Shinsengumi headband modification + stuff

I went to town today on the morning together with Jäätynyt Enkeli. First thing we did was that we went to his study apartment and ordered the train tickets for Närcon Vinter. Yay finally it's out of the way... sadly we couldn't get the Närcon discount herpderp. Oh well, after that we walked to the post office and I picked up the black ponytail clip-on I had ordered from eBay a month ago. It sure took its time to get here. ._. Better late than never... it was from China but still, never taken this long before for anything I've ordered to arrive.. except that one wig that got lost lol, I got a replacement wig though free of charge. I must say that when I got the package in my hand I was... weirded out. My first thought was "is this now the right thing I ordered? It can't possibly fit into this... ó_ò" and then I started imagining all possible more or less bad scenarios. xD Oh well, I put it in my bag and went back inside the shopping center (post office is on the outside of the same building). When inside I remembered I needed to buy some cosplay make-up, namely some good concealer/foundation/whatever-stuff-to-cover-derpness-on-your-face (I'm soooo knowledgeable when it comes to make-up terms.. lolnope) because yeah, powder alone just doesn't really cut it and the one thing I have is just... well.. it takes forever to dry and doesn't fit my skin tone - first I look like Simpsons and then I look like I have airdried poo on my face.
So I wobbled into the make-up specialized store like "herpaderp I know like almost nothing about this shit -and I wouldn't put my foot in here unless my nerdy hobby called for it- but I need some stuff that gives me this effect herpaderp". Yeah, go figure. Luckily I got some guidance to some kinda promising concealer which I decided to give a try.. but the price wasn't as yummy: 25 €. My poor wallet cried tears of blood. *pats it*

I'm happy I only use make-up for cosplays...  

When I got home I took out the package. It's sooo tiny!

package in size comparison with normal (bigger) scissors...

... but sure there was my ponytail clip-on in there!

It was tightly rolled inside. I must say I was surprised. XD I took it out and it unrolled like WROOM and I was all "mistä tämä pituus oikein tulee? : DD" no ei Saunalahdesta ainakaan. Highly space effective way of packaging lol.

Now over to the progress part. You might or might not remember that I did a shinsengumi headband quite some time ago. Yeah, I never wore it to a con because I noticed it derped. It was a bit too wide to wear on your forehead with a wig. It would look derp.. or at least on my face it did. Also the craft foam protector part thingy creased when bent and the glue didn't hold it super securely in place. So I've been thinking about modifying it for a long time and today it was time for it to finally get a long awaited make-over.

First things first. Rip off the craft foam part.

It left some glue remains.. not sure if gusta.

I then took the seam ripper and unstitched the whole thing open again. I didn't want to cut any fabric because who knows, I might need the extra fabric someday later if I want to resize the width again.
When I had unstitched the whole thing I wondered what to make the forehead protector part out of; I wanted something that was glossy and would bend with the fabric... and so my mind went to the roll of pvc fabric my mom has. "Why not?" I thought and went ahead to try. Oh boy little did I know what hell awaited me...

After cutting out a fitting piece of pvc fabric

I went to iron the headband itself, this time folding in the sides twice to get it thinner and after I just resewed it shut again.

Double folded and ironed sides before sewing.

Sewn shut.

And now to attach the pvc piece to the middle. I just thought that it would be easy peasy to sew on. The first few stitches went all good and I was positive it would work so I continued sewing. I noticed very soon that every second stitch I had to lift the presser foot because the fabric wanted to turn to the side and crease and fold up under the presser and ahgjfdskjadskgj. But I continued sewing... and when I was almost done with the upper part I finally noticed that the whole thing had turned into a fucking drunk banana crooked beyond all points of hope!!

"Tell me again how you were supposed to be a headband..."
(yes, that's the default form it took if I tried to lay it flat, go figure)

I raged silently for myself and here comes the seam ripper. But sweet Jesus! Dx The stitches were so small it was impossible to rip them up because the seam ripper's.. rip.. point.. thing.. seemed gigantic in comparison. OTL So I tugged the pvc fabric upwards and somehow, slowly, managed to unstitch it. But the hand position I had to keep hurt like fuck and it felt like my thumb muscles or something would disintegrate when I was done. Needless to say my feelings were nothing less than..

If you didn't figure it out already - I left it unfinished.

Maybe another day I'll finish that sucker up... now it can just go and... sew itself goddammit.

Toshi make-up test (aka photo spam!)

I got home early today so I had several hours of being home alone to derp around in cosplays and what-have-you. I've been having an urge to try on my upgraded Hijikata cosplay for quite some time now so.. I did it. At first I was feeling very lazy to do any make-up but after thinking about it I decided to go all out; I needed to come up with some fitting make-up for Toshi anyway. Toshi sounds cute. 
I didn't even try to tie the wig into a ponytail because 1) I can't style it alone 2) even if I somehow magically managed to do a nice ponytail it wouldn't hold the shape until Kemi's manga day. Why bother? Besides, Hijikata does have his hair untied at least at the beginning of Sekkaroku's opening and in one of the game CG's so it's not terribly inaccurate either ~

OH GOD WHY is his hakama so SHORT here??? It bugs the living crap out of me... rofl

 

*nods* *nods*

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand now it's time for photo spam.

Here's the results of my derping ~

Again most photos are mirror photos, sorry 'bout that. I dislike mirror photos because it makes kimonos go corpse mode. Eew. Also most photos are a bit blurry and my hakama knot is lolrepsderp on some photos. *facedesk*

Like a walrus :'DDD boss

I think that's my usual camera grump face. lol

I'm fabulous

Angst? I dunno..

Dirty mirror, Toshi does not approve...

I don't even

Adjusting kimono...

Onks se jotenki väärin että saan kicksit keksit tuosta ilmeestä? X'DD

Me gusta ~

 I think this is my favorite face shot:

Pfsfhgdshgf <3

 And when I thought everything was all rainbows and awesomeness...

Something's not right here...
...
.........
............
...............

"FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUCK!!1" roid rage LOL
(aka I noticed I had the swords on the wrong side.. cosplaying Saitou too much.. Orz)

I think I wanted to kick myself in the face. OTL 

Oh well, switched the swords over to the other side... and then for some reason I didn't get any good photos anymore.. except maybe this one. lol So typical or what?

trolololo

I also noticed later that I had completely forgot his white sword-holder-obi-whatever-thing too. Oh god why do I fuck up with all those smaller details? Urgh. Oh well, luckily this was just a kind of 'test', as long as I don't screw up when it's the real deal (cons, events) then it's alright I guess. Still bugs me though. *shrugs* Well well, now I at least know how to do the make-up for Toshi.

And now I guess everyone wants to vomit on me if I post any more photos for now so...

Awaiting Kemi's manga day ~

Fixed the last details for my shinsengumi outfits

I've been packing most of the day and I hope I don't forget anything now. I wonder where I've put my hair tie for Saitou... I've done some cosplay progress too: I added the long ties for the shinsengumi haori today and made the headband.

It's ready~ <3

I just cut two 2 meter pieces of some random white cord that we had lying at home and tied them to the loops inside the haori, then I test tied it to see about how far down the ties fell on my back.

reference for haori himo length (and headband too..)

Turned out 2 meters was waaaay too long so I cut around 50 cm or something off each end and kept tying them together until I got them to look about right.

Next (and last) thing to do was the shinsengumi headband.
I had yesterday bought two strips of around 12 cm of thin bed sheet-ish flowy fabric (whole fabric width) and I started from that. First thing to do was sew one of the ends together so I got one long piece. Then I zigzaged around the whole thing and next up was to iron it. After ironing it in the middle I put it on my head to see how long it was. Too long. Again. So I cut 40 cm off both ends.

After I had cut off excess length. lol why do I look so angry?...

Then I folded and ironed the sides...

... and sewed it closed ~

And when that was done I went and grabbed my bag of craft foam. Yes, I'm cheap. XD I took the brown sheet because, well, brown is better than yellow or green or something. lol
I cut out a 21 cm long (whole width of the sheet) and a 5 cm wide piece and proceeded to mix together some glue and water in a glass bottle. I needed to seal the craft foam because craft foam is kinda like a sponge and it sucks up paint like a monster otherwise. Or something.

Craft foam sealing preparations

I coated it around 4 layers and then I got lazy and picked up the silver spray paint and went outside. Several coats of paint later I let the piece dry and then I used some Karlssons klister (it glues everything pretty much) and glued it to the headband. I tried to sew it on at first but it derped so I resorted to using glue. I let it dry again and tried it on ~

Finished headband

Closer shot of it

When it's not on my head trolol

I'm not 100% sure what color it's actually supposed to be because the pictures I looked at showed different colors... ._. Oh well, I made mine silver and if I later find out it's the wrong color I can always make a new one, not much trouble. Now I did some quick version because, as you all know, I'm leaving tomorrow. I will use the haori and headband for both Saitou and Hijikata and also other future shinsengumi members I will cosplay. That means now both my Saitou and Hijikata cosplays are finished and con ready, YAY! ~

I got stuff for Hijikata!

I went to town around 12:00 clock something, I think, with Ari. Oh my god I was so tired but I wanted to go and get the town visit over and done with...
I went and picked up two packages from the post office and bought some white thin fabric so I can make a shinsengumi headband for coming Hakuouki cosplays. From the post office I picked up yet another vintage kimono (yay!), which, despite looking dark purple on the site it was this weird blue-gray-black with a purple-ish tint. Interesting. The lining is very dark black-purple too... but the whole thing seems to photograph purple anyway. xD I'll use it for Hijikata for now because I don't feel like sewing a kimono in stress again in one day not to mention mom is sick of me making kimonos lol. Tomorrow I need to do some finishing touches on my Hijikata cosplay and pack my suitcase, that's enough to do. *yawns*

I took some WIP photos of Hijikata so far. Excuse mirror photos again..

What's left to do is the headband and add haori himo ties to the haori. The swords are at Jäätynyt Enkeli's place already. The hakama and shinsengumi haori are commissioned by my friend Hasakitsuki's mom. Thank you so much. <3 I could never have made it myself in time for Uppcon because I was busy finishing Desucon cosplays and blah blah. So this cosplay is mostly commissioned and/or bought.

It seems my Uppcon cosplay plans will change too, I'll make a blog post about that later. Gin Ichimaru and Toshizo Hijikata are set though. It seems I'll change Ichito for Hajime Saitou but I'm not sure yet. I can't take Ukitake because the swords got damaged from the Desucon trip.. the golden paint rubbed against and transferred on the black parts of the blade. I need to repaint it and fix one of those ribbon holder square things because it broke already last year at Närcon by accident but so far it's been held together by Jesus tape.. but now it's giving in. Need to make a new one.