Victor Nikiforov Flower Crown and Shirt

I'm crazy for the anime Yuri on Ice.  As I've probably said a million times already.  My love for this show--and so many of the characters--has no bounds.

Recently, I'm trying to get into causal cosplay.  It's a great way to relieve stress and anxiety at work.  A simple reminder that I'm in an outfit inspired by a show/book/movie I like does wonders for my mental health.

A few weeks ago, I accidentally got a stain on a cream colored shirt.  Since the shirt was ruined anyway, I had an idea to morph it into a Victor Nikiforov casual cosplay design.

Victor wears this outfit at a competition and it's beautiful!  I wanted to try to use this as inspiration for a casual shirt that I could wear to work.

I have experimented with using gel glue with bleach to get a design on a shirt, so I researched to see if it was possible with dying too.  In theory, it works.  So I took my white shirt, and used gel glue to etch out "feather" like shapes along the front of the shirt, sloping down to the left armpit.

At the top left, I did the inverse: I colored in the diamonds to remain white and left the connecting sections open to be dyed.

I used "denim blue" dye because it was what I had on hand.

You can see how the gel glue is holding strong!

The color looked so dark, so I freaked out and pulled it from soaking after ten minutes.  I bet the color would have turned out a lot brighter if I'd pushed through that fear and just trusted the package directions.

Now, with my adorable shirt ready, I HAD to have Victor's flower crown, or something similar.

I used blue clay to craft seven tiny roses.  I followed a tutorial on Pinterest, but my flowers still turned out kinda crappy. 

They were too big to turn into a necklace, so I figured a headband would hold them pretty well.  I hot glued them to a blue headband, and then added white beads in between.

And here's the final result:

I paired it with two bracelets: one blue and white snowflakes to represent Victor's Russian snow.  The second was a blue piglet--of course to represent Victor's love for his kobuta-chan, Katsuki Yuri!

~Buttons

Phichit Chulanont Hamster Hats

The season finale of Yuri on Ice left me with many different emotions: happiness, contentedness, a bit of disappointment, hope for the next level.  But above all others: inspiration!

There is so much about this show that is praiseworthy.  The plot (and plot twists), the animation, the relateable characters, the healthy relationships.  This anime was a powerhouse from start to finish.  It's been a long time since something struck me so deeply.

In the finale, we got a peek into many of the skaters' minds as they performed.  I think I speak for the entire fandom when I say how sweet and perfect Phichit's inner monologue was.  He's such a bright ray of sunshine.  Optimistic.  Confident.  A skilled skater with a ton of potential.  I think the world needs more Phichits to brighten up the day!  His dream of having a skate show because he wants "everyone in Thailand to know how fun figure skating is" can't get anymore beautiful!

And those costumes!  So over the top!  I adore everything about that idea, and would love to see this in an OVA!

Moving on.  Phichit's imagination made me start thinking about the adorable hamster hats, and how easy they would be to make.  Of course, my version goes for ease over 100% correctness, so there are a few modifications from the ones the skaters wear in the ice show.

First, I started out with this template.  I've used it several times for many projects and love how functional and customizable it is.

I traced it onto a bronzeish-brown fleece fabric.

Then I cut two white rectangles for the cheeks of the hamster.

Next, I cut out two rounded pieces in brown for the ears.

They need to be folded over like this.

Then I added a white part in the center.

I used a blanket stitch to put them together.

I sandwiched the ears in between the two brown hat pieces and sewed both sides of the seam.

After that, I stitched shut the V on the top.

Next, I sewed the white rectangles together, right side to right side, along both short edges to form a band.

 I folded the band in half then sewed it to the brown part, right side to right side.

Since the hats are small (and my head is tiny), I folded the brim up.  This gave it a cuter, fluffier look.

Next, I got a piece of white fleece and sewed a line down the middle for teeth.

I cut out a nose and two eyes (and two white eye shimmers).

To save time and energy, I used a hot glue gun to attached all the added details.

And it's finished!  It took me about an hour!