Never Ending Cosplays: An Anecdote about my 3AM Jade

 Never Ending Cosplays: 3AM Jade

Ironically enough, I am writing about this instead of a post about cosplay motivation because I have no real drive to work on that in particular. Frankly, the writing seemd uninspired. Maybe the stars haven’t aligned for that, who knows. Anyway, I am taking the lighthearted route and instead writing about something much sillier: that stupid heap of fabric that sits in your closet, but never gets made into anything resembling clothes. This is the post dedicated to those dresses without any sleeves, that are continually promised that they’ll be finished. For months and for months. Don’t lie, we have piles of uncut fabric, patterns, and unfinished garments stashed away in our closets along with the rest of our our skeletons.

So this is already sounding pretty melodramatic. I only have two unfinished costumes, but even then that still makes me feel guilty.  Other cosplay obligations get piled up while fully knowing that there are half finished costumes just sitting there. After a while, their importance decreases with a slim chance of them being picked up again.

Why does this happen though? You bought all that fabric for a reason, and there has to have been some initial motivation. But, maybe the story of one of my incomplete costumes can shed some light.

(If you need some references, here you go!)

I first got my fabric for 3AM Jade way back in January, actually. The name 3AM is a reference to what the sky looks like at 3 in the morning, after all, and I gotta be honest: I’m just a sucker for anything that vaguely resembles the night sky. Almost anything that conjures up images of celestial objects and is sparkly are major selling points, and my sales resistance is nonexistent. Green paired with black is also a favorite color combination, and that’s what this outfit is all about. The idea of walking around as one of my favorite fictional characters in a spacey dress is very enticing, and I couldn’t say no when I found both beautiful and inexpensive fabrics for it.

(The green is so stunning with the black!)

3AM Jade was supposed debut at Fanime 2015, back in May. Along with her, I planned on having two new cosplays: Female Robin from Fire Emblem Awakening (which is another story), and Aranea Serket, who is also from Homestuck! Poor Jade was immediately placed at a disadvantage. Out of those three cosplays, she was subjected to be lowest on the priority list. The 3AM dress originally wasn’t intended on being a costume I would spend the day parading around in. Fanime hosts a formal dress ball for the attendants, and it would be the perfect thing to meet the dress code requirements and be in cosplay! Seeing how was this was planned out in January and Fanime wasn’t until Memorial Day weekend, it seemed that almost five months would be plenty of time to finish everything. Besides, 3AM Jade seemed like a pretty straightforward project that could be finished in no time!

As it was, that never happened. In fact, the fabric was immediately folded up and tucked away in the closet closet, only to never see the light of day until June. During that spring semester my only sewing opportunities were whenever I went home for the weekends or breaks. Since I was trying to squeeze in Aranea and Robin during those precious sewing periods, there was no way Jade would be finished. It might have happened if I had my sewing machine at school, but I decided that scraping together my space dress wasn’t worth any extra effort.

Despite that, Fanime was a blast, I was absolutely bursting with excitement to get busy again! Seeing other con goers amazing costumes is a wonderful motivation tool, and those carefree summer months are meant for sewing! Once again, the sparkly overlay and green lining tempted me, and so 3AM Jade would be knocked out first during the cosplay summer session.

(...Right?)

My original pattern came with a bolero pattern, which would be my warmup. It only took me two days from cutting out the fabric to the final pressing, and the result was beautiful The green lining complimented the black and my sewing work was very tidy. It was my first time trying out my machine’s overlocking stitch which ended up being a fun experiment! Even though it was such a simple project, I couldn’t help but be so proud of it!

(It just looks so fine to me! Like it came from a real store.)

So, spring boarding off of that little project, it was time to dive into the actual dress (and, keeping up with diving board metaphor) where I immediately crashed into the pool’s concrete floor.

3AM Jade is deceptively easy.  I’ve made dresses before, so I figured it wouldn’t be any different. Maybe a step or two up in difficulty because it’s strapless, but still harmless. But, me being the one to make hasty, unwise decisions, I never bothered to check the pattern’s instructions until I purchased it. Based on first glance it seemed easy enough, and it was on sale, so why not!

It wasn’t until I actually bothered to open and read the pattern’s instructions did I realize how in over my head I was. The difficulty was meant for someone who had more sewing experience than I, and included sewing techniques I had never attempted (such as making casings for steel boning channels is a standout). I wish I had a picture of it to share.

 I am sure if I actually sat down and studied it, then I would have been able to follow through with only a few potholes in the road. In my eyes however, Jade’s spacey gown wasn’t worth the time when two other more involved cosplays loomed over my shoulder.

So it was back to the drawing board-and the pattern books. I picked up another one that appeared effortless. “Appeared” is the keyword. The bodice was tackled first.  A set of pieces for the dress body, a set for the lining, and a set for the rhinestone adorned overlay. Cutting my pieces out was obnoxious, sewing the overlay on top even more so, but nothing difficult! 

(The rhinestone clusters remind me of otherworldly galaxies!)

Adding the lining was next (never has a fabric frayed as much), and it was only until after I overlocked and snipped away the excess fabric did I realize that bodice was far too small. Even if there was a way to get it a proper fit, I would probably end up suffocating. Great, it was time to make a new bodice.

If there were horror movies about the perils in sewing, then this would be the climax: After checking my 3AM dress resources, there wasn’t enough boning for the top, and there was not enough lining to accommodate for a new bodice and skirt. Getting more boning wouldn’t have been a  problem, but the dull realization of the lining being all the way in San Francisco hit me, and 3AM Jade ended up being shelved until the end of July. 

By the time my green treasure was again in my possession, Jade was on the bottom of the priority list. My Nonon cosplay wasn’t finished, and by then only the fabric for Madoka had been cut out (side note: Both costumes will receive the same treatment as God Tier Jade and get a full writeup!). It was decided that if Jade happened that summer, then great. If not, then great.
Since one of the main points of this post is about never ending cosplay that seemed to be cursed, then you already know the resolution. Once again, that beautiful fabric goes untouched, and my space dress is nonexistent. In retrospect, it must be Jade’s karmic destiny to always be placed on hold, on the bottom of a to-do list.

So, what’s the meaning of this story? It’s very easy to shove things older projects aside for something more novel. Cosplay is a hobby with a deadline, so projects DO have to get done, but there is a tendency to start and finish new outfits despite other uncompleted things collecting dust. Though I am better about it with cosplay compared to other hobbies of mine, it’s all too easy for me to get excited about something brand new, and then neglect something that’s in progress. A valuable lesson I’ve learned is to follow through and finish a job after you’ve started it, but sometimes it will happen anyway! 3AM Jade is an example of this particularly bad habit. The prospect of new costumes will dance around in my imagination, and then my enthusiasm will just take over in real life. 3AM Jade officially been shelved for a third time, because of this dangerous pattern. I have a few conventions coming up, and she will not be completed for either.

Two friends and I have been planning on doing a group from the video game Splatoon for Kraken Con 2015 next week! My friend Ayrton and I are matching as Callie and Marie respectively, with another friend joining in as an Inkling! Ayrton generously offered to make Marie for me, AND she's letting me borrow her wig for it! With the con deadline being so close, there was no way I couldn’t say no. Big scary deadlines and costumes that aren’t even half finished are both two things that I do not mesh well with.

(Callie is on the left, and Marie is on the right!)

As you can see, Marie and Jade happen to have the same color greens incorporated in their designs. Meaning, the electric green lining has officially been bequeathed over to a different costume. Thankfully that stuff is barely two dollars a yard, because it appears that I’ll have to buy it for a third time. Which is pretty hilarious, in a very pathetic way. But hey, third time's the charm? (Right? Hopefully?)

So, while 3AM Jade is still stuck in development hell, my cosplay future is still super bright! Keep an eye out for my Nonon Jakuzure cosplay for a good chunk of the day, and our Splatoon group during the costume contest! Kraken Con is one of my favorite conventions, and I am anxious to do a report on it for one of my next posts! 

(A convention on an old warship! I'm happy that admission to the museum is included!)

Can’t wait to be writing from the USS Hornet, next time!

Cheers,

Sarah

God Tier Jade Harley Cosplay: Tutorial and Thoughts!

(Pictures are taken either by my awesome Rena or me!)

God Tier Jade Harley from Homestuck has been my most worn cosplay so far, so it only felt appropriate properly kickstarting this blog by giving an in-depth report of my construction process! I already have a writeup on my AC Paradise page, but there’s more room for detail here, and I can post my old progress pictures without having to cough up a monthly fee.There are at least a million and a half God Tier Jade tutorials and/or write ups out there, but I really want to have a solid record of how I made my costume, and of course to potentially answer questions! I hope that if you’re looking for a solution to a particular roadblock, that you will find it here! And of course, if you’re wondering about something that I didn’t write about, feel free to leave a comment!

Outfit Breakdown

(excuse the messy room!)

(some design references! Google has plenty of images, of course)

Jade’s God Tier does not have an especially large amount of costume components. From head to toe, she has a pair of adorable little white dog ears, goofy round glasses, her all important “witch” God Tier hood, a pointed black tunic with the Hero of Space symbol on the front, a gray skirt, and striped stockings and ruby slippers A La the Wicked Witch of the East-but, in my opinion, Jade is the sweetest witch around!

From here on out, I am going to breaking down each aspect of her ensemble, and discuss how I went about making it. There is no set in stone, objectively correct way to make this, or any other cosplay for that matter.  Lord knows that are things that I would do differently now that I’ve had more experience. At the time, this is simply what worked for me, hopefully you can extract some guidance from it!

Tunic

Fabric wise, there are lots of options for Jade’s tunic! Cotton or polyester, knit or jersey (even velvet!) can all be beautiful options for it. The fabrics I’d advise steering away from are Halloween costume satins with excessive shine, and very thin broadcloth cotton.

The tunic was made out of a fabric found randomly at Joann’s that I christened the black "mystery jersey” . While very pretty, it was surprisingly difficult to sew with: It moved all over the place while I was trying to cut my pattern pieces out, and it snags extremely easily. Doing the actual sewing with it was hard also, even with a zig-zag stitch. I definitely would not recommend working with this-especially if you’re a beginner. There are plenty of other stretch fabrics that are not nearly as finicky, so that is something to keep an eye out for! 

My tunic materials and pattern!

My pattern was a basic shirt that I modified to my liking. I lengthened the sleeves, and I made them huge at the ends! Since Jade’s title IS the Witch of Space, I wanted them to resemble a wizard’s, so the cuffs are massive and hang down! The shirt hem was trickier than expected: Jade’s tunic is actually longer in the back, so extra math is necessary to accommodate for this. Math is the area I’m weakest at sewing wise (and life wise, really!), so this was a challenge. Admittedly most of it was guess work and random measurements that managed to come together, but I would advise keeping the shirt longer, so it won’t look too short after you hem it!-The length of mine is alright, but I would prefer it to be longer. 

The tunic's very basic shape!

The sleeves are hemmed with sparkly black lace, with white braid glued along the cuff-which is really an example of poor craftsmanship! Please don’t do this. Smack yourself if you’re considering doing that, and force yourself to stitch it down. You’ll thank yourself later when the braid doesn’t start coming undone!

(Wizard sleeves!)

  The most time consuming-but, not the hardest- part of this costume by far was my space symbol. Instead of appliquéing the symbol or even painting it on, I decided to make it entirely out of rhinestones! The rhinestones were my way of amping up the space motif, since they remind of tiny twinkling stars! Actually applying them on the other hand was extremely tedious-Basically, I was hunched over my kitchen table applying these tiny rhinestones by hand for over fifteen hours! The amount of minutia involved was ridiculous, but the truly obnoxious part was how easily the came off! Only a simple shake would send them raining down.  This was due to the type of glue I originally used for them. The one thing I can take away from this project? Fabric glue is absolute garbage, and don’t ever use it. It adheres terribly, if you could it even describe like that. After the fabric glue fiasco, I went back  and reapplied everything with tacky glue (!), and they still have remained secured after multiple rewears. The rhinestones were a pain to the say least, but the way they catch the light and sparkle makes it totally worth it!

Sadly, this shirt has seen better days and it is nigh time to put it out to pasture. Because of how delicate the fabric is, it is prickled by tiny snags, and there is now a giant run at the side of the shirt. God Tier Jade is definitely due for a tunic remake!

Skirt

 Skirt: I’ve seen adorable Jade skirts made out of cotton or other stiff materials with a petticoat underneath to make it poofy if a look like that is more of your cup of tea. Like my shirt, I wanted something that had  more movement and stretch, so anything stiff was off my radar. My skirt is actually made out of something that I had never heard of it until I saw it at Hobby Lobby: It’s actually this nifty fabric called “travel knit!” Since it is designed to withhold, well,  traveling, it is extremely wrinkle resistant, super sturdy, and looks and moves gorgeously to boot! Doing actual work with it is an absolute pleasure because it cuts through like soft butter, and there was minimal slippage while actually sewing it. 

Actually putting the skirt together was very straight forward: No store bought pattern necessary! All it is are two large triangles that were sewn up on the sides. I made a casing for the elastic by pressing and stitching down the fabric at the waist. I left a little “pocket” for the elastic, so I could feed it through the waist and gather it in the process-it was basically killing two birds with one stone! After I gathered it to the correct fit, I simply snipped away the excess elastic and sewed it down! At the hem of the skirt I actually glued down some black bias tape-which, leads me to deserve a smack myself. Extra rhinestones were glued down along for more spacey fun! 

For a two day project, I am very pleased with how it turned out! Gathering it was the key to making it look as nice it does: it gives it gorgeous movement and drapery. That has to do with the stretch travel knit of course, but regardless of the fabric you decide to make it out of, it is certainly worth doing.

(Unfortunately, I couldn't find any pictures of my skirt progress, so I hope this completed picture of it will suffice!)

 

Hood

 It was a necessity that skirt and hood matched, so I made it out of the same fabric. This was actually a brilliant decision! The secret to a good looking God Tier hood relies in the fabric choice. A simple, stiff cotton does not give it the essential flowy movement. So, when shopping for your fabric, stay clear from the cottons, and look for something that is “silky” with lots of bounce and drapery potential instead!

 Patterning the hood was the most challenging part of this cosplay. Patterning is an aspect of sewing that does not come easy to me at all, so figuring out the shapes and measurements required lots of calculating brainwork. The basis for it actually came from this particular John God Tier tutorial (link here) since Jade’s looks similar. However, while John’s looks a wearable windsock, Jade’s is this double tailed monstrosity. I basically messed around with shapes using a roll of freezer paper, until I came up with something I liked. Doing the actual sewing was pretty straight forward: I cut out my pattern, folded, and sewed it right up (with of course, leaving a spot to turn it). Near where the two tails converge required tapering. This was what really made the two shapes distinct looking, and less bulky. The mantle/collar/whatever you would you like to call the base was made by patterning out the shapes I wanted, sewing the entire thing up, and turning it so the raw edging wouldn’t  be visible. I attached the hood to the collar by following along with that John tutorial (which is just pinning the hood to the mantle, and sewing it up-easy as pie!). At the top of the hood I cut slits big enough for her dog ears using a rotary cutter! Directly in front of those is my slap job of a set of tabs. They’re little rectangles that I hand stitched onto the hood, with decorative buttons.They’re not functional at all, but they look right and get the job done. There are tutorials out there that can show you how to do this if you wish, but I personally couldn’t, and still can’t be bothered.

(Here's the collar! Not the prettiest picture but it works!)

(Here's the what the hood looks like unfolded if you just need a visual! The wide rectangular head is the actual hood that goes over your head part)

Ears

My dog ears are a bit of a joke. They’re two triangles cut out of fake white fur with two pieces of pipe cleaner sandwiched and sealed together. Leaving the pipe cleaner long so they could be nestled into my wig would have been the better option in retrospect. I originally glued them onto hair clips using E6000, but that caused wearing them to be a total trainwreck. The hair clips actually caused my hood to keep sliding back, which in turned lead to my wig sliding back all day and exposing my (gasp!) forehead and wig cap.  After that mess I pretty much just slapped them onto an old headband and hid them under my hood, but please. Don’t be me. Just put in the extra thirty seconds of effort and leave the pipecleaners long so you can just shove it through your wig wefts.

Needless to say, these silly dog ears are in desperate need of some TLC. Whenever I get around to remaking these, I would ideally like to go for a more realistic route. 

Stockings and Shoes

The stockings are purchased from We Love Colors!-but they are absolutely not worth the money at all. While durable, they actually came with some of the black fabric bleeding onto the white stripes. However, the stripe size was pretty perfect and that’s what I was obsessed with having.  Really, that’s why I purchased them to begin with. My shoes are a pair of “ruby slippers” from Amazon! Even though Jade wears a pair of flats in the comic, I thought that heels would be more elegant and well, witchy instead. Wandering around the hard floor of a convention center is extremely taxing though, but it is totally worth it! They look so beautiful, but if you’re walking down the painful shoe path like me, it really might be in your best interests to keep a comfier pair on you to slip on.

Glasses

Mine are a pair of “retro round” glasses from Ebay! I wanted the exaggerated cartoony look for these, and they certainly delivered! They were only four bucks are so, and surprisingly well made! 

In retrospect, my costume is not especially well made, and at this point it’s pretty beat up. As soon as I first saw this particular outfit there was an immediate urge to cosplay it! I wanted to put my own spin on the outfit.  Homestuck is infamous for having simplistic designs, so I wanted to adorn it with extra details! At the same time, maintaing the integrity of the outfit’s original design was important to me so the basic shapes are still the same!

My God Tier Jade is probably my dearest costume, in spite of this. I’ve worn it at least five or six times-even for last year’s Halloween! It is actually super comfortable, and as cheesy as it is, it just feels super homey wearing it! The moment I saw this design I knew in my heart that I would be able to pull off her character, and make something that I was proud of. And I was able to achieve just that! I remember the surge of pride I felt when every piece of the costume came together. Putting it all on the wig and makeup was a magical moment. Feeling like you completely the embody a character’s essence is such a personal part of cosplay. “Becoming” that character, knowing that all your efforts finally paid off, and being able to manifest that love for your character is something that I treasure deeply. Cosplaying Jade’s God Tier was my first genuine experience with this special aspect of cosplaying, and that feeling still hasn’t slipped away every time I slip into this outfit. This is why that if/when I remake pieces of this costume, or even decide to quit cosplaying her God Tier all together, I will not toss away the original tunic or ears. They serve as a personal reminder for one of the most magical parts of cosplaying: Putting forth the time and effort to embody a character that has clearly left some impression upon you!

Cheers,

Sarah

Introduction and Blog Expectations!

I would rather not waste time being stuck on an introduction post, so let’s just jump right in: My name is Sarah, and I am a northern California college student and cosplayer! I’ve been sewing for three years, cosplaying for two, and writing for fun ever since I learned about spelling and sentence structure.
Blogging for me represents a bridge between two of my favorite hobbies: sewing and writing. I intend on intertwining both of these interests, and give myself a personal space to journal about my experiences with cosplay and con-going.  Expect content like construction progress, con reports, write-ups, tutorials, discussions, and whatever I may feel like writing about it (as long as it pertains to the hobby, of course!).
So let’s have start having some fun! That’s what the spirit of this wonderful hobby is all about, after all!

Cheers,
Sarah

(Meet the mascot: Jade Harley from Homestuck!)