Same event, different princess

Otakuthon is less than 4 weeks away and I have not yet begun making our costumes. “What in Hel’s name am I waiting for?” I hear you think. Well first, I've been getting a lot of commission requests (Thank you everyone), which keep me busy. But the main reason is, I’m getting cold feet… about my choice of costume.

(Warning: boring self issues stuff ahead)

Let’s face the facts: I have body image issues (what woman does not) and since it is always best to dress for your body type even when in costume, I fear my original choice might be wrong for me. Let me explain: in my experience, I look better when I have skin showing around my face – turtle necks make me look fatter – and the Princess Peach dress has a high collar. Also, I inherited my great grandmother’s biceps, and believe me, I could have done without. Wearing short puffy sleeves and long white gloves will only serve to enhance this feature which I spend my life hiding (really, I wear ¾ sleeves in the summer when it’s 35° with Humidex). The more I think about it, the more I fear I will look like a big pink blob (Nancy-Raven says I’ll look like a dragée – sweet, but not that helpful). I am at the point now where I would rather skip Otakuthon than make that big, poofy, pink dress. Costuming should be fun, so why am I torturing myself?

(Okay, I’m done complaining now!)

I considered going back to other ideas I had had for Otakuthon, but I really want to make that Toadette costume for my daughter. Then I remembered someone mention another Super Mario Princess:

Rosalina in her appearance for Super Mario Galaxy

Strawberry blond, turquoise dress, silver accessories… Now that is what I’m taking about! It is perfect for me! The dress has an empire waist, perfect for hiding, hmm, flaws, and long, off-the-shoulder bell sleeves. I love it! An off the shoulder dress is actually what I had made for my Prom. See?

Gwenyver, High School Prom, June 23, 1999

(I swear that plain satin dresses were in fashion - just go and re-watch Buffy!)

Plus, I can get away with wearing just a flounced petticoat, and not a full crinoline under it, which will be practical with a toddler.

I think I’ll use patterns Simplicity 9125 and Butterick 4301 (used for the above pictures Prom dress) as blocks to make Rosalina's dress.

Simplicity 9125

Butterick 4301

Okay, now let’s get fabric hunting, cutting, sewing, and accessory making. Only 25 days left!

The Princess Peach Project: Research

It is official: we (my daughter and I) are going to Otakuthon this year. I have paid for our registration, so unless one of us is too sick to go, WE ARE GOING.

Which means I have to start working on our costumes, and as we all know, research is the best part of planning. I had already decided back in February (see Otakuthon 2011 Costume Project: Princess Peach and Toadette, posted on February 5, 2011) that we would go as Princess Peach Toadstool and Toadette.

Toadette from Super Mario

Toadette should be fairly easy to make: a summer dress, a vest, some white shorts and slip cover for my daughter’s bicycle helmet should do the trick. Since Otakuthon is the week-end of August 12 to 14, and toddlers tend to grow really fast, I will wait until July to start making her costume.

Princess Peach on the other hand poses a challenge. First, there are many designs to choose from.

Princess Peach as she appears on Super Mario Bros 3

Princess Peach in her appearance for New Super Mario Bros Wii

Princess Peach in her appearance for Super Smash Bros

I am leaning towards the second one. Simple, but slightly more detailed than the first one, and I really like the resemblance of the skirt to Disney’s Cinderella’s.

Disney’s Cinderella

The real challenge is to make it right. It looks simple, but looks can be deceiving. I have looked all over for pictures of Princess Peach cosplay that I liked, but in general, the fabric is too shiny, the proportions are wrong, or the fit just isn't right. I was beginning to believe that this was the costume that never looked good. It was suggested to me that I should see this as a challenge, to make a good looking one, but honestly, I was getting really afraid, thinking “What am I getting myself into?”.

But then I found two.

The first one is made according to design number one.

Jenni Källberg, aka Pixelninja, as Princess Peach

It fits well, the skirt has the right volume, and I really like the way the darker bottom colour in the sketch was interpreted as an underskirt. It makes the whole look like a real dress for a real person, not just a pink costume.

The second one is made to be like the more detailed concept art.

Princess Peach by Enayla

Again, beautiful fit and proportions. I have not seen the panniers look so good on any other cosplay of this character. The sleeves are also perfect puff sleeves, and the collar is just the right height. I will look at this picture often when making my own as a reference for these details.

I am now feeling a little better about the project. I now believe that a good looking Princess Peach costume, in the version I want to make, can, in fact, be achieved.

But since I am not as slim as the girls in the above picture, maybe I’ll invest in a good pair of Spanx. It can always be useful!

Pictures from Otakuthon 2009

If you have been following faithfully, you will know that I was NOT at Otakuthon this year, but that many of my friends were, and as I had asked of them, they took pictures. And people I've never even heard of took pictures. And all these people are posting their pictures. So now, I almost feel like I was there (almost).

I feel it is my duty as a Costumeholic to post some of these pictures for you my numerous faithful readers (you're all welcome to make yourselves known anytime or else I'll start thinking I'm talking/writing to myself here). I've been meaning to do so for days, but couldn't for numerous reasons (the main one can be explained in two words: Teething + Baby).

Disclaimer: The following pictures were NOT taken by me. For the most part, they feature friends of mine that gave their permissions for me to post their picture here, but if you see a picture that you either took or that features you and you would like me to give you credit or take it down, just drop me a line. In no way would I want to steal credit for something. Ever. Really!

Nancy-Raven as Tsunade (From Naruto)
Picture by Kelovar

Mageknightterra as Jill Valentine (From Resident Evil)

Picture by Tionniel

Tionniel as Zelda, Teknobug5 as Sheik, Marie-Ange-The-Celt as Midna, Sennajos as Navi and Gwiguig as Link (From The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time/Twilight Princess)

I don't know who took this picture.

Hamelingrafix and Reno as Power Rangers

Photo by NeoValentine

TK7410 and OptimusSuperPrime as Spartans (From Halo) and TB7445 as Assassin (From Assassin's Creed)

Photo by TK3026

Fullmetalsam as Terminator Chaplain (From Warhammer 40K)
Photo by Wookiemart

Now we get to the "I don't actually know these people but their costumes are great so I want to show them" section of this post:

CardCaptor Sakura
Photo by Pantsukon

I'm a CardCaptor Sakura fan and I have to say, this costume is particularly well done.

A couple of CyberGoths
Photo by NeoValentine

I do like the whole CyberGoth look (in fact I'm working on a project...) so these two caught my eye.

Jusdepomme as Yukari (From Paradise Kiss)*

*Thank you Sakura for answering the call and enlightening me to who and what this was. Truly appreciated.

OK, here, I just HAD to show this costume for the work that was put into the dress. I mean look at all this beading! All I can say is WOW!

Character From Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles
Photo by Anh Thy Nguyen

I saved the best for last! Breathtaking, wouldn't you say?

This Just In: Otakuthon in the news

Le Devoir, a (French) Montréal newspaper, wrote an article about this week-end's Anime Convention, Otakuthon. If you care to read it, follow the link:

Complètement Manga

Photo of Sophie Latreille-Beaumont, Marie-Soleil Dubuc and Jessica Sauvageau, by Jacques Nadeau

P.S. Thank you Uiltmutez for bringing this to my attention.

Reminiscing: Otakuthon 2008

(Editing Note: I had originally posted this on Friday within the Current and Upcoming Cosplay Events post, but I decided upon reflexion to give it a separate post, just to keep things a little more organized and easy to follow. So please, pretend the date you see atop is Friday, July 31, 2009.)

Last year was actually the first time I could make it to Otakuthon. Some of my friends from L'Alliance Impériale were planning to go for a Final Fantasy VII cosplay, with three of them dressed as Shinra Soldiers and a fourth as Tifa Lockheart. As I know next to nothing about Anime and video games, my first question was "Is there a female character that does not show too much skin?" (I really don't have the right body shape to go for a navel-bearing bikini/bathing suit type of costume and I believe in working with what you have to make yourself look good). The answer I was given was "Well there's always Aerith..." ("Anything else?" I asked after a couple of days, "No, that's pretty much it!"). And so I embarked on my first Anime costume project. I'll skip the research process and the construction details and go straight to the results (if anyone is interested, just ask and I can write a "making-of" post later).

Gwenyver as Aerith Gainsborough, Otakuthon 2008

I didn't have the money for a wig, so I call this costume "Beach-Blond-Aerith" (I name a lot of my costumes "Beach-Blond-Something"). The only construction detail I'll mention is the two side-gores I had to add at the last minute (I made the dress the week before so when I say last minute, I mean the night before the Con) because I was two month pregnant (and now my Baby is five month old *sigh*) and the pattern I used, which usually fits me so well, was uncomfortably tight around my tummy.

The Final Fantasy VII DreamTeam: Marie-Ange-The-Celt as Tifa Lockheart, Gwenyver as Aerith Gainsborough, Tionniel, Teknobug5 and Mageknightterra as Shinra Soldiers.

(Picture taken before the Masquerade, for which we won "Best in Show" to our great surprise)

For the Masquerade, I had some help to do my hair and mostly my bangs in the right, pointy, cartoonish way, but I was bugged because I had forgotten my bracelets and armbands at home (I live an hour away from the venue so I went home on Saturday night, but I wasn't about to go back for these accessories when the price of gas was around 1.35$/L!).

All of the Alliance Impériale members present at Otakuthon 2008: Optimus Super Prime as Optimus Prime G1, Mageknightterra and Tionniel as Shinra Soldiers, Marie-Ange-The-Celt as Tifa Lockheart, Gwenyver as Aerith Gainsborough, Luc Skywalker as a Raccoon Police Department Officer (Resident Evil) and Teknobug5 as Shinra Soldier.

Many of these friends are going this year and Tionniel, Mageknightterra and Marie-Ange-The-Celt will have a table in the Dealer room, in the Artisans' corner, selling Naruto and One Piece bookmarks and buttons, and Celtic jewelry, so I invite you to go visit them.

Current and Upcoming Cosplay Events: Otakuthon, Pennsic, Montréal Highland Games, Fêtes de la Nouvelle-France, Anticipation

Summer is a very busy period for a Costumer. There are just so many Events and Cosplay possibilities! And as I can't make it to any of them this year, I'll just have to reminisce about the ones I've been to in the past while I wait for my Friends to share their pictures (you hear that Friends? I want pictures!) and stories, which I'll then pass on to you with their permissions of course.

So here is the program: in case you might want to plan a last minute trip / costume, I'll list every event coming up in the following week right now, and then I'll post some of my pictures from previous years on the day of, or first day of each one of them. So here goes:

Otakuthon - July 31 to August 2, 2009: Montréal's Anime Convention, Montréal, QC.
Pennsic War XXXVIII - July 24 to August 7, 2009 (War Week - July 31 to August 7, 2009): The SCA's annual camping event and War between The Kingdoms of the East and the Middle, Slippery Rock, PA.
The Montréal Highland Games - August 2, 2009: Montréal's annual Scottish Festival, Pierrefonds, QC.
Les Fêtes de la Nouvelle-France - August 5 to 9, 2009: Celebration of the arrival of the first Europeans on American soil through the Régime Français, Québec (City), QC.
Anticipation - August 6 to 10, 2009: The 67th World Science-Fiction Convention, Montréal, QC.

Once again, I remind you that donations of pictures will be welcome by your host, the maternity-leave-stay-at-home Costumeholic.