2011 Costumes: A Recap

Last year, I was a busy cosplayer. By which I mean I made many more costumes than I usually do in the space of a single year. Six costumes. I made six from-scratch costumes (only three of which *I* wore),  in addition to some thrifted steampunk outfits. The two anime-related costumes I made last year turned out much better than anticipated, so I thought I'd share them with you...code for "I'm avoiding homework right now."

The first one:

 This is Kallen Stradfeldt, from the anime Code Geass. I pretty much had to do this cosplay at least once, because she and I share a first name! And with a name as uncommon as "Kallen" that's pretty much never going to happen to me again in my lifetime, that I find a character with my name. Anyway, this costume was SUPER uncomfortable, and not terribly well tailored, because it's the first thing I got to make with the aid of my dress form...it was a learning experience, to say the least. All that sucky black trim you see? Yeah, around ALL the edges? Took so. Damn. Long. Also...I forgot about putting on the belt loops until the day before the con...and then I was like "Screw it! Close enough!" Around...oh, $150 went into making this? I wore this at JAFAX 2011.

Super Sailor Pluto, obviously. Photography by TotallyToasty.com, and boy are those ladies amazing! Costume consists of a wig (purchased), a leotard with attached Sailor-bib/cape-thing, a skirt, two bows (small on front, large on bum, both pinned in place so that the costume could be more easily washed), a pair of modified boots (had to add the white around the tops), a pair of gloves, a pair of earrings (cardboard, with the bow fabric glued on--a college budget solution if ever there was one!), a tiara (found on Etsy), a heart-shaped brooch made by my friend Kristine, and the staff (which my lovely boyfriend made for me). Basically, this costume was a ton of little pieces, and a pain in the ass (and the feet--those boots suck!!), but wearing it was probably one of the most rewarding cosplay experiences I've had to date, because Sailor Moon is such an iconic show. I'd say $200+ went into this costume, easily. Worn at Youmacon 2011.

The other four costumes were these (the photo on the steps was taken by Kristine), which we wore to the midnight premier of Deathly Hallows pt. 2. I'm Ravenclaw, my friend Mads is Hufflepuff, my friend Ame is Slytherin, and that's my boyfriend as Gryffindor. ^..^ We all had our "Founders' Artifacts" with us too! Cup for Helga, Sword for Godric, Diadem for Rowena, and Locket for Salazar.The writing on the diadem is even in Old English (thanks to the help of the Livejournal community "Linguaphiles"), because I do not agree with it being easily read as it is in the novel. I debated putting it in...well, I forget what my second choice was, but based on the clues in the books as to Rowena's origins, it seemed likely that she'd have also spoken Old English, so that's what I went with. My friend Travis did the inscription and pressing of the diadem for me. ^___^ Together these four costumes (not counting accessories) were probably around $300-$400 worth of fabrics, but most of the materials were left over from previous projects, so only Hufflepuff needed to be bought from scratch, as well as Gryffindor's cloak and some things like fabric pain and threads. I think we only ended up spending around $100.

Anyway, I think I've procrastinated as much as I can reasonably get away with, so I'm gonna post this (now that it's after midnight--yikes!) and try to get back to my school work.

<3