Lady of the Thread's Sewing Basket

Wow, I’ve been lazy about posting. ^_^;; Still haven’t even written about Katsucon yet but I think I’ll wait until after the weekend.

Anyway, Anime Boston is this weekend and it looks like I’ll be on my own this year; my brother had been thinking of going to PAX East but decided a few days ago to stay home instead. By the way, is anyone looking for a PAX badge? I think he’s trying to sell his.

Still trying to figure out what to pack for Boston other than Lia, which now has the missing panel added and a redone ruffle on the chemise. After Katsucon, I just wanted a break from sewing before going back to it. Haven’t started on another cosplay yet since the ones I’m more interested in would have taken a lot of embellishment and I didn’t want to rush. I did start sewing a dress out of a fun Japanese print fabric but don’t know if I’ll bother to try finishing it for Boston since it’s more of a summer dress and it’ll be somewhat cool this weekend.

Probably a couple of older costumes without really bulky pieces since Lia already has a quilted petticoat and I’ll only have one suitcase for costumes plus all the other stuff I usually bring to cons. So, no jellyfish dress since that plus Lia just about filled my whole suitcase for Katsucon. Might pack my D kimono or one of my Ryuuren costumes.

Hmm… Looks like a lot of people are talking about AUSA plans. I’m going to be staying in town though. Anyone else not going to AUSA and interested in doing something around the city this weekend?


I’ve been taking a break and doing some crochet and my mother has been giving me regular clothes to alter/repair but I’m probably going to get back to working on costume stuff soon. I figure I’ll finish up the clothes for the Miss Scarlet version of Daphne first. Then, my next projects are probably going to be Kyoya and Youko since I’ve started buying fabric for them. Not sure yet what else I’ll be doing for next year. If anyone wants to do a group with me for something I've cosplayed/am planning to cosplay, let me know. It's been ages since I've had a group. ;_;






So far, it looks like my con schedule next year is:

Anime Boston, April 2-4
AnimeNext, June 18-20
NYCC/NYAF, October 8-10

I’d really like to add at least one more con to that (especially since I’m blah about AnimeNext’s new location and blah about NYAF being merged into NYCC) but not sure what could work. :-/

Katsucon is out since it falls on Chinese New Year. I’d love to do Costume Con again but it’s in Milwaukee next year, which is too far to be feasible for me. T_T (I checked and the shortest trip by train is nearly 24 hours!) Although I’d love to see some Canadian friends again, Anime North is a pretty long trip and in May which would put it between AB and ANext; I’ve found that trying to do 3 cons within less than 3 months is very tiring so it doesn’t seem like a very feasible idea either. :-/ There’s a lot of stuff I dislike about Otakon and I don’t enjoy it nearly enough, considering the cost. So, I’d rather not go back unless there’s a really good reason.

Anyone have suggestions? What’s worth traveling for and within feasible distance of NY by bus or train? Is AUSA good since a lot of you seem to go? Other ideas?

I know most people already did this a week or two ago but I'm just getting to it now. ^_^;

( 2007 Cosplay and cons review )

( And some bonus pics/silly stuff )

So, I made 4 new costumes this year, which is the usual number for me. I felt the costumes I made this year were kind of boring though. :-/ Last year, I did crazy stuff like the extension with the huge loops of hair for Youka, tons of beading on Terra, and the hand painted peacock feathers plus tricky neckline and glove on my first Count D costume.

But this year has leaned towards simple stuff and I didn’t try out many new things since Ayame made me feel burned out. (Brother broke the sewing machine; new machine was defective and had to be exchanged; iron leaked all over and had to be replaced. x_x The craftsmanship was great and I’m happy I got a nice award for it but I was just sick of working on it towards the end and depressed that I ended up not liking how I looked in it.) Plus, I wasn’t used to having 3 big cons within 2 ½ months. I usually work on an average costume over a month or two so I always felt behind then and ended up postponing more ambitious projects.

On the bright side, my parents cleaned up a room in the basement and gave it to me to use as a sewing room this summer. ^_^ Still need to get it properly set up and decorated but it’s useable. I also got myself a dressform since the sewing room meant I finally had space for one. ^_^ And after a break from sewing, I made the latest D costume, which helped bring back my enthusiasm for making costumes and got me out of my slump. It’s now my favorite costume and I’m happy to end the year on a high note with it.

I also attended 6 cons this year, more than ever before due to both traveling more and having more events pop up locally. For a couple of years, I’ve wanted to try some cons beyond NY/NJ and was happy to make it to Anime Boston and Anime North this year. ^_^

For 2008, I’ve got stuff planned for a couple of series I haven’t cosplayed yet and hopefully, I’ll get back to doing some more challenging stuff. ^_^ So far, the only cons that are definite are Anime Boston and AnimeNext. And I’ll probably go to whatever things pop up within commuting distance like NYAF (although I might skip NYCC since it’s mainly the anime/manga stuff I’m interested in). I’d like to travel for one more con next year but I’m not sure what.

Anime North is out since my family doesn’t want to go back and Katsucon is highly unlikely because it’s relatively close to Chinese New Year which is a big deal to my mother (plus I’m not crazy about the idea of traveling in February). I’m wondering about going back to Otakon although I didn’t find the con itself that great when I went in 2006 or checking out the new Providence Anime Conference. Anyone have suggestions? Nothing too far away (I won’t fly) and preferably something with at least a few thousand attendees (I find it somewhat easy to get bored at tiny cons ^_^;).

If you missed my post about holiday cards yesterday and would like one, go here and leave me an address: http://ladyofthethread.livejournal.com/83100.html If you’d like to send me one, too, let me know where I can leave you a mailing address. ^_^

Well, I’ve been thinking a bit about what cons I’ll attend next year. Here’s what I think about the more obvious possibilities so far…

Katsucon: definitely out because I checked the dates and it coincides with Chinese New Year; knowing my mother, she’d call me crazy if I asked to travel several states away for a con then.
NY Comic Con: will go for a day on Saturday like I did this year since it’s local
I-Con: Should I go for a day? I considered it a couple of years ago but decided it wasn’t worth the two hours on the train to get out there since it’s more of a sci-fi/fantasy con with limited anime programming. They seemed to add a bit more anime stuff this year though.
Anime Boston: I’d like to go to this one. Will have to look into travel info and see if I can manage it with luggage and costumes. (I’ve taken a short trip to Boston on my own before but didn’t have lots of stuff to bring then.)
AnimeNext: definitely going, like every year. ^_^
Otakon: at this point, not likely; although it was cool meeting people from other parts of the country, I didn’t really like the huge size and location and the hotel was so expensive, too. Plus, next year, it’s only 2 weeks after AnimeNext.

*looks over list* So, the only definites now are NYCC and AnimeNext. I’d really like to go to more since I put so much work into my cosplays but the biggest hindrance is transporting the costumes because I don’t drive. I tend to do elaborate costumes and most just wouldn’t do very well being squished into a suitcase with all the other stuff I haul to cons (The top of my nyosen uniform wrinkles just from being on a hanger due to the weight of the fabric and wrinkles in my Terra gown would be a bad thing since it can’t be ironed easily with all the sequins.) And it wouldn’t be much fun to travel for a con but only be able to bring the really simple costumes like Tohru and Namine. :-/

Not sure if my family will go on any trips next year. If my parents weren’t reluctant to travel out of the country now, I’d try to talk them into a Canadian vacation to coincide with one of the Toronto cons like Anime North. (My mother has relatives in Toronto and it’s been several years since we last visited them.) And my father said something about wanting to go to a machinery trade show in Georgia next year if he had time. But I don’t know how likely that is to happen and whether there are any cons that would be feasible side trips since I don’t know the dates.

As for costumes, the two main projects I’d like to get done next year are Ayame’s parent teacher conference outfit from the Fruits Basket manga and Sora’s Saiyuki princess costume from Kaleido Star. Not completely sure which one I’d do first. If I am able to make it to Anime Boston, Ayame would probably be better since the outfit includes a coat and it won’t be overly warm yet. But Sora’s costume seems like it would be more fun to make. And it’d be kind of nice to do a girl character again and not have to worry about binding after two crossplays in a row.

I have a third minor project planned, too. A very simple outfit Count D wore when he went on vacation with Leon and Chris. I’ve been thinking I need another simple costume for times when I want a break from wearing the elaborate ones. And I wanted to do this one since that part of the manga amused me a lot. (Count D with amnesia XD) Just going to use cotton for this; I’ve bought fabric already although I’ll have to add the faint floral pattern myself. Not in a hurry to make this since I’ve already got two D costumes and the photo idea I have for it would work best with warm weather. *wants to go to the beach and pretend to look for mermaids*

I’ll probably end up doing another costume or two also but not sure what those will be yet. Haven’t come up with any new characters I want to cosplay since the last costume list I did after Otakon.