Cosplay Update + Adventures in Metal Leafing

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since my last update! Where does the time go? Well, once the weather up here in the northern treasure state got nice, it's been pretty hard to keep me indoors.  I think my inadvertent sunburns are more than evidence enough of that.  My husband and I also rearranged our little apartment so that I have my very own craft room now! I'm very lucky ^.^, and now I have lots more space to spread out and work on cosplay projects!

And that is what I have to report to you today, is some progress I've made on my latest cosplay.  I will be cosplaying Morgiana from the manga/anime "Magi."  It's a series loosely based on the "Arabian Nights" stories-- mainly they use the same character names, and its roughly the same time period.  It's quite enjoyable to watch, and I would definitely recommend it.  Morgiana is my favorite character from the series.  She has excellent character development and she is a strong character with a well-defined personality.  Specifically, I will be cosplaying the outfit she wears in episode 18 of the anime.  I've included an image below for your viewing convenience, but to see the whole series you can visit http://www.crunchyroll.com/magi.

This outfit also makes an appearance in chapter 81 of the manga.  Morgiana's usual outfit is much more conservative.  This particular one is worn for a festival, but I chose this one because its going to present much more of a design challenge for myself.  Sure, it doesn't look like much sewing, but I'm going to have to learn new sewing techniques.  This will also be the first time I've created a cosplay from the ground up, rather than utilizing clothes or accessories that already exist. And who doesn't love a challenge?

The first thing I've gotten started on is the accessories.  From the image above you can see it includes two ankle cuffs, one wrist cuff, a necklace with a chain that attaches to the top, and a headband.  All presumably made out of gold.  As I certainly don't have the financial means to buy and process gold, and hours of scouring the internet were fruitless, I decided to build everything out of good ol' Wonderflex.  

Continue down the post for photos and explanations of my progress thus far! ;)

This is the pattern for the body of the headband

Ta-dah! I used two layers of Wonderflex, plus a thin third outline of Wonderflex to give it definition.
The little ring is where a little tuft of hair comes through (see above photo^^)

Made patterns and traced everything else out onto Wonderflex.

Everything finished! There are approximately 8 to 10 layers of Gesso on here.  Gesso primes the Wonderflex for whatever painting material you are going to use.

If you are wondering how I formed the cuffs, what I did was warm up the Wonderflex  with a heat gun, waited for it to cool just slightly, then curved it around whatever I needed it shaped to, i.e. my wrist, ankle, or head.  It's best to protect your skin with a layer or two of plastic wrap if you want to form Wonderflex directly to your body.  

*To get double (or more) layers of Wonderflex, all you have to do is heat all the piece up with the heat gun and stick them all together.  For extra stability (I did this in the ankle cuffs), simply sandwich a piece of craft foam in between the Wonderflex layers.  

Left wrist cuff.  If you caught it in the photo above, I accidentally made a wrist cuff for each wrist, although I only need the left wrist.  But too many wrist cuffs are better than not enough, right?

Perfect fit!

So, onto my adventures in metal leafing.  Metal leafing is a method in which you apply an adhesive, the metal leaf (a foil like substance that is metallic,) and then a sealer and you can turn pretty much any surface into something shiny and pretty.  After watching a few videos and doing some research on the use of metal leaf, I thought it would be pretty nifty to use it on my accessories to make them shiny gold.

The test run went pretty well.  It seemed to go on smooth and was pretty durable, unless I tried really hard to scrape it off.  

"Look at me, I'm so pretttty and shiiiiny."

When I went to apply it over a large surface area though, I had a very difficult time maintaining a smooth, uniform texture.  I got about halfway through my headband when I decided that I'm going to order some gold Rub 'n' Buff and finish my accessories with that.  It doesn't look as bad in the photos as it does in real life, but the scratchy texture is very noticeable in real life, plus I feel like this is almost too shiny for what I am aiming for.  I feel like the metal leaf would work really well for other applications, like refinishing a frame or gilding small areas, but it's just not what I wanted for my cuffs.

"I lied, I'm not so smooth and shiny after all!"

"I'm also very messy to clean up and you are going to find gold flakes all over your craft room for MONTHS!"

Thus ended my adventure with metal leafing.  I've already ordered gold Rub 'n' Buff from Amazon and should have it within the week!
I'm very excited to finish this cosplay.  I think it's going to be really fun to wear, and I'm looking forward to the sewing challenge. It is also pretty good fitness motivation :)

Any questions or comments? As always, let me know!
Until next time,
-Alycia

No-Sew Mini Top Hat Tutorial!

Hello everyone!

Today I'm bringing you a step-by-step tutorial (with photos!) on how to make a miniature top hat, without sewing.  This tutorial is meant to be quick and easy, so obviously the end result is not as.... "pretty" as it would be if I had spent hours meticulously sizing up and hand-sewing each piece.  This is meant to be simple and fun, so lets enjoy it!

Materials:

• Paper (for patterning)
• Craft foam (for giving structure to the hat)
• Felt (optional, reinforces structure of hat)
• Hot glue gun
• Material of choice (approximately a 2x2 foot piece, just to be safe)
• Embellishments of choice
• Hair clips or attachments of choice

Step 1
     Decide how big you want your top hat to be, or just wing it! You will need three pattern pieces:  a rectangle that will be the "body" of the top hat, a circle that will cover the top of your hat, and a bigger circle for the brim of your hat.

Trim the top part down so it sits pretty on the body

Step 2

     Cut your pattern pieces out of craft foam. Use masking tape to tape your rectangle into a circular shape.  For the brim of the hat, cut a hole into the middle of it approximately the size of the body of the hat, erring on the side of smaller.  For extra stability on the brim, I cut out a second brim and hot glued the two pieces together.  For extra stability in the body, I glued felt into it and re-taped it shut,

Step 3

     Choose your fabric and start gluing!  For the body, I started with a piece about an inch wider on each side, and folded it over on the inside.

This is using the original pattern piece so I didn't have to cut the hat apart again!

I pinned it in place for the first couple inches, then slowly and carefully hot glued all the way around on the inside.  When I reached the end, I folded the fabric over and glued it down.

This is the top circle.  I glued it using what I dubbed the "glue, fold, and tuck method."  Almost ran out of fabric at the end, but had just enough to cover it.

I don't know why I had that silver circle lol

You'd never guess the bottom looks like a mess, right?

For the brim, I just used the same method as above.  Chances are, one side will end up prettier than the other, so at your discretion, use the pretty side for the side people will see (AKA the side that isn't against your head.)

Step 4
     Hot glue that baby together!

Step 5

     Embellish! I made a band using a pretty silky material, but just plain ribbon would work fine, or whatever you want.  And yes, I sewed the band together, and sewed it to the hat because silk material and hot glue do not play well together.  Learned that the hard way.  For the extra stuff, I had some feathers laying around which I hot-glued on.  I also dismantled some clearance-rack jewelry and hot-glued over the feathers.  The lace around the bottom of the brim is from a dollar roll at Jo-Ann's.

Step 5

     Attach attachments!  I used some hair clips that I purchased at Jo-Ann's, but use whatever you want, be it a ribbon or stretchy cord or whatever.  If you do use a clip of some sort, I would recommend securing it by gluing a piece of felt over it.

Step 6
     Wear proudly! Enjoy!

oh lala!

As usual, feel free to let me know if you enjoyed this.  If you want to see something like this in the future, or have any suggestions for tutorials, just let me know! And you have any questions for me about this tutorial or my cosplays in general, you can ask me here or shoot me an e-mail at heartandsoulcosplay@gmail.com

Sincerely, 

Alycia

Rub 'n' Buff: Photo examples and product review

Hello everyone!

Way back in 2011-12 when I decided to create my first "armor" cosplay and had no idea what to make it out of, I discovered a seemingly-simple and inexpensive  way to create good-looking armor, by using this tutorial:  http://entropyhouse.com/penwiper/costumes/helmsdeep.html

Since you can get the specifics of the process by clicking the link, what I'm going to do is share my experience and thoughts with using Rub 'n' Buff, and provide some photos for reference!

So what is Rub 'n' Buff? Its a wax-based metallic paint that you rub on to the surface you wish to cover, and you buff it until it is shiny.  Sounds awesome? It is awesome!  I haven't found a surface it won't stick to, including my hands and clothes!  For my first time creating "armor," this was a great material to work with, and I was very impressed.   Here is the end result:

First off, with the exception of the wings and swords, it took approximately two tubes of Rub 'n' Buff to make this entire costume.  I used two different tints-- the lighter color is Silver Leaf, and the darker color is Pewter.  I have half a tube of Pewter left, and used up two and half tubes of Silver Leaf in the entire creation of this cosplay.  The craft foam (yes, the craft foam you find in stores and make cute little turkeys cut out in the shape of your hand from) is covered with about 8 to 9 layers of a soup made from half Elmer's Glue and half water.  The Rub 'n' Buff went on incredibly easy and only required one layer to create an even, thorough cover.  This is in contrast to, say, a metallic acrylic paint which requires multiple layers to get even coverage.  

Here are some photos I took tonight, contrasting two different materials, with and without a primer, and how the Rub 'n' Buff looks on each.

My well-used tube of Silver Leaf.  Mix it up in the tube before squeezing some out so that it's evenly mixed.

My test material-- Red= craft foam, White = Wonderflex.  The pieces covered in black had a quick layer of a plastic primer sprayed onto them.  If you are covering a piece in Rub 'n' Buff to use in a costume, use a primer or sealer of your choice that will give smooth, even coverage (see above reference to Elmer's Glue.)

Make sure you have a decently ventilated room to paint in, because this stuff is pretty smelly.  It has a sharp, nostril-burning smell.  It doesn't linger for long, and is hardly noticeably once it is dry (unlike fiberglass resin, per se.)  It's also important to wear gloves.  Although it washes right off of skin, it is a chemical, and any time we can reduce our chemical exposure is a good time.  I have also had problems with wearing a hole through my rubber gloves if I'm spending a lot of time rubbing the paint on, so watch out for that.

So a little bit smaller than pea-sized amount spread easily over these two sample craft foam pieces.  And even with the piddly amount of primer I used on the left example, it went on a lot smoother, and I had to use a lot less, whereas with the unprimed right piece, the Rub 'n' Buff  wanted to soak in and not spread around.

Overall, the Rub 'n' Buff did spread a lot smoother on the Wonderflex, but that is because the Wonderflex already has a smoother texture than the craft foam.  The small bit of primer I used on the left did help, though.  

An up close shot of the Wonderflex with primer.  You can see the Wonderflex is still textured, but not to the extent the unprimed sample is.

Oops! This was the ungloved hand I used to take photos with.  The Rub 'n' Buff can get pretty messy if you're not careful.  

So, as in the tutorial I linked above, I sealed the Rub 'n' Buff with the above floor finish.  It provides a nice sheen, and offers mild protected from everyday wear and tear on your project.

Last photo! On the right side I put a streak of the finish and let it dry.  Nice and shiny! But also smelly until it dries!

To sum it up, the pros of Rub 'n' Buff are that it is relatively inexpensive, goes on easy, looks great.  Cons are, it is smelly, it's a bit messy, and depending on the material you put it on-- not incredibly durable.  With the first cosplay I wore it with, the armored one in the very first photo, the craft foam was sealed with the Elmer's Glue mixture, then had Rub 'n' Buff and Pledge layered onto it.  It looked great while it lasted, but I tried wearing it one hot, humid, summer day, and ended up with big silver streaks on my skin where the Elmer's Glue melted and rubbed off onto my skin.  Kind of a bummer deal, but I've learned a lot since then and hope to make more awesome armor-centric cosplays in the future!

Any questions, comments, or concerns? As usual, feel free to shoot them my way, via comment, Twitter, or you can email me at heartandsoulcosplay@gmail.com.  And if there is anything you would like to see in future posts, please let me know!

Until next time,

-Alycia

SakuraCon 2013 Cosplayers!

What's up guys?
I'm back again, with photos of other cosplayers from SakuraCon 2013! This is gonna be a fairly photo heavy post, just a heads up.  There were so many awesome cosplayers, as usual! This is barely a fraction of everyone who was there!  One of the reasons I have so much fun at the convention is because everyone there is there because they want to be, and everyone is so happy and having fun! It's also very inspiring to see the other cosplayers and how they create or interpret their character.

Well, as I usually say: On with the photos! Enjoy!
-Alycia

Chaotic group pic of most Final Fantasy people who showed up to the shoot! Do you see Justin and I?

P.S.! See any characters you recognize? Let me know which ones were your favorites in the comments! <3