Drocell Cainz Photo Gallery

Drocell was my second Black Butler cosplay after Undertaker and I made him not necessarily because I liked the character but because I enjoyed some of the design elements of his costume and I wanted to try my hand at making them.  He was made for presentation in the Anime Boston 2012 masquerade, thus his completion date was around March 2012.

I do not remember a lot about how I made this cosplay as I had not yet established documentation procedures.  What I do remember is that I had a lot of trouble fitting men's garment patterns for both the coat and pants to fit my feminine curves.  I also had never worked with velvet before.  Let's just say this was a learning experience about what you are and are not supposed to do with velvet!

In the end I was rather impressed with the result.  The costume has a very regal appearance and received a lot of praise.  After it failed to place in competition at both Anime Boston and Albuquerque Comic Expo, however, I mostly retired the cosplay and repurposed some of its pieces, such as the boots, millinery flowers, and striped socks.  Maybe I'll wear it again sometime, but it does not seem likely.  In fact, if you are interested in purchasing this cosplay, then please send me an email (albinoshadowfire@gmail.com) and we shall discuss that possibility!

If you are interested in the series artwork I used as a reference, please keep scrolling to the end of this post.

From the Black Butler photoshoot at Anime Boston 2012.  Photographer is my friend Jenny Donnelly (ShinakoPhoto)

 

Official photo from the Anime Boston 2012 masquerade

Rosethorn Photo Gallery

Rosethorn was completed in November 2013 based upon a character from Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic novels.  For the most part the character design is my own, incorporating the few appearance descriptions from the novels.

The doublet pattern comes from The Tudor Tailor by Ninya Mikhaila and Jane Malcolm-Davies.  I patterned the skirt, cloak, and loose pants myself based upon my own design sketches, which will be included at the end of this post.

This was a very involved costume in terms of hand-sewing.  Many seams were sewn by hand for historical authenticity, and all garments except the pants were embroidered by hand.  The doublet is boned with strong cable ties to maintain its shape, and it laces up the front via hand-worked eyelets.  The buttons on the front are functional, but as you can imagine spherical buttons are not the best at staying in their buttonholes.  They require the support of the hidden lacing strip.  Buttonholes were done by hand, and the buttons themselves are pearl beads that I covered with thread.

The wig is the only part of this costume that I am not completely comfortable with.  The issue was finding a short wig that is made well enough that it does not show wefts anywhere.  I had to opt for something a little longer, thus I used a Magnum in dark copper red from Arda Wigs.

Progress posts can be found here:
Design and Patterning
Embroidery
Finishing Stages

 

Detail shots of the doublet: embroidery and thread-covered buttons.

Luminara Unduli Photo Gallery

I made Luminara because I wanted to do a Star Wars cosplay alongside my friend Amy who planned to cosplay Jaina Solo.  Actually as a birthday gift I ended up making most of her cosplay as well...!  Both cosplays were finished in March 2013.

This is an extremely heavy cosplay, but well worth it considering I wore it during the winter and had to walk from my college campus to the campus where Genericon was being held.

There are a lot of unique aspects of this costume's construction.  For that I'm going to direct you to my blog posts, because if I tried to sum it up here I would probably just end up leaving out a lot of information!

Progress posts can be found here:
Hood and Cloak Patterning
Construction
Finishing Up

The last three photos were taken by the photobooth photographer at Genericon 2013.  I do not know the photographer's name, for all they gave me were printouts of the photos, no business information.

All the other photos are from my Luminara photoshoot on 14 March 2014.  All lightsaber glow effects were added in later via Photoshop, as my saber does not glow well in dayligh!

Fujimoto Photo Gallery

I love Hayao Miyazaki's character concepts.  They are all so original and even the "less important" character are filled out and their role in the story is clear.  Fujimoto is one of those characters.  Anyway, I really like unwitting antagonists like Fujimoto so when I saw a bolt of the red and white striped fabric I'd need for the coat I just decided to take the plunge and make this cosplay.  After all was said and done, I finished this in March 2012 and debuted it at Anime Boston that same year.

I'd always had trouble before this cosplay with making tailored coats, particularly collars.  It always seems like the pattern instructions are missing something.  This time was different.  I was very pleased with myself.  I made a lot of modifications that made this coat easier to put together, but I thought the result was a crisp-looking coat.

This is one of my favourite wigs ever that I haven't had to style myself.  I love the bit of curl in it.  It's not so long as to be impossible to care for, but it's swishy and energetic.