Final result: Morgiana Cosplay!

Hi, all!

So I think saying "I'm done!" with my Morgiana cosplay is a little misleading, but all the sewing is done! All I have left to do is decide on wig and contacts to order, then a little bit of beading for the necklace, then I will really be done!  But none-the-less, most of it is done and I am very proud of myself.  Aside from the top, which was built on top of a bra, this is the first cosplay I've done where I made all the pieces myself instead of repurposing old clothing.  Actually, ignore that last sentence.  That is a lie.  My Erza Scarlet cosplay was done the same way-- I made everything for that except for the bra top that the armor was built over.  But back to this cosplay-- although it might look simple, it was a bit of a challenge for myself because I've never really made anything like this outfit.  And booooy, was it a learning experience in the last stretch.  I'll explain as I go.  For now, here are the photos of the last stages of the sewing!

>>Here they are, the notorious embroidered circles!  Lovingly embroidered onto silk wired-ribbon, then painstakingly hand-stitched into place so they would match up on the front and back of the skirt.

See my beautiful, even stitches! Mostly..... 

Front view

Back view

 >>Now, I needed to construct some sort of belt to keep the two skirt pieces attached and secure on my body.  So I made a strip of material and reinforced it with fusible interfacing, then hand-sewed the two skirt pieces to the "belt".  To make an attachment, I used two hook/eye combos, as seen below:

The eye

The hook

The final result 

It all comes together now!

 >> Now, for the overlapping material on the skirt.  This was the part that gave me the most frustration, as I didn't abide by the "measure twice, cut once" rule and ended up doing a section about three times.  I decided to build the different sections of draping, for lack of a better word, into separate sections that could be snapped and unsnapped, just for the ease of getting the cosplay on and off.

 Above is the first front flap I made.  It turned out to be a little too revealing for my tastes, so you'll see later on that I replaced it for a more modest drape in the front.

Snaps are easy to install, easy to use!

An example of the draping.  The back drape is a bit bigger than the front one, and hangs down a little more in the back.

>>Lastly, there is fabric that hangs down on each side, connecting at the top and draping at the bottom.   I sewed it onto the top, and then it will tuck into the bottom and be plenty secure.

Voila! The finished cosplay! Okay, mostly finished.  Once I get the wig and contacts, I have a photo shoot plan in my head that I can't wait to do.  It will be worn in "debut" at the 2014 Sakura-Con, to which I am elated to say I already have tickets purchased for and hotel booked.   Also-- exciting news, Justin is joining me in this cosplay as Masrur, who in the Magi series is one of Sinbad's Eight Generals.  Seriously, if you haven't checked out this series you are missing out! I'll be posting progress of this cosplay, because it will involve making some armor, and will be a bit different than any other armor-related cosplays we have done before.

Any questions or comments? Don't be afraid to leave a comment or send an e-mail or tweet! I enjoy your feedback.

Take care, everyone!
-Alycia
heartandsoulcosplay@gmail.com or @whimsyAly on Twitter

First November Update: Progress has been slow

Hello everyone!

It's been a couple weeks, hasn't it? I've been working hard, I promise!! I just finished the hand embroidered ovals I talked about in September on my Instagram video.  I really enjoy hand embroidering, I always have, but it's pretty slow work on slick material like the ribbon I used.  The finished trim turned out great, though, and once I finish sewing it onto the skirt and finish a good portion of the skirt I will make a progress post with photos for everyone.

I've also been visiting a lot of local craft fairs and vintage markets.  I went to my first "Vintage Whites Market" here in the valley, and was really impressed and got a lot of crafty-inspiration.  It's actually quite terrible when I go to craft fairs, because instead of seeing something I want and buying it, I tell myself "Oh, I can make that, no problem!" But honestly I never end up making it, unless I'm really, really motivated to do it.

Oh, and you also may have noticed some graphic enhancements to my blog! Instead of coming up with content for a blog post (actually, one of the things I was gonna do for a blog post molded, eep!) I spent time drawing the header for my blog, and making the background.  The header was sketched in "Sketchbook Pro," on my Mac, and although it may not look like much I spent a good few hours on it and am pretty pleased with myself.  And the background was super fun to make.  I think I could have a future in photo editing ;).  The image is comprised of different photos of objects I have in my craft room.  Its 7 images layered on top of each other, with the backgrounds made transparent so that they would sit pretty with each other.  All the photo editing for this was done in Gimp; it's a free, open-source version of Photoshop, and while a little tricky to figure out, it does a great job.

No photos this time around, sorry! But next post I make will definitely have the progress photos from what I'm doing.  Do you like my work on the background and header for my blog? Wanna scold me for not working fast enough to bring you progress updates? Just wanna say hi? Send me a note on Twitter, or jot out an email to heartandsoulcosplay@gmail.com!

Stay cozy!
-Alycia