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

Sailor Moon Crescent Wand

In January, I was so excited to hear that the Sailor Moon R Movie was being released in theaters.  A friend and I bought tickets to see the Japanese subtitled version.

I wore my Sailor Moon casual cosplay outfit, but I wanted more accessories to go with it.  I must have gotten ride of my original Moon Rod (why did I do that!?!) so I decided to try my hand at crafting one of clay.

I started with a metal skewer which I covered in aluminum foil.

Next, I made a crescent shape,

And a ball for the Imperium Silver Crystal.

I forced the skewer through the crescent,

Then impaled the crystal atop.

I covered the stick with pink clay.

Then I began to cover the crescent with yellow.  I ran out of yellow, so I filled the rest in with white.

I cooked it according to package directions.

Finally, I painted it all and added lines to the Silver Crystal.

It turned out hideous!  But I completed it in an afternoon and had it ready for the movie that night.  So, I was pretty pleased!  More clay would have solved my problems.  Now I know for next time.


~Buttons

Harry Potter Wands and Robe

This is actually from last year's Halloween, when Pockets wanted to make her Hufflepuff outfit.  But since we are using them for our Comicon outfits this week, I felt it a good idea to post this as well!

The wands:

Pockets found this tutorial on Pinterest, and we followed it.

Materials:

Paintbrushes

Clay

More paintbrushes

Paint

First, decide on a paintbrush to fit your needs.  Pockets used a medium sized one, but since my wand is "slightly springy" I used a smaller, more dainty paintbrush.

Start by covering the bristle in clay; this will be the wand's handle.

(this is the clay we used)

Next, use the clay as you desire to shape your wand.  I wanted mine (made of hawthorne) to be woody and knotty.  Pockets went with a smooth, but decorative style.

Next bake it.  The directions we used said 10 minutes for every 1/4 inch thickness.  Ours were about 1/2 an inch, so we cooked them for 20 minutes.

Then we painted them.  We had three shades of brown, and a white to mix them with.  Pockets did hers lighter than mine.  I decided to paint my handle a darker color too.

Pockets added a darker wood grain onto her wand, and then painted the swirl that went up from the handle.

Since her's looked so awesome, I added wood grain onto mine as well.

The robes:

For the robes, we used Simplicity pattern 5840.  For fabric, Pockets chose a beautiful black poplin.  It was so easy to work with, and super heavy, for that robe-like look and feel.  She used a light yellow poplin for a faux lining.

The first attempt, just doing as the pattern said, turned out HUGE.

It fit her boyfriend better.

So he got those robes (he's a Gryffindor), and Pockets made a new set for herself, shrinking the pattern an inch in every dimension.

She paired it with a gray skirt, white button up blouse, gray cardigan, a Hufflepuff tie, and a House badge.  It turned out SO CUTE!!

(A Hufflepuff wearing an Aes Sedai ring???)

And for the whole effect (but through a mirror):

Now we're all set for Comicon!

~Buttons