As you may have noticed if you follow me on instagram, twitter or Facebook, I’ve gotten into cosplay. It really was only a matter of time. Halloween has been one of my favourite holidays for as long as I can remember. I’ve always loved dressing up in costumes. When I started seeing all these people on the internet in these amazing costumes, most of which made themselves, I knew I wanted to do it too. And when I got a sewing machine a couple of Christmases ago, well, that was that. I started off just sewing some simple things for my daughter, to get back into sewing. Then last February (or was it March?) I was playing American McGee’s Alice: Madness Returns and decided I would dress up as Alice for that year’s Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. It seemed like a simple enough costume to do and I really love this version of Alice. I ordered the pattern and fabric and set to work once it all arrived. And then I learned my first lesson in making sure I have enough time to finish my costume, especially when my skills are quite up to snuff. I ended up catching the worst cold I had ever had in my life, it lasted for weeks. I was tired and had no drive to finish my costume. I ended up going with no costume to the convention. I still had a lot of fun, but there was a little bit of disappointment I didn’t finish my costume. However, I didn’t finish that costume until this year, but more on that in another post.
My Alice costume isn’t the first time I’ve made a costume though. Way back in 2005 I was really into InuYasha (it really helped that it was on YTV at the time) and decided to make my own InuYasha costume. Admittedly, I was a bit over my head, especially for my first costume. I spent way too much on fabric, though it looked like I imagined it would. It was itchy fabric too, so not a good choice for a costume. I couldn’t find any decent white wigs for cheap (seeing as I spent too much on the fabric) so I had to improvise with crappy white Halloween hairspray and a light pink wig my mom already had. I made his ears out of some cheap Halloween cat ears, peeled off the black fake fur (after I tried to spray it white, it didn’t really work) and covered them with pink and white felt. I had spent so much time sewing the pants and top that I never had the chance to finish the white shirt. Actually, somewhere in a box there’s a bag with the fabric cut out and pattern pieces still pinned on.
Me as InuYasha, 2005
This year’s Calgary Expo was the first time I have ever dressed up at a convention. It was fun. And I cosplayed all three days I went. I had been looking for something easy to throw together as a second costume (Alice was the first) and decided on one of my favourite Doctor Who companions Amy Pond (Donna is my all-time fave, by the way. Love the red-heads.). I loved Amy from the first time I saw her on the show and have always wanted to dress-up as her. Amy has a lot of great outfit choices and it would be pretty easy to buy clothes that were similar to ones she wore. The bonus of doing a costume like this? You can wear each piece casually! More bang for your buck, or something like that. I picked Amy’s outfit from Asylum of the Daleks because I really loved the episode and thought Amy’s outfit was awesome.
Amy Pond in Asylum of the Daleks and me as Amy at Calgary Expo 2014
The wig is from Arda Wigs – it’s a Matilda Pumpkin (love this colour so much); I picked up the pants and jacket from Winners, the belt is from Wal-Mart, dress is from H&M, and the bracelet and earrings are from Aldo; the boots are by Wild Diva and were ordered from ShoeMe.ca. These boots have become my go-to footwear ever since.
I had ordered a Star Trek (2009) uniform dress to be another costume option (I think the dresses are super cute and sexy) but realized a couple of days before the con it didn’t fit. Which is fine, there’s always next year to fit into it (it’s only a little bit too small). So I took a look through my Doctor Who picture folder to see what I could do with what I had on hand. I saw a picture of Amy in Day of the Moon and knew what my other costume was going to be. I already owned a red plaid shirt and denim capris so it was cheap and easy!
Amy Pond in Day of the Moon and me as Amy on my way to Calgary Expo 2014
And on the third day of Calgary Expo, I finally wore my finished Alice: Madness Returns. The feeling I got from wearing something I had made was awesome! It was great to finally get to wear the costume I had started last year. It’s become my new favourite hobby. I’ve already made a long list of costumes I want to do and not just for me, but for hubby and the kiddo too. The weekend spent cosplaying at Calgary Expo was a lot of fun! I’m going to cosplay every year and maybe try going to some other conventions in Alberta, like Edmonton Expo.
Morning of the third day of Calgary Expo
I’ve been thinking of creating a Facebook page for my cosplay, to keep my personal page from getting all cluttered with cosplay stuff. And I’ll share progress photos and ideas and whatever, all related to cosplay. I don’t have any delusions about having a ton of followers, I’m fine with little to none. I mean, it’s nice but I don’t expect to become a popular cosplayer by any means. It’s not about the likes, it’s about having fun and sharing something I love to do. I’m going to use the page as a place to keep all of my projects in one place. So I was thinking of calling my page Sparkling Hallow Cosplay, with or without the space between sparkling hallow. It’s one of the few usernames I’ve been using for years and I’ve always liked how it sounds. What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments. And next time I’ll share my Alice costume. Also, I’m going to take more pics in my costumes over the summer so I have better ones to share. Maybe I’ll teach hubby how to use my nice camera properly 😉
xoxo
SparklingHallow 