Beware of current flashes!

So, as already announced back in December, I have utterly fallen for that certain shojo manga Akatsuki no Yona and especially for Kija, the white dragon warrior. So... here is a little example for what such an unexpeted flash can do to you during the winter break ^^''....

To remind you it was this character:

As already said I started back in about late November/ early December very traditionally with getting all the fabrics, simultaneously the wig and shoes. In case of Kija this happened to be lots of shades of white and some of blue. As I wanted to cosplay his manga version with all these awesome patterns I decided early on since I had only time till late February not to paint them by hand but to digitalize the patterns and having them printed instead.
I ordered at stoffn.de and already wrote a blog in the German community forum about this which unexpectedly received lots of attention o.O. 
In any case digitalizing the patterns was bothersome for one like me with very elementary skills regarding graphic programmes. But in about a week with final corrections done by a friend who's much more familiar with printing I was finished instead of more than a month.

The outcome was really close to my templates and I was utterly happy. (Although the fabric was not that easy to sew. But that was due to using sateen... But let me tell the story in order.)

Edging no. 1

Edging no. 2

Result

 The colours happen to be much closer to the original though. You know there are always colour differences when you take photos... They are slightly different though but this might be due to start by using another setup for the colours in the beginning. CMYK vs RGB. In reality it's not very easy to distinguish though.

Ok, so much about printing fabrics for a change. The rest of the fabrics I got me in Munich and some in Cologne while shopping with my newly adopted little brother Shinah :). We both also found shoes on that occasion.In the end I decided not to modify them as I don't like the design that much and would be able to wear them in everyday life like that as well.

After the rather funny shopping part I had to sew a skirt o.O, two capes, a sash and that other garment he wears. I decided rather early on not to sew another pair of white trousers as I have so many already for cosplay.... so I borrowed Ling's trousers from FMA instead. They are a bit more puffy in fact but you see so little of them under the skirt anyway.

Said skirt was with my grandmother's help a piece of cake to sew although I frettet myself about its length being not long enough or too long in comparison to the robe or its folds being not visible.

Afterwards I started with the robe. It's developement was rather funny xD. In the beginning without sleeves it happened to look like a nightgown, priestess-outfit-thing xD. On my tailor's dummy substitute it evolved to something slightly resembling Seto Kaiba xD. But as soon as the sleeves were added and finally the edging as well, it looked much like Kija :).

1st step: Priestess-nightgown-thing xD

2nd step: Seto-Kaiba-imitation xD

3rd step: Looks more like it, doesn't it`?^^

Besides I used invisible seams on the outside for the first time (tutorial provided also bei DJ-chan@animexx.de xD). Just the edging at the collar of the robe was out of a serious lack of time only added for LBM (well, it usually is not visible anyway ;)).

The fastenings were added last minute also by DJ. We decided not really true to the original on buttons inside of the robe and loops instead of button holes. They worked really well and were as invisible as intended. 

For the small pelerine cape I used a pattern from Natron & Soda. Again with my grandmother's help we modified it and added two darts at the shoulders as it didn't fit snug enough for Kija at first ^^''. 

The next trick I was adviced to use by Yona aka DJ-chan :) was to cut the edging in a round shape, take 3 parts (1 for the space between two darts), cut each out twice (once mirrored) and sew them together before adding them to the cape.  For the fastenings of the cape I used pssibly more true to the original small clasps.

Pelerine cape and sash

For Ticon the other cape was just sewn like a rectangular blanked and pinned in place. As it happened to pull down the robe in the back and pull it up in the front and ended up on the ground quite soon, I thought of improving this.

For LBM my room-mate, DJ and me thought of a more advanced construction which reminded me of a backpack.We laid the cape into folds, I sewed the cord onto it and added that extra sleeving so that it set more comfortable under my armpits.

The wig also bugged me. It arrived much tooo thin. So I had to sew in lots of extensions -.-'''... Guess my opinion of Coscraft has decreased quite a lot after this... Usually their wigs were very thick... Anyway all the effort payed off and a friend cut the wig for me amazingly well ^-^! 

Derping ;) Reminds me of Miraculix xD

Ok... so one thing is still missing: Kija's dragon claw.

I commissioned it from EustassCaptainKid@animexx.de. First she thought of making a replica of my arm out of gesso. 

The cast of my right arm

It didn't work out as she thought and so I came to enjoy the benefit of being the model myself, meaning that the latex was a applied to my real arm for half a day. I have to admit though: It was really interesting to get to see so much of the process :). 

But before the latex was spread onto my arm, Kid thought of making the dragon claw fingers longer. So she made extensions (about one additional joint) out of papier mâché first and added nails out of worbla's transparent art. 

Additional joints and long nails

There was just one misscalculation again: When I tried to get out of the new latex glove: It ripped. 

Half way finished hand during the making process

So she repaired it and decided to cut off one side of the arm starting approximately at my palm. Otherwise I wouldn't have a chance to get inside again as the latex was so thick and sturdy by now.

This was mainly the reason for it not being finished in time for Ticon. So I had to improvise in the very last minute, just got me white theatre make-up, another set of worbla nails and painted and glued these to my hand. Worked surprisingly well and I was quite pleased with the outcome in the pictures although of course I had no scales on my hand.

Improvised hand and favourite picture from Ticon 2016

Meanwhile these were added onto the glove which took Kid hours of work ^^'''... In the end I got my arm the night before LBM and the last adjustments had to be made then, e.g. lacquer had to be applied onto the nails to make them look more real. So... well... this became more stressfull than I had thought. But still I really like the outcome.

Finished dragon claw *-*

Kija is mostlikely another one of my very favourite cosplays and I'm going to cosplay him quite often now (good thing thinking of the costs as well ^^'').

 Besides during Kija's making process I really learned a lot again and had the opportunity to try out two big new things and quite some minor stuff :). Guess I have grown a lot from that regarding cosplay-making. So all in all: I'm very very very happy.

And allthough I love Kija dearly and feel very much at home cosplaying him, I'm still already thinking about cosplaying another character from Akatsuki no Yona as well... or 2 or 3... but I guess best chances currently has Jaeha, the green dragon warrior. Even though he is the total opposite of Kija or maybe exactly for this reason.