Lady of the Thread's Sewing Basket

So, this is what my con list looks like so far for next year. It’s pretty lopsided with nearly everything in the first half of the year. ^_^;

Katsucon: Finally going to Katsucon for the first time next year. Also, I’ve known since July but figured it was too early for people to be working on Katsu costumes yet… I have been asked to craftsmanship judge for the masquerade. So, if anyone is entering, please put any progress under LJ cuts.
Anime Boston: Planning to go as usual.
Costume Con: Already registered and definitely going. ^_^ Late April is going to be kind of crazy with this being the weekend after AB and I suspect one of these will end up conflicting with Sakura Matsuri so I’ll most likely be missing that next year.
AnimeNext: Planning to go like usual.
NYCC/NYAF Not crazy about the crowds but I guess I’ll go since it’s local.

Now for some group recruitment… Anyone up for Ancient Chinese fun at Katsucon? :-D We’re planning a Saiunkoku group for then and would love to have more people. Obviously, this is a non-competing group and we’re likely doing this on Friday to avoid masquerade stuff. There are definitely going to be group photos. And I want to see if we can manage to bring some tea cups and blooming flower tea as props since I already always pack a hot pot for boiling water.


I can’t find any big group pictures but there are still dozens of unclaimed characters, including a few main and tons of supporting. The series skews heavily towards male characters but there are several girls, too. Not a complete list but there are a lot more character designs here: http://www9.nhk.or.jp/anime/saiunkoku/character/index.html

So far, we have:

Shuurei: neoangelwink
Ryuuki: athena_chan
Ryuuren: ladyofthethread
Eigetsu: kitsunesqueak

So, anyone else want to join neoangelwink’s reverse harem? XD

And if no one claims Seiran, would anyone be willing to wear his everyday outfit if I made it? I realized with leftovers from other costumes, I probably have most of the fabric for it already and ordered a wig on impulse during a sale so I figure I’ll do it for myself at some point. But since I want to be Ryuuren for the group, I can’t wear it then. This is only if no one else wants to make a costume for him and you would need your own boots. It’s this outfit:



Also, I need to start planning for the Kaleido Star group for Costume Con. Sorry for the lack of updates on this since several of you already expressed interest months ago. ._.; I had been hoping to start group discussion over the summer but that real life had other ideas and it didn’t happen. I’ve e-mailed the masquerade directors and am trying to figure some things out now. Still need to figure out divisions but they did okay including my old Sarah costume in a presentation since I’m making something new for myself and all the other costumes for the group are going to be new. So…

Is there anyone going to Costume Con who would be willing to wear my Sarah costume for a Sci-Fi and Fantasy masquerade group on Saturday? If I recall correctly, I made it for measurements of about 38” bust and hips, 27” waist but it’s not super tight. I’m 5’3” but I wore heels with it to keep the fur from dragging on the floor so it would probably also be okay for someone 2-3” taller with flats. It’s this costume for those who don’t recall what it looks like:



And if anyone else is interested in possibly joining the group, let me know. We’re doing the Cinderella costumes.

So, AnimeNext is over. Saw friends, got photos, and it was a nice break from real life. (Things have been a bit depressing at home but that could take up a whole other post. ;_;) My brother posted a few preview pics, including animeangel, mostflogged and sakuralenayuy:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotofong/sets/72157624212665151/


First costume on Friday was Youka from the Twelve Kingdoms with a new sash (although it looked the same as the old one since I bought identical fabric to remake it) and new flowers for my hair. I’ve wanted to rewear this for a while since it only made it to a couple of cons when I made it in 2006. Emi on ACP had sent me a PM a couple of months ago asking about location ideas for Twelve Kingdoms photos so we started talking and decided to get pics together during the con. ^_^ My brother picked the silly photo for the preview!



Changed into Count D’s artbook kimono late in the afternoon and went to get judged for the hall contest. Wandered a bit afterwards and went to the poofy dress panel. Got invited to go out for a group dinner by blackmarth but unfortunately couldn’t go since I was still in that huge kimono.

Saturday morning was time for the surprise costume, which was Sarah’s cowgirl costume from Kaleido Star. I hadn’t told anyone I was making this and it was kind of funny how some of my friends didn’t recognize me for a second since I wasn’t buried under yards of fabric. :-P I thought it would be fun to do a cowgirl costume sometime since I actually listened to a lot of country music back in the 90’s. (And I’ve been listening to 80’s and 90’s country lately while working on costumes since I found a channel for it on Fios. Yeah, I’m weird considering the other thing I like is musical theatre! XD;) I think this is the tiniest costume I’ve ever made. o_o; Although I made it less tiny than it was actually supposed to be since I used a black tank top instead of a bikini top because I didn’t want my stomach showing. This can mostly be blamed on the fact I found boots that I could paint white for $10; probably wouldn’t have bothered to do this if I needed to spend a lot on shoes for such a simple costume. This preview pic from my brother is the only one I have so far although I did also get a quick shoot with stillvisions and tyrus took a few photos, too.



After lunch, I changed into my half-finished Kyoya costume. Quite a contrast to the cowgirl costume. XD; More photos with stillvisions and then dressdragn. Wandered a bit and ran into and got groped by >_>; yeu who was also cosplaying Kyoya but in the school uniform.

Here’s a pic that dressdragn took.


I had a few moments of panic later when I lost my camera. One of the artists out in the hallway had noticed what I was cosplaying and showed me cards she had with a chibi drawing of Kyoya in that costume. We chatted a minute and I put my camera down to get money for one of the cards. Didn’t realize until after I went back up to my hotel room that I’d forgotten to pick it back up and rushed back downstairs. Luckily, she had seen my camera and put it aside for me. I have such a lousy memory at times. ._.;

Went to the masquerade but ended up in the overflow room since I got in line late. Congratulations to neoangelwink, roserevolution, lady_ava, and starlighthoney on their awards. ^_^ I got the Best of Friday Craftsman award from the hall contest for my D kimono. But I think the most fun was everyone goofing off after the masquerade and the huge random group picture. Although I was kind of like “Huh? You guys want me in the picture, too?” when ryoko was calling me over. ^_^;

Finished packing up Sunday morning and put on my Count D kimono again since stillvisions requested it for photos. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my nails anymore since I cut them and took off the polish after Friday night because I wasn’t expecting to cosplay D again until at least Otakon. ^_^; (Plus, Kyoya would have looked silly with long, pink nails. :-P) After photos, I wandered around a bit and finally made it over to video programming to say hi to ifuritaoni. We ended up walking back to the hotel and chatting for a while in the lobby. We looked over my Petshop of Horrors artbook and he tried to convince me I should get a harem like Count D so it was a silly ending to the con. XD; (Anyone want to cosplay some of the pets? >_>; I haven’t had a group for this series for two years.)

Let’s see… Yesterday, my mother had jury duty so I ended up going to the court with her since she doesn’t know English and it was for the civil court, which she hadn’t been to before. She didn’t need me to stay after finding the room and getting her settled so I went out and browsed at Barnes and Noble for a while. Then, went into the city and picked up a few more little things to use on the new D costume. And I made a nice find at the cheap shoe store in the Manhattan Mall. I got a pair of knee high white boots for just $6! :-D They’re not great quality and half a size too big but at that price I figure it doesn’t matter much since they’ll only be for costume use. Now, I can wear my Sarah costume without the netting in the underskirt eating my pantyhose!

Unfortunately, when I got home, there was a juror questionnaire in the mail for me so I’ll probably end up getting called myself in the next few months. (My mother was lucky and got dismissed around 1.) Hmm… And tax returns are due next week. Not looking forward to that either.

On the bright side, I’ve been able to get a pattern altered for D’s coat without too much trouble. Maybe, I can get the fabric cut and the main construction done this weekend.

And I have more pictures to post since my brother finally gave me Kaleido Star photos from AB. ^_^



( a few more pics )

I got a couple of DVDs from Amazon yesterday, vol. 4 of Kaleido Star: New Wings and vol. 5 of Gankutsuou. An optimistic girl pursuing her dream of being a circus star and a bitter man bent on revenge… What a weird combination. LOL

There were 5 episodes on the Kaleido Star disc this time, which was nice. Sora seems to be bouncing back and we’re getting some hints about Leon’s past now. He certainly seems to have some obsessive issues, regarding a girl named Sophie. o_o;

Gankutsuou was kind of depressing, particularly the second episode on the disc. ;_; Not sure if it was just me but I found myself wondering what some of the characters were doing while certain events were going on because we don’t see them/their reactions.

I’ve been meaning to talk a bit about books since it’s been a while but I’ve been so busy with costume stuff lately. I finished rereading Dianne Day’s Fremont Jones series the other day. It’s 6 books long and mostly set in California during the early 1900s. The main character is Fremont, an independent-spirited girl from a wealthy Boston family who leaves home after her widowed father gets remarried to a woman she despises. She moves to San Francisco with the intention of making her own living by starting a typewriting business and soon finds herself involved in a mystery when one of her clients is murdered. The series follows the adventures she gets involved in through her typing business and later, the detective agency she starts with her lover Michael Archer.

It’s too bad the series didn’t go longer since I liked the characters; Fremont is probably one of my favorite mystery heroines ever. Like a lot of mystery series I liked that ended, I had assumed there would be more but a next book just never came. The author has only published one book since the series ended, a Civil War era mystery based on the life of Clara Barton, and I just wasn’t interested enough to finish reading it when I tried a few years back. :-/

Next, I’ll probably read “Death at Glamis Castle” by Robin Paige. Kate Ardleigh, the protagonist in this series, reminds me of Fremont since she was also an unconventional woman who wanted to earn her own living. In her case, it was by writing gothic fiction and the series is set in a slightly earlier time period than Dianne Day’s books, about a decade before. It’s a decent series but I don’t love it nearly as much as the Fremont Jones series.

And in costume news, 5 flowers left to go! I’m finally getting close to the light at the end of the tunnel! XD