Cosplay Progress - Power Puff Girls Z Accessories

I needed a quick cosplay I could create for a group of three girls.  What's more awesome (and easy) than Power Puff Girls!!  But after some thinking, unless the real people have giant heads and short bodies, it just wont look so cool cause it's just a tube dress.  So let's go with the japanese version that as a little more details and is at least it's more distinct.

Power Puff Girls Z BELT!

Created the coloUrful embellishments from the foam clay I use a lot.

I cut out elongated 'D' out of craft foam and created the belt band out of the waist band elastics.  It's really big because it hangs loose on the girls.

1 Position 2 hot glue dab 3 quickly place and wait till cool

YAY belts are done. 

Power Puff Girls Z GLOVES!

I used the cheap dollar store knit gloves (you know those kinds, the one size fits all) and some clear nail polish

Snip off the finger tips and dab on the nail polish.  The Nail polist will clot the fabric so it won't fray.  It's a little crunchy so a little itchy, but eh we won't be wearing this on a daily basis.

Vola. 

Ok I know I know, where is the white band.  Well cost savings analysis I decided not to do it.  People wno't miss this kinds of details.  But for those who want to know how I would do it anyways. 

1. Get a pair of wooden bangles for each pair of gloves
2. Paint it white
3. Paint a black strip down the middle
4. Glue the cuff of the glove (with hot glue) to the inside of the bangle.

~happy Happy~

I'll show off the outfits in the next posting, be back soon

Vintage Lace Fingerless Gloves

I made these gloves to wear with my Steampunk Superwoman costume. The lace was something I found in a box of assorted lace my grandma had given to me, so the materials for this project did not cost me anything.

First I made one glove with my sewing machine. I draped the lace over my hand and wrist to estimate the size, cut a rectangle, then turned down the edges about 1/8" and straight-stitched them down. Then I sewed the seam (the inner wrist) with a thumb hole, tried it on, and adjusted. This took a while, but eventually I ended up with one glove.

Did I mention I finally got a serger?!

This baby is already making my sewing life SO much easier. I haven't used one of these since college and I didn't get one until now because 1) I didn't want to pay full price for a good one and 2) I didn't want to buy a really cheap one. I purchased this one from my mom's friend. Normally I wouldn't recommend buying sergers second-hand, but I knew owner, it had a manual with it, and I was able to give it a test run before hauling it away.

I digress. Back to the lacey gloves... I used the first glove to make a paper pattern for another glove. I cut out the piece of lace, trimmed the edge expecting a 1/4" seam allowance, then ran both edges through the serger (separately) in about a minute flat. Lastly, I placed the edges together and ran it through the sewing machine, leaving the thumb hole. Done!
I then changed the thread to black and made an extra black pair for Steampunk Batgirl.

That was over so fast that I made a third glove with the serger. The serged glove turned out much better than the straight-stitched glove! So then I fixed the first prototype glove by running the seam through the serger (keeping the thumb hole open). I have enough lace to make 7 extra pairs of white gloves, PLUS some black lace... this may be the start of a future Etsy store for me.

More information about sergers and how to use them:
http://sewing.about.cm/od/sergersoverlock/ss/serger.htm

Cosplay Progress - Final Fantasy XIII-2 Serah Farron, Gloves 0.2

[observations]  Let's see what we see.  For Serah's Gloves, they are Grey, have bands of black and chunks of Yellow, and little past the cuff.  Serah also seems to be wearing a pink sleeve (same color as her dress) under her gloves.

Easy to start when you get a $3 pair of Leather Gardening Gloves at the local hardware store.  They aren't quite the right size for me, but $3s is cheaper and more accurate than making my own.  It's cosplay, just go with it. 

As for the Black and Yellow pieces, I could go and get dyed leather or other fabrics, but let's make this easy.  It just needs to look good in photos and not fall apart as i run around playing.  Craft Foam we use!  Cut out the shapes and glue them onto the leather gloves with hot glue, oh yes we will not be able to salvage this glove to it's original state (but who cares it was just $3).  Ok I also made a mistake and my yellow/black pieces ended up being too large to correctly match the character's design, but I didn't realize until after I glued it to the glove.  Once again, it's just cosplay, go with it.

So I made cuffs, aka arm warmers, aka sleeves, using extra material from my dress.  It's basically a tube that is slightly smaller than my wrist.  Since it's stretchy fabric, it conforms pretty comfortably. 

Finished product.  it's not accurate, but if people notice and judge, than they know the character a little toooooooo well.


Aww I forgot, I want to also make the extra black lines by going over those existing orange lines with a sharpie. 

Cosplay Progress - Final Fantasy XIII-2 Lightning Sleeves 0.5

Time to make the gloves and arm amour.  Ok for warning, this pieces isn't as accurate as the original but I didn't discover a lot of my flaws until I was complete.  sorry didn't feel like going back to fix it

So let’s start with a pair of long black gloves purchased at a costume store (no I am not sewing my own gloves, I’ve tried it and will avoid it if possible).  These spikes on the back of her hand are inspired by the original Lightning costume. 

So I made them like I had for a previous Lightning outfit.  <insert mistake face> Although inspired they aren’t completely the same, which was my mistake.  The gold spikes have been moved on top her knuckles now and should be 4 of them.  Eh whatever.

Anyways I made these out of foam and am attacking them with safety pins.  The picture shows double sided tape, but that ended up being a not as useful with the material of my gloves.

So I replicated what I see on the backside of the armor with foam, nothing special.

Keep in mind that the left arm and the right arm don't look the same.  I had to do some adjustments since I didn't realize this until I was done.

The armor attachment should probably be made out of leather of vinyl, but I made it out of foam (because it was sitting there in front of me and I didn’t feel like going out and spending more money on vinyl).  I made the pattern as I saw on her pictures.  But while wearing it, it would shift because it is slippery and large (due to it having to be able to fit around my wrist). 

So I made Bumpers!  LOL This is the weirdest idea used for this cosplay.  Surprisingly works very well, doesn’t shift because it’s pressed up against your skin.  Because the bumpers are malleable it conforms to your shape, yet soft and comfortable.