Finito! (Posted 27th February 2013)

Sewed the ears to a matt black fabric covered headband as it'll be hidden by the hood. Because of their curved shape they sit both sides of the band and are really stable on there.

Put the hood on with the ears on top to mark where the holes needed to go and then cut them out slightly bigger than needed so I could overlap the tabs and still have enough room.

Add buttons....done!

Note: By overlapping the tabs it adds a pivot point to the hood hem and you get that pointy at the top shape, if I wear this again I'd add something round the inside hem to hold a nice curve. Maybe horsehair braid or a thin light boning.

Cowl/Collar (Posted 23rd February 2013)

Rounded at the front and pointy down the back. It was pretty fiddly to sew to the hood, so I just did the outside seam properly and tacked the lining up in a few places.

Ruby Slippers Time! (Posted 18th February 2013)

1. Acquire super cheap shoes in the right colour so gaps don't show.
2. Rough up the surface with sandpaper cause that stuff be shiny.
3. Cover in PVA glue and sprinkle on glitter.
4. Use a piece of paper to press it down (sticks to fingers) and tap the excess off.

5. Magic!

Once it's had time to dry I'm going to do a top coat of PVA to seal it all in.

Also, learning from the last outing, I've added a thin elastic strap with contact adhesive which should blend with the black stripes on the tights and stop these slipping off.

Two Ears! (Posted 15th February 2013)

Second ear done :D
Exactly the same method as the first ear, but all the folding and snipping was so much neater with all the edges flush like puzzle pieces rather than overlapping. Urge to re-do the first, but resisting as white doesn't show detail very well, it'll probably all blur out under flash anyway XD

Ear Fur (Posted 6th February 2013)

One fluffy ear done!
I worked this in three stages: Covered the back wrapping over the edges, covered the front carefully cutting level with the edge and finally a spot of longer fur in the middle.

I started off using contact adhesive thinking I could get a thin layer that wouldn't soak through, but it's very yellow and does show in places, so I swapped to all purpose clear glue. Hoping the second ear will be much neater.

Minky fur is the softest substance known to man, I can't stop stroking these!

Iterating Ears (Posted 6th February 2013)

I can't cut any holes in the hood until I know the position and size of the ears.

Going back to my first ears they seemed too small and flat, so I had another go with bigger patterns and some more heat shaping tests. In the end it needed more depth so I added some darts and I swapped to 3mm medium density EVA foam so they wouldn't get crushed easily.
Pictured at the bottom are the final shapes waiting for the contact adhesive to set on the darts, then I can heat them to shape at the sides.

Jade Revisited (Posted 29th January 2013)

To keep the hood in place I'm lining it with a normal shaped hood in the same jersey material. As you can see in the photo, the tailed hood is wider round the neck, so I need to cut it back till they match then I can sew them together.

Shortened and tweaked the skirt back to just over a half circle pattern as the full circle looked like too much fabric to me in the photos where it was falling in lots of deep folds. Also bought a petticoat to give the skirt more poof (another way to fill out those folds). I love it, more skirts in future!

First Outing (Posted 21st March 2012)

I didn't finish the rest in time, so I wore the hood down and left off the ears, no problem.

Going to shorten the skirt up an inch or two, do a bit more styling on the wig and finish off the front of the hood for next time. Really want a prop too, just can't decide one from so many!

Photo shoot with Kuma = ridiculous success, mostly on video. Need to find out who took the bunny photo and get a copy, as that was a great idea!

Finished Tunic (Posted 15th March 2012)

Pointy hem done, slightly longer at the back than the front. Might need to trim the neckline once the hood cowl is done and I can see what shows.

Transfer (Posted 15th March 2012)

Found a clear copy of the space symbol online and sized it up to fit before printing the outline onto transfer paper. This stuff is fantastic, can't believe I hadn't used it before. The swirl was a super fiddly design to cut out, those spindles get really thin at the centre, but thankfully nothing tore.

Ears (Posted 15th March 2012)

Drew up a paper pattern for the ears, I want to get that cartoon shape with the straight inner and curved outer edge. I don't want them to be flat either, so I'm curving round the inside edge to give the straight line.

Base ears cut from funky foam and heated into shape.

Hood Progress (Posted 15th March 2012)

Hood made from the same jersey used on the skirt. Now to work out those ear holes and tabs.

Hood Pattern (Posted 5th March 2012)

The hood was a real pain. I've been messing with patterns for ages, but finally tweaked something that worked! I looked at patterns for historical pointed hoods and jester hats, but couldn't find anything specifically for a two pointed hood.

For the first attempt I just joined two cones down the centre which left the points trying to hang in the same place down the centre back instead of apart to each side.

In the end stuck with the two cones and pinned them together at various angles until it looked about right (around 45 degrees). My test fabric didn't need the full points on, so I used a shortened pattern. Couldn't shake the feeling I was putting pants on my head.

Tunic (Posted 1st March 2012)

My first move was to copy an old t-shirt to make the tunic, but when I tried it on the new jersey just didn't have the same stretch as the old warped t-shirt stuff and it looked so bad!
I then remembered the blouse pattern I'd bought in a sale which is a perfect tunic pattern, like a t-shirt but with a few vertical darts front and back. Luckily there was enough fabric left to cut out the body and the sleeves fitted into the failed tunic pieces I'd already cut. So now I have a comfy tunic that doesn't look like a sack of potatoes! Though it looks pretty bad on my dummy, just ignore that XD

Not a furry (Posted 31st January 2012)

I ordered Minky fabric for Jade's dog ears as all the dogs I've known with pointy ears have had really short ear fur. I'm going to use that for the main shape and couple it up with a paff of long fur on the inside.
This stuff is so soft! I may just roll up in it and forget about cosplay forever...

Bought from http://minkyfabrics.co.uk/ and they were incredibly quick.

Basic Skirt (Posted 8th January 2012)

I found a soft dark grey jersey to use for the skirt and hood. They had exactly the amount I needed left on the roll, which makes this fabric of destiny!

Jade: Combine fabric of destiny with circle skirt.

Glasses Arrived! (Posted 7th January 2012)

I found some sunglasses on ASOS that looked perfect for Jade, but believe it or not they were too big (if such a thing can exist)!
Ebay then turned up these Potter-tastic 2" round glasses from Korea which are perfect. Must remember to pop out the lenses, or the photographer will cameo in every photo XD

Doubts Be Gone! (Posted 13th December 2011)

More pages have been released and now there's lots of references for Jade's new duds! Black and dark grey for certain :D

....ruby slippers....RUBY SLIPPERS (my house is going to be covered in glitter).

Wig Salvage (Posted 10th December 2011)

I had a rummage through my wig pile and found my old Juclecia wig. I did a rubbish job cutting the fringe back then, but as Jade's parting is far on the side I can cover up the badness and get some more use out of it!

Using a hairdryer turned on low I heat-set the hair to lie the other way in small sections at a time until the parting was right at the edge of the skin top. Looking good so far, but it's too sleek for Jade so I want to cut layers in the front and sides to get her bed-head look (dreading taking the scissors to it).

Day 1 (Posted 7th December 2011)

gardenGnostic [GG]: im going to make some cozy pajamas!! :)

gardenGnostic [GG]: i think theyre supposed to be completely black, but then it can be hard to see all the bits and thats kinda sad :( so im going to go with the more basic reference and make the skirt a really dark grey instead, yay!!