That being said, the second reason is that sometimes, I don't feel like I look ok in my photos, and I don't post them. Yeah, like just about all girls out there in one way or another, I have a bit of an image issue. Go figure.
Anywho, I thought I'd give some sort of update about my latest work, which will be debuted at Kumoricon in Vancouver Washington one week from today (eek!). After I spent most of the summer thinking 'oh I'll just wear something I've worn before', something bit me and made me think that I had to have something presentable for Cosplay Chess. I've already worn one cosplay twice for different years of chess, and I didn't want to do it again. So I started thinking about what might be easy but challenging at the same time. Since I'd played a bit of the FFXIV:ARR beta, I thought about the mages. Then I thought, what about a White Mage? I had been contemplating that for a while now. So I started looking at images, wondering which take on the Mage I would chose. Everything seemed either super elaborate (which wouldn't work on my time constraints) or super plain. So I decided to modify something for myself. I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics with my friend Sarah in late July and found the right robe pattern I wanted to use, then came finding fabric, which wasn't easy. My first choice was a microsuede, but that cost $12.99 a yard and I needed almost 9 yards, yikes! I had a miracle sent to me in the form of a sort of faux crushed velvet that had recently been reduced in price. $5.69 a yard was much easier than $12.99. Plus, since it wasn't a sale item, I got the additional 40% off the total price! Now I'm not super religious, but I certainly wanted to holler 'hallelujah!' in the middle of the store when I got the final price. I can tell you that spending less than $25 on that much fabric is sort of a rare miracle at such a crucial time.
So I had my fabric, then came the hard part, cutting. These pieces were HUGE! So huge that when I cut the paper out, it had to be taped together to make the full sized cutting pieces (holy cow!). The sleeve pieces before being sewn together were taller than me O.o . The day after I spent 6+ hours on the floor cutting felt like I had done 12+ hours of yoga, but it was worth it. Sewing came next, and the main pieces of the robe were easy-peasy. The tough part was the sleeves. The sleeves had a lining of costume satin, and that stuff is a pain in the butt to work with. Needless to say, I cut the linings incorrectly and it caused me about 4 days of unnecessary adjustment work just to make them right. Now I have everything pieced together and this is what it looks like currently:
The next step in my mission is to have the robe fixed up and the red triangle trim adhered all around it (I hope I bought enough fabric!) Then I put the red triangles on the white dress I bought (its going to look so cute!). Hopefully I can make a staff in time because it will complete the look. I'll try to add more photos soon, but I'm just incredibly frustrated with Blogger's photo insert mechanism, mainly because I don't understand it yet xD.
I'm going to try my best to get better photos this year because I really think this is going to look great. Wish me luck!
