Ah, the joys of a cosplay work day. It feels good to get stuff done. Friday, 26th of August. It was a good day to work on cosplay, and we got around two hours of work in. I was taking on a new project, sorta, making a new set of headphones for my vocaloid costume in the magnet style. I'm not the best at making designs or painting, but I was having a lot of fun getting the design as best as I could with paint. I have there in the picture two round tops off of some little round boxes I picked up, and they're big enough to go around my ears and sturdy enough to work for headphones. And I'm painting them. 'nuff said. It won't be 100%, though I am trying for it, as I'm learning 'bout how to do painting the best I can. I actually managed to get most of both headphone pieces done. Didn't get around to making the actual thing they'll go on. I was tempted to use the slightly smaller circle of the cardboard box, which was the bottom part, but I would have had to cut into the box, which would've made things uneven, and possibly a little hard on the ears. Granted I could've taped it up or smoothed it out some other way, but when a slightly larger version exists that would work just as well with none of that trouble, why not go for it? I'm looking forward to making the butterfly wings that will attach to the phone pieces. I'm almost tempted not to use the headband I have for it, rather just have them hang on a piece of black ribbon, though I know that won't stay on well. Either way, progress is progress.

My friend and cosplay help buddy was working on her Kimono for the Fatal Frame IV costume she's working on. Yuuup. I was able to talk her into making a Fatal Frame IV costume to do a semi group cosplay with my own one too. This pic is mostly just of her laying out the fabric, a nice red, and then she'd be cutting out pieces and prep them to be sewed! The floor was a little dirty, but that was okay, as we could wash things again if we had to. We'd just wash it before we painted it with the design for the costume. I'm blanking on the name of the character at the moment, but she's the main villain from Fatal Frame IV. She's already made the mask, which I'll have to take a pic of maybe. It isn't made of real wood, but who cares. She painted it really well. We looked at colors for that to make sure we got it as dark/old fashioned looking as we could without looking too terrible.

I have to start working on a costume for my brother and for a really good friend of mine online, I told her I'd make the costume for her and I have all the pieces for the most part for both costumes (bro and friend). I just need to now sit down and start cutting and sewing it. Which reminds me I need to print out my friend's measurements so I can get the correct T-shirt for her. Blargh.

Anyways, craft dayish was crafty! I got a little bit of work done, and it did feel good. Gotta start using the materials that I have and buckle down into the nitty gritty costume work!

This is Rin Kagamine, 14 year old vocaloid. Her twin brother/other half is Len Kagamine. She was a cosplay of mine that I wanted to do for some time. The only problem was my body type. I'm not the smallest person in the world, and I have long brown hair.

When it comes to cosplaying its always good to build to your bodytype. I said that in my last entry. However if you're going to do something a little out of your bodytype, or greatly as I see it in my case, have fun with it. If you wear the costume well and enjoy what you're doing, then everyone else will feel like they're enjoying seeing you too. Look uncomfortable and feel uncomfortable, and that's how people will perceive you and your cosplay, no matter how good it could be. All cosplays are better when you're comfortable with them.


This. This is me cosplaying as Rin. There are a few things left unfinished on the costume, but this is my Rin cosplay. Not bought from China, commissioned from anyone, but made by me, with a little help and encouragement from a friend. This is the more finished state. I'll include another picture of a less finished state later.

Distinct differences, I'm a big... bigger in the belly area than Rin is, by a lot. I didn't show it off with the cosplay, rather, I just tucked the t-shirt into the shorts as opposed to cutting it short and letting ma tummy show. You wouldn't probably believe that under that wig is REALLY long hair. I'm totally wearing a wig, and rocking it. There was a picture of some decent vocaloid cosplayers in the bad cosplay gone wrong, and the big thing was they didn't have wigs. For anyone. Even one of the rin cosplayers I saw at a con i went to, she didn't use a wig. She used her own hair, which wasn't bad because it was blond, but it wasn't as full as Rin's hair was, and thus was a little off putting. I actually got this one from China, and its surprisingly great quality.

The other major difference is the shorts. They weren't shorts to begin with, rather a pair of pants I found at Kohls on clearance. I cut them and hemmed them and the old leggings were the pants bottoms. Hahaha. And they're not the short shorts that Rin wears, slightly more modest for my body type.

As you can see there's a few differences, and I am definitely not the smallest person for the costume. There is some unfinished aspects of the costume as well, but mostly it actually is done. I wore it first at Anime Milwaukee 2010 (tons of Rins there), and second was at No Brand Con 2010, where I was one of about two Rins there, I believe. I didn't notice other Rins, but did notice other vocaloids. I think? but can't say for certain that the other Rin had ordered her costumes from China or some such, it looked a little like it.

I need to redo the shirt, in my opinion, because the bow tie at the top of my bust line was hastily done, and the sleeve sides are a little uneaven. This was one of the biggest projects I've done so far, and even had to work on it the night before the Saturday of Anime Milwaukee to finish the top. So a little hastily sewn. The sleeves and leggings I'm rather proud of, but I have to tighten the leggings and sew up a portion of the arm things I think. My other version of rin didn't have the white hair clips. IT IS HARD to find white hair clips. I ended up making my own.

Anyways though, this was a big one outside of my body type, but I had fun with it every step of the way. I enjoyed it, got into it, and I think others enjoyed it with me because I was having a good time. I had to take of my headphones from time to time so people could see what was going on on stage and the like. The bow is big, but that was fun to make. Lots of hot glue went into that top part. And some paint.

The belt overall was the hardest part, it took one entire fabric coloring marker to get all those triangles, the orange ones, on there. Not to mention the triangles on the belt loop too. THE WHOLE 3.49 orange fabric marker. That's my only complaint, and aside from what I need to fix, this costume was tons of fun to wear and I can't wait to wear it again.

So taking a few liberties to make it just a little more modest (belly not showing and the shorts not being short shorts) I made it work more for me as a cosplay. One day I might be rid of the extra pounds, but until then I love the costume.

As a bonus, here's the first version of Rin I had. This was taken by a prof. photography group that was at Anime Milwaukee. I can't find my CD with the original copy on it at the moment.

The hair doesn't have the clips and the leggings weren't right either, and were made of the pant bottoms (not pictured here tho). I still had a ton of fun with it, and can't wait to get it full and completed.

I'm not a cosplay expert by any means, but I have fun with what I do. Next up, I might start touching on my favorite thing, including favorite cosplays. HORROR! Fatal Frame cosplays to be exact.

Till next time.