August 28, 2011

Yaoi-Con 2011 - Cosplay

For Yaoi-Con this year, I will cosplay as Avan Hardins from Valkyria Chronicles II.

I've looked online and I can't find a costume for him.  So even though I've never done this before (that is, I've never cosplayed before) and there's less than two months until the Con...

I am totally gonna create his costume myself!

I will update this post with pics as I go along...
{1} Cheap, used beige blazer.
{2} Removed beige dye in hot water with a color remover, which revealed a tan base.
{3} Applied a "fiber reactive" blue dye in cold water.

Note the blazer is not 100% cotton -- 30% of it is polyester, so only 70% of the blazer accepted the dye.
This was the result.  It's not quite as blue as I would've liked, but it'll work.

I also dyed a 100% cotton blazer before this, which turned out exactly the color of Avan's -- but unfortunately the fit of that blazer was not great.  When I dyed this cotton/poly blend the same color it turned out a terrible light grey.  Hence I dyed it a darker blue, which turned out as you see here.

I tried using a "disperse dye" for the polyester-ness, but instead of boiling the garment in the dye for an hour since I don't have a big enough pot, I thought I might be able to get away with running it through the hot cycle in the washer.  Alas, the dye was only taken by the inner lining, which turned out purple!  >_<

Moral of the story:  only dye 100% cotton if you can.  You'll have a lot more control over the color.  Dying blended fabric is a crapshoot.

{4}  Sewed on red cotton fabric to the lining and cuffs.  Slightly tedious, since I'm not exactly a master seamster.
{5} Sewed black "bias tape" to the cuffs.


{6} Used a white acrylic paint marker on big, black square buttons to make them checkered.  Sewed these on.

(Midway note:  Ack.  Avan has so much hair!  I better get to growin' mine!  Grow hair, grow!)
{7} Sewed on a Lanseal Military Academy patch.  The patch was created at a custom t-shirt place (a screenprint onto cotton).  I'd considered getting an embroidery, but that was a bit outside my budget.
{8} Attached a shoulder cord and knots.  If ever you need such things, I'd suggest this company.  They asked a lot of questions to make sure I got what I wanted; they even took pics to give me a preview before purchase.  The product was $30, which included shipping from Philadelphia to Seattle -- making it the least expensive on the market that I found (considering it's customized).

Okay, blazer is done.  Could use an iron, though...
{9} White button-down, black dress pants, brown shoes, short tie.  I'm gonna forgo putting a red stripe down the pants since I didn't have a pair of nicely-fitting dress pants when I bought these; I want them around for other occasions.


{10} Yellow belt.

{11} Last step:  colored my hair copper.  Well, it's not technically the last step, but I'll leave the, uh, miscellaneous grooming to your imagination.





End Goal:
 

12 comments:

  1. Valkyria Chronicles is soooo good.

    Good luck with the costume! Avan is cool(Jann from the 1st is my fav lol. he is fabulous)

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  2. plus jann is marcus fenix. which makes him even better.

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  3. Thanks for the luck. I love both games -- I & II. I hold out hope that III will be localized.

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  4. aww the other blazer was such a perfect color. what was wrong with the fit? Its easier if its too big. epeshos since you'd have to change the lining.

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  5. It was also too thick, like something one would wear in winter.

    I'm gonna leave the purple on this one since it won't be visible (it's not like the thing will be flowing in the wind like in the pics above). I'm currently adding the red parts...

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  6. Oh, and I forgot to mention, the old one also had felt around the collar that wouldn't accept dye.

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  7. cool buttons. Also. yes i have read hesse/siddharta. Sorry i didn't notice your comment I don't really expect peoples to comment on my bs heh.

    im starting to do cosplay-ish stuff.

    actually just trying to make replica monster hunter weapons. :D

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  8. Gigantic ones? The best replica weapons are the ones that would be impossible to carry IRL, IMO. Like this lance from VCI. (Edit: I mean, you know, if they were made out of actual weapons materials).

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  9. YES. of course. lances in monster hunter are awesome but crazy long to be practical to make/carry.

    I'm thinking about doing this hammer.

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  10. its looking so good! nice work

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