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| Chances of the machine eating your project are low, but never zero. |
Time for assembling the miscellaneous bits! Apologies, but this is going to jump around a bit. There are several little odds and ends that need to be taken care of before this whole mess gets packed up.
Formed a quick sheath out of black shelf liner. Yes, believe it or not you can run this through your machine. It will hate you for it, but you can totally do it. It's not exactly pretty, but it'll serve it's purpose well enough and now I won't have to worry about what to do if someone bumps into me and the sword breaks.
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| Is there anything appliqué CAN'T class up? |
Got some matching appliqué for the mask. They're in the same style as what is on the cape, so it looks like the mask is part of the outfit and not just something tacked on because of circumstances. The mask in question is just a sport mask, so it's light and very comfortable, but more importantly there's enough room to fit an N95 underneath and get actual protection.
Using some extra garnet and bead cones, I made some little danglies to hang over the chaps. Hopefully them banging back and forth on my leg doesn't bother me too much.
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I actually DO have a wig stand, but it's in such horrible
condition and I'm not going to subject you to that. |
Funny thing about the wig. I didn't want one. Nothing against wigs. It's just an extra thing to take care of and pack. But having white hair just seemed like the thing to do.
Originally the plan was to just trim my hair and get it bleached.
I know. I KNOW. Not learning from the mistakes of others, et cetera, et cetera. But you see, I'm different because I'm not going to wait to the last minute or try to do a bleach job myself with limited experience. No. I am an adult. I will simply schedule several weeks ahead with a salon and have a professional handle it. You see? Just so, SO mature.
Obviously that's not what happened. Went in for the consultation appointment. Mind, this was a month and a half ahead of go-time. She said it would take over two years to bleach my hair.
Also it would be $400. Maybe $600.
Okay. Full disclosure. I dye my hair. It's 2026, hopefully that's not too scandalous. I'll give you a moment to compose yourself if it is.
...
Usually it's something reddish copper, but that's not important right now. What IS important is that occasionally my hair will need a massive lightening because it's just gotten too dark. So I do the whole lightening thing, and get a fairly strong lift in one sitting (dark brown to sandy blonde). So far as I can tell, no damage.
So I have deep suspicions about this "it'll take two years" business. Get it done safely in a weekend? Heck no. But TWO GD YEARS?!
"But your hair is so pretty and straight and feminine and it would just be such a shame if we so much as scuffed your perfect, long, thick hair that would make women half your age just so jealous (look at this, Clair, don't you agree?). You have to understand that--"
OMG. STOP. For the love of the good and the right, it's just hair. Just say you don't want to do it! I will pay the consultation fee and leave and never darken your doorstep again.
So it occurred to me, as it probably occurs to you, that at this point I could either just risk doing the whole thing myself or do the base lift and use a salon for a touch up. But honestly? The whole business knocked the wind out of me and just left me so...tired.
Just get a wig. It's a good solution and will be way less work. The one I picked (believe this is called the Greta) wasn't 100% what I wanted but would totally work for what was needed.
Found a cool pair of thematic earrings. Not that you would probably ever
see them under the wig. Ah, but I would know. Sure. Let's go with that.
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Also, they're just flipping cool. C'mon.
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Since this is Final Fantasy we're talking about, for costume purposes I left the sword off on one ear and only wore the hoop piece. Mmm, sweet, sweet asymmetry.
Ran into issues with focus getting the focus together. Mostly the thing was hella fragile and I wasn't sure how to get it through the airport let alone walking around a con floor. It didn't take long to realize it wasn't going to be ready in time in any sort of an acceptable fashion. Tried to come up with a Plan B, but that also fell through on account of not enough time to learn the skills necessary to pull it off. (Admittedly, it was rather hair-brained.) Such is as it goes. There's always later if I want to go back and fix it properly.
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| Hotel rooms have terrible ventilation. Ask me how I know. |
Oh, you think painting in the hotel room is cutting it a little too
close? Let me tell you about the time a roommate brought a whole butt
sewing machine into their hotel room just so they could finish their
outfit.
No, it wasn't me. No, seriously.
So now everything is packed up in the garment bag and ready to go. Which leaves me thinking about the project as a whole.
For starters I regret to inform you that--thanks to the sheer amount of epithets uttered over the course of this project--in no way will I qualify for any sort of pearly reward in the afterlife. I know the code on this site is horridly out of date, but his has to be one of the wonkiest interfaces I've ever worked with. And forget mobile. Might as well have been trying to write with a mallet.
In other news, astute eyes may have noticed several times the jacket or pants being hung off of what clearly appeared to be a cat tree. Well, you were right. And
someone needs you to know how upset this made the cat. Every time. That someone being the cat. Alley is nearly two decades old, her kidneys barely work, but touch the tree and she's all
"Wait. What are you doing? That's mine!"
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| That one. That cat right there. |
Since obviously this would involve a lot of work and late nights, I needed something to listen to. Decided to take advantage of the situation and try to expand my musical tastes. Which honestly have stagnated over the last several years. Have mostly been using Bandcamp for this as it's one of the easier ways to buy the music you like without completely screwing over the artist. Not sure if my taste has improved, per se. If you tried to make a playlist out of the background music I've been listening to I'm not sure how coherent any of that would be. (To be fair, I did make the personal rule to only list any given artist once. Again, the point was to expose myself to different music.)
So, unsurprisingly a lot of shopping at a craft store happened during this. In doing so, I ended up with a sizeable coupon left over. Instead of leaving it for the next project, I decided to pick up a decent palette of watercolors. Which seems a little random but I've always wanted to get into it. In the past though I kept getting frustrated frustrated with it. Partially because of the lack of instruction but also because of using extremely cheap materials. Anyway, used the coupon to get some decent materials and I'm following some online lessons. Am I any good at this?
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| "Airbrushed on a mall t-shirt" level of quality. |
I mean no, not at all. But I just started and I'm happy with the results and enjoying my time with it.
Next time: Rubber hits the road as I actually go to the convention and--wait for it--actually wear this thing.
Material Directory
Garnet teardrops: Esty (IBRACRAFTSHOP)
Craft paints & brushes: Literally whatever is on sale at your local craft store and color matches
Wig: Arda Wigs
Sports mask: Under Armour
Earrings: Etsy (PourLaRebelle)
Black shelf liner: Lowes
Current background music: Swimming Bell. "Meet My Shadow." Somnia.
