Jacket done! (Posted 13th March 2012)

Clothes sewn! Fitting was less of a pain than I thought (I've made quite a few of these shaped jackets now!) but the collar was a royal pain in the arse. Working out how to do the zip, outside white and inside green with it all looking neat and not really using a pattern - took a lot of work. By work, I mean guesswork, winging it and just hoping for the best :P

Quite happy with how the collar stands up and the fake lining piece (would not stand up to a Dez inspection :P) but unfortunately when measuring I made it a little bit too long in the body so the zip goes lower than I wanted by a few inches. It's not enough to make me want to re-do all the collar bits again so I'll live with it!

Nagase is now nearly done, with just small hand sewing and gluing parts left on her accessories really!

Panda count: ALL THE PANDAS (Posted 11th March 2012)

I'm sad I've actually finished all the pandas on the outfit, means I have to go back to boring sewing :(

Anyway, boots 90% done! I realised I didn't have any white lacing other than a tiny scrap, and I need to add a star onto the black bit - so I should be able to finish very quickly.

These were cheap Ugg style boots I picked up from the market and massacred and made a bit more fitting. I then created a sleeve of the green material, and added the white details on in fleece. Pretty much everything on this is glued in place, as I found it far to fiddly to try and sew. I went around the very bottom with thin black bias (doubled over) to hide all the messy edges. Worked out okay and saved hours of pinning and hemming to make everything line up!

I've cheated for the lace-up side and made a false panel instead, mainly for the essence of time and because I couldn't get my head around how I'd do it easily ;) Looks obvious up close, but hopefully should give the right impression in photos!

Aside from little details here and there, the only thing I have left now is her waistcoat. *Really* should get onto that properly...

Panda count: 9... (Posted 11th March 2012)

I has a hat. It's a rather silly hat too...

I took the same pattern I made for the gloves, and added a middle portion to give the elongated shape for this one, and added a zip on the black bit. I decided to bias the edges of the fleece first around the zip as I didn't think the fleece would hold its shape very well, and I'm glad I did in the end!

The base is actually an old hat I never wore, I amended the back removing the elastic that was there to make it a larger fit (seeing as I'll be wearing a wig as well under this) and used the size of the hat to draw a hole in the bottom of the panda 'cushion' I made. It was then fiddly hand sewing and such turning it inside out (thank god for that zip) and trying to sew the edges of the panda to the hat.

Stuffing was just a case of shoving bits in and punching it in the face until it was vaguely the right size. Like the gloves, the details are a mix of fleece and funky foam and I biased the brim to give the line there.

Panda count: 8! (Posted 4th March 2012)

Amy-Lou and I spent this weekend doing a sewing marathon, the main thing I got finished (nearly) were the hand pandas. I just need to buy some pink fleece to do the inside of the mouth and do a bit of hand sewing, then done :D

The main part of them is polystyrene balls, cut in half, with a plastic sheet (taken the backing from a bookcase) folded in half to make the 'mouth'. I then covered it in fleece and glued the details on (made out of fleece and funky foam.) The sleeve bits which you can't really see in this photo were fiddly, but vaguely worked in the end.

If *anyone* can keep a straight face while talking to me at Minami, I'll be impressed :P

Next is finishing the hat and tailoring her white jacket/waistcoat thing.

Must...not...forget to order some glasses for her!

Panda count: 6 (Posted 4th March 2012)

Started small (and easiest) with the pandas, tackling the arm belts & attachments. I've got the shirt also, but not attached them onto it. The mini pandas are just funky foam glued onto the end of the straps. They all look fairly stoned...

What have I created...? (Posted 3rd March 2012)

So, my cute puppet panda in progress now looks like a fluffy reject from Hellraiser.

Tie, 100%! (Posted 15th January 2012)

Really, this shouldn't have taken as long as it did. But I decided that I wanted to be a picky sod and match up the number or stripes and such with the reference, and make sure everything lined up etc, so it was lots of maths...combined with lots of pinning, stabbing and praying to the cosplay gods. Somehow worked out, so woo tie! It's not a proper one, I did the large flat striped bit separate, and then made the white 'knot' and bits to go around the neck separately. I'll either velcro it to the underside of the collar or attach elastic to the two ends and use it that way.

Annoyingly when starting to make this I realised I've used all the zips I originally bought for her (about 2/3 years back) on other projects! I managed to find a good length one to use for the tie from bits I'd salvaged off old clothes, but I'll need to go shopping for the others on the costume.

I also made a start on the boots, removing all the fur and extra bits I didn't need off the base of them, and drawing the pattern for them. We're getting there, slowly!

First complete piece! (Posted 8th January 2012)

Trousers done! Progress on this started aaaaages ago, but tonight I finished the waistband and bottom cuffs so I consider this major progress ;) Side stripes were repetitive but *mostly* equal, and I have another bunch done for the tie.

I've had to reorder the fleece for her as I used my previous load up on other costumes, but have the material to start on her white vest at least! Need to find some boots to customise, hopefully there will be some cheap in the sale at the moment :)

I hope people going to Minami realise I'm going to terrorise them with panda hand puppets all day? Good :P