Alle Jahre wieder... (Every year again...)

Guess what? I’ve done it again ^^’’’… I mean not neglecting my blog of course. In summer I hardly have time when working on cosplays, editing photos, attending cons, organizing shootings takes so much of my precious free time :). But well… aside from borrowing half of a cosplay from a friend and yes, it was Hak from Akatsuki no Yona xD I really had to try to make a suit jacket again ^^’’’…. And also of course it ended up with me being very last minute and very close to tears and exhaustion… but at least only close not in the middle auf it, which is a real improvement. So how did I get there?

Well… quite some time back a friend of mine aka yoshi_in_black really got into Noragami and utterly fell in love with a certain no-good-god xD. Also naturally I had to watch the show with her sooner or later and also fell in love with a certain shinki named Kazuma.

I really love him for his unwavering loyalty, most of all for the ultimate sacrifice for his goddess, his reliability, him being a teacher of sorts and… there’s just a lot. Still, I never was very much into Noragami somehow… no hype or anything… I just liked the show. Until… well, another friend of mine fell in love with a certain sometimes so thickheaded but tough goddess and yes, Bishamon of course. So… the opportunity was there, I hadn’t cosplayed together with Anbu for quite a while and decided on a whim. My only condition in advance was: Plz help me a bit with your advice and put up with my sniveling because of my suit trauma ^^’’…

So I went on fabric hunt and was really really lucky getting some for about 2-3 euro per meter. The lining was even more expensive ^^’’’… Also got me fake glasses and a purple tie. The rest I already got from one or another Gokudera cosplay, just adding tattoo pen from Greeling and Rudi’s dress shoes. I decided to neglect that Kazuma’s are actually dark brown for the moment. So I was quite fortunate… Especially as Anbu had a wig she’d present me with J. In the end the whole cosplay only cost me less than 50 Euro all in all (plus treating my wigstylist Franzi to a meal as always). Which is rather rare for such elaborate stuff.

The first working steps were to alter the pattern of my white suit of Gokudera. It happened to be rather close to Kazuma’s uniform.

Just the collar and therefore the front piece had to be altered with Anbu’s help J. (I had to make one part a bit longer so that the collar piece would end up higher).

My good old white suit ;) aka the beginning

The basic pattern, the two parts that had to be altered marked in red;

Estimating where the altered parts was to sit later on.

Then I figured how to piece the parts together again and sewed the basic parts together once in case of the outside and once for the lining. 

The basic outer parts sewn together.

Afterwards I had to insert the sleeves twice which really  became a bother and I had to do it about 2-3 times for both parts ^^’’’ as I didn’t get how to do it correctly. Without Dio I wouldn’t have at all ^^’’’… cost me lots of time of course.

This is actually the lining, but it shows which fabric I used where and already showed me where the folds had to be on the outside. The pockes became smaller than here. I was just testing back then.

The next step was making the shoulder decorations which turned out quite neat. I used white cotton band, took it double and sewed on both sides (on the upper side I used the machine on the lower I handsewed) a red tube I had prepared from red fabric. Only mistake: I made them much too long and had to shorten them drastically later on -.-‘’’…

The shoulder decorations, still nearly twice as long as needed xD.

Then I made the chest pockets and even put in lining there as well. With topstitching and all they took quite some time to make and of course didn’t turn out identical. Well… not even that close but I guess no one will notice or expect that.

Neatly lined pockets, although the shape could be improved. Still before topstitching though.

The difference that topstitching and a button make. Aka finished pocket.

So maybe someone asks him/herself now, why I did all the decorations beforehand: Well, I had to attach them on the outside of the suit before I put in the lining or I wouldn’t have been able to use the machine for that without distorting the lining inside. So I also sewed the other red stripes I had to attach of course and added them to the sleeves. And after adding the folds on each side of the front I  added two more at side of the suit. Plus I added the shoulder decorations as well when I put in the sleeves. And of course I also sewed on my pockets.

The two stripes on the side. I had to sew them into the fold before sewing them and to put into one seam at the side. This differs on references besides. But I think it is more logical that they are attached in seams and not simply sewn on over them.

The shoulder decorations sewin in. Had to be done while sewing the sleeves to the rest.

 Afterwards I finally was nearly out of time and had to do another part I was rather afraid of: To sew the upper part of the collar and attach it. Again without Dio’s help I wouldn’t have managed that. She also helped me with sewing the lining into the sleeves. Which I also had to do twice in one case cause I had twisted the sleeves too much…

The colar

Sewing the rest together was well… doable… Just had to attach the collar twice of course xD…. And sew everything together on the inner side just leaving a tiny hole at the bottom so that I could later turn everything inside out. Afterwards I had to handsew this little hole shut, iron everything and attach the buttons.

My résume is: I’m kinda proud and kinda disillusioned at the same time as I never had to do so much thinking before sewing anything in advance and to coordinate so many steps. But on the other hand it weighs a lot on me that I wasn’t able again to do this alone even though I already sewed a suit. Possibly I will not be able to do this on my own, not even next time… but maybe some day I will… Although luckily I won’t have to very soon…

The finished uniform jacket

Anyway the con was kinda fun and I really like the cosplay. It was very comfortable to wear all in all and I feel proud although no one possibly sees how much work was put into this uniform xD. It’s not that flashy afterall XD. Still great! And I finally read the manga and even became more attached to the character and also the series. A small flash it is atm. Hope he and his goddess will be alright again in the future, diying's not an option! And hopefully I will be able to portrait him better now in November at a shooting :). 

Oh and besides I come up with new ideas nearly weekly atm xD. Just thought about cosplaying Mystras Leoxses from Magi Sinbad no Bouken with a friend as my little brother Spartos, doing another book cos for a change aka Simon Lewis from The Mortal Instruments. It's so tempting to have a friend  cosplaying as his girlfriend xD and being able to bitch with my bro who happens to cosplay Jace. Oh and thinking about cosplaying the first gen dragons from Akatsuki no Yona as well... and the past yukata version of Kazuma *-* with Anbu. Besides about Freya: Have postponed that cos till next September. But going to work now diligently at it in winter! Kara, another friend prepared me with lots of tutorials she found for feet and hands. Soo somehow I seem to be more energetic than last year at that time plus there ist still one con to look forward to: Epiccon in Frankfurt in early December :). It's all new and I'm rather curiuous how it will turn out. Tell you possibly next time.

Cu and sorry that it is less of a tutorial this time. But it's rather difficult for me in this case cause sewing's not my specialty, time's short and describing it in English a bit bothersome -.-''.