Oh, God. I'm A Crazy Person

[redbrunja]

I'm clinically insane. That's the only explanation. And you know, this really isn't my fault, I can't be held responsible - this is because of lack of sleep (I do crazy things when I'm sleep deprived, like making rp journals) or the fact that the water was shut off this morning in my apartment (Me last night: I want to wash my hair. Mmmm, better not, there's never hot water at night. Me this morning: *turns on the facet* *no water at all* Oh, you are kidding me.) Oh! Finals. This is because of finals. And I'm still half-sick. Really, I can't be expected to make rational decisions right now.

*takes deep breath*

So you want to know what I'm not doing?

This morning, I did not take screencaptures of Suki's awesome and fiendishly complex outfit.

 

I am not poking around on fabric sites looking at what's available.

I am not looking at pattern sites and thinking, 'hmm, am I crazy, or would that Tibetan Chupa make a good base for her outfit'?

Oh, god, I'm clinically insane aren't I?

Flist, I throw myself on your mercy. 

Help. 

If you could either a.) find and return my sanity

b.) give me the information on cosplay, specifically time/skill/money estimates, ideas on how to make the vest, headdress, arm bracers and detailing.

c.) smack me across the mouth and stick my head into a bucket of ice water.

[ETA: use this and possibly this.

A-Line Skirt]

Comments

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Nah, that's not horrible, the absolute fast-and-dirtiest way of doing that would be to just go with a basic kimono-styled robe pattern, wrap it really tight above the waist, but then sort of pull it apart in the front below the waist, and count on the flare of the underskirt and the armor and sash holding everything in place. Totally doable and good enough for cosplay, I'm pretty sure that's more or less how a few of the ones I've seen in the past were done. Or you could take the basic robe pattern, which probably is cut very straight like a classic kimono, but chop it off at the waist, and then cut out the bottom half separately so that it flares out a bit more from the waist on down, and is cut away a bit in the front so it doesn't overlap as much as the bodice; again, the armor will cover up the seams. The slight advantage of the chupa is it's already got a waist seam, so you'd just need to slit the skirt open in the front and bring the side panels around to tie in front instead of the back, but the disadvantage is you'd have to graft the sleeves on, and the armscyes are curved; looking at the girls without the armor, their robes definitely have the straight-line sleeves and shoulder seams of a basic kimono, even if the neckline is a little funky.

If I were doing it I'd probably mostly construct it mostly like a kimono, but I'd eliminate the neck binding, draw the upper edges of the neckline up a bit higher to compensate and finish it all with a facing; put in darts at the waist to eliminate a little bulk, and cut the lower half separately so it would be a little more flared and not overlapping at the center front like the bodice does. Hell, if you're not planning on running around without your armor and aren't a stickler for authenticity, you could just even treat them as two separate pieces -- do a wraparound top, and then make an A-line skirt in two layers; by the time the armor and sash are on, nobody will be able to tell the overskirt and bodice aren't actually attached at the waist.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Okay, could you explain this please?

the disadvantage is you'd have to graft the sleeves on, and the armscyes are curved; looking at the girls without the armor, their robes definitely have the straight-line sleeves and shoulder seams of a basic kimono, even if the neckline is a little funky

And I like the idea of doing spliting the costume up and doing the top + 2 skirts - that might be a way to break it down and simplify it. *ponders*

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

The armholes on the chupa are sort of curvy; if you want to add sleeves to that, it's going to be like doing the sleeves on a men's dress shirt, and easing those curvy pieces tends to be tricky for beginners. The sleeves and armholes on a kimono are all just straight lines, so that would be much, much easier for you to do -- if you've made a skirt, you can doubtlessly handle sewing straight lines! :) So if you have to do alterations, taking something like a kimono pattern and making the sleeves a little bit longer or narrower would be pretty simple -- you're just taking a big rectangle and changing its dimensions before stitching it on to another straight piece of fabric; constructing a curvy sleeve from scratch and making it fit onto the curvy armholes of the chupa would be trickier drafting as well as trickier sewing. (Also, the way the shoulder seams fall on the sleeves in the screenshot, it looks more like the boxy cut of rectangular sleeves, not the closer curvy fit of a set-in sleeve.)

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Oh, and one other potential consideration for splitting it up into pieces -- if your tastes run towards vaguely Asian-styled tops or long flowy skirts, making this as separate bits could potentially allow to recycle the individual pieces for streetwear when you're done, instead of leaving you with sinking all that time and effort into something that can *only* be worn as a costume...

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Good point. And I was looking around on the yardage charts for that Chupa, and I'm have a suspicion that you make that in two pieces, with a top and a wrap skirt.

All I can say though, is that after making the dress and the make up, I BETTER have people stopping and asking for my photo, that's all I have to say. *smiles* *is a comment whore in all forms of fandom interaction.*

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Well, they have two versions, a skirt and a full-length jumper -- I can't tell from just the little diagram there if the jumper version has a seam at the waist or not since the wraparound bit of the skirt covers up where a seam would be. Although even if it's cut in one long continuous piece, you could use the skirt pattern as a guide for where to chop it in half. ;)

And I'm sure you'd get your picture taken, probably even in groups since Avatar cosplay seems to be getting more and more popular.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I really hope so. Last year I was the one person in my group of friends who WASN'T part of the themed Ouron group, so I was totally the odd woman out.