There's just a few days left until CC32 and I am a mix of emotions about it. As I mentioned previously, I'm not making anything new which is really one of those "disappointed in myself" things. It's not really helped by seeing so many of my friends either posting progress photos or working on things in Google Hangouts - I've also been working on costumes the last couple of weeks, but not quite with the same commitment since my next deadline isn't for a while yet and I'm doing several things at once to boot.
 
So what have I been working on? In my last progress blog I mentioned working on bodysuits, and that's what I've been doing, although it's been a slow process. I have 3+1 bodysuits ahead, and I'm working on Midna first, though there's some simultaneous work going on for all. Unfortunately, all the suits require different patters and they all have to be hand-drafted so... I hope I'll be really good at this by the time I'm done. Progress pics of things so far below:

Also, spending face-time with friends:

and speaking of Costume Con... my cosplay plans are below. Aside from doing Alice on Friday, I don't have plans for which costume for which day. I'm not entering any of the masquerades, but I am going to be part of the Future Fashion Folio event on Sunday, modeling a couple of dresses for Andrea Schewe. I'm excited just because I get to wear the Cercei dress XD. I might not want to take it off LOL. Looking forward to sharing photos and maybe videos from the con once it's all over <3

So the reveal of Geek Inked Magazine's April cover shoot was today... I am so floored. I'm not going to ramble on and on with this one since it's pretty self-explanatory ^_^. Set of photos and a little bit of an interview are on the site (just click on the image above). I wasn't actually supposed to be their cover girl for this month, but had the fortune of being in the right place at the right time.

As a bonus, I found a video from the con which has a little bit of behind-the-scenes of my shoot, as well as a snippet of my time on stage being introduced as a masquerade judge.

Last year for my staffing duties at Anime North, I wore my Pepper Potts costume, making use of my extremely practical Stark Industries Clipboard while managing the greenroom for Sunday's fashion show. This year I'm being a runner for the masquerade and felt I needed something more practical (I did the runner job last year too, I just wasn't planning ahead for it). I decided to challenge myself to make a costume using last year's bright orange staff t-shirt. And I'll admit that for a while I had no idea what to do with it; but then Yavarice mentioned that he's making an Aperture lab coat for working the masq, and I was inspired. 

I bought some orange stretch sateen on clearance (not a fabric I would recommend because of the stretch factor, but the weight, colour, and price were right...) and I used an old McCall's pattern for simple pants with cargo pockets from my stash. Spent a couple of days cutting pieces and sewing things together (those cargo pockets were time-consuming!), cut up the centre front of the t-shirt (and finished the edges) and there you have it: "T-Shirt Challenge Chell"!!! I have a pair of Portal "Long Fall socks" on order and will be borrowing an Aperture tank from a friend, which will complete the look. 

Total cost: ~$30 CDN; time spent: one weekend. 
Favourite things: POCKETS!!! I never remember to put pockets in my costumes. Having FOUR generously sized ones in these shorts makes me feel spoiled. Also like the ability to put on the shirt if I get cold - sometimes the A/C in hotels is just too much for me.

Now it's time to get back to more serious costume projects. Looking ahead, it appears that Easter weekend will be dedicated to making several bodysuits. Pattern drafting ahoy!!!

(follow me on FB for real-time progress photo posts)

Back in February I had one particularly busy weekend, which included an 80's themed birthday party in the KW as well as a photography workshop with the Oakville Camera Club (in Oakville). Trying to get everything I would need for a couple days of dressing up and for traveling between cities (inevitably) didn't go as well as I'd hoped. For the workshop using someone else's shampoo made my hair completely unmanageable, clothes got forgotten, we got locked out of the house, other drivers blocked my car in, and being the last person in line to see the hired MUA meant that by the time my makeup was done I'd completely missed the first photo rotation. For better or for worse, the culmination of a lot of this was that I ended up doing one shoot in my little black dress as I'd planned, but switched to my 1980's-esque outfit for my second shoot. Not at all what I had in mind, and I couldn't really change up my hair and makeup like i would have preferred, but in terms of doing the "light painting" session, it was a lot more fun while looking like a neon time-travelling rainbow threw up on me ^_^. The light painting was just all around cool, and I would love to get to play with a set-up like that again.

Unfortunately, very few of the photographers shared their images with me, but a selection of what I did get are below. The "modelling" gallery has been updated with these new photos!

Thanks to: photographers Kevin, Sherry, Anna, Jim, and Branko; and the Oakville Camera Club for inviting me to do this again!

Progress post time! I got back to work on Nightingale this week, since I want to enter the costume in the Historical masquerade at Costume Con 32. Unfortunately, once I started sewing I realized that I have a lot more work to do on it than I thought, and that there is no way I would get it done in time for the convention. The realization made me pretty sad, gotta admit, because I've been looking forward to entering at least one of the masquerades at CC32 since it was awarded to Toronto 3 years ago. :(  I'm pretty disappointed in myself, but since I have had a LOT of difficulty getting myself to make anything lately, I'm not really surprised. I did at least finish the (first) mock-up required for the jacket.

I also ended up making another set of lumas - a custom Sokka for a friend, and some more basic ones in printed fleece for various babies ^_^
The whole luma gallery is here.

Although I wasn't there last year, I've been attending Ad-Astra since 2006, and returned this year because I was asked to be a judge for the masquerade. As experienced as I am and as much as I love working backstage at masquerades if I'm not entering, judging is not something I feel I'm suited for, but the masq director cornered me on this one LOL. I have to admit, it was nice to be back. Being a literary sci-fi con, there's an atmosphere of chill maturity and friendliness that I don't see often at other media conventions, and I really like it. It was nice to see many aquaintances again who either don't attend the other local anime cons, or whom I simply tend to miss at bigger events. Unfortunately, Ad-Astra's membership has been declining slowly but steadily (since before I even started attending), which was evidenced in the quiet hallways, decreased variety of programming, and only a small handful of my cosplay friends attending. The vendor's room felt like the only area of the convention where people were actively mingling. So Saturday, when there were more people in attendance and I had my masquerade duties to keep me occupied, was good fun, but Sunday when I was there on my own with no plans between handing out the masquerade awards in the morning and a photo shoot in the afternoon... I got pretty bored :(

Anyways, the masquerade was great; small but we had some strong presentations and lots of pretty costumes. KW Iron Man couldn't bring his suit to enter, so he had a go in the "Lightning Round" and made what was later dubbed the mk. "Downey". Kheru, one of my fellow judges, brought out her gorgeous layer cake dress (Firefly), and I did myself up in my Crystal Entropy costume, and was asked if I was riffing on Elsa for most of the day LOL. Sunday I brought out Mrs Impossible, simply because I wanted to get photos of her at a bar and Ad-Astra was a good opportunity to do so. Below you can find a small collection of photos taken by myself, Iron Man, and Rob Olsen. I shot with Rob, who I met at Tri-Con, both days; the Mrs Impossible photos have been added to my Venture Bros gallery, and Crystal photos will be updated a little bit later.

It's April once again, which means things are (or at least should be) in motion. Last year I participated in VEDA (Vlog Every Day in April), which was almost all cosplay-centric and is available all nicely collected into a YouTube playlist. This year, I am not doing VEDA. The video above is as close as I'm going to get! I haven't been vlogging at all since last summer, and even though VEDA is a great excuse and would make me produce some interesting content, this year I have other more important projects which are calling for my time and energy. (...if anyone cares, vlogging dropped off due to being seriously sick several times, not being home as often since I'm spending many weekends in Kitchener, losing the good light I had in my room last year, and some general apathy)

However, since I am gearing up for Costume Con, I am going to be blogging more regularly this month, at least that's my intent. Immediate progress pics will be going to my Facebook Page, and I will make semi-regular recap posts here. I'm working on "Nightingale" from Atomic Robo, which I want to enter in the Historical Masquerade at CC32. I was working on it previously in the fall with the goal of having it done for NYCC, but ran into the unfortunate problem of not being able to find the fabric I needed locally. So I went shopping while I was in NYC, and found the perfect fabric at MOOD. Unfortunately I am only just now returning to the costume, with the con 3 weeks away. YIKES! 

So the jacket is my current/next big project. Wish me luck XD

This coming weekend is Ad-Astra which is being held in Richmond Hill this year. I will be there on Saturday and Sunday, though I'm still trying to decide which costumes to bring with me. I'm leaning towards Either Alice or Crystal on Saturday and Alice or Mrs Impossible on Sunday.... I always have a really hard time deciding though. Argh.

And the last bit of news, as per the video above, is that after Ad-Astra, CostumeCon, Anime North, and ColossalCon.... I will be officially on hiatus. No more con plans, being a guest/panelist/staff/volunteer/etc. I desperately need a break from going to conventions; I'm so burnt out (which is a big reason why the number of costumes I've made has been decreasing in recent years while the cons I'm attending is going up). Will still be making costumes, but on a vastly different schedule, and hopefully, with a much better attitude ^_^