Inkling - Guns and Tanks - Splatoon

Part 3 of the Splatoon Squad posts! Lets talk armaments! >:D If you are interested in the tentacle hats, go here! If you want to see how we put together the outfits, go here! Once again hats off to Elemental for the great shots from the photoshoot!

Now we delve into territory that I know little to nothing about: The Armaments. I had very little involvement in this area. I was a helping hand in the mass production line for the harnesses, ink pillows, and I helped put the electrical tape gauges on the side of the tanks. That's about it. Credit goes to the real masterminds Brian (Ragz Cosplay) and Adrien, and their very best shop gnome Andy (Yavarice).

Based on a 3D model that Andy did of the tank, Brian broke down and printed all the components. These had to be cleaned up (sanded) and painted, and then these were assembled into a full team of tanks. Andy gave a hand in this process.

All I can tell you about 3D printers is that they operate by wizard magic. I am fairly certain Brian is a wizard, and Andy is a sorcerer's apprentice.

The pieces were painted up separately using spraypaints and then glued together using a glue called E6000. The bottom of the tank is removeable so that the ink pillow can be changed. By changing the ink pillow you can easily re-purpose the tank for a different colour team.

The pillows are made from the same spandex as our hats. Michelle (Mage Cosplay) and I made fabric cylinders of varying heights and stuffed them. The pattern is literally 2 circles and a rectangle. Except Brian's, he made the top of his wavy. Because he is not lazy like me.

The harness rigs are made out of foam mats from walmart, black webbing, buckles and hot glue. The shoulder straps are 2" wide and tapered at the front end. After being cut to the desired length, we put a slit at each end for the webbing to be fed through. The webbing had the female end of the buckle sewn on to one end. We carved out a small depression in the inside of the strap and glued this end of the buckle in place. The other end is the adjustable side. When we had the desired length, the excess webbing was cut off. We burned the ends with a lighter so they wouldn't fray.

The two straps were glued to a back piece that is a dumbell shape that has a thinner webbing strap attached to it. This smaller straps has velcro and feeds through two slots on the tank. They make the tank removable from the harness. You can see where the tank attaches to the harness in this great shot of us beating up Andy.

As for the Splattershots, Adrien takes all the credit there. (Well, Andy does get some credit for being his resident shop gnome and doing much grunt work cutting out pieces.) Adrien created some foam pieces as templates and vaccuformed all the separate pieces over them. These were then cut out and glued together. But I assure you it is more complicated than I have described. I am still in awe of these, they are so professionally made!

I believe Andy's gun is a Nerf gun? With a logo added to make it look super legit. The logos were made from craft foam.

Overall I was really impressed how we were able to pull together a really cohesive looking group! I hope I get to take part in something like this again in the future. Special thanks goes to everyone who helped make this happen. I'm excited for Squids 2.0! :D

Toph (Fire Nation Disguise) - Wig - Avatar: The Last Airbender

This is my first post on Toph. Rather than the traditional green outfit, I decided to make her Fire Nation disguise outfit from season 3. Of all the nations, I really thought the Fire Nation had the nicest designs in the series, but Toph is one of my favorite characters--so this seemed like a good compromise.

This costume was originally supposed to debut at Otakon last summer, and I had managed to get everything finished except the wig and shoes. But without the wig, the costume isn't really wearable, so the costume went on the backburner for a while as I worked on the wig.

I really need to make time to do a real photoshoot of this costume. Perhaps next year...

I thought I would start by talking about the wig--easily the most difficult piece of the costume. This wig took me 3 attempts until I was satisfied with the end result.

It was a nightmare to construct, partially because the reference is so vague. All you can see is that she has a large black blob of hair at the back of her head--which is presumably a bun? I've seen people achieve this in different ways, some opting for a small bun (a bit of a cop-out, and not very accurate), others choosing to do an intricately braided style to create the mass. I wanted to create a smooth rounded "bun" that was as accurate as possible.

My main issue I encountered--which carries over to many costumes--is that I have a small head and not an abundance of hair. This means that 99% of all the wigs I ever bought are loose on me. Back in the day I had waist-length hair which I had difficulty stuffing under a wig, and this would keep it from slipping. But these days, any wig that is remotely back heavy slides out of position like nobody's business. It is a problem I have noticed since I have started to do more elaborate styled wigs (Asuna was a problem in particular because of the heavy metal bells).

To counteract this problem I have found the best way to keep a wig from sliding to to sew a small comb into the front of the wig and then french braid my actual bangs. The comb hooks into the braid and prevents it from sliding out of position. (I did the same thing on my Tomoyo wig.)

Black is such an easy colour of wigs to find, so I was not worried about finding a wig (for once!). To save myself some time, I ordered a ponytail wig from Epic Cosplay, this meant that I wouldn't have to also make my base wig into a ponytail wig first to cover the gaps in the wefts. Their ponytail wig is a short wig that comes with an extension you can wrap around the ponytail base to make it a long wig. This was great for my purposes, as the large extension would be put to use later in creating the bun.

I started by taking out some of the wefts from the middle of the back of the wig. This was done very carefully with a seam ripper. This was to remove bulk under the bun while also procuring more hair to make the bun with.

Out of some back fabric I made the base of the bun and loosely stuffed it. I hand stitched the wefts around the edge. I cut a hole in the middle of the fabric to stick the loose ends of the wefts in.

This is the point where I realized I wasn't going to finish the wig before Otakon, and put it on hold for a while. The next steps were done over the next couple of months before going on hold while I finished my degree and then finally finishing in the weeks leading up to AN.

After that I attached the bun at the top of the wig with a strong hand stitch. I tied the hair that would later be the bangs out of the way.

At this point I also made the wig slightly smaller smaller along the back with some darts that I stitched in to the netting. This helped it fit better. I also hand stitched the small comb into the front of the hairline.

Next I pulled the wig under the bun into a ponytail and stubbed it using regular white glue. Then I cut off the excess hair. 

I also stubbed the bottom of the hair that was draped over the top of the bun.











Next I cut and styled the bangs. The wig was quite thick at the front, so I had to thin it out a fair bit. Because although Toph's hair is supposed to fall into her eyes (which isn't a problem because the character is blind), I kind of needed to be able to see.

To finish off the wig I used some heavy duty hair pins to affix the bun in place.

Next I paper patterned the tiara/headband. Once I was happy with the pattern I cut out 2 pieces of worbla and laminated them together with a heat gun. This was to make it sturdier.

This part of the costume was done after I had finished my independent study on worbla, so I used some of the leftover materials to make this tiara/headband.

I molded some scrap bits of worbla into a long roll and used that to make the raised detail along the edge. Then I heated the whole piece and gently curved it into the desired shape.

Using a dremel with a drill bit, I drilled a hole through the center of the raised loops at each end.

I made the tassels shorter to be more accurate.

Here you can also see how the finished wig looks from the side. The bun is a little smaller than the actual character's hair, but I think this is a more manageable size. It is already insanely back-heavy!

Next was priming the surface for painting. Worbla tends to have a slight bumpy texture to it, so I used a couple of coats of gesso and gorilla glue as a filler.

I primered it with a red spraypaint. The red colour underneath helps to counteract the green-ness that is common in most gold paints. I gave it a light sanding, before doing a second coat of red.

I painted it using a bronze acrylic paint as my main colour and then a gold for the raised detail. It required a few coats.

Then I used a clear gloss spraypaint as my final layer, to seal it and give it some shine. "Metallic" acrylic paints tend to be more sparkly than glossy.

I looped the tassels through the holes I created earlier and hot glued them in place.

To attach the headband to the wig I hot glued a small metal comb and two ties to the inside of the tiara. The metal comb would hook into the wig and then the ties were tied under the bun at the back. This made it secure, but also easily removable.

And in a nutshell, that's how I made the wig. Hopefully I can get some more side shots of the wig at another con.

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!

Star Wars & Star Trek Pillows

A batch of nerdy home decor! These pillows were a belated birthday/anniversary/housewarming present for my boyfriend. Because he has a bench that he is currently using as a couch that didn't have any padding on it--not good for parties (which he has yet to host). :P

I must confess I liked both prints (which I picked up at affordable textiles on Queen St,), but I couldn't decide, so I got both. I'm pretty sure having these in the same room is blasphemy, much less having them on the same couch. I don't know much about Star trek, but I do know that yellow is the command colour, Spock wears blue and Red shirts always die (except Scotty??), so this may have influenced my decision? :P Interesting to note: the Star Wars fabric has every main character except Luke on it. Hahaha (And by that I mean from the original trilogy, not from the terrible movies from the 2000's.)

 I bought pillows and foam squares to cover. I measured them and cut squares from my print fabrics that were slightly larger than the pillows (plus seam allowances).

For the backs I made them out of 2 rectangles overlapping at the center. This opening allows them to be easily removed and washed. The open edges were finished off with a fold over hem then ironed.

Then I laid the front and back pieces right sides together and sewed around the edges. Then the pillow was turned right way out.

Lastly I added a piece of velcro at the back opening on each to keep them closed.

This project was really simple and a fun way to decorate the room!

Isabelle - Wig, Ears & Tail - Animal Crossing

 The first of my Anime North posts! Lets look at Isabelle! This was made for my older sister Alex. This past Christmas I didn't really have enough time to make a whole bunch of gifts at the end of term, so instead I made a "gift certificate" for my sisters for 1 costume each. Elanne picked Sakura, and Alex picked Isabelle.


Isabelle is a character from the popular game series Animal Crossing. (Called Shizue / しずえ in the original Japanese version.) She is the secretary to the Mayor (the player). I don't play it, but my sister is very much a fan! As you can see, this is a gijinka version of the character, but since the characters in this game are already pretty much humanoid already, there wasn't much redesign necessary to create a gijinka version. This is really just a wig with ears instead of a full mascot head.

She wore this costume on the Saturday of Anime North, while running her Crafters' Corner table, which had her tied up for the majority of the weekend. She did manage to escape for a little bit and did a mini shoot of the costume with Mike of EleventhPhotograph . We got some really cute pics! :D Be sure to check out his con gallery!

The base wig we started with was this one from Epic Cosplay. I really liked this colour of blonde, we chose to go with a colour palette that was a little less yellow than the character is normally. I think it is technically listed as a Vocaloid wig, and it required a large amount of styling to get it to work as an Isabelle wig. First I put it on my sister's head and determined what part I wanted up in the ponytail. I tied that out of the way while I worked on hiding the part at the back. 

The problem with wigs it that when you pull the hair in pretty much any direction it reveals the gaps between the wefts. In order to prevent this you have to add in extra wefts to mask the part. Now, if they had had them in stock I would have bought extra wefts when I bought the wig, because I knew I had to pull the top of the wig into a ponytail, which would leave a gap about 1/2" wide. Unfortunately they did not have any in the colour I needed, so I resigned myself to some serious MacGyver-ing.

I selected 3 separate rows of wefts from the back of the wig--far enough down that they wouldn't be noticeable, and far enough apart that they wouldn't leave a bare patch--and I carefully picked them out with a seam ripper. I sewed this into a mega-weft (3 rows of wefts stacked on top of each other). That was then hand stitched onto the wig along the bottom of the gap. Using a pin I parted the wefts, making 2 go up into the ponytail and 1 go down into the back. Had I had more wefts at my disposal, I probably would have done 4 wefts, with 2 going down as the area under the part is a little bare. But it was still much better than when I started, so I considered it good enough!

At this point I tried it on my sister and gave the bangs, sides and back a little trim.

Then I was ready to permanently secure the ponytail--I double checked on my sister first and foremost, because her head is a different size from the wig head, so if the ponytail was pulled too tight it would look weird on her! Ensuring it was in the position I wanted, I then carefully dabbed/mashed some white glue in around the base of the ponytail. It dries clear, but I was still careful to not be messy during this process. (This is similar to the process of stubbing a wig except that this ponytail was not getting cut off!)

Normal white school glue is good for styling wigs, it dries clear and is washable; if you make a mistake, you can wash it out and try again.

Then my sister dyed the gradient into the ponytail. She did the colour to match the ears I made. She used a combination of brown india ink and rubbing alcohol (70%) to dilute it. She also apparently didn't look up any instructions before doing it. :/ This is the approximate method if you are interested!

After letting that dry sufficiently I artfully arranged the bun the way I wanted it, securing it with another hair elastic. The I hair-sprayed the bejeezuz out of it. (This is a technical term of course! ;D) I let it sit and air dry for several hours. Occasionally spraying it a bit more. Once it was fairly solid I added a touch more glue around the base to hold the ends of the bun in place.

The hair accessory is a piece or red ribbon folded in half length-wise, with 2 silver bells attached. These were simply hand stitched on, and the ribbon was fixed around the bun with a hand stitch. I got the bells downtown and they have little hearts on them, which I think suits the character so nicely. :)

The ears are fleece which was bagged out and lightly stuffed. I closed the stuffing hole with a hand stitch and then stitched them to the wig.

For the tail I made a paper pattern of the approximate shape I wanted and cut out a piece that was a lot wider at the widest point. This was so it would be nice and round I made an inner tail piece in a cream colour, and an outer tail piece in my yellow/gold. The yellow one ends in an open spiky end, which is different on each side. The nice thing about fleece is it isn't neccessary to finish the edges because it doesn't fray.

I bagged each of them out and stuffed the inner tail to be nice and round.

The gold/yellow colour matches the blonde wig and the tights, and the brown ears match the bun gradient like on the character. It was a bit of a challenge finding 2 complimenting colours that both matched the wig, and tights that would match the tail. But we managed it!

Then I slotted the outer tail over the inner tail and sewed them together at the tail base.

This piece was then attached to an elastic waistband, which was just slipped on over the skirt, under the vest. And presto! A cute tail!