How to Cosplay: Make an Arm warmer

This article focus on making the base of an Arm Warmer that is seen on many of the characters from the enormously popular Music Program; Vocaloid.

Tools & Materials Needed:

Fabric

Bias Tape

Elastic Band

Fabric chalk

Scissor

Sewing Machine

Thread & Needle

 

 

 

Instructions: 

1) Measure

Length = Length of your arm warmer ( roughly Elbow to Wrist)

Arm Width = Circumference of your upper arm

 

2) Draft

Fold your fabric in half and make sure the inner fabric is facing out. Following your own measurements, draft your pattern onto the fabric.

3) Cut

Make sure you leave 1/2” allowance at the edge then cut the pattern out.

4) Interlock the edge

Interlock the fabric if you have the machine because interlocking fabric helps your garment stay in place longer and of course, combat frays.

5) Sew the curve edge

Here we will tackle the raw edge on the curve. Fold the edge of the curve 1/2 inch inwards and sew it down.

6) Sew the Bias

Vocaloid Arm Warmers have a strip of colour on both ends. This is the step to sew the bias on to both ends.

7) Sew the edge

Flip to the inner side and fold you arm warmer in half again. Sew along the black dashed line. After you are done, flip it inside out and your arm warmer will start to take shape.

8) Sew the Elastic Band

Now we will sew a tube along the edge at the top of the arm warmer and insert an elastic band into it.

Fold 1” inch of fabric from the top down, Fold along the entire circumference. 

As I’ve explained in the video, what we’re doing now is something like folding a tube around the circumference of the arm warmer. The tube will allow us to insert the elastic band into it and thus making our arm warmer into something similar to an elastic skirt.

Sew along the black dashed line but remember to leave a bit of gap so you can insert your elastic band through the gap. Lastly, attach your elastic band to a safety pin and thread it through the gap. Finish by sewing or tying both ends of the elastic band together.

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Tiger & Bunny, Final Episode airing in Japan

This is nothing Cosplay related but because it’s awesome so I’m blogging about it.

As we know, the highly popular Anime Series; Tiger & Bunny ended it’s first season last Saturday .

The popularity of the series proved itself when the Fans filled up 46 Movie theatre screens country wide to watch the Live-Viewing of the final episode along with special appearance by the Seiyuus & Staff. According to Reiko, that’s like 22,000 fans!

Obviously, I wasn’t able to participate but my ever kawaii ‘Ex-Boyfriend’, Reiko was. And she wrote a very detailed journal of it HERE!!!!!!!!

I admit I’m not the biggest T&B fan around but I can so imagine the joy of walking into a Movie Theatre and it gets dominated by the poster of the Anime title I’m about to watch! And the excitement of watching it along with hundreds other supportive fans.

Need I expound further xD?!

Makes me wonder if the fandom in Singapore (or any other countries other than Japan) would ever reach such a standard. A situation where by the demands of the Fans are hard to ignore and the fans actually have some power xD

<3

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Pretty, pretty Samara

I made a post about Samara's costume last year and nothing has changed with that, but this time I used 3-D gel from Mehron to create the decayed effect instead of Erikeeper. I'm not sure what to think about the product really. The gel felt sticky even after I fixed it and the white cake make-up I used didn’t stick to it too well. The instructions recommended that the wished color should be mixed to the gel in liquid form, but of course I didn’t have anything for the purpose. And I had skin colored gel. Transparent one might have been better.

I think I’ll give the gel another go on Halloween with a new character... What? Did I say I'd take a break from costume making..? I don't recall doing so...

Here are some photos from our well hunting day with more typical, scary-Samara! All photos are taken by Yoki.

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WWCPJ: The Finale

Thank you for all your attention and participation, the first Worldwide Cosplayer Photo Journey has officially come to a fruitful ending! It pains me to announce this but all things come to an end right?

I pondered long and deep over on how to announce this but I guess being upfront is the best. Let's take a look at the pictures from the camera xD

Haha yes, they are horribly grainy except Mexico. Sadly, Malaysia  and Canada’s photos didn’t develop but thankfully Riko took a backup copy with her digital camera ^^.

And here's the awesome scarf!!!!!! I must praise each participant's dedication and awesome handiwork! Look at how beautiful the scarf turned out! Here's some close up of the handiwork by each participant!

Asakura from Chile

Hiroky from Mexico

Laura from Brazil

Rita from Peru

Riko from Malaysia

Bumbley from Canada

Inuran from Singapore (She didn’t made the decoration though, I did xD)

I feel strangely unwilling yet relieved to end this project. And I find myself unable to articulate this entry so pardon if I sound incoherent. It feels like there’s so much I want to say and ought to say but it overwhelms me too much to make any sense out of it. Which is part of the reason why it took me so long to announce this.

Firstly, I would like to once again, thank everyone for their encouragement and enthusiasm. In an age where speeding broadband and Social Networking Sites dominate, it seemed almost miraculous that snail mail and good old negative camera would be embraced.

Secondly, I want to thank all the participants for taking part and putting both their heart and money into this project xD All your dedication shows on the scarf and looking at it makes me want to cry xD Because no matter how far you get in life (i’m still a loser =< ), to know that someone out there agrees with what you’re doing and has showed physical support, is EPIC awesome. In a time where superficial human communication and shallow love dominates, I feel touched from the bottom of my heart. I just hope all of you had fun getting yourself busy ^_^!!

Thirdly, I want to apologise for being so slow with my updates on this project. As each of the spotlight entry takes a lot of researching effort. I understand I took longer than preferred ^^;; And pardon my lousy ending entry to this project. If anyone else out there wants to do another similar project of their own please let me know, I’d love to take part xD!

Please don’t feel sad that the project has ended, maybe one day I’ll bring it back. Or someone else can *hint*. There are a few other sinister random projects budding in my brain now so who knows, maybe something else even more wicked will come by soon =)

To end it off, the Worldwide Cosplayer Photo Journey 2010 - 2011 had been a very fruitful journey and I hope it gave everyone a chance to learn more about the beautiful countries the 7 participants came from. I know I definitely learnt a lot!

Read the Spotlight entries of the participating countries below ^_^

WWCPJ Country Spotlight: Chile!!

WWCPJ Country Spotlight: Mexico

WWCPJ Country Spotlight: Brazil !

WWCPJ Country Spotlight: Peru !!!

WWCPJ Country Spotlight: Malaysia!!!!

WWCPJ Country Spotlight: Canada!

WWCPJ Country Spotlight: Singapore  (Coming soon. Alternatively read this)

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How To Cosplay: Flawless face Makeup

As we all know, Makeup is synonymous with Cosplay (except mascots or Gundam Cosplays). To help you guys achieve a flawless face, I’ve gathered some tutorial videos on this topic. Hope you guys like it!

How to get flawless skin

Blog Entry: http://www.makeupgeek.com/tutorials/updated-face-routine/

How to make your face skinnier

 

 

How to hide a blemish or Zit

Blog Entry: http://www.kandeej.com/2011/05/how-to-hide-zit.html

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Costume cross-section- Barriss Offee

In our version of Barriss’ costume there is seven different pieces; cape, scarf, cowl, dress, belt, shoes and lightsaber. I’ve seen other costumers and cosplayers with different solution. Some have done separate shirt and skirt or cowl attached to the cape itself. You can’t really tell how the costume is constructed when it’s on, so I went on with a way that was most suitable for us and my way of costume making.

The cape fabric was something we really searched for. Finally we accepted this synthetic fiber mix we found from local fabric store. It has velvety or brushed cotton type surface, but the inside looks like what you would use in a shell suit. Gladly, the printing emulsion worked on the synthetic fabric. We used a stencil roughly a size of an A4 sheet and used pearly blue and silver opaque colors from EMO-tuotanto. Needless to say, the process took days! Still it was bit faster than printing Luminara’s cape.


The cape is pretty much straight pieces of fabric. The back is gathered to eight large folds, which I sewed on a shoulder panel. The front is double layered and lifted from the front to the tip of the shoulder and sewed on place. The hood is patterned rather freely, it’s supported by iron on backcloth and the whole thing is lined with black acetate. The cape has hidden hook fastening on the front.


The scarf is actually my old “pashmina” scarf I bought for few pounds from London. I just cut it in half and thus sacrificed it to cosplay goddesses.


The cowl is sewed from leftover pieces of the cape. It fastens with hooks on the back of the neck.

The dress has four different fabrics on it. The top layer of the shirt is made from two crinkled and detailed tricot fabrics. As a lining is used lycra tricot on the bust in two layers to prevent transparency. The hem is made from heavy knit fabric with 5% elastane to ensure decent fall and flow. To make the look on the middle section of the bust according to references, I sew pin tucks for more detailed look.


The hem is half circle as the upper part of it is more or less like a tube. I sew the shirt part and hem part separately and joined them as a last step. If I wish to change the hem, the cut on it is slightly lower than the reference because in my mind it fitted Yoki’s physique better, then I can do it easily without having to seam rip the sides.


Yoki made the belt buckle from pulp board, craft foam and some yarn. Here is a link to a post she made about it. The belt is made the same way as Luminara’s; with brown pleather on top and awning fabric on the back to give support. Barriss’ belt is little darker than Luminara’s, so I used a sponge to rub dark grey acrylic paint thinly on the pleather. It actually worked really well. The acrylic set on the pleather nicely and didn’t crack even if I tried stretching it.


The black boots were found from same second hand shop as Luminara’s. There are five decorative buckles on the sides and reasonable heel to walk. Price for the boots was something ridiculous, like ten euros.


The lightsaber Yoki made from pulp board tube this time from plastic wrap container, craft foam, putty, black electricity tape, silver spray paint and finally screws and plaster buttons as details.

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