Dance Like You Want to Win!

AX Prep: Week 2


For about two weeks now I've been planning to finish Sailor Mercury, but hemming is proving more difficult than I thought. My mom and I had to hem the sailor skirt twice because the first time I tried I messed it up. It's difficult working on the costume after I come home from work, especially since I am now working on the big pieces of the costume. I've been working hard on my days off to finish the pieces:

Having never done a cosplay before, I of course had to choose one of the hardest costumes ever. But Sailor Moon has impacted me so much that I absolutely had to pay tribute in some fashion. And going in a group makes this even more fun! Even though it's a lot of work, I've been enjoying learning how to sew.

To take a break from Sailor Mercury I started working on DDR Shinji Ikari from the classic mecha anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. Thankfully, that costume is easy (especially compared to making a plug suit) and I pretty much got it done in one day. The hardest part is drawing the music notes on his shirt, which I have to make sure matches Asuka's shirt.

My dad started laughing when I was trying the crop top on, since he believes I'm trying to be an 80's dancer. Then he wanted me to poof up my hair and wear my mom's big glasses from 1985. My mom insisted on me wearing my black boots. I don't think she understood that the picture of Shinji Ikari she saw was a boy, but oh well Shinji Ikari's go-go dance outfit is pretty effeminate anyway.

Things I've learned from sewing thus far:

• Iron everything! It makes the actual sewing easier. 
• Be wary of the material you are sewing! Finer material bunches up more easily 
• I can't use the sewing machine to sew in a straight line

Last cosplay: Fiona from genderbend Adventure Time! Not certain if I will have time to get around to this one, but again this cosplay should be fairly simple.

Anime Exo 2014

Hello Again, Friends of Friends,

As spring comes to an end my workload has eased so much! Spring is a busy time for my industry, and now that people have planted their gardens I can relax with the summer heat, funny as that sounds, as it was a pretty hot spring in Southern California already. 

Since graduating from college a year ago I've made it a mission to participate in more events and conventions. So when I heard that the Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary panel would happen at Anime Expo in Los Angelos, I made it a point to go with several college friends who are also into Sailor Moon! So much so that we heavily debated going to a Sadie Hawkins dance as the Sailor Scouts!! (Hilarious considering that one of us is now married!!).

That being said I have never done cosplay before. I have several friends into cosplay, and one of my friends asked me to go with her cosplay husband at Comikaze in Los Angelos, which is the first and only con I've been to. I had fun at that convention. Bought some New Teen Titans beer glasses, got some A-Team stuff for my former roommate, held my friend's purse while she and her husband took cosplay pics. Good times. Yet I never had the time or energy to do cosplay while I was in school. Even now, a year later from college, I still find it hard to find the energy to do anything after work.

But learning new skills, as well as saving money to possibly attend graduate school, is key to living life after college. Since graduating I've learned that it's great to learn real life skills (gotten my typing credentials for possible government work, CPR license, studied and took the GRE), and sewing is a real life skill. I've never really sewed anything in my life, so my mom has been a huge help in making my SAILOR MERCURY cosplay. Learning how to sew has been incredibly helpful, and a bit humbling. But concerning the cosplay, what do I do? Commandeer the entire dining room table:

I started gathering materials for the cosplay back in May, but of course I'm going to do the month-long con crunch and do it all in one month. Sailor Mercury is the biggest cosplay item, as I'm spending the most time and money on it. My other (group) cosplays that I have not yet started: 

• DDR Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion with goingpostale as Asuka 
• Fiona from the genderbend episode of Adventure Time with my Sailor Moon cosplay group

My other cosplay idea is young Mikasa from Attack on Titan. So far I've been getting up at 7am every day this month (work is at 9am) just to work on real life stuff so I'll have time for cosplay after work. 

I'll be blogging more and posting pictures of my completed costumes as AX approaches! 

-Hanna