Project Cosplay, Supplemental Remix

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Anime Expo 2008 Sneak Peak

Kitty Contreras and Mike W. plan a day of Anime deals, eating curry and buying books at the local shops by the Los Angeles Convention Center. This is perfect for anyone who isn’t familiar with downtown L.A. and wants some cool places to check out in the meantime. Sometimes early cosplay does come back from the dead to haunt you

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Hey everyone! Diana here with a little update on the haps of my cosplay world.

JoEllen and I recently finished our Fushigi Yuugi costumes (Miaka and Yui) for the SoCal Cosplay Gathering and had a blast but whenever I finish a costume (especially one where I went out and got all new fabric instead of searching through the tubs and tubs I have at home because, seriously, my house is just a better smelling extension of the LA fabric district) I always remember the cosplays that I have yet to finish. Which…are many.

This time though I found myself wanting to knock out something that had been sitting in my fabric pile (half made) for over half a year.

I have always felt that a lot of my cosplays were less dressy/girly and more kind of schoolgirl or sexy-ish (I really don’t find myself sexy- I just have big-ish boobs… I guess?) so last spring I was toying with the idea of making something that 1.) Wasn’t similar to anything I had made before and 2.) Close as possible to being and actual ‘ready to wear’ piece of clothing.

So I went downtown and bought incredible ‘Day of the Dead’ / ‘Skeleton Head’ cotton fabric and decided to make a ‘Crazy Mexican Dead People Christmas‘ Lolita dress. (which is totally a nod to The Venture Brothers, which I love)

My very dear friend Jairyln (who taught me the basics of sewing because I was totally doing it wrong when I started out cosplaying) shared my enthusiasm for this undertaking of fluff and taught me to gather and shirr and I set about making the biggest circle skirt with rows of ruffles and learned phrases like ‘contrast fabric’. This, i found, came in handy later that summer when I went out to FIT in NY. But that’s another story.

So, I manage to get this skirt knocked out. I love it. It is one of the better things I think I had made thus far in my sewing. But I just drew the biggest blank when it came to designing up a top. I knew some of the stuff I wanted but I was just unable to figure out how I wanted it to look. So it just ended up sitting in a bag with the extra fabric and every so often I would take it out and sigh, wondering when I was going to have it in me to finish it up.

Flash forward to this past weekend.

JoEllen, my boyfriend Zac, and I are sitting around while she works on a couple things for an order (a fairy costume for the upcoming Labyrinth of Jareth Ball which is looking gorgeous) and I decide that my couple semesters of fashion school are enough now that I should just get that damn dress done. So I did. And it took a good deal of time (we did leave the house a couple times for coffee and food and stuff) but for the most part, we listened to some podcast about ghost hunting (the one by the Ghost Hunter guys) and worked on our projects until we finished. Then I went to my friend Han’s bar and congratulated myself with alcohol. In my dress. Probably not the best idea. A huge thank you goes out to my boyfriend for helping me to keep going on it- I think he was almost more excited about me getting the dress done than I was.

Anyhow, this is the finished product and I hope everyone likes it. I am in love with it and have worn it several times out and around town (Lolita I have come to learn is treated not like cosplay and more as a fashion statement and you can read about it on the EGL live journal community if you’re interested ) and can’t wait to take a nice photo shoot and possibly make some more ridiculously adorable dresses with frills and fluff.

-D