Toothless - Kigurumi - How to Train Your Dragon

Jumping up the schedule by popular demand: Toothless! I made this Toothless kigurumi (onesie) to wear to Atomic Lollipop this past July. To be honest, I had been contemplating buying a kigu for the longest time, but I had never seen a design that I really loved. So long story short, I decided to make my own. I picked Toothless because I really love the movie How to Train Your Dragon--Toothless is the most adorable dragon ever. Of all time.

An added bonus here is that because it was summer, all this fleece was on sale! Definitely worth it with the amount I had to buy. My recommendation is to never under any circumstance buy fleece in fall/winter. You will pay 3 times as much as you do in summer. For reference, I bought my fleece at Fabricland in July for 6$/meter, now (September) they are selling the exact same product for 17$/meter. Yikes!

I looked at kigu patterns online, but eventually decided to draft my own from scratch. It took me 2 tries to get the onesie itself looking how I wanted it and 5 tries to get the hood right. Lots and lots of mockups.

Below you can see the onesie version 1 and 2 side by side. The first sleeves totally didn't work, and my hood problems were always that it was too big and floppy.

 After finally getting a pattern I was happy with, I moved on to cutting out all the pieces. Here are the hood pieces complete with fins, below you can see the wings and tail.

I changed my initial design for the sleeve, ending up with a sleeve style similar to my Katamari cousin pattern. It is a mitten sleeve with a slit on the underside of the sleeve to slip the hand covers on and off. This means the sleeve top is made of one piece, and the under sleeve is made of 2 pieces.

The bodysuit is in 2 pieces, with each half (right and left) being cut on the fold along the sides. (Meaning there are no side seams on this garment!)

On each of these I first sewed up the leg and shoulder seams, then I basted the center back-crotch-front seam, stopping where the opening for the buttons would go.

I hemmed the edges of the opening, then the sleeve top and bottom pieces were sewed right sides together then flipped right way out. I made sure the hand cover was on the outside.

 I sewed the wings and tail fins right sides together, then clipped the excess in the corners and flipped them right way out. I top stitched on the details. (Not pictured here is the red fin!)

It took much deliberation, but I decided to line the hood in pink, to look like the inside of Toothless' mouth, as opposed to making it black to match the rest. I sewed the hood lining together; first I stitched the whole front together, then the back, lastly the side seam that divided the two.

I sewed all of the fins right sides together, then clipped and flipped them right way out. I made a whole bunch of triangle shaped ones in varying sizes that would go up the center back seam. 

Carefully spacing the spines, I sewed the 2 tail pieces right sides together, then flipped it right way out. (I had to make sure the spines ended up on the correct side during this process.)

 Next I attached the front pieces of the out hood together. While I was at it, I put two small spines on his forehead in the center seam. While looking at reference images I carefully arranged the fins around his face, pinned them in place then sewed the side seam, completing the outer hood. The reason why the hood is made of 6 pieces is partially because it made the shape better, but also because I needed seams that I could easily attach all the fins/spines into.

Next was detailing. Using leftover green fabric from Isabelle, I cut 2 ovals. Using black fabric paint leftover from Vaporeon I painted on the pupils. I pinned the eyes in place and then zig-zag stitched around the edges. This made the fabric ripple a bit, which I am not so happy about. I also zig-zagged on some nostrils while I was at it.

 Right sides together, I attached the hood lining to the outside along the front edge.

Blarg! What is this monstrosity? Looks like Dr. Finkelstein. D; The hood was not so thrilling at first, it took some cleverly hidden stitching to keep the lining tacked in its proper place, because it wanted to curl outward. Pulling the hood lining back inside the hood so that the outside over-hanged slightly I pinned it in place. Then I stitched the two layers together along the lower edges of the eyes and on the sides of the hood opening. Trust me when I say this helped a lot.

 Next I put cuffs on the pant legs. I also sewed the arms into the armholes at this point.

 With some difficulty I put a rectangle on each side of the opening for the placket.

I painted the viking skull on the red fin with white fabric paint. Way cool! Once this was dry I hand stitched these directly to the tail, which I had stuffed by this point.

Then I marked for the tail placement and spaced the spikes in the back seam according, picking it out to put the spikes in, and then going over the whole thing with a permanent stitch. 

 I measured and attached the wings, which were then tacked up with velcro so that they wouldn't flop down.
I pulled the kigu over an ironing board so that I could pin the tail to the back without accidentally catching the front. Making sure the tail was extra stuffed, I pinned it in place, then stitched around the raw edge with a zig-zag stitch to keep the tail firmly in place.

Lastly I added buttons and button holes to the front!

1 excellent kigu that made everyone at APop jealous. Sorry all! This kigu is one of a kind, but if someone were to commission me, I might consider making a second one. But not right now, because fleece is crazy expensive again!

August Update!

What do you mean it's already August?! D:<

Before I go any further, I am announcing that I am switching my regular post date from Tuesdays to Thursdays as of this month!!!

But really, I can't believe how time flies! This month is going to be particularly crazy for me, so be prepared for some late updates. Rest assured I will do my best! Currently in Ottawa for a long overdue visit to a friend in the capital. I expect many crazy fun times to be had!

This month I will be finishing up my posts on my Forest Guardian, Toothless kigurumi, an original design shirt and starting on the Sakura posts!

As you probably know, last month I attended Atomic Lollipop and had an absolute blast! You can read my con report here.

Coming up next weekend I have Otakon which I am almost ready for! This will be my last con for the cosplay season. Almost done Sakura's school uniform. (Fingers crossed my wig arrives for Toph with enough time for me to style it. Unfortunately, I had a case of the dumb, and forgot to order it earlier.) Very excited to visit the US again for one of my favourite cons! :D

My injured finger is on the mend, and shouldn't make finishing these projects too challenging. For those of you who want to know what happened, check out the end of my last post.

Unfortunately, I have write a final essay for school this week. Sometimes, school gets in the way of fun. But sometimes school can be fun. For those of you following me on instagram, you probably have seen the sculpted pieces I am working on for my prosthetics class. If not, I highly suggest you check it out! ;D My instagram includes lots of cosplay progress shots, but also food.

I am also taking a week vacation later in the month to Barcelona! Never been to Spain before, super excited for this trip! (And maybe I might also get a tan?)

My dear sister Alex just left for a teaching job in Japan today. I am both super jealous, and super happy for her! Wishing her good luck! (And also planning a visit next December...) Hoping we can cosplay together again when she returns. :)

In other news, I just started watching In the Flesh. It's about reintegrating formerly rabid zombies into society post-apocalypse. I highly recommend it.

One more month of summer, then I am back to school for my 4th and final year. Going to make the most of it!

Atomic Lollipop 2014

I surprised myself and impulsively decided to attend Atomic Lollipop at the last minute last Saturday! I went with my sister Elanne (aka SweetBoake) and we had a total blast! APop was a very different, very casual con environment that was completely opposite of what I am used to. But it was certainly a nice change. :) It was also nice to see the Science Center, which I hadn't been to in like 10 years!

I wore my Toothless kigurumi to the event (and only overheated a little bit). Lots of people asked me where I bought it, and I'm sorry to say I made it myself. :P (I think I disappointed at least 15 different people.) An in-depth look at how I made that is coming up sometime in August. (Though if anyone is interested in commissioning me to make another one this summer... just send me an email! ;D )

I think what impressed me the most about Apop was the amount of really crazy events and crafts that were offered! My sister and I attended a few crafting session, explored the Science Center and even played a few video games. :)

It was nice to see a few of my cosplay friends for a short time! Looking forward to seeing them at the next event. (Though knowing me that will be AN next year... hahaha)

Overall I really enjoyed APop and I will definitely be going again next year, even if it's only for one day! :)

July Update

Greetings all! It's shaping up to be a pretty busy month here, after a fairly lazy June. Debating attending Atomic Lollipop this weekend for one day, but still haven't decided yet...

In other news I finally joined the 21st Century and got Instagram! I've been posting lots of detail shots and progress pics, as well as cool fabrics I find and other random things. My username is bobbinsthread so be sure to check that out if you're interested!

Lots of projects on the go including my 2 new costumes for Otakon, which is coming up in August. They are Sakura (school uniform) from CardCaptor Sakura and Toph (fire nation disguise) from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Two easy costumes for the unbearable temperatures of Baltimore. :P I will probably bring one more costume to that convention, but I will probably leave that selection up to you guys!



Those following me on facebook or instagram know this already, but the kigurumi I was working on is finally done! Excited to take some finished shots of me wearing Toothless sometime this week. I've also finished the shirt I was working on and nearly finished the messenger bag I am making.

I have updated my Cospix profile, which now includes all of my costumes, including the ones I made for my sisters and the ones that are currently in progress. Check that out here!

I've begun posting my Forest Guardian costume (which will be presented in 4 parts), so stay tuned for more of that! More exciting things to come this month! :D