Japanese and Korean Music

I was recently introduced to a Japanese pop-metal (yeah, that's a thing) band called BabyMetal and their new song GIVE ME CHOCO!




I find it annoying, and adorable, and I'm a little sad that I can't see the outfits better because they look cute.


I've only done two Asian music cosplays, my Ayumi Hamasaki's Ladies Night dress:

And Ayumi's Song 4 U White Queen dress:

Neither of those are my favorite work, though, I think that has to go to her song Jewel:



I'd really love to do either that coat, or the ballgown that's in the second half of the video:

Perhaps I should throw that together, certainly would satisfy my current desire for bling!



My other Asian music obsession right now is not Japanese, it's Korean.  I have two songs from K-pop group 2NE1 on my short playlist right now:



I Am The Best




Can't Nobody


Their new album, Crush, dropped yesterday and it's awesome!  I can't wait for the videos from it, first of which comes tomorrow!  Their tour, All or Nothing, starts Saturday, and I bet it will be amazing.  Look at how Sci-Fi Geeky their trailer is!

Monday Progress Update: January 7th

I feel like I only got little stuff accomplished this week, which is crazy since I almost completed two costumes, but there's no reasoning with the crazy.

First, details on Maghda I finished:

I got the center front piece painted and mounted on the corset.

I used my new duct tape pattern method to make a pattern for all the decorations on the horns.  No decorations yet though.

I hated how my tights turned out last week.  They were too dark, too bluish, and overall not what I wanted.  I played around with taking the dye out, but I ended up painting over them with Lumiere paint in Pearlescent White.  It ended up pretty good, close to the metallic silver body paint I'll be using on my face and chest.  It was an interesting few days with me wearing the tights around the house while painting them or them being wet because I wanted to paint them stretched so they didn't dry too small.  After finishing painting I put on the stirrup pants and marked them just above the knee.  I then cut off the stirrups and sewed them to the tights, cutting off the extra tight below the seam.  The stirrups  have an annoying logo I have to get rid of, then they get gold decorations on them.

I didn't like how plain my hip armor was, so I made these diamond inserts with worbla and made lines with hot glue before I painted them.  Then I hot glued them in place (a few times until I figured out the placement I liked).

 The headdress has all these little four-pointed stars on it.  I was going to cast them, but it was taking forever and I didn't like the results (and all the wasted casting plastic) so I went through my stash and found htese little four-pointed knot beads in silver.  Of course, they needed to be gold, so I painted them.

I've also got these decorations cast and painted.  One of the circular pieces goes on the corset and the other two are for the tights, and the stars are for the tights too.

 Next I worked on Ladies Night, and I finished it.  There's the corset with bubble ruffled mirror organza and a big sequin fabric heart, the skirt with a darted yoke and pleated bottom, and the furry blue legwarmers with elastic for right above the knee.  I even found the perfect accessory:

 I'm still on the lookout for a baby pink rhinestone bracelet, but otherwise that costume is done, even the wig (which thankfully doesn't need styling).



Next I worked on Song 4 U.  I ended up finishing the dress in a day, and hemming it the next day so it's all but done.  I made a mock up of a sheath dress and fitted it to the knees.  Then I made a boned base out of a heavy sateen and a cover out of casa satin.  Over the cover I gathered chiffon in bunches.  I had to tack a lot of that by hand.  The skirt is a circle skirt with a back train gore out of circle ruffle bridal fabric.  The bare space between the skirt and the chiffon is supposed to be covered in a straight-line ruffle fabric, I didn't figure that out until I got the cd with the making-of-the-video on it on Thursday, hopefully I can find some, otherwise I'll probably improvise with more circle ruffle fabric.  The second picture is the skirt picked up in points like it is in the video.  I'm still deciding if it needs a petticoat to fluff out the skirt or not.

I also finished the bracelet for the costume:

This week I need to make the bugs for Maghda's outfit.  I'm hoping that a trip to the model train hobby store will end up with them motorized so they flap their wings, but that's still very much up in the air.  I also need to hit my bustle dress hard and hopefully finish it so that all I have to finish next week is Vanellope and details on Maghda.  At least with the productive weekend I'm back on track with my to-do lists, so that's a good thing, even if tomorrow is hellish.

Monday Progress Update: December 17

I can't believe it's been over a month since I've done one of these!  After Halloween I kinda burned out and stopped sewing much, choosing to read books for the Cybil awards instead.  I've got some cons coming up, though, so there is work to be done!

First, some pics.  I attended SF Contario in Toronto and got some pics of a few costumes I hadn't gotten pics of earlier:

First, Merida from Brave!  I premiered this costume at CC30, but I didn't get any pictures.  Here they are now:

Next, my 1920's tea dress from Patterns of Fashion:

Next up, making costume plans for the next year.  Arisia's coming up in January, so I started sewing for that.  Here's my costume plan right now:

Friday: Ayumi Hamasaki, Ladies Night video

It's so out of character for me, but I've gotten to the point where I just don't care.  I have wanted to do this costume forever, and it'll be quick enough to do and comfortable for a hall costume on a day when I don't have any panels.


Saturday: Bustle Dress

It may be a bit much for some of the panels I'm on, but one of them is Victorian clothing, so I really want to wear an example and finally finish this dress!


Sunday Day: Ayumi Hamasaki Song 4 U White Queen Version:

I think this is such a beautiful song!  I think Ayumi is such an expressive singer, and I really picked up on what this song was about before even reading the translation.  It just speaks to me.  The video is a giant chessboard with a White Queen and a Black Queen squaring off, and I really liked the White Queen's dress.  I'm going to make it sans those crazy finger cuffs so I can actually interact with people!


Sunday Masquerade:  Maghda from Diablo 3

This costume has a great story.  My husband played through the game on my account while I was at WorldCon, and he called me the day after the Masquerade there and said "I have your next costume".  How could I disappoint him, especially when he has such great taste?  This is the costume I'm currently working on, so more below.


Monday: Vanellope vonSchweetz

 I knew as soon as I saw Wreck It Ralph that I'd have to do this costume.  It's too cute and comfy, and I loved the movie and the character.  It'll be a great hall costume for a con monday.


There are other costumes I've got planned for next year, but since they're not Arisia I'll put them in an end-of-the-year post.

 So, I promised you work!  What have I been toiling away at?  Maghda, of course!  Gotta finish the Masque dress before anything else.  I started where I usually do, with the corset:



 After 5 mock-ups (which I was an idiot and didn't photograph) I came up with my final pattern:

Then I sewed it out of black brocade, black casa satin, purple silk that was interfaced for stability, and silver dupioni made into fat piping:

I'm almost done with it now, so hopefully next week you'll get a finished photo!  The other thing I've done is found shoes and started painting them: