[Jas] Cosplay Costume Party - Valentine (Guilty Gear) Pt. 1

Intro: For such a long involved costume like this one, there is no way I can cover the whole thing in one post. Unless that is, if I cut out pretty much EVERYTHING. Which I could always do, but I don't want to do that, so I'm going to break it into parts so that I may go into a little more detail on the whole process, yeah? 

Part 1: Skirt + Hat  + Wig

Valentine is a villain from the Guilty Gear game franchise. I chose this costume for a very small con actually, called EAE (Erie Anime Experience) which is this coming September [JT's note: Ummm.... *looks at date*...  nevermind.  I'll let her figure it out.]. I find her super adorable and of course I pick someone with a terribly confusing costume. Because why would I choose someone easy...right? RIGHT! So....in this part I'm going to talk about the skirt and hat, which were the first things I attempted of the costume. (The hat took longer than I thought...and was pretty involved)

Valentines Skirt: I started on this part of the outfit, using pleather (Which is a BITCH to hem/sew in general, because it’s so thick. I wanted to cry and pretty much had to hand feed it through the machine by tugging on it. I thought I was going to sew my fingers to the skirt. I pretty much did cry while sewing the hem. Presser foot = USELESS!! I’m actually surprised that my needle didn’t break…which has happened before (Oddly enough I have an irrational fear that it will break and launch into my eye and somehow I’ll die).

All pinned together on the floor

I made the entire skirt without a pattern…minus the pleat pattern that I cut out of printer paper. I made it a little small. OTL and had to remake the upper band and add snaps, so that it would fit better. (Or I could just lose weight…but that’s too hard because I’M FAT! *is slapped*)

ALL OF MY TEARS!!!!

Excuse my poor lighting

All in all it was the easier part of the costume to sew/complete. It took the least amount of time and came out pretty good, considering I was winging the whole pattern thing…which I do frequently. I also made it high-waisted so I can pull it up, or down if needed to change how long it looks. 

Materials:

2 yards of pleather (just to be safe, I had a lot of extra which I used for other stuff aka wings on my huge ball thing)

12 metal studs

Zipper

Snaps

Paper (for pattern)

Valentines Hat: I was trying to put this off......but, for some reason I started it right away.... >_> Anyways. So let's see, I made the base with craft foam. So that it would hold a general shape, then from there I put fabric over top and sewed it all together. I wouldn't have been able to do it without the help from my trusty dress form...and I still stabbed myself with pins MULTIPLE times. (multiple = over 100 most likely)

Me wearing the base, ignore my UGLY FACE

Dress form...I love you

The craft foam base was completely hot glued together. Which resulted in minor burns. Cosplay HURTS!!!! IT HURTS SO GOOD!!! Anyways. So everything was pinned together on the dress form and that was also how everything was measured. It took A LOT of time to get everything right. I had to make sure the ends hung down long enough.

Then, I used black lining to make the patterns on the white arrow section of the hat. SO MUCH PINNING! Though I'm happy of how it turned out....sewing it was quite a pain, I had to force the needle through half the time...once again I'm surprised that I didn't break the needle while sewing all the lining to the hat. 

Good thing I don't have finger nails....

I crafted all the decals out of model magic...which, in retrospect, bends and easily cracks. (which is bad) So I'm a little concerned about attaching all the bones to the hat. Which is why I haven't done that yet...I'm waiting until I reach the actual con to attach them. So for now I just have them all done and waiting to be attached on game day!!! Also....model magic sticks to things like paper, which is why the bones are sitting on craft foam...the bones on the sketch book back totally stuck to it. Ew. 

Remember these!?!

Now, I wanted the hat to be able to stretch fit a little, so I didn't sew anything TO the craft foam base. Instead I used these handy little buggers that you may remember from elementary school when you made paper toys with moving parts. Yeah?  Well, they worked wonderfully to hold the hat craft foam base to the fabric. I poked them through 2 layers of fabric and the craft foam, and they hold rather nicely. (I'm going to paint them to blend in...obviously) I also used them to attach the other decals to the hat. Since, hot gluing the decals to the fabric wouldn't have worked that well. I also attached the rim by hand, sewing it on....carefully. I forgot to take a picture, and I'm too lazy at the moment....

This is as completed as it gets for the moment

So...you won't see a totally completed hat until EAE, but you can see all the steps taken to make it what it is....

Hat on my head. LOVE! 

Secret: I totally want to wear this around in public...I happen to love it dearly. XD

Materials:

Black fabric 

Model magic in white

Hot glue

Craft foam

Push-through thingies

Black lining 

Wig half cut! I look so unhappy

Valentine's Wig: So, I ordered a long one because I couldn't find a short one in the right color D: Which meant I needed to trim it to the proper length! Wig trimming is a million times easier than lengthening/adding wefts or any of the other complicated wig-styling nonsense. 

Thankfully Valentine has a relatively normal hair style, unlike many other game/anime characters. Plus she has that massive hat on her head which covers half the wig anyways.... man I love that hat....

I still need to trim it a bit more, but I need to buy some new hair cutting materials before I finish it completely. Though...look at all that hair on the carpet....yuck. I should have put paper down....

SO MUCH HAIRRR!!!!

Stay tuned for Part 2!! Which could contain any of the following: boots, under skirt, jacket + cuffs, or the giant ball!!