After the con is before the con...

So... just after finally getting rid of my Vienna jet lag... I'm still quite productive again in a forced way *cough* as Connichi's coming! in less than a month ^^''''. Originally I had really big plans for the con. But I now have to reduce them a bit as I noticed again how much time details on a cosplay take in Zuko's case (and how much worth it that is *-*) and as I want the one cosplay I really have to do to become plainly awesome. The other reason for canceling Narsus from Arslan Senki for now is: I have given in to go to that photo shooting on 10th of september at the other end of Germany (which I promised at the beginning of 2017) ... sooo, yes, I feel overly busy just with cosplay work not inclued.

But still I can tell you about my other project, my little monster of a cosplay xD. Quite some time ago I fancied the idea of cosplaying from Final Fantasy IX as it was the very first game of the series I played, a friend of mine was sooo hyped about cosplaying Zidane Tribal (the main character) and we started to play the game together. As Freya Crescent always has been a favourite character of mine and they are good friends I just ended up with that unhealthy wish to cosplay this xD:

Freya Crescent from Final Fantasy IX

Mind she's not even human which is a great challenge.

So already in 2016 for Connichi I started to sew the coat with Cynthia's help who helped me find a suitable pattern and basically told me everything I had to do. I'm a bit shocked but this is a picture from about summer 2016 (soo little progress -.-''):

We already finished the basic coat back then and fed into it a hula hoop for the photo xD. Afterwards I did a lot of top stitching on all the seams but there are no pictures of this. Till I decided to postpone the cosplay for another year as it was just too close to the con to finish it the way it deserved.

Well... we didn't get much time to meet up so... we only started the collar last winter.. and lately added the white band into it which was also faux leather sewn in. This took quite some measurements and the topstitching in the last days was a pain due to the quality of the white faux leather, the thread or the sewing machine...

Finally yesterday we started to make some details as this is only possible before the lining is sewn in (which is also already sewn into coat shape). So we started to look for some suggestions and got some very wild ideas for this detail no one is going to see in fact as the flag will hide it in the end ;_;. For example we thought about using wings as on the helmet/hat. But finally I decided on this neat and easy design:

Part of the toggle buttons

4 of these were finished in less than an hour yesterday. Afterwards I went to buy leather band and we started to sew these on asap:

The white line was basted in order to see the rimn better and to press it with the iron after testing if this faux leather really survived heat. But it's a very great one! You don't even see pin holes after pinning it xD and folds also vanish with time.
But back to the buttons: Most time of course took the measurements for this. Afterwards I sewed on the leather band with some stitches adjusted the little "houses" on top and sewed them in place as well. Putting the rest of the coat out of the way was a challenge while doing this xD and they didn't end up as neat as the top stitched decorations but now they show some character at least.^^
Afterwards I just sewed on the buttons adding a small extra piece of leather on the back side in order to stabilize them or rather the pleather.

I think the final result was all worth it and it's somehow very sad that it mostly won't be visible xD:

So that's all for now. The next step is sewing in the lining and the collar at once. Then just inserting the hula hoop (cutting a slit for the tail in the back as we forgot about that ^^'') and adding the loops at the sleeves is missing.
Then or in between I am going to adjust the overknees I just ordered and afterwards sew the trousers.
Today I'm going to make the flag and the shoulder armour pieces as far as I get with that at least.
The nose is already finished. Back at Hanami (in early May) a good friend of mine, Karamin, was so thrilled about working with latex and face casting xD that we casted half of my face the night before the con, shaped that snout onto it and during the next weeks she made the latex stuff ^^'''. I just had to paint it when last visiting her o.O in late May. But as I don't find any pictures I will show this next weekend when she is going to come for a visit and we are going to make the hat together :) as she's got much more experience working with worbla's than me by now.

Plus we are possibly already going to make new weapons (or in my case my first) for our Fire Emblem Fates ninjas. :) She chose to cosplay Kagero and (did a great job already this year!) and I somehow ended up with the wish to cosplay Kaze/Suzukaze. He's such a nice guy ^-^, open minded but also very strict with himself and shows a rather low self-confidence especially towards his older twin brother. The other funny thing is he has no clue at all about his good looks and is often very puzzled when females present him with small gifts xD. Aside from this he is as much a ninja as the other two from that game. If I'm really lucky we might get a family/ninjago shooting some time :) as I know two ppl who happen to cosplay Kaze's brother and his nephew. So I just have to find my daughter yet xD. And yes it's weird but if you pair the characters up you get the kids as units as well due to some other dimension time going faster there stuff... to my mind it's a bit forced and illogical... but.. I still like the kid characters a lot in some cases. Oh, but back to crafting: We are going to make the blades at the arms.

So... I hope I'm going to continue soon. Atm it seems to be that I'm in a writing mood :) and it helps me strangely to relax.