then I marked out where my elastic panels would go and sewed them in accordingly. I’m actually not to fond of skirts with partially elasticized waistbands (I’ve never made one, but I do own a few with this “feature”) but they do make things more comfortable, and since comfort is a priority in this costume I decided it was worth the extra effort and less attractive appearance.

Time to finish the visable edges~

 I used a 3.2 stitch length to top stitch everything, I also ran over the elastic 3 times to keep it tacked in place. 

This is what the elasticized panels looked like before I clipped the threads! I’m not sure why I took this photo before I did so, but I did…so…yeah, they look cleaner now! These don’t have too much give, but they do add 3 or 4 inches which is enough to make things significantly more comfortable.

Sewed on the snaps.

Used a button covering kit to make matching ones, then I  sewed them over the icky stitching which was visible from sewing the snaps on.

Waistband complete!

Sorry for the terrible photo. I’ll try to get a better one tomorrow.

Then it came time for the stockings. My mother very kindly agreed to cut the material for me, which I really appreciate considering jersey is such a bitch to cut into even strips. 

This is the best photo I got of the strips, since by this point the 4” strips had rolled over on themselves making them appear much smaller.

And yes, these were absolutely hellish to sew. Sewing 72” wide strips of jersey together isn’t something I want to repeat anytime soon…

After that was I done I cut them apart and into very rough blocks that I knew would fit my legs with a few inches on each side to spare. Please pardon my messy floor.

Then came for the pinning, oh god the pinning.

I draped the fabric over my legs and went at it, pulling it to be as tight as possible and doing my best to keep the strips lined up. Then I cut around my leg, and tried to leave even seam allowances.  (which is quite difficult to do when you are actually wearing it.)

I find the photos of this quite amusing.

How it looked unpinned:

Then I drafted up the top, I took a few of my measurements and eyed out how I thought it should look.  I think I’m actually pretty lucky with how it ended up fitting, considering I neglected to make a mock up or anything of that sort.

I got the sleeves and side seams sewn up, but the pocket and blue trim still need to be added!

Now this is how everything looks together. I still have lot’s to fix up…and another stocking to make up, but I’m pretty happy with it so far!

I also decided to do a makeup test the other day, and snag some pictures of the unstyled wig. I’m actually really scared to style this wig, I’ve never done any sort of spiking before and I’m worried I’ll wreck it.

 I like how the makeup photographed, though! This is probably my favorite shot.

Though I kind of like this one too ^^

So uhm…yes, that is all for now! Part two will include sewing the skirt together, adding trims and pockets, making the other stocking, making the leg belts and styling the wig!

Anyway,

I am completely unknown on Tumblr. I have 30something posts and a few hundred followers, which is pathetic compared to most tumblrs. I post twice a week at the  most, and on a very *good* day I might get 4 new followers and a few re-blogs.

Really, pathetic.

Still, tumblr has recently wiggled its way onto my “morning website list” where I go through six or so websites and check to see if anything exciting has happened while I was asleep.  Usually I’ll check my dash in the morning and have maybe five new activity notices (followers, reblogs, ‘likes’, etc.)

 Yesterday to my great surprise I woke up to find  one note, 30 new followers and a few dozen reblogs, In total I have over 50 new activity notices. You should have seen my face. It was a mix of confusion and awe, my first reaction being;

“Did I sign into someone else’s tumblr by mistake?”

I decided to leave the confusing mess that was my dashboard and check my notes. The one note I received cleared up all my confusion, which was nice.  Here it is:

My reaction to this was, “….wait, what? Seriously?” before typing up a storm and finding this alleged twitter post. Surprisingly enough, there it was, sent out to his 27,000 followers.

The link he posted leads you to here, the picture that I posted on my tumblr a few days back.

I can’t read Japanese myself, and unfortunately  google translate wasn’t much help. But several people have told me that it says “Really great” and that he’s  happy with it, so I’m under the impression what was said is positive.  

If your confused, Oyari Ashito is more or less the creator of the character “Napoleon” from Eiyuu*Senki.  He designed the character and drew the art work my costume is based off of. If you’ve been following my blog for the last little while his artwork should look familiar, you guys remember this from a few posts back, right? 

Needless to say, I am absolutely thrilled.

My goal with cosplay is always to do the character justice, and it’s a goal that has never really been achieved. I’m a perfectionist and never consider my work being good, it’s just “good enough”, which makes this all more wonderful. 

Knowing the creator of the character [that i'm cosplying] thinks I’m doing a good job with it is a huge compliment; I don’t think anything can really top that. 

To make it even better, the photo also got #5 most popular/most liked of the day on tumblrmap.jp.

Yes, it was a good day indeed.  

….

On a separate note, recently I’ve been getting tons of views from the Philippines and Britain. I’m not really sure why, but it makes me happy to know that my blog appeals to people outside of the US.  

….

 Thanks for reading! It will probably be a week or so until I post more progress updates, i’m currently waiting for exciting stuff to arrive. In the mean time i’m just doing nasty details that no one would want to read about.

….

You can read more about the costume, and how I made it through these posts

The making of Napoleon part 1: The fluffy skirt

The making of Napoleon part 2

The making of Napoleon part 2.5: How I altered the boots

bonus photos since you read to the end, haha! 

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Today I’ll be writing a review about the ebay seller “WigFashion”, you can check out there store here: http://stores.ebay.com/Wig-Fashion

People seem to have mixed feelings about WigFashion, a lot of reviews have said the colors are inaccurate to the provided images, but the wigs themselves are very soft. On the opposite end I’ve also heard they are accurate to pictures- but very rough and shiny. I’d never deemed them worth gambling on, but when I discovered a wig from them that looked perfect for my next cosplay I decided I’d give them a shot.

Here’s what the listing looked like. On sale, how wonderful!

And the images provided. One thing I must give WigFashion credit for is that they take their own photos, no stolen taobao pictures here.

I guess I’ll start off talking about shipping; I ordered the wig on March 27^th, and it arrived on April 4^th, so it took 9 days, which is pretty damn good considering it was coming from China. I’m used to waiting several weeks for wigs, so this was a pleasant surprise.

I was also given a tracking number, but like most out-of-country tracking numbers it didn’t update until the package actually arrived (seriously the post office should work on fixing this, it’s ridiculous).

The package itself was an envelope, which instantly made me sigh. I guess I’m a bit of a packaging freak, since I’ve had SO many wigs come tangled due to poor packaging. I really wish wigs just came in boxes. Despite the buggered up envelope and lack of cardboard protection for my precious  wig, it was surprisingly OK on the inside.

The wig came in a bag, with a card from the seller, and a wig cap.

My immediate impression was actually a good one, the color was nice and the fiber felt soft. Unfortunately it didn’t look too much like the provided photos. I was expecting a wig with plenty of volume around my face, where as this one was quite thin and lacked the pictures thickness.

Honestly I picked this wig because of the pictured volume, so this was a bit disappointing.

It does have a fake scalp, which I wasn’t expecting! Usually I consider this a good thing, but in this case it isn’t done very well.  It looks really fake and the fiber sticks out of it somewhat oddly, it isn’t very attractive.

From the inside wefting it would appear to be pretty thick, but the fiber lacks volume which makes the wig seem much thinner.

I think the shine is what really kills this wig, you throw a flash on it and it looks terrible. I’ve seen party store wigs that photograph better than this, it’s really very shiny….

Upon trying the wig on [very carefully] and doing a bit of styling I already saw the curls falling apart. There just isn’t enough volume there to support them. And of course, there isn’t /any/ volume around the face, which makes it quite unflattering. (but that’s more of a personal problem than anything else).

How is looks on :

Sorry for the mirror pictures, I don’t have a webcam anymore. Also, thanks to the /cgl/anon who edited these for me! Life without photoshop is hard….

I had this wig on for maybe 20 minutes, the first thing I noticed is that the fit is really nice. I’ve got a 21″ head, so most ebay wigs fit me just find, but they tend to be slightly tight. This one however wasn’t tight at all. I would say it could fit up to 22 1/2″ or so.

The next thing I noticed was the curls falling out and getting frizzy at the ends, even though I only wore the wig for maybe 20 minutes. It was terribly disappointing and left me unsure of what to do. Finally I decided to attempt to de-tangle and recurl it, which actually went really well!

The wig detangled really easily, and didn’t frizz up at all when I used my curling iron to recurl it. I think if you are going to get a curly wig it *has*  to be heat resistant, since you need to recurl it between convention days. So it was definitely a pleasant surprise when I discovered it took heat so well.

Price: ♚♚♚♚♔

Accuracy to listing: ♚♚♚♔♔

Overall quality: ♚♚♚♔♔

Shipping: ♚♚♚♚♔

Thanks for reading. ^^

…..

 This was my first time doing this, so I apologize that my results aren’t stellar, I did the best I could consider the entire process was a stab in the dark. I really wish I’d had some guidance along the way, but unfortunately there aren’t any tutorials out there outlining how to do this – or at least there weren’t any I could find. So I’m going to remedy that!

….

I’m going to show you how to add cuffs to a pair of boots without sacrificing any length. 

What you will need:

A pair of boots

Craft foam

Fabric [that matches your boots]

Matching thread

Scissors

Seam ripper

Ruler

Pins

Sewing machine [not picture, lol]

Marking pen

Using your scissors and/or seam ripper, remove all the buckles, straps, buttons, or other unwanted pieces from your boots. Most shoes in the $50~$100 are made quite cheaply, so removing these should be quite easy.

Once everything is removed, measure out how long you want your cuff to be (I wanted mine to be 3 ½”) then cut that amount off the top of your boot. This is the scary part, ha.

Now trace your cuff onto craft foam and add ½ seam allowances.

Then cut a piece of fabric (in this case I’m using black, but it should match your boot color.) it should be the same size as the craft foam piece, but with an extra inch or so on each end.

 Fold those 1” ends over and sew everything with a ½” foot.

Most boots have foam padding in the tops to make them more comfortable, but this is useless in our case, so go ahead and remove that, it’s just going to make the next step more difficult.

Flip your cuff over so what was previously the top is now the bottom. This way you have a finished edge pointing downward.

Sew across the top and trim the excess fabric/craft foam.

And voila, your cuff is done!

But before you attach it, add the details to your boots. In this case, my boots needed buttons going up the side, so I went ahead and attached those.

Now, pin the cuff in the desired spot and sew it on.

In this photo my shoe still has a pin in it, whoops. ^^;

Finished! 

Hope that was helpful! Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Finally, a progress post. I’m sorry to say that recently I’ve been a bit lazy when it comes to the photo taking aspect of documenting my work, so there shall be more text then photos.

My first thing to fix was on the skirt, though I was pretty happy with the ruffly-ness,  it had deflated a bit. Luckily the solution for this was really simple: Get a petticoat. And to make it even better, I already had a petticoat that would work perfectly. This particular one is from leg avenue, and cost around $9 on ebay auction, it’s really fluffy and short which makes it ideal for supporting the ruffly mass of bridal satin that is my skirt.

Here is an example of the effect it gives.

 I still need to add a zipper and tack bits down, but I’m pretty happy with it so far!

Next up was remaking a part of the costume  I wasn’t happy with, the shirt. The one I made originally was quite scratchy and just didn’t fit right. Plus the sleeves were a little too poofy for my tastes. So when I was in the city this past weekend I picked up some lightweight cotton jersey and whipped this  together.

I referenced one of my regular sleep wear shirts to get a basic idea, but I made sure to leave 4” on each lapel so I could add interfacing and support for the buttons. This all went together really quickly and easily, within 2 hours I had myself a comfy shirt.

Then it came time for buttons, I quickly learned buttons are far more fun to play with then to actually sew on…. “RAWR!”

In total I purchased 138 buttons- all of which will be used on this costume.

And here they are sewn on! I think it looks pretty snazzy at this point, It still lacks a collar and the bottom edge is unfinished, but I think it looks good. I’ll draft up the collar later tonight or tomorrow and get that finished up. I don’t think it will be too difficult. *crosses fingers*

The jacket is easily the most difficult part of the entire costume, and it’s also a part I messed up on several times. My first attempt wasn’t *too* bad, but it had so many issues that were impossible to fix. I decided remaking it would probably be faster and look much better.

Here is the first attempt, as you can see, it never even got finished.

I’m much happier with my second jacket attempt, the fabric is a bit thicker and lighter in color. Which makes it nicer to work with and more pleasing in texture. A lot of it is still pinned, which is why it looks a bit lumpy, but that should go away soon enough.

Sorry for the mess D:

Then it came time to make the jacket collar and abuse it with 50 someodd buttons.

My wig also arrived, but unfortunately i’m quite unhappy with it. I’m going to try and get a new one as soon as I have enough money to do so.

And my mirror needs cleaning ^^;

And here are how my boots are coming along! I got the base shoe for $20 at famous footwear, but unfortunately they lacked a cuff and the signature buttons. But with a bit of creativity this issue was resolved.

They aren’t 100% done yet, the cuffs are just pinned at the moment. But i’m pretty happy with how it’s going!

And I guess that’s it! I’ve kinda been juggling  three projects, so progress hasn’t been very speedy. Hopefully i’ll have more to post soon.

As always, thanks for reading!

Read part one here!

First off, my wig arrived! I quickly wrote up a post about that which can be read right here. 

This is what it looked like at first, pretty, right?

But it wasn’t very accurate, so I took my clippers to it!The wig also lacked Mio’s signature accessories, so had to make those as well.

So I measured the circumference of each pigtail clip and added few centimeters for wiggle room, then I cut out craft foam strips that were 1/2″ wide and in the previously mentioned length. I  covered them with my red material, using glue to make it stick. After the glue dried I sewed through the craft foam/fabric sandwich to make it look a bit  more polished.

I cheated on her hair clips, I just bought ones from target, then painted them red with nailpolish.

After this I decided to get buttons sewn onto my uniform, it would be pretty lame if it lacked buttons, right? Since I needed something sturdy to sew the buttons onto, I fused panels of interfacing into the front of my uniform, then folded the edge over.

Whew, all sewn on!Though they aren’t actual working buttons, the uniform opens and closes with larges snaps.

It was really starting to come together, at this point!

Next up was figuring out the Maijima academy crest/patch that is prominently displayed on the uniforms. I knew making one was out of the question, and ebay proved to be useless, so I ordered it through JoJoCustomizes, on etsy. His store is currently closed, but you can message him for orders and commissions.

He was really easy to work with, and very okay with making minor changes to the design. He agreed to resize it for me so it would fit my uniform better, and was very quick when replying to messages. I would highly recommend him if you need some sort of patch! This one cost $10.00 + $2.00 shipping.

Some pictures of it.

Then I made the cravat, which was really fun. I fused interfacing to a long strip of material, then pleated and pinned it in a way I found attractive.

Once I was pleased with that I made up the sailor collar, which took A LOT of tries to get right. I think I made four mock ups, then messed up on my first “official” attempt. Luckily my second attempt went smoothly. It’s just a difficult shape to draft out and do properly.

The red line markers where the 1/2″ strip of red will go. My mom was nice enough to cut out the strips for me, which her fancy routary cutter.

I purchased a dress shirt from Khols for $10. I cut the sleeves off, took a bunch of fabric out of them, then turned the left over fabric into ruffles for the cuffs. I also cut off the collar and sewed it onto my uniform. For some reason I didn’t take pictures of these steps, woops!

This is what it looked like when everything was put together.

Not too bad, eh?!

I still wasn’t happy with my skirt, though. It was too big and bunched up in the back. So I decided to sew the first few inches of each pleat down.

After this I hemmed the back of the jacket and had my mom cut out another 30″ long 1/2″ wide strip of red material for the bow, and I declared it done! It looks a bit wonky here, but I ironed it soon afterward, which fix’d up all the odd bits.

Looking back, there are a lot of things that could have been done better. But I’m amazingly proud of myself, this is the first costume I’ve truly made and drafted from start to finish.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed! C’ya next time with whatever project I take on.

◠ω◠

On Friday and Saturday I was wearing Mio from “The world god only knows” I don’t have any full body pictures, but here’s how my makeup looked.

My brothers friend was nice enough to drive me on Friday, I would say we arrived around 3. Then began the treacherous wait in line, seriously 3 hours of waiting with nothing to entertain me but an i-pod.

Once I finally got past the horror that was called a pre-reg line, I learned they didn’t have anything registered under “Angela Clayton”. They actually had a mix up with my last name and I was marked “Angela McGonagle” which is somewhat hilarious. I really don’t have any idea how they managed to get my name so very wrong. I guess you can never put anything past volunteer staff!

Luckily it was sorted out pretty quickly, but it was still ridiculous.

I was very good in the dealers hall, I only bought 3 things, which cost a total of $21. (Last year I spent around $100 in the first day, sooo…) My purchases were pretty stupid, but really cute, they are tokidoki Unicorno’s!

The packaging is adorable, not that I would expect anything less from tokidoki.

Though the, ‘This is not a toy. This is collectable art.’ thing kinda cracks me up, considering what the product is.

The bottom lists that tokidoki unicorno’s are only for people 14 years or older. Good thing I didn’t buy these a few years back, I wouldn’t have been allowed! Okay, it it just me, or is the mental image of venders carding kids over unicorn figures absolutely hilarious? 

And for the actual figures.

This is Mooka, she is my favorite!

This is Stellina.

And this one is Rimto. I was actually super sad when I got Rimto, since I thought he was really ugly ;_; but now that I’ve had him a bit, he’s kinda growing on me. Ugly in a cute way, ya know?

And that’s about all I have to say about Friday, I didn’t really do much of anything,  I just wandered around and talked to people. My stomach was pretty upset, so I ended up going home quite quickly. Let’s move on to Saturday!

◠ω◠

Saturday morning was spent in the dealers hall, and trying to find a Special Effects Makeup panel
(which was canceled without notice).

Around noon I met up with this guy, you remember him, right? He was nice enough to take all those pretty pictures of my Sheryl Nome costume back at New York Anime Fest. And this time he came bearing gifts!

The first were fancy business cards printed from Moo, and they feature me as Sheryl Nome on one side ^^

And of course the other side has actual information about his websites.

And a 4×6 print, with a cardboard frame.

Next up was a poster of myself,  It’s around 19″ x 13″, and beautifully printed. I figured the only thing I could possibly do with this was hang it up, so that’s what I did! Now I have this whole shrine to myself thing going on, which looks pretty odd and self obsessed, but oh well…

A nasty mist of rain followed us throughout the shoot, so it was quite cold and damp, but nothing unbearable. I should have the photos back in a few weeks, hopefully some of them came out okay! It would be really nice to have some shots of this costume, since I’m not sure when I’ll wear Mio again.

Thanks again to Andrew for putting up with my lack of posing ability and complete idiocy when it comes to direction, and the gifts were nice too!

◠ω◠

Someone had drawn a trollface on the trashcan!

◠ω◠

Shortly after that was over I headed to the main building and ate a hardy lunch that consisted of french fries, lays potato chips, and ginger ale. Due to lack of seating space a man I had talked with briefly sat with me, he was a photographer that had traveled to conventions all over the world. It was really neat talking to someone who had experienced conventions in Japan, Australia, and Germany first hand. I DID have a link to his DeviantArt, but I appear to have lost it, ah well…

◠ω◠

Speaking of DeviantArt, I got to see my followers istealcookiez and breyerfan8913. I’ve actually met them before, but it was nice seeing them again. I wish I snapped a picture of them, as they looked quite cute.

◠ω◠

I then I headed down to the Dealers hall and bought some stuff that I really didn’t need.

The first thing I picked up was a Full Metal Panic! figure, these usually cost around $20 through amazon or via import, so I was thrilled to see them selling for $8. Being a FMP fan I had to get one, there are 6 character options, but unfortunately you can’t pick which character you get.

The box:

Character options.

Being a huge fan of Teletha “Tessa” Testarossa, I was really hoping to get her. I guess I got super lucky since that is the one I got! She’s really cute, too.

Then I bought some earrings, I’m such a sucker for earrings, and sparkly things in general, I simply couldn’t resist! The pairs cost me a total of $10, which isn’t too bad.

Shortly after this I started feeling really dizzy and ill, on top of that there weren’t any interesting events or panels going on, so I decided it was best to go home. I called my dad and was picked up around 4. Honestly, I’m sad that I ended up going home so early, but I think it was for the best.

Though we did stop at Sally’s beauty supply on the way home to pick up a few wig heads and some makeup that I was in dire need of. I somehow lost both my red lipstick and eyeliner, yikes!

And with that, Saturday came to an end.

◠ω◠

Sunday! I debated a bit about whether or not to bother going today and ended up deciding to go. Honestly I don’t think it was the right choice, I should have just stayed home and slept. I was dressed as  Anya Alstreim in her night of the round uniform, but I forgot to take a picture of myself..erm

◠ω◠

This bad boy was set up in the dealers hall, I know it isn’t a Gundam, but it’s from a Gundam series, I think. Either way, it was made of balloons and huge! It was also fun watching the guy make it.

Baka and Test figures that I just BARLEY avoided buying. I highly considered it, but they were $40 each which is kinda a lot, and I knew that I would regret it later. Another place had a really pretty Stocking and Ranka-Lee figure, but they were both $50.

*sigh*

Figures are adorable, but a huge waste of money.

And a massive Doctor Who booth in the dealers hall, complete with life sized dalek. There were actually a lot of booths specializing in doctor who merchandise. I was quite surprised by that!

Then  I bought this snazzy shirt. The color is pretty ugly, but the picture and caption are cute. Plus the fabric is really soft and comfortable.

After my dealers room adventures I headed off to the Art Show, which ended up being awful and terribly disappointing. The work was good, but the room and layout were really bad.

◠ω◠

By this time it was 2pm, I was tired, and I was ready to go home.

◠ω◠

So that was my weekend! It wasn’t bad by any means…it just wasn’t a very good convention.

Overall opinion of I-con 31?

It was boring, the panels were mismatched and weird (plus most of them were canceled, many without notice), it was disorganized and overall quite lame. If this weren’t such a “local” convention, I would not be going back next year.

It was definitely more secure then last year, almost to the extent where it became annoying. They were very diligent about bag and badge checks. They also kept a really good eye on anyone who had a prop (glad neither of my costumes required those.) At points the staff was even kicking kids out for being obnoxious and not having parents around. (If you are under 14 you need an adult with you at all times.) Last year you could get in pretty easily, I’m sure you could sneak in even without a badge, but this year that wouldn’t have been tolerated at all.

The majority of the cospalyers were from Homestuck and Doctor Who, I would say around 60% of cosplayers were from those series.

All and all I-con 31 was a really lame and sucky convention, at least for me. I’m sure my feelings toward it aren’t helped by the fact I’m somewhat weak and injured at the moment, (and on top of that I had a cold.) But I didn’t really enjoy this years experience with I-con.

Anyway, meet Napoleon:

Napoleon’s skirt is ridiculous in the poofyness and ruffle department, seriously it’s insane. So right away I knew that I would need tons of material, and some sort of stiffening for the hem. Luckily I already had several yards of white bridal satin laying around, then the other day I picked up 12 yards of horsehair braid, which meant I had everything I needed to get to work.

Step one was drafting a quick circle skirt pattern, I think everyone has seen these before, but this is what mine looked like. Please excuse my terrible handwriting.

Next step was cutting them all out, in total I cut out 4 circle skirts.

Then I sewed them all together. At this point they didn’t look much like a skirt, but they made a lovely scarf. For reference of how much material was here, I’m around 5’ 10”.

Then came the pinning. Oh god, the pinning. The hem was 12 yards, which means it took ages to pin it all, and to make things worse, my bobbin ran out half way through without me realizing, which meant I had to do even more pinning then I had originally planned.

And for those curious, this is what the horsehair braid looks like.

After it was all hemmed and had the horsehair braid added you could see the ruffles forming. Modeled once again, as the lovely scarf that it was.

Since a corset/vest is worn over my waist, I couldn’t have the ruffles extending all the way up. So I made up a waistband, it’s made of three panels and has interfacing in all of them. Then I went ahead and lined it for good measure. This is also where I gathered my “scarf” down into 40 inches of ruffles.

Then I sewed them together, and looky here, It’s pretty much done! I just need to tack down some of the ruffles and add a zipper. But that should be very easy.

Edit: 5/5/12 A few updates on this skirt!

I added a petticoat for more “oomf”

And then I went through and sewed certain parts down, giving it all a more uniform look.

This is a tutorial that explains how to use each function in a program I’ve recently discovered that is named XiuXiu, you can find their website here: http://xiuxiu.web.meitu.com/main.html

XiuXiu is an online quick and easy photo editing program with preset options to help you look as attractive as possible or even dramatically change your appearance. It’s frequently used by asian bloggers, but you’ll see it being used in the US as well. It works best for straight on portraits, but could be adapted to work on many different types of photos.

But, the program is entirely in Chinese, and there is no patch. So I’ve been fumbling around it in over the last few days trying to figure out how every little piece works. Despite not know any Chinese myself I  *think* I have figured out the purpose of virtually every button. So this is a walk through that will (hopefully!) help you along if you feel like using this editor.

If I got anything wrong, or missed something, please point it out to me.

Once you arrive at the webpage you should be greeted by a menu that looks  like this. It should have 3 options, the first is uploading a file from your computer (which is what I would suggest). The next is taking a photo with your webcam, and for the final is using a photo via link.

I’m just using a sloppy mirror image I took of myself a few months back. The photo I’m working with has been edited previously to make the lighting less yellow, but my features are untouched.If you decide on upload from computer or drive, it should look (more or less) like this.

As you can see it looks really standard. Just keep in mind XiuXiu only supports a few file types. Click “open” and then click yellow button again to upload it.

The next screen should look like this, but with whatever photo you uploaded. It’s all a bit confusing, eh?

I actually really love the layout of XiuXiu, I think it’s clean, simple, and really lovely *cough* unlike photoshop *cough*  The only reason it’s at all intimidating is because it’s in a different language.

No worries, the language shouldn’t be a barrier, I’ll walk you through it all!

Alright, if you choose the Second main tab and First minor tab and click the first tab (on left) you will get bars that allow you to adjust brightness/contrast, exposure, and saturation. If you click Second main tab and First minor tab and click the second tab (on right) you are able to adjust your hue and color  balance.

I think color balance and hue are pretty self explanatory, but here are some examples of the other effects you can achieve. Just keep in mind; I would NEVER use these effects so heavily, that would look bad, these are just examples.

The next option is under Second main tab and Second minor tab, this controls image rotation. It’s pretty much self explanatory.

Now onto the crop tool, which lies under Second main tab and Third minor tab, again pretty much explains itself.

This next one allows you to adjust overall image size, it’s under Second main tab and fourth minor tab.

Onto one of my favorite tools that XiuXiu has to offer, though I’m not really sure what you would call it, I’ll show you how it works. This option is under the Second main tab and fifth minor tab under the first tab (on left). The photo starts out blurry, and then you can “erase” what parts you want to be clear.

You have two levels, one controls the brush size, and the other controls how heavy the background blur is.

Here is an example of different effects you can achieve through using this tool.

If you click on the right tab you get a different tool that is quite similar. Instead of “erasing” the blur you have two circles. The outer circle controls the fade of from sharpness to blur, and the inner circle controls what is entirely clear.

The larger your outer circle it, the more natural it looks.

A few examples.

Another neat tool is a pixelation tool that is located Second main tab and sixth minor tab. Again, two bars. The top one controls overall brush size, and the other one the overall size of the pixels.

Next up is the Second main tab and seventh minor tab.This next tool makes your picture entirely black and white, then you can “erase” the black and white to see the original colors through it.

A few examples.

And the final tab underneath the second main one! This one can be used to change the color of anything, it’s actually really neat! You get over 100 colors to pick from, at a set opacity to make it look really natural. It’s great for testing out new haircolors and such.

Third main tab and first minor tab. has all sorts of filters. Each filter has an opacity control bar, and apply/undo buttons.

Here are a few examples, but the options are endless.

Third main tab and second minor tab, and the first of these little bars controls simple brightness/lighting preset settings. Though I think the original intent with these is to make skin appear brighter and lighter.

A few examples.

Onto the second little bar, this one allows you to make features smaller/larger. You have two sliders, the first one controls brush size, and the second one controls enlargement size.  If you use a negative number on the second slider it will make things smaller, if you use a positive number it will make things larger.

The third bar down is red eye control…I’m not even going to get into this one, since it’s so easy to use I’m sure you guys can figure it out on your own.

The fourth one allows you to give yourself blush, you have 10 different pages of blush options that you can scroll through with arrows at the bottom of the page. To select one to use, just click on it and move it to the desired area.

You will also get this little option menu popup to help control the selected item. The controls are labeled below.

Onto the fifth bar! This one lets you add contact lenses, eye makeup, eyebrows, and eyelashes to your picture. You can control them the same way I showed in the previous picture. You can switch between these by using a scroll bar on the left. The top one is contacts, the second one is eyeshadow, the third one is eyelashes, and the final one controls eyebrows.

Again, you can page through these arrows located on the bottom of the page.

The sixth bar has options for hair, and the seventh bar has tattoo options.

Third main tab and third minor tab has more add-ons, From hearts, tiaras, clothing, holiday themed stickers, and fun signs. All of these can be added the same way blush, makeup, hair, and tattoos are.

Then we move into fonts, Third main tab and forth minor tab. The fonts involve a lot of buttons, but are very simple to use, click the text box, select a font, and type whatever you want. Then use the menu to control size and color.

The next tab down let’s you add speech bubbles of sorts. Click on whichever speech bubble you want, pick your font, color, and adjust the size to your liking.

And the last tab down let’s you add cute pre-written text.

Third main tab and fifith minor tab has 5 different sidebars, that each have a few dozen frames, tarnishes, and filters.

Third main tab and six minor tab, this tool is stupid, but fun nonetheless. You get to put your face into other images.

Third main tab and seventh minor tab  gives you three options, you can free paint, add cute emoticons, or simple silhouette images.

These emoticons are pretty much the cutest thing ever, I feel like they will make it into a lot of my future facebook photos.

Main tab 4. Let’s you turn your image into a really cheesy gif. – honestly I can not imagine anyone ever using these, since the look so dumb….but anyway, you just click which effect you want and it’s instantly added to your picture.

Onto Main Tab 5, and minor tab 1 let’s you create collages really easily. Just click whichever design/how many boxes you want. Double click on the unfilled boxes to upload a new file.

Major tab 5, and Minor tab 2 lets you add a background to your image.

Fifth main tab and third minor tab lets you add a simple background to your image.

Move along to main tab six, and there my friends- you are finished! Label your file, choose the quality you want, and click the blue button.

I hope this was helpful, feel free to ask if you have any questions.

For today I’ll be reviewing a wig I purchased from  jcpunk, you can check out their store here: http://stores.ebay.com/JC-PUNK

I had searched around for a wig in this pale milky gold color for several weeks and nothing seemed to suit my needs. This wig looked more or less, perfect. After searching around I found mixed reviews, but for the most part people seemed to like their wigs. So I bit my lip and ordered it despite the cheap price and obviously stolen photos.

Heres what the listing looked like

And here are the stock photos JC-PUNK provided on the auction, they are very obviously stolen from taobao (another thing that made me quite uneasy.)

Shipping: The wig was ordered on the tenth of February and arrived today, the twenty-third, so it took a total of 13 days to arrive. Not bad! They provided me with a tracking number, which is usually a plus, but this tracking number was really glitchy and never updated. Up until the 21^st it claimed my package was still in China awaiting acceptance.

The packaging was really nice! Poorly packaged wigs are a huge peeve of mine, so I’m very pleased with this one

The package consisted of 2 hair nets, one for the clip ons, and one for the main wig. I wish they had used three hair nets and separated the pigtails, since they were slightly tangled together. The package also included a “thank you for ordering” card, and a wig cap. I really like it when wig caps are included; I think it’s a nice touch.

The base wig is okay at best. It will work for a base wig, but I would never wear it on it’s own, as it is not thick at all and very flat when put on your head, which makes it very unflattering. I tend to like my wigs full, and thicker near the base to give volume.

The worst part are the bangs which are very thin and awkward to work with or attempt to part.

The clip ons, however, are really nice! Very thick and easy to detangle! But my favorite part has to be the clips themselves, which are really strong and hold quite well. Oddly enough the clips seem to be made of a different type of (nicer) less shiny and courser fiber.

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I must say that these photos don’t really capture the true color of the wig, the actual color is very close to the advertised photos!

Now, for photos with the flash on. I used a direct box flash, no diffusers or speedlights. And as you can see, the result isn’t very attractive. It’s a bit better then I expected, but still not very good. Luckily, it would look far better in a photoshoot environment with softboxes and such…..just hall photos will make it look really cheap.

Example of clips

Wefting on the base wig.

Wefting compared to a Fantasy Sheep wig that cost me $15

I must also mention that this wig is quite small! I have a 21″ head and it’s *almost* too tight for me. So if you have an average sized american head there is a good chance this won’t fit you.

Picture of me wearing it, please note this is AFTER cutting the wig.

All and all, it’s not a great wig. But it’s decent, usable, and in the color I wanted, but I don’t think I wouldn’t buy from JC-PUNK again unless it was a last resort.

Price: ♚♚♚♚♔

Accuracy to listing: ♚♚♚♚♚

Overall quality: ♚♚♚♔♔

Shipping: ♚♚♚♚♔