Kida Cosplay: Atlantis the Lost Empire

Why do only super skinny chicks get to cosplay the characters that show some skin?

I noticed this at MegaCon when I saw this dazzling girl dressed up as slave princess Leia in her aura of confidence and smiles; yeah. I was jealous. and yeah. I didn't like it. So I though "Psh, I could do that too", but then looked at my body and immediately thought otherwise.
Making my Kida cosplay was a journey of, welp.. I'll make it and not wear it, or I'll develop the confidence over time. The second one won out. But, I didn't do it for the attention or to show off my body at a con, I just did it to prove to myself that my body isn't this horrendous, fat blob I make it out to be, because I know I'm not fat and put myself down more than I need to.   
So I got to work and finished my cosplay. Yeah, I'll say I did work out for a solid two weeks, ate no sugar, and had super healthy meals (with veggies!), but refused to weigh myself, I wanted to be happy with how I looked. I know, this goes against what I just said, but I was never gonna be completely content with myself unless I actually tried to make my body better. So I did. I lost a bit, not very noticably, but to me it made all the difference knowing I put forth effort.
Here's the link: http://www.allouteffort.com/2012/11/how-my-wife-lost-13lbs-in-2-weeks.html
My results were nowhere near hers, but I switched a few things in the exercise and I was happy :)
So here's the results of everything, my sewing, my working out, and my confidence!

By the way, this took place in SwampCon at the University of Florida.


Photo Credits: Figments Media

So go out there and have fun!

 

GoFundMe Study Abroad in Japan

Hello all my fellow people!
I'm really hoping to study abroad in Japan this summer and really need help funding the trip :/ I'm studying costume design in college right now, and Japan has always been the place that inspires me most, whether it be with designing a costume, or sewing it all up; heck, its the reason I started cosplay and watching anime in the first place! But studying over there during the summer would simply be something I would never forget, and would help me design more and build my portfolio. Any donation would tremendously help! Thank you so much!

http://www.gofundme.com/l2nplg

Polka Dot Pajama Pants

I've been pretty bored all day, so I thought I should do something with my life and sewed up a pair of PJ's. Yupp, this is what I do with my life :P
Anyways, I bought the fabric at Jo Ann's, and its pretty adorable ♥

 

The pattern is McCall's 4261 and its a snuggle fleece fabric. From laying out the fabric to putting the final touches, it was about 3 hours total... not bad for a pair of comfy pants ^.^ 

 

 

See ya later alligator!

Ariel Inspired Dapper Dress

I really wanna go to Disney's Dapper Day (October 3rd, 2015, ) for my 21st birthday; yupp.. 100% partying like the disney fan-girl I am with all the other princesses :P I've really gotten into swing dancing lately and a lot of the 20s era things, so I thought it'd be perfect to make an Ariel dress with a little bit of everything and a bit of a pinup touch to it. I've never really designed a dress, so its a bit rough, but I love it anyways:

 

 

I've got the finger waves going on, the peter pan collar rimmed with small pearls, a bow at the waist with a shell in the middle, the kick pleats with a different color inside, the almost-sleeve-but-not-really-quite-a-sleeve-but-it-still-is-a-sleeve thing going on, and most importantly.. Ariel's colors!

 (I haven't decided on the shoes yet)



 I went to JoAnn Fabrics to check out what kind of fabric I should use and what colors (realistically) they had, lucky enough, they had wonderfully perfect colors that matched the Ariel look I was going for.

The purple and Jade look a little darker than they actually are, but the above pictures are pretty accurate

 

I didn't really wanna make the blue-green part plain, but it's what they had, Ill be on the lookout for a pattern that would look good, and I'll keep updating my dress progress as I go ^.^



 

--------Update: 12/28/14---------

New addition to the fabric family of options!!

Look at this beauty!! ♥♥♥ Its almost perfect! (I think) :P

When out under the jade fabric, it makes it look a lot darker, but its sooo pretty! I guess we'll have to see.

 

By the way, Jo Ann fabrics gives away free samples of whatever fabric you want (max. 2 per person), so that might help ;)

 

--------Update 1/9/2015--------

 

First attempt at curling iron finger waves, not too bad for the first time with no hairspray :)

 

Got the instructions from here.. but its hard doing it all on your own!

http://www.samvilla.com/pro/blog/how-to-create-finger-waves-using-a-curling-iron#.VK9uwu85DIV



 



 



 



 



USF Night In Tokyo Fashion Show

I didn't quite make anything here, but I modeled for the first time (I so happened to be blind as well), and what a wonderful experience that made *half sarcasm* ;)
I was a part of a group that did the Japanese Folktale "Night Parade of a 100 Demons" and was the demon "Tenome"... some might know him from Pan's Labyrinth, I personally haven't watched the movie, but (now) I do know a demon that was like this:

Inspired by that, the group leader and I brought together this look to walk down the runway with the rest of the demon parade.

Chains, blood, fishnet, and holes.. while having extreme teased hair, a burned up wedding dress, layers of gauze over my eyes (I literally couldn't see more than two steps ahead of me, it's a wonder clumsy me didn't fall off the runway in high heels) and bloody/painted hands where I couldn't touch anything for hours (meaning I couldn't pee)! But it was definitely a fun filled night full of nerves and amazing looking people.

 

 

If you're ever around University of South Florida, come check out the Japanese Club and see if we have any events going on, they're always fun filled and quite interesting! (no, we don't all speak Japanese nor are we all Asian)

 

But here's a few more pics from this memorable night :)

He was the Night Parade's stylist, creative and wonderful to be costume designer

 



She was also one of the demons

This was a sun goddess, I was her stylist: bringing together the outfit, hair, and make up choices

Also had a lolita section (Alice in wonderland inspired)





Guy Gardner Vest (Kids Size)

Around Halloween, I got an e-mail asking me if I could make a Guy Gardner vest for a 10 year old boy for his Halloween party; I was thrilled!! I had never made kids sized clothing before, so I finally got the opportunity to learn how to scale down patterns and use measurements to make something fit, and it worked! :D

 

I only had a women's dressform, but it worked, though, I probably should have put more belt loops to avoid the clumping at the bottom, but isn't he adorable??

 

 



And it looks great on him too! I charged materials + $30 for labor; considering I used coupons on all the fabrics, I think thats a pretty fair price, I'm still trying to get the hang of all this "business" stuff tho. Thanks for the opportunity you guys! :)

Anniversary Gift Box

My 3 year anniversary with my boyfriend recently passed and I wanted to incorporate something cute since all the gifts I got him were pretty random; I figured one could never go wrong with cute presentation, especially if its like a lift the flaps game :D
I work at Jo-Ann Fabrics so we get a lot of boxes and a lot if cardboard dividers within those boxes, which helped in making this :) Uhm.. the dividers kinda looked like this: (and you place them upside down at 90 degree angles to have them stay up and stuff)

My beautiful drawing

I put them all in a box to make the compartments different sizes and it worked out pretty well. I got some labels, scrapbook paper, a glue stick, tacky glue, and very hefty scissors to cut the cardboard.
After I made the compartment sizes, I cut out the "flaps" which was cutting the cardboard to be as big as the compartment + some extra space to glue the back to the box.

They're a little flimsy, but the box doesn't need to last forever!
As you can see from the picture above, I covered the cardboard BEFORE I glued the flap to the box, it helped the hassle alot. Oh yeah, tacky glue worked wonders with this project.
Afterwards came the decorating. As you should all know, I completely SUCK at painting, I am the messiest human being alive and me + paint = disaster. Yet, pinterest gave me some pretty good pointers :) I used the eraser side of a pencil, dipped it in paint, and made the polka dots on the side of the box (and to make the heart).

Then I painted the cover of the box, I thought this was going to be impossible until I found this blog on Pinterest: http://thatsmyletter.blogspot.com/2012/02/p-is-for-personalize-2.html
It taught me how to do any lettering and make it look absolutely amazing as you can see

Just follow that tutorial and you'll be good to go :)


When the flaps were all done, it came out looking not to shabby if ya ask me!

 


Each label was like a little hint as to what was in the flap, but not enough to give it away...
So it would pretty much be "I love you for: your quirkiness ( i got him a wax vac because theyre cool in a way), simply being you (home baked cookies because the way to a guy's heart is always through food :P), always thinking things through (a shower curtain with the world map on it because why not think more in the shower), always doing your best (books because he's studying English), always wanting to solve problems (a 2x2 rubiks cube), and what you like, dislike, and everything in between (I got him the spray smellies for men from bath & body works).

Welp, I hope this idea works for one of you out there and helps you out when you need ideas for that special someone or really any gift in general! Good luck ;)