Lumpy Space Princess Cosplay

Hello! Today I can finally show you my finished LSP cosplay! Yay! I had so much fun wearing this costume, and a couple of people asked for photos and hugs which feels like the best kind of validation ~___^

Here's the whole costume - as one guy at the con described it "whoa, that's a lot of purple!". Yes, good sir, it is! ^___^ I spent a lot of time looking for the perfect purple dress to wear, but in the end decided that it would be easier to just make one. I apparently forget how difficult dress-making fairly regularly! ~___^ I'm lucky enough to have Rebecca as a friend as she not only made the pattern for the bodice, let me borrow her sewing machine, and held my hand through making this dress, but also sewed in the center back zip for me (I am awful at zips!). She is an absolute champion and I have my fingers crossed that she will blog about her amazing Marcelline costume soon (hint hint, nudge nudge ~___^). You've already seen my shoes, my belt was from my Hipster Wonder Woman costume, and my tights were purchased from a department store.

      

I ordered my wig from an ebay store, and I am so so happy with it. It's really beautiful and soft, and is really comfortable to wear! I'm quite tempted to buy a few other colours, I'm sure they'd come in handy ~___^

The star is a hairclip made from felt and glittery mod podge, with a clip glued to the back. The mod podge is great because it also makes the felt a bit stiffer, which means it doesn't feel like it's flopping all over your head ~___^

My necklace is made from shrinky-dinks and nail polish. I was inspired by Tatty Devine necklaces when I was planning this one; I'm happy with how this turned out, but I'm still considering buying a 'real' one ...

I originally coloured in my shrinky dinks with Sharpies, but I wasn't really happy with the intensity of the colours. However, going over them with glittery nail polish made them look brighter, shinier, and most importantly, sparkly! ~___^

I think that having a bag is a highly important part of cosplay, and I was a little worried that people wouldn't know who I was meant to be (although this didn't actually turn out to be an issue!) so I decided to make myself an LSP handbag. 

I used the same pattern that I used to make my LSP plushie, but I printed it out on A3 paper instead of A4 to make it a more generous bag size. I found the most amazing purple glittery vinyl at Spotlight and just knew this had to be the fabric I used - it's just so pretty! ^___^
 

Since my sewing machine is still broken, I hand stitched the bag together and used a lot of hot glue for most everything else ~___^ LSP's face is made from leather scraps glued onto the vinyl; I painted some black leather with gold paint and glitter mod podge (I'm getting a lot of use out of that tub!) for her star and her face is the same black leather unpainted.

Her arms are hot glued together as well, mostly because I'm a bit lazy and a little bit because I thought having no stitches would look nicer. 

The chain straps are connected to the bag via some very large metal rings and these little loops of vinyl that are sewed in between the two layers of the bag. I used a metre of chain for the strap and it's a great length.

The zip is also hot glued in and is mostly hidden by the flaps on the back of the bag. I used a vintage zip that I had in my stash which means that it sticks a little sometimes, but it was also free so I don't mind too much ~___^

 

Of course the best thing about cons is the merch, right? ~___^ I really love to pick up handmade things so Artist's Alley is my favourite area ^___^ I got this amazing watercolour illustration of Wonder Woman and also some button badges of Adventure Time characters and Catbug by Nic Lawson. ^___^ I also brought some wonderful hair bows and some more button badges, but unfortunately I didn't think to write down the store names so I don't actually remember who made them! >___<

I also got this Jubly-Umph tin necklace of an anatomical heart; I could have honestly brought so many of their pieces! 

 

And I lined up for a stupid amount of time so that I could meet John Barrowman - yay! It wasn't so bad because I made friends with some lovely people in the line around me, and he was very nice when I finally did get to the front of the line ^___^

I wish I could have met Ming-Na Wen as well, and there were a couple of panels that I wanted to go to that I couldn't; next year I'm definitely going for both days! ^___^

- Lisa xx

Flower crowns and crop-tops

Hello! Well, here we go; I've finally gotten up the courage to post pictures of me wearing the crop top I made! I also made the flower crown, which goes with much more things than I thought it would! But that's not what this post is about ...

The top pattern is one that Rebecca helped me make; let's be honest though, I couldn't have done it without her! Dressmaking is *not* one of my strengths! However, now that I've got a good pattern that I know fits me properly, I can use it over and over and over ....

This fabric is from the quilting section of Spotlight, and I think it's 100% cotton. It's also fully lined with a light-weight fabric.

Honestly though, I don't think I'll keep this piece as a crop top. Although I think it looks ok, it's not really my style and I don't feel really comfortable wearing it. I think I'll add a thick waistband to this and turn it into the bodice for a dress. Dresses are much more my speed! ^___^

I'm glad I gave this a go anyway ^___^ What's your take on the crop-top trend?

- Lisa xx

Flights of Fancy scarf, plus some WIPs

Hello! I have felt vaguely unproductive recently as, although I have been crafting, I haven't actually *finished* much. However, hopefully you will soon see finished versions of these projects! ^___^

Rebecca helped me to adjust completely rehaul a pattern for a cotton top - it fits me much better than the mannequin, I promise! Betty and I really do have completely different shapes (she's not actually that helpful for dressmaking for that reason, but she is very pretty so I forgive her ~___^). This project has halted for the moment as I need to purchase more calico so that I can create the lining; I used up my remaining calico on two toiles, one of which is pictured above >___< I didn't think I'd get to the stage of needing to buy more fabric quite so soon - I have a rather impressive collection of material which, hopefully, will be reduced once I get going on with making more clothes ^___^

 

I've also been working on this embroidery hoop, which is for Rebecca as an extremely late birthday gift. She should receive it sometime before her next birthday. Maybe. ~___^ The stitches on this design are teeny tiny and unfortunately I can't do it for long periods of time or at night time without hurting my back, neck, and/or eyes. Unreasonable body, placing restrictions on my crafting time! ~___^

The pattern is Witchcraft by Urban Threads, and I'm really keen to see it finished! I've got a couple of ideas to add a twist to the pattern, and I really hope that I can make it work ^___^

I've also been adding to my slowly growing pile of granny squares. I now have 126 of them; only 346 to go! >___<

 

This will eventually be a blanket, but I don't think it's going to be finished anytime soon. It takes me about an hour to make one square so if I crafted only this for a year then maybe I'd get it done but I get bored too easily to do that! Plus, I think the blog would really go downhill if it was just photos of grey and black granny squares every week! ~___^

 

Still it's good to see my collection growing .... ^___^

 

But here's something I *have* finished! Yay! ^___^

I made this royal blue scarf using the Flights of Fancy pattern from Lion Brand Yarns; although I used a completely different wool and therefore hook size.

 

It was very easy to do and produced an interesting pattern, like leaning trebles.

 

However, as you can see from my bare arms, it's still the middle of summer here, which makes it highly impractical! At least I'll be ready when winter rolls around again ^___^

What have you been working on? I love hearing from you!

- Lisa xx