Asuna Kagurazaka - Wig - Negima

Hey guys! This is the first of 6 posts that will feature my Asuna costume. Starting with the wig, which was possibly the easiest part of the costume.

I got my wigs off of EpicCosplay, which is a US based online wig store that has good quality wigs and doesn't charge an outrageous amount to ship to Canada. (They are the place I normally buy my wigs from.) I ended up buying 2 wigs to make this wig, as I needed the extra wefts to create the part up the back. I suppose I could have just used 1 wig and extensions, but I wasn't sure how much I would need/how much extensions I would get with one order, so I thought it would be more economical to buy a whole wig. I ended up with a lot of leftover, but I have a character in mind that I will need the extra hair for, so it will probably be fine.

This is a different method than I used on my Presea wig (a costume that will debut sometime this summer) where I chopped off the bottom of 60" wig to make the wefts myself. In this case I couldn't do that, because I needed all the length I could get.

 I had a bit of trouble deciding on a wig for this character, because although the colour of this 40" wig is perfect, the hair is not nearly as long as the actual character's. I had located a 60" wig on ebay, but it was a more vibrant orange (not exactly what I was going for). Also, I was unable to find matching extra wefts from the same seller to make the part. (Meaning I would have had to take the hair off other areas of the wig, which is not exactly ideal.)

I started by carefully detangling and brushing out my wig on my makeshift wig stand. Then I separated out the sections of hair, including the 2 pigtails and an approximation of where I wanted the part at the front.
By pulling the hair into pigtails I was able to get a good idea of what it would look like when finished so I could style the front accordingly.

By gently feathering the hair to make it look more natural, I cut in the bangs and sideburns. (Only cut straight across if that is the way the character's hair actually looks, and even then you should still thin the hair out a bit.)

With the front now out of the way, I could start on the back. First I deconstructed my second wig, using a seam-ripper to remove the wefts from the netting. Once that was done I started adding the wefts in a line down the center back, hand stitching the wefts into the netting.

For the center of the part I took 4 wefts and whip-stitched them together to make an ultra weft.When pulled apart from the center, this weft would make a clean part, showing none of the ugly stitching that was holding the wefts together. (Compare above left to above right.) I used a needle to part the wig, ensuring all of the wig fibers were going to the correct side and that I had a perfectly straight part.

Then I added a few more wefts in to cover the part that was pulled away on each side. Particularly at the bottom edge behind the ears, where it is not covered by the bangs.

You may notice the mohawk that was formed on the back of the wig. This is because there are little short hairs in each weft to help cover the netting without making the wig too thick. They had to be sprayed down, but that came later.

Whenever you need something small, red/gold and ornamental, I highly recommend taking the time to scour chinatown. I picked up these ornaments for a total of about 12$, which is not bad considering the effort I would have had to put into making them. These were essentially perfect for this character. All I had to do was remove them from the tassels and tacky lotus ornaments and I had 4 bells ready to go.

Be warned: I used my own key-rings to replace the jump-rings that came with the bells. They were made of cheap metal and the weight of the bell alone was enough to bend them open, causing the bells to fall off.

I re-brushed the wig with the new wefts in place and pulled the hair into pigtails again. I added the bells and red ribbon on top. I used hairspray to tack down the little mohawk at the back, and used it to keep the hair under the pigtails from slipping as much.

This wig had it's own fair share of problems. Because I didn't do a stubbed wig, the pigtails would slip during the day, because the bells were quite heavy. This just meant every morning I had to re-tie the pigtails, which wasn't too much of a hassle. Additionally, I feel if I am to wear this wig again, I need to add in a wig clip at the front, because it was too back-heavy and kept slipping (if only I had more hair to clip to, but that's a different problem). Also, as a side effect of being such a long wig, it would get tangled fairly easily (which I had anticipated), I ended up leaving the hair braided for most of the weekend because it was just too windy.

I'm really happy with how it turned out though. :D The bells jingling on my head only drove me a little crazy throughout the weekend. Hahaha

Black Jacket, White Trim

Hello! Thought I would post this one up here before diving into the cosplay content.

This is a Christmas present I made for my mum this past year. This jacket is an original design. Very geometric and architectural in design, with a stark contrast between black and white.

I started by patterning a basic block based on my mum's measurements.  This I modified to resemble my design,  the white overlapping front panels would be straight lines, the curves would be in the black side panels.

I first made a mock-up in muslin, which I had to try on my mum blind-folded so that I could ensure it would fit correctly. (While keeping exactly what I was making a secret.) Keeping in mind that this is an over-garment, I had to let in ease for movement so it could be worn over other clothes. (Basic blocks are designed to be form-fitting, and have to be modified accordingly)

After the first fitting and a few modifications I was ready to cut from my good fabric.

The black fabric is a wool fabric, and turns out I am allergic to it! As soon as I began to cut it, it released a lot of fibers into the air which made my nose stuffy and my skin itchy. Whoops. From the black fabric I cut the two front side panels and the two back side panels.

From the white (technically an off-white) fabric I cut the two pieces for the center back stripe, and 4 copies of the overlapping front panel.

The two rectangles for the back stripe were sewn together directly down the center to the point where I wanted the slit to start. This piece would then be ironed open flat.

Each pair for the front panels were sewn right sides together along one edge, then clipped and turned right way out.

I cut the back piece for the collar. This was made of two pieces, sewn along the top edge, right sides together. This was then clipped and flipped right way out as well.

The darts were marked and sewn into the back black panels, then the side seams were sewn together.

Then I sewed the white front panels to the black sides.

The center back white stripe was stitched to the black sides, completing the body of the garment.

The collar was sewn into the back panel on one edge. After ironing the seam flat the second side was ditch stitched in place.

Then I was able to sew the shoulder seams.

At this point I used a school serger to finish inner seams before continuing.

With great difficulty (for I hadn't exactly thought ahead on this one) I had to finish the bottom edge with a white stripe. I ran into some difficulty at the corners, requiring me to sew and clip in some 45 degree angles to make the connection work.

This trim was then ironed over and cross-stitched in place. (Yes, by hand.)

The last part to do was the sleeves. I drafted the sleeve pattern, but interjected a whit stripe down the center, remembering to add in my seam allowances.

These were eased into the armholes, then the edges were finished and hemmed.

And presto! A really nice jacket! >:D

My new update day will most likely be friday. More great content coming this summer so look forward to it! ;D

May Update

Hey all, it has been a while! I have been madly working for the past month to create more new content for you!

I just attended my first convention of the season this past weekend and I had a blast! This was my 9th year at Anime North, which is one of my favourite conventions of the year. Even though I am not as heavily into anime as I once was, it is an event that I always find enjoyable.

My new costume, Asuna Kagurazaka (from Mahou Sensei Negima) debuted at this con. Asuna was chosen by popular demand, thanks to all my facebook fans for taking the time to vote. It was a huge success! I won an award for "Best Props and Accessories" in the Masquerade at Master Level with my skit "The Impossible Knight". Special thanks to my crew (Alli and Ian), for without you this costume would have never made it to the stage! I only have a faint weird sunburn to show for all my time spent outside... More to follow on that including an in depth look at how I made it. But for now feel free to check out the video!

Congrats to my fellow competitors as well, it truly was a wonderful show! So many great costumes!

I have officially registered to attend Costume Con 32 which will be held in Toronto next April! Very excited, and already thinking of what costumes I want to make for that...

That's all for now!

Greyscale Checked Jumper

So it's my mum's birthday today! This post is in honour of the incredible woman who took the time to teach me how to sew, puts up with my crazy cosplay antics, supporting me in my hobbies and through life in general! An incredible lady! And also very stylish! :D

People say we look the same, I am inclined to agree?

This post is of a jumper I made 2 years ago. 2 years late, but better late than never! ;D

(And back to regular posting hopefully!)

This is a Christmas present I made for my mum. An original design of a jumper. I patterned it myself from scratch. :D

Using a fabric that had a pattern on one side and a solid on the other, I decided which parts I wanted to be checked, and which ones I wanted to be grey.

I cut out my fabrics, accounting for seam allowance.

The checked shoulder piece I cut 2 of, so I could sew it inside out and then reverse it to get clean edges. This made sewing it onto the garment much easier.

That's the before and after of when I reversed it. You can see below how it looks on the garment where it drapes over the shoulder.

I sewed up the side seams, knowing I would have to take the left one out later to put in the zipper. That seam I basted.





After ironing my shoulder piece, I pinned it in place to see how it would look.

I tried to zig-zag the edges of the fabric, which was really thick and would not cooperate for a double rollover seam, but that didn't work very well, and neither did the single rollover seam...

So I scrapped that idea and applied a black bias tape to the edge.

Then I pinned and sewed my shoulder piece into place.



I also folded over a piece of bias tape and sewed that together to create my button loops.

I measured where my buttons would go and marked those spots with a pin.

And now the neckline is finished! :D


The next bit was the bottom piece that would incorporate a pocket into the design. I cut the large triangle twice so I could turn it inside out to finish the edge in the same way as the shoulder piece.

I made it large enough so it would wrap around to the back of the garment.

Sewing it on was terrible. With this many layers, the sewing machine just barely made it through!

I added the topstitching on the pocket opening so it would match where I stitched the other side to the garment. Then I added buttons and loops.

Lastly was the zipper, which I affixed in my usual fashion.