28th May 2013: Post Expo Update So.. Shiva happened at MCM Expo this weekend and everyone was so lovely to me and I'm so glad that people liked her.

However, there is SO much that I wasn't happy with at all, which kinda put a downer on everythiing. I plan to wear Shiva again, don't get me wrong BUT there is SO much i want to change such as;

- Make a new body suit using a different material because to be frank, the fabric I used for Expo SUCKED.

- Do a make up test against the actual body suit before investing in the body paint. (This couldn't really have been helped because Alouette and I didn't get time to do a proper pre expo makeup test.

- Buy different make up. Because the stuff I used was awful and my skin hated it. I would NOT recommend it.

- Make my ice shard gauntlet and the cape because capes are cool!

Thank you to EVERYONE who said such lovely things to me and took photos/had photos with me. It was really great! :)

18th May 2013: Talons, Tidy-ups and yet more wig stuffs! So I spent roughly 10 hours tidying this cosplay up ready for next week's MCM. The annoying thing was that it was all silly little jobs that I had to force myself to do :( such as;

cut, shape, paint and glue nails
add more feathers to feather wreath
tighen sleeves
finish ribboning and tidying up the end of the wig
paint leg panels and boot detail
etc etc
NOTHING Particularly fun. I was considering attempting the ice shard thing tomorrow but I think that that may have to wait for another con. (Maybe when I have a better suit too!)

On a more exciting note, currently chatting with Alouette who will be being an absolute angel and doing my Shiva makeup for me :)

It's a pretty mundane journal entry today so apologies. :(

30th April 2013: Grinding into the ground x__x So I spent most of my weekend making up the bodysuit which was going to be a big milestone for this costume. The colour match of the fabric was perfect.. However, the quality was horrific. It was so thin that I might as well have just body painted ¬___¬ .Luckily I had ordered more than enough to double layer the whole suit. (It's times like this, I am glad I usually order too much ^-^; )

So the suit is now double layered which is a pain in itself but the only way I could get a decent thickness in the suit without buying more fabric :(

Spider-boy CALLAMON knows spandex suits better than I do so he agreed to help through this ordeal. I'm still trying to work out how to make the leg panels (Probaby more shimmer and sequins) and also the boots are causing me a little headache, mainly because of the toes and the swirl detail at the top..

Next episode could be interesting folks! ;__;

21st April 2013: Sequin and Bead sandwich! After well over 10 meters of sequins. My base top is finally one its way to being finished. I spent a LOT of time trying to work out how to actually make Shiva's ice boob thing and considered so many things like resin casting, fabric, mould clear perspex, etc. But I decided to go with this route after seeing Frost G's take on it :) http://www.cosplay.com/member/39782/

I have also started thinking about accessories and such and have some beaded ribbon which I might use for a choker but I'm really not sure on it yet.

Geeez I'm really writing a lot about this huh o___o' I'll hopefully have some updates on the bodysuit with CALLAMON sometime soon too! :D

Over and out *click*

19th April 2013: Drowning... Working my way through the ribbon stage now.. *____* I've decied to go with wired ribbon as it will keep shape better and hopefully be less liable to slide and shift on the wig =___=...

20mts later and I've ran out and still have 4 dreads to do. I'm totally going to do a tally up of how much material this bitch has used up :'D

14th April 2013: Dreadsdreadsdreadsdreads! I finally got my ass down to the lovely Alyx's house to recruit her help with the mammoth task of make Shiva's dreadlocks.

I've carried on using the tutorial which I've linked before and used 5m of quilt batting/wadding material rolled up into long sausages, wrapped in wool yarn to keep in place. they were then sewn one by one into the wig base. (Front first then bottom upwards like in the tutorial.

As I cleverly forgot to bring hairspray, we had to make do with wrapping the hair tightly round to sausages and steaming it to fuse it temporarily until I got home :) The best way to sew in extra hair was in short wefts sew horizontally into/around the sausage. We found that we spent more time trying to cover the weft tops instead of the actual wadding! >__<

Overall this took about 10 hours on one quiet Saturday near Canterbury ^-^

I'm using Got2b and hairspray to seal/tidy the dreads up because that stuff works wonders. :D I'll be finishing the tidying up this week, adding wig clips to help keep it on my poor head (using http://ardawigs.ipage.com/OldSite/tutorials/Heavy%20Wigs/tutorial.html), adding wired gold ribbon and hopefully start on the rings and.. SHE WILL BE DONE.. The wig at least :D

7th April 2013: I made it! I finally made it. One full wefted wig! (Before I have to make the dreadlocks that is!) I managed to make myself a little Pouf from a tutorial by Demode http://demodecouture.com/pouf/ which was surprising nice to do :D I kind of wish that I had a curved needle to sew the mesh into the wig however >__< My fingers would have appreciated that I think!

Anyways, wig is now full of 12 wefts of fake ass weave and now I have to go back to make yet more wefts in order to make the dreadlocks with Alyx next weekend! :D SO EXCITED!

21st March 2013: Peanut Butter Wefty Time! I finished making my first 4 wefts for the back of my wig tonight! (⌒▽⌒)☆ *proudface*
Personally, they feel a bit thick but if that's the case I can just use 2 or 3 and use the rest for the front/dreads if need be :)

The tutorial I referenced in my last post is incredible, it is soo easy to make these wefts. The only problem I have is gauging how many highlights to put in. but for flat colours it would be lemon squeezy ^-^

It had only taken me about 10 mins per weft from start to finish so this weekend should be a doddle.. if I don't run out of royal blue that is... ( ；´Д｀)

18th March 2013: Wefts.. so many wefts! ;___; I'm using a combination of two tutorials to attack this monster of a wig. A wefting tutorial by Kukkii-san http://www.cosplay.com/photo/1079221/ and a wig tutorial by Gerodere http://gerodere.deviantart.com/art/FFX-Shiva-wig-tutorial-176692918

It is still VERY early days in this but I attempted my first weft last night and it seemed to go ok :) The only problem I had is with the highlights, I need to make sure that I don't put TOO many in that it draws attention away from the royal blue that the wig is actually meant to be :(

I have to make 12 wefts to sew into the actual wig then whatever is left to sort out the bottom of the dreads :) I'll be ordering my quilt batting at the end of this month and recruiting Alyx's help in making the dreads. I thought it best to make the wefts in good time so that we can just hammer through it as quickly and painlessly as possible :)

14th March 2013: Top Progress Ok, because there isn't exactly much to Shiva's top, I've tackled it one cup at a time. Let me just say now... hand sewing sequins is awful. ヽ(≧Д≦)ノ It is so tedious but I am sooo happy with how it has turned out. So much glittery fabulousness :)

I covered some standard bra cups with some polycotton and then began the long drawn out task of sewing on the sequins. Luckily the sequins came in the form of sequin thread so it was a lot easier to sew. I considered buying a ribbon/sequin foot for my machine but soon realised that wouldn't work on a bra cup very well. >///<

I'm still undecided on whether or not to sew the cups to the body suit that I will be wearing or to make a back strap to keep it secure.

I'll update more on this exciting endeavour another time. :')