24th May 2013: Completed Costumes Everything is complete and ready to go! Considering all the trouble we had, I'm very happy with the finished results. I will upload some pictures of the details which you can't see in the main costume photos a little bit later on, but I think in general we are definitely ready to rock and roll with these. Let's roll!

5th May 2013: Cheating Well, it looks like I will have to cheat. It turns out getting the news of an unnoticed pregnancy makes cosplay planning a little more difficult than anticipated, especially when one loses a weekend to panic attacks.

Unfortunately, with three weeks to go to the big event, I still hadn't got anywhere with making my costume, but I had bought some maternity clothes. So I returned to H&M to purchase some more today and came across a long, plain white shirt/tunic in a similar style to Emmy's trenchcoat. I have therefore decided that rather than doing a complicated pattern and expanding it, I'm going to dye the shirt yellow. It will not be 100% accurate but hopefully it will work well enough for the purposes of a pregnant cosplay.

It does feel a little bit like cheating, but hopefully it will still look like the character. I think because it is a maternity costume I'm going to have to just deal with inaccuracy this time. Next time I will make a better costume from scratch. Also, I'm still making the Wookiee's Professor outfit, so it is not a complete loss.

29th April 2013: Good thing I'm not cosplaying Luke! I found out on Friday 26th April that the Wookiee and I will be having a baby! Weird, huh? Anyway, I'm still going to go ahead with the Emmy cosplay because, well, it is less than a month to the con and I've already bought quite a bit.

Obviously alterations are going to need to be made! I can't very well be splitting at the seams, especially as I am so far gone already (it is a long story - I didn't realise due to other medical conditions with similar symptoms) so I need to figure that out.

I was hoping to do the bulk of my costuming for Emmy on Saturday but for obvious reasons was a bit distracted. It is going to be a bit of a, er, tight squeeze, to get the costume done on time now!

6th March 2013: Finally decided on Emmy! Yep, as the title says, I've had a complete change of heart and made my final decision to go as Emmy Altava instead of Luke.

There are a few reasons for my decision, but mainly it's because I look more like her, aside from the fact that, you know, I'm not a boy, so I think the costume will be more effective.

Secondly, it means I get to make her dress/trenchcoat (which one is it?!) exactly to the specifications I want, rather than scouring charity shops for the specific shade of blue jumper and khaki shorts as Luke.

Thirdly, it means that I have a better excuse to take photos and do a bit of a skit with my Layton-Wookiee. Obviously I won't be able to incorporate a bag into the cosplay any more, but that's OK because most people will be carrying bags around anyways.

And finally, it's going to work out cheaper. I need far less things as Emmy than I would need for Luke, and I won't need to pay for a wig or haircut either! Just yellow dress/coat, shirt, bow tie (which I already have fabric for), white leggings/jeans and boots. And the camera pouch.

Time to re-adjust my shopping list I think...

1st March 2013: Having a second thought... So I am set on a Layton cosplay, but right now I'm wondering if it would make more sense for me to cosplay Emmy Altava? I mean, I look a whole lot more like her, and the costume would be a whole lot more flattering for my body shape than if I went as a little boy. It would still be obvious who I am, and would also give me an excuse to take more pictures as this is what Emmy does best! OHHHHHH, if there was someone else to play Luke then I would be Emmy in a flash. I even have the same hair as her, so I wouldn't need a cut. On the other hand, I do need a hair cut. Like, a big one.

Thing is, in the Layton games, Luke & Layton are the constants there, so more people would recognise us. I'm going to consult the forums and report back.

27th February 2013: The Final Hat With much help from the fantastic tutorial on DeviantArt, the hat is complete. There were a few changes from the tutorial which I discovered as I went along, but generally speaking it was very accurate and extremely helpful in the beginning stages of the crafting.

I was lucky enough to find some cheap quality brown suiting fabric in the local fabric warehouse - at £2/metre you can't go wrong! I found that I needed to use a lot of duct tape around the brim of the hat as the inner rim was sharp and dug into his head even with the fabric on, so I had to go a bit mad with the taping on that bit.

I probably could have cut the brim a little wider, but everyone has little niggles with their craft projects that they don't like, and it's really not going to notice on the day!

20th February 2013: Starting Out Most of the clothes that we will be wearing for this duo will be find-able. I won't say easy because I don't want to set myself up for a fall! But some ebaying and charity shop scavenging ought to do the trick quite nicely. Luckily for us, we live on a main road with access to many a charity shop within walking distance.

But there is, of course, one item that stands out as a craft project essential. You can guess. I mean, the title says it, right? The True Gentleman top hat. I ain't gonna find one of those, and even if I do it certainly won't be cheap. The only thing I can possibly do is make it.

Luckily for me, a quick google netted me an "amazible" tutorial, courtesy of chameleoncosplayteam on devientart. It's so detailed and straightforward, with many a picture to behold.

The first thing that stood out to me is the fact it will require plastic canvas - what is this magical material? Another quick google and phonecall to Hobbycraft later, and I found all I need to know. To the Laytonmobile!

So there we go. A nice trip down to Hobbycraft and Fabric Land for the material, and all the components are there. Time to go make the hat. Let's see how I get on!