Tis The Season...For Cosplay

With cons right around the corner, I am here to panic. Because I have not learned my lesson and am a glutton for punishment, all when it comes to the art of cosplay. Join me as I visit myself from cosplay past, to inspire myself to change my procrastinating ways.

Do not get the wrong impression, I am by no means a professional cosplayer. Not even a little bit. In fact, I only started cosplaying, for fun, two years ago. I started because one: I wanted to have a more interactive experience when I went to cons and two: mostly, I just wanted to have fun with it. And, to a degree, that is what I got.

I received the fun at the con, as planned. But what I did not anticipate, my first year, was how hard it really was. I knew how hard it was for people who did amazing, professional grade costumes but me throwing something together? That should be easy, right? Wrong. So, so, so wrong. Because even though I wasn't a professional, I still wanted to look at least half way decent and it turns out, that is a harder task than you would think. Even just putting together an amateur fan costume, is not easy.

That fact, is what I find myself reflecting on tonight, folks. Because the count down to C2E2, and other cons for that matter, is ticking down. And though I have struggled the past two years getting cosplay's together in time, I seem to still have not learnt my lesson. What about you, are you ready for this springs con season? No? Well, lets take a look down memory lane to inspire us. Yes, we are going to look at the cosplay's of cons-past (in the order I did them), to inspire us all to get to work on our cosplay's in order to properly enter the con spirit. Let's begin!

#1) Genderbend: Kyo Sohma from Fruits Basket

Photo credit to James Welliver & Fruits Basket

This was the first cosplay I ever did. I am very happy that I was able to cosplay one of my favorite characters of all time (from the manga, not the first show, don't shoot). I wish that I had a better picture of my outfit because I am actually pretty spot on with my clothes. The only thing I was unsure of was the shoes because Kyo is so often barefoot. A big lesson I took away from this one was that even the simplest pieces will vanish off the face of the earth if you decide to cosplay them. I couldn't find that blue hoodie for so long. I ended up having to order it online. I will point out that all of my pieces for this costume are bought except the bracelet, that I did make myself. I did this cosplay a bit prematurely, though. If I had waited until this year, the cosplay would have been more relevant in light of the reboot the show got. But I did it for me, just cosplaying a character I love for funzies is all. Overall, I think I did okay on this one.

#2) Fancy-take: Wonder Woman

My second cosplay wasn't inspired on fanart like a lot of the others, or even on the character itself like Kyo. It all started with the dress. This entire cosplay was bought, there were no made pieces. To be honest, this was the easiest cosplay I ever did. The biggest struggle I had was with the shoes. This pictures shows the second pair I wore that day but I did start the day in red go-go boots. The dress was gorgeous and I loved all my jewelry. I have the lasso of truth around my neck, though it is hard to see in the picture, and some sweet cuffs. I, also, thought the the POW style purse was a fun touch. Not your typical cosplay but so fun. The lesson I learned with this cosplay was: choose smart shoes. The go-go boots are gone for a reason people! Pick manageable footwear. Again, overall, not bad.

#3) Modern-take & Genderbend: Naruto Uzumaki

HA, this is where we really learn somethings people. I went with a modern-take because I thought it would be easier to manage. But the thing is, ORANGE is not manageable. I had so many problems with pants for this cosplay. The pair I am wearing in the picture is the third pair I had gone through trying to make something work. My second pair failed three days before the con due to another failed buy that arrived late. I knew I was not going to find another pair so I went to the store bought white pants and orange tie dye. If I had the time to do more than one treatment on the pants, it would probably have looked a lot better. When you can't find a piece to buy in a reasonable amount of time and know you will have to make it, do not fight it for as long as I did, just make it. Same goes for the patch that is on my back, which you cannot see in this picture. I didn't finish it until THE MORNING OF THE CON. Why, do I do this to myself? It was miserable. Make your stuff early people, MAKE YOUR STUFF EARLY ALLISON. I made: the necklace, the pants (kinda), and the patch. The rest is bought pieces. Not the worst, but could have been better. Naruto deserves better.

#4) Mash-up: Sailor Sylveon

Bless my husbands heart. I had a vision the moment I saw the picture on the right and he did his damnedest to make it come true. My wonderful husband made 90% of this costume himself. He had watched a lot of tutorials and taught himself how to sew clothes. He made: the skirt, the cape, the top, the front bow, the back bow, and the ears. I made: the hair clips, the hair bows, the necklace, and hand embroidered the boots. Bought: boots base, new laces, tights, wig, and leotard for under the costume. This was a big project. One we did not give ourselves enough time for. If you are planning on doing a costume of this scale, give yourself time, start NOW. You need to give yourself time for mistakes. We did not, so we made a lot of sacrifices when it came to design for the sole purpose of "we need to get this done". Don't sacrifice your design or craftsmanship because of poor time management. You got this. Buckle down. Regardless, I love my husband for all his hard work and I love the costume he made me. He's a good pokemon trainer.

#5) Modern-take: Raven from Teen Titans

This was our first attempt at body paint. It went horribly wrong. You might be saying: Allison we don't even see your paint. Yeah, that's because my paint went so wrong, we had to wash me off and restart with just makeup because we could not get my paint to really work. At all. I made us almost 2 hours late for the con because I never did a trial run with my paint. Big lesson learned there. If you have a costume that requires detailed makeup or paint, do trial runs BEFORE the day of the con. You will save yourself application time because you will know what works and what doesn't. Even without the paint though, I think it turned out okay. I had a lot of fun with Raven.

Those are all my cosplay's, nothing major, but they are mine and make me happy. And we can still learn lessons from each one of them. We take these lessons and become better cosplayers in the process. So, get started, I can't wait to see all of your cosplays!

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Thank you for joining me in Nerdom here on My Mess. I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season and I hope to see you back on Sunday for The Mess. Stay nerdy, stay messy, stay happy!