8 posts tagged “street fighter”
Wow! It's been entirely TOO LONG since I updated. I'm going to officially kick this back into gear! To start, here is a brief photo update (to be followed by an actual post).
Anime Expo 2008 was by far the most fun that I have had at a convention since 2003. I decided to go it alone that year figuring I would run into someone eventually, which was apparently the right decision. Fluffy was there working as Merch Manager and I was able to crash with him and hang out for a bit (although not as much as I would have liked, but oh wells... he was busy). I ended up running into some old friends from Sacramento that I hadn't seen in ages. I also had the chance to meet up with some new friends that I had previously only known online.
I entered the karaoke contest this year, but was *totally* unprepared. I ended up having no time to memorize lyrics so tried speed memorizing them and surprised myself by remembering more of Love Hina than Noir, but I digress. For the preliminary round I sang "Broken My Heart" from DDR dressed as Alice. For the semifinals I sang "Copellia No Hitsugi" from Noir dressed as Mirielle Bouquet. This song I ended up faking 1/2 the lyrics cause I went completely RETARDED on stage, but apparently it was enough to advance me to finals where I sang "Sakura Saku" from Love Hina dressed in an original design. I was shocked that I nailed all of these lyrics considering that I didn't know them much at all 24 hours prior. Aaaaaaaaaand (drum roll please) I placed 4th and took home about 5 DVDs, a CD, shirt, hat, and some Naruto figurines that I gave to the 1st well dressed Narutard that I saw. XD
LACC was probably the best venue for AX. I *know* that all of the Anaheim Nostalgia Junkies will be stomping their feet at this, but it's true. There was no need to travel to multiple buildings for different events as LACC is large enough to accommodate ALL AX activities. The after con entertainment around that area is fantastic seeing as it is Downtown LA not to mention the great selection of places to eat. Since the hotels were a bit of a walk they provided a shuttle service to the surrounding hotels all weekend. All in all I rate the LACC as a 9. My only gripe is the seeming unavailability of shooting locations. Ho hum. Maybe I didn't look hard enough. But OMFG *so* many good cosplayers this year. I was blown away by the overall quality of the cosplayers this year. Well done everyone!
The San Diego Comic Con is in a few days and I cannot wait to go! It will be a record breaking year for TGG attendees as well as the epic debut of season 2 of GGTV. This is my 1st year at Comic Con where I will be free to run amok and I have the best people to do it with. Each day will feature a different costume. My cosplay line up looks a bit like this:
- Thursday: Cammy White (Delta Red Version) - Street Fighter
- Friday: Faye Valentine - Cowboy Bebop
- Saturday: Cammy White (Alpha Version) - Street Fighter
- Sunday: Mirielle Bouquet - Noir
Thursday is going to be a pretty big day for me. From 3pm-7pm I will be with G4TV and starting at 9pm is a party with G4 and The Wonder Women of America, whose cosplay book is being released this year. My friend, Ivy, and I are in it so I can't wait to check it out! We got to invite one guest and I chose Heather, who will be making her cosplay debut as Kirika of Noir. Woo hoo!
My one major disappointment is not being able to finish my Tandem Twin catgirl in time, which means I will not be cosplaying with Annisse. T_T Oh well. Maybe next year. I also had to push back my Emma Frost, but next year it is happening for real!
ANYONE GOING TO COMIC CON FEEL FREE TO HIT ME UP SO WE CAN HANGOUT. :)
The Shadowloo Group came together splendidly this year at Anime Expo 2007. Unfortunately, two of our Dolls that were carpooling to the LBCC got stuck in massive traffic after work and were unable to make it in time to the shoot. Ah well, we still had the majority of the Dolls and I am glad I was able to be a part of it. :) At any rate, I present to you: Aprile of The Shadowloo Dolls!
XD
After Stefan/Isobel of CammyFan.com sent me this picture. I found it to absurdly hilarious to pass up doing. Besides, it was a very easy cosplay to do. The hardest part was staining (yes STAINING) my tan lines. Oh man, my hands are STILL a gnarly shade of orange! Haha. Also, the images ended up being far too washed out and need to be re-shot. :( At any rate, I present to you my "secret cosplay":
- Underskirt
- Overskirt (10% complete)
- Waist Cincher (50% complete)
- Tiara (80% complete)
- Bow
- Wig
Sadly, my room mate left the digital camera in the men's bathroom of Downtown Disney so there will not be any suitable picture updates for a little while. :( As much as this makes me one sad panda, it is not enough to stop my rampage of progress! This weekend I progressed on three costumes!
Next we browsed around for both the red and black fabrics needed, which we found with relative ease. However, locating suitable piping that matched the color of the red fabric proved slightly more difficult. In the end, I found some beautiful corded piping that was just the right thickness and color at the back of one of the last fabric stores that we popped into before the district started closing up shop. I'm going to deviate from the chronological order of events for a minute so I can discuss the progression of items as they come up. I think it should be easier to follow that way. ; )
Later that night, I created my muslin mock-up for the waist cincher and subsequently cut the fabric for it. This was my first time working with boning (the name at which my friends incessantly displayed their mirth when I declared that I had run out and "needed more boning") and I found it to be far less intimidating than I had initially thought. I decided to sew the boning to the interfacing rather than to the fabric so I could hide the seam lines and work on a more solid foundation. It worked. : ) In my haste to complete the waist cincher, however, I finished the edges on the lower portion when I had meant to do so to the top. Needless to say, that lead to seam-ripping goodness. : P Tonight I plan on attaching the outer skirt to the waist cincher and finishing up the eyelets and piping. But I digress.
Now back to the day at hand! Finding a suitable base for the tiara was far more difficult than I would have imagined. There was an over abundance of Quinceañera tiaras displaying their shimmering "15" smack dab in the middle. I would have preferred to have gotten one without a "15" emblazoned on the front, but if all else failed, I always had my power tools handy. :D Luckily, we ducked into one final shop before heading out and found what we were looking for! I brought it home and spray painted it the correct color. Now all I have to do is replace the old cubic zirconium with the correct red color as the entire tiara had initially been entirely white/silver. The search for the tiara was mighty frustrating because I swear that vendors in the LAFD act more like car salesmen than they do shop owners. Ugh!
Remaining Tasks
- Gloves (attach gauntlets)
- Tie (prototype complete)
Following our exhaunt of the Fashion District, we headed over to an army surplus store where I bought an old ammunition box and medical rucksack to convert for my Aprile cosplay. I got some nicely textured, matte spray paint to give it more of a grungy feel rather than having it gleam with fresh paint. All that is left to do on that is the detailing! For the rucksack I went through four bottles of So-Soft Fabric Paint and have still yet to complete the painting! I anticipate getting that all wrapped up tonight though. :) Which means that the only thing remaining for my Aprile cosplay are the gauntlets (which will also be used for both my Delta and Alpha Cammy) and the shortening/thinning of the tie. Can't wait until completion!!!
The last cosplay that I vigorously pursued last weekend was one of my few "secret projects". Shhhhh!
>_>
<_<
I focused primarily on the dying for that project, after three separate dying sessions came out utterly fabulous! This Secret Side Project of mine is now completed and ready for shooting, which is scheduled to happen this weekend. All that is left is picking up some blonde hair extensions and I'm good to go! This project is never likely to appear at any con; it was more something that I did because I found it too humorous to pass up. Besides, I think Stefan will get a huge kick out of it, too.
COMPLETE PHOTO SET SCHEDULED TO BE UPLOADED MARCH 19, 2007
- Hat (prototype complete)
- Gloves (attach gauntlets)
- Tie (prototype complete)
- Armband (40% complete)
Yesterday our Juli (Serina Reitz) came over to take some progress shots as well as get some more work done on her costume. I was very pleased to see that the boots I ordered for her fit her so splendidly. I am extremely satisfied with the color of the tie that we ordered. Ivy and I have been toiling over which color of ties to purchase and alter. She came across a Tie Seller Online with an excellent selection as well as great prices. The ties themselves are around $5 including shipping. The choices that we had initially narrowed it down to were: Rust, Cinnamon, and Orange. There was some debate as to which color to use because, as you can see in the image to the right, the ties come in three different colors depending on the doll. However, this apparently is just in video game mode because if you take a look at an image scan from the
In the end, we decided to go ahead with the Cinnamon colored tie for all twelve of the Dolls because we wanted to maintain the unity as much as possible. And while we could have ordered the yellow ties, we thought it better to leave the yellow tie for Cammy White so she would be set aside a little bit. As of right now, the tie that you see pictured above has been untouched in every way. Before I start modifying her tie I would like to consider the option of getting zipper ties, but still have my doubts as to whether or not it would be better than just sewing on the faux tie as I did with my Cammy White Prototype.
Setting the subject of ties aside, I shortened her gloves because they were meant for burly man-fighter hands as opposed to dainty she-assassin hands. This was easily remedied; I had preformed the same operation with my own gloves and will undoubtedly be repeating the procedure for our Santum (Cheri Dozier) in coming days. I also tidied up the prototype hat that Ivy had made during our last sewing session. No real major changes. Just a change in the thread color and finishing up the bottom hem. :)
- Hat (prototype complete)
- Gloves (attach gauntlets) PENDING MATERIALS
- Tie (prototype complete) PENDING SHIPMENT
- Armband (40% complete)
- Boots (dye)
- "Lightening Bolts"
So here is the very 1st full body progress shot of my Cammy White. I am very pleased with how it is turning out, but there is still so much more that I want to do to it until I will be satisfied. I can't wait until our entire group of Dolls and Minions debut together. :D I know that my pigtails are short and inadequate in these shots, but as I said: Progress! My completed version will come equipped with ultra-long extensions that I will be braiding in. For some reason, my hair looks much darker than usual. Odd. At any rate, the main thing that I worked on for this costume last night was taking in the boots. Whenever I buy boots, they never seem to fit the way I like around my calves so I just took them in about an inch. Next comes the fabric staining! These boots need to be darker still. I do like how the tan looks, but it is not accurate to Cammy's shoes, so they must be further altered.
The last thing that we worked on was cutting out the pattern for another Street Fighter Alpha 3 character, Sakura, who will also be cosplayed by our ever lovely Serina Reitz. I think she will be an utterly fabulous Sakura. Tonight, she is coming over again and I am teaching her how to do a muslin mock-up. I don't anticipate getting the mock-up sewed together entirely seeing as I am still *very* low stamina these days as a result of my pneumonia relapsing, but at the very least I would like to have the muslin pieces cut out and labeled so they will be waiting for me whenever I am feeling up to par. :)
- Hat (prototype complete)
- Gloves (attach gauntlets)
- Tie (prototype complete)
- Armband (40% complete)
- Boots (take in and dye)
- "Lightening Bolts"
Last night my shipment of ties came in. In hindsight, I can see how ordering multiple duplicates would have been beneficial. I, however, only ordered the one. Bollucks. I made several mistakes with the tie. First of all, I didn't have any silk pins so I opted instead to use my regular pins, which are fat and dull. :( And although I was meticulous enough not to sew through any visible layers of silk, it was still just blunt enough to snag the weft causing slight little puckers. Curses.
My next error came about by not ironing frequently enough. I had planned on ironing it out after I had done the basting, but soon realized that stopping frequently to iron would have been a more clever idea because the right side is a tad warped and is highly dissatisfying. This will have to be redone. I *do*, however, like the following aspects of the tie: the length, the gradual increase in width, and the knot.
The length itself is just about right and I have no complaints.
As for the knot, I actually put on the tie and tied it at the appropriate length, removed the tie with the knot still in it, and then hand-sewed the back of the knot so it would stay. Following that I put another layer of silk around the top for an added tidy effect. I wanted to keep my tie knot looking all spiffy and tight, which I think I accomplished. :)
Well... I'll consider this the test run and will move on to round two. Being that the original tie I bought only amounted to $5 I'd say that I am willing to cut my loses and begin anew.
