Kitty hat, and a sewing machine!

Nyaa!

I got a kitty hat! It has little ears and is soft. OwO It's based on Asuka's hat from the third Evangelion Rebuild film, which won't be here for a looong time. But yes, it keeps my head warm and makes me look like a weirdo when running around London.

In other news, I have started using my sewing machine, a Brother CS6000i, which I imported from the US a month or so ago. I am merrily making an array of wonky lines of stitches on some waste cloth in bizarre thread colours. It's all computerised, so the machine also beeps angrily at me when I try and do something stupid! It's pretty good fun. My first project with it will be Suika Ibuki from Touhou, a drunken, flat-chested oni. I have my wig now, so I will get cracking on the horns fairly soon.

...

I swear to god I didn't mean for that pic to come out like some terrible attempt at being gangsta.

Cosplay Diary: Bra top!

References for EVA 01's chest armour, and the final thing!

More work on my Evangelion Unit 01 cosplay, which has been on the backburner a while. Eva 01 has a few layers of armour plating over its chest, and my idea was to convert this into a bra top. 

For a base, I used some kind of cotton training bra meant for 12-year-olds to cover up their new mosquito bites with.

Cups covered with blue PVC (bottom half.)

Blue PVC, red PVC and some black rubber washers were used to cover up the cups.

Somehow my covering of the cups appeared to have eaten half the centre gore, because I have no idea what I'm doing. However, a little still remained, so I covered that too, and glued on a red glass cabochon to act as the Eva's 'core'. It's not very noticeably red - think the damage counters from Pokemon. But the intention was there...

An uncovered armour plate, made from interfacing, Rigilene boning
and definitely not my neatest stitches...

Finally, the external armour panels. I created a framework from interfacing and Rigilene boning. I then covered this with black cloth, then purple and green PVC, and attached them.

And the final result looks like this! Gratuitous filth incoming.

Bra on.

Bra off.

I'll be making a cropped jacket of some sort so the straps and underbust strap (which are all uncovered at the moment) won't be visible on the final cosplay.

I'm pretty happy with this though! My only worry is that the bra is a little small. This means I can't really jump around excessively or I will risk a nipple cheerfully poking out over the top, which would be pretty disastrous. I think I might wear plasters over them like last time I cosplayed, just in case of such wardrobe malfunctions - it would still be pretty bad, but less so than the alternative.

Cosplay Diary: Collar v.1

  My current project is making a cosplay of Evangelion Unit 01, except in a more human form. I have a concept art, but it's rather outdated, so I've been meaning to make a new one. Maybe next time!

First step: the neck piece, based this on the orange area which covers 01's throat.

グオオオオオオオォォ！！

  My first attempt at this used the basic idea of a neck corset - a rigid collar, more common in fetish stuff than anywhere else. But by god, in the process of researching plasticky materials I think I've seen every latex and PVC item in the world ever. Seriously, I think nothing could surprise me now. I've seen things.

o___o

o________o

  Anyway, I created a framework from Rigilene plastic boning (not steel boning, or it wouldn't bend!) and interfacing, and added a zip so that it could zip up at the front. I also added a comfy black fabric lining to the inside.

The framework underneath, with boning along the top and bottom edges as well as at intervals vertically.

Edges covered with black cloth, to avoid an ill-timed plastic bone to the jugular.

 I then sewed a covering of black cloth and orange PVC, and attached this to the framework. Results are as follows:

My verdict - it is passable. I can wear it, and I have learnt a lot from making it! The downside, I would say, is that it's fairly thick (required for that much reinforcement) and slightly loose - to have it perfectly form-fitting in a non-stretch material, and then to wear it around a con, would probably cause me to vomit spectacularly over a bunch of bootleg anime merchandise.

Perhaps if I have time, I will make a collar v.2, using stretch fabric for the lining and relying on friction and minimal boning to keep it up. That way I could make a more form-fitting collar, but I risk it falling down, whereas this one never would... I'm not sure which would be better. I guess experimentation will tell!

But I think I'll fix up other stuff first. Next stop, the bra!