Team Giblets "SorAvengers" skit. (Posted 25th August 2011)

I had the honour of being asked to be involved in Team Giblets Ayacon 2011 skit. I love their work and when they approached me about playing Kairi I jumped at the chance. My part wasn't big so I was only needed for one day of filiming which took place in Southampton in July. I wasn't allowed to tell anyone about the skit or my involvement so I think I surprised a few people when the finished video was shown during the Sunday Night Live at Aya XD

You can watch the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-fZTnoHXJM

Film poster made by Keith Copping.

Paopu Fruit (Posted 7th August 2011)

I've been thinking of other little props to use with this costume and one of them was a paopu fruit, something that Sora wanted to share with Kairi ^-^

I commissioned it from Blobfish as she has made some cute little plushies before and she made it in record time, it's really cute!

Check out her other work here:

http://www.cosplayisland.com/overview/Blobfish
http://blobfishy.deviantart.com/

"A Paopu Fruit is a star-shaped fruit native to Destiny Islands. It resembles the star fruit. According to legend, "If two people share one, their destinies become intertwined. They'll remain a part of each other's lives no matter what." This gives the fruit great symbolic meaning. Although this fruit has great meaning, it remains unknown whether anyone has shared one in the Kingdom Hearts series."

Keyblade supplies! (Posted 31st July 2011)

Well some of them lol
I am finally going to attempt to make Kairi's Destiny Embrace keyblade =D

So far I have a broom handle, various paints, glue gun and extra glue sticks, sandpaper and some coloured foam sheets which I'm hoping will be paintable also. I plan to make the flowers using the foam but if that doesn't work I shall try some form of craft clay like model magic or milliput.

I need to get some wooden wheels, a wooden dowel head, plastic tubing/hosing, some form of wood sealant, rope and foamboard. I would like to make the handles out of wood too but I don't have a jigsaw cutter or anything suitable for cutting out curves.

I shall be using tips from a couple of tutorials to help me.

Destiny's Embrace keyblade references (Posted 31st July 2011)

References images.

"Destiny's Embrace is a Keyblade which appears in Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. In Kingdom Hearts II, it was given to Kairi by Riku in The World That Never Was in order to fight a swarm of Heartless attacking Sora. Like Sora's Keyblade, this Keyblade is from the Realm of Light.

Destiny's Embrace is only seen in two scenes in Kingdom Hearts II, but in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Kairi gives flowers to Aqua during their encounter, unlocking the Destiny's Embrace for Aqua."

Belt update (Posted 23rd July 2011)

The velcro on the belts wasn't strong enough to keep it all together, both times I have worn this costume I had to keep re-glueing the velcro to stop it falling apart. I have now removed all the velcro apart from one side (so I can still get it on and off) and instead used a hot glue gun to seal everything. Hopefully that will do the trick!

Shoes re-painted (Posted 23rd July 2011)

I re-painted the soles and sides of the shoes using a metal paint instead of acrylic in the hope it will be more chip-resistant.

Complete! (Posted 22nd May 2009)

Completed Kairi 2 days before expo and it looks good but I'm feeling strangely anti-climatic over it and I'm nit-picking over silly little things. I think it's because this is the first costume I've made myself and I'm just worrying over how people are going to react to it or if it's going to fall apart during the masquerade or something lol
Hopefully I'll feel better about it on the day, right now I'm just worn out physically and mentally over it all.

Basic make up was used as well as black eyeliner on the top lids and the brows turned a burgundy sorta colour to match the wig by mixing red and brown kohl pencils.

Top- part two (Posted 22nd May 2009)

I got a black hood from another top and at first started to sew it onto the halter neck but found that glue worked better, at least down the front sides of the halter. I found it really difficult to do this however and had to keep stopping to change what I was doing and there was a lot of swearing involved and glue getting where I didn't want it etc ^^'

Belts- part two (Posted 19th May 2009)

I added the stud detailing to the belts using silver rivets and had to poke at the leather with a craft knife to make a hole to get them in. I feared stabbing myself but I survived! XD I also added 2 small silver rivets on each side of the bag and used two silver buttons as the stud decoration on the front.

Dress progress- eyelets (Posted 17th May 2009)

I added the eyelets to the dress and I was rather confused at first as this is the first time I've used them but after some practise on scrap fabric I got there in the end XD Also spent a lot of time cutting away loose threads and trimming and tidying around the zips but now it's finally complete and I'm happy ^-^

Dress progress- adding zips (Posted 13th May 2009)

I commissioned 3 chunky, metal, 2-way open-ended zips (corr that was a mouthful) from ebay seller cosplay-oh. They are the zips they use for their Organisation 13 coats but they said they would shorten them for me. However they lied and sent me zips about as long as I am tall, they were made of plastic instead of metal and they lied about the date they shipped them also. I was not impressed as they were really expensive! I managed to get some money refunded after I complained through a PayPal dispute. Mio's friend who's a whizz with a sewing machine helped me to put them in the dress and also hemmed it and brought it in slightly. She did an amazing job and despite the fact the zips are not fully functional at the bottom (obviously we had to cut them to fit the length of the dress and the ends had to be sewed tight and a touch of glue added to stop the zippers falling off- this is why I asked cosplay-oh to adjust them) I am really pleased with how it looks.

Belts- part one (Posted 9th May 2009)

More photos

Belts- part one (Posted 9th May 2009)

I got some metal square strap holder things from other bags and looped cut leather belt around them sealing them with velcro (this makes it easier to put the belt on without making a visible gap in it also). I clipped lobster clasps onto the strap holders and added thinner leather belts to these so they hang at the sides. On the left side I attached the bag (it has a flap at the back sealed with velcro that the strap sits under).

Jewelry (Posted 22nd April 2009)

I used charity rubber bands for her bracelets, just turned them inside out to hide the logos. So I'm giving money towards charity whilst getting my cosplay needs horray! Found a long necklace which had beads on which look very similar to her pendant so choose one that looked the best size and attached it to some black beading cord.

Top- part one (Posted 12th April 2009)

For the white top underneath her dress I bought a boob-tube then drew on and cut out the wavy pattern along the top. I had to sew around the edges after to keep it together and stop fraying. I used some basic white cotton material to make the halter neck for the top. One side was stitched in place and the other I used a button to make taking the top on and off easier.

Dress progress- dying pink (Posted 29th March 2009)

Dress has been dyed pink (again with Dylon machine dye).

Base dress (Posted 25th March 2009)

Simple, figure hugging, white dress. Bought from ebay. I shall be dying and altering this.

Bag (Posted 29th September 2008)

I found a black shoulder pouch bag in a local charity shop. I had to rip off the brand name/logo off the front (not easy as was some metal badge thing) then I glued on a lilac ribbon in it's place. The shoulder strap was removed as was not needed.

Shoes complete (Posted 27th September 2008)

I used black elastic for the laces to help keep them up what with the interesting way she ties them. The tongues had to be folded over and stitched as were too long and covering up the first cross-over of lace on bare leg. The sides of the shoe were also stitched very slightly to the tongues at the bottom to stop the shoe from gaping.

Shoes- part two (Posted 7th September 2008)

The rubber soles and edging were painted with black acrylic paint. They required a few coats as the paint chips off easy.

Shoes- part one (Posted 3rd September 2008)

I brought some plain white Converse style canvas shoes and I have dyed these lilac using Dylon washing machine dye. I'm so pleased with how they came out!

Wig (Posted 27th January 2008)

The first thing I got for this costume was the wig. It's absolutely gorgeous! Very accurate and I'm tempted to just wear it out for a normal day. It's made from a lovely fibre also which seems to be knot-proof even in strong winds.
Bought from Cosplaywig on ebay.

Reference images (Posted 1st January 2008)

Reference images