#pattern is done just need to print and tape and decide on how many yards i need for his colors!

[charlieslowartsies]

the winter plush project is gunna be legi water buppy bc my god theres no good laying ones SO might as well make one ! honestly after Deoxys and my Venom costume I'm way more confident in my patterning than I was a year ago.

[thegeekyseamstress]

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Photographer credit: Chez Photo

Oh man, talk about a big project! I decided to tackle this fuku for a couple of reasons. First, I’ve had several commission requests for Eternal fukus over the years, but I’ve never been comfortable making one for a commission without doing some trial and error first. Second, I wanted a big solo competitive piece, so I could use that as an excuse to go balls to the wall with this build and try out lots of new techniques. Third, I’ve had an interest in making several Sailor Moon accessories for my fuku commissions, which explains my rationale in how I approached a lot of these items, especially the smaller resin accessories.

So, let’s get this started!

Wig

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The wig is both fairly straight forward but also time-consuming. I’m not going to write a tutorial here on creating a Sailor Moon wig, since several folks have done that already and much better than I could. I used a Chibi from Arda in Fairy blonde along with 2 long ponytail clips and short wefts.

After fixing the bag hair, I tweaked the bang line, stubbed the ponytails, created the odango and styled the bangs.

Special shout-out to Vickie Bane for giving me lots of helpful tips and keeping me sane when I wanted to chuck this in the trash.

Here are a few helpful tutorials:

Anime Bangs

Bag Hair

Antiquity Dreams Sailor Moon tutorial

How to style wigs with a garment steamer – Note: I ultimately wound up doing this for the bangs.

Wig Accessories

  Here’s where we start getting to the fun stuff! As I mentioned above, I went into this build knowing that I wanted to create resin molds so to sell as part of my commissions. With that in mind, I started by creating odango shields in TinkerCAD. I made these as a two-part set: the base white layer and a top layer that I could cast with tinted resin. These are printed on PLA at my work (having easy access to a Makerspace is the best), then sanded and finished by me. Once the lines were SUUUUUUPER smooth, I took the pieces for the odango shields and created molds using Smooth-On products, specifically OOMOO 30.

Once the molds cured, I used Smooth-On 300 to cast the pieces. To create the white pieces, I “painted” white glittery powder from the Jacquard Pearl EX set into the mold, then poured in the resin, which cures in 10 minutes. For the red pieces, I “painted” Cast Magic Red Devil powder into the mold cavity and tinted the resin with a tiny bit of Red SO-Strong tint. I attached the pieces together with e6000.

The hair feathers were super fun! I traced the feathers from some ESM clipart I found online and created a vector of them in Inkscape. From there, I converted the files and cut them off on 2mm EVA foam using my Cricut Maker. I heat sealed the pieces prior, then glued them in a staggered pattern to match the pearl width. For the pearls, I found some flat back pieces on Amazon and glued them on the front and back of the feathers with hot glue. Once the full piece was dry, I glued the piece on a hair clip. This process is essentially the same for the other pearl/feather bits on her sleeves.

Again, here’s a helpful list of resources!

TinkerCAD

Finishing 3D printed pieces

Smoothing the Surface of a 3D printed model using XTC

Creating simple molds

Using dyes and powders with resin 

Base Fuku

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Ahhh, the big part of this. Thankfully, I have a lot of experience making fukus, so this part wasn’t too daunting, but there are some big differences between making these and making classic fukus.

Note: I’m going to do a more comprehensive “how-to” tutorial over on Cosmic Coterie for this build (eventually), so my discussion below will mostly detail my thought process as well as trial and error.

One of my big hold-ups with making an Eternal fuku was the sleeves. They’re such an odd shape in how they look like bubbles, but are often drawn clear in the manga. I wanted something that had that bubble shape, but wasn’t *just* gathering. I turned to this tutorial by Angelic Threads as my prototype. This process requires A TON of tulle stuffing (I used nearly 4 yards of tulle in each sleeve), but it’s by and far my favorite way to make the sleeves. In fact, these turned out so well that I ditched my other protype ideas and stuck with this one! For the bottom of the sleeves, I used our glove roll approach at Cosmic Coterie, but just tweaked the pattern so it was 2 rolls instead of 3.

Once I ironed out the sleeve issue, it was time to tackle the belts! Proportions on the Eternal leotards are essentially the same as the classic fukus, so I took the base leotard pattern I normally used and built the pink belt into the leotard. The pink “belt” is my normal hip roll pieces cut on the bias and treated essentially in the same manner as the hip roll for a classic fuku. I will note that you must be EXTRA careful with the bias cut satin to prevent weird pulling. I cut a strip of interfacing and fused it to the top layer of the “belt” and also was extra mindful of my pressing. Additionally, you will likely need to taper the belt in at the center back to prevent puckering (if you care about that and I did).

The gold belt was very similar. I again took my hip roll pieces, cut them on the bias, and interfaced them. Once they were stitched together, I tacked the center front onto the leotard, then used snaps to hold the belt in place. Cutting the belt on the bias helps it curve around the body and lay flat!

The skirts are treated in the exact same manner as the skirts we use over at Cosmic Coterie. I did 3 circle skirts for each layer, basted them together, and treated them as one before pleating and attaching them to the base leotard. Then came the ETERNALLY (I crack myself up) long process of cutting and hemming 30 yards of fabric *dies inside*.

The collar was the most straight-forward part of the base fuku. I used the collar pattern Vickie Bane drafted up for us with my giant person alterations. From there, I made bias tape from my scrap gold fabric to create the stripes.

For Katsucon, I opted to create a standard butt bow since I didn’t want to travel with large wings. I’ll add those on when I get ready to compete!

Helpful tutorials:

Cosmic Coterie Fuku Tutorial

Eternal Sleeve Tutorial

Chest Brooch

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This was another trial and error piece. I had a resin heart mold on hand that I love for my Super senshi. I experimented with some shimmery mixes for the resin casting before ultimately deciding on an opaque design with Cast Magic.

Like the hair feathers, I created a basic vector of the wing shape based on some artwork I found online and played with the sizing until I found the size I was most comfortable with and suited me proportionally. I then converted the files and cut the base shape out on my Cricut. As with the feathers, I heat sealed the pieces prior to moving on.

Once that was done, It was time to mount everything! The heart resin piece attaches onto the base wings with industrial strength Velcro and then attached the pearl feathers to the sides with e6000. For a little extra flair, I also glued a few fluffy feathers onto the base and also added some Swarovski crystals for extra sparkle.

To help keep all this nonsense on my chest, I attached 4 spin clips to the back that are held in place with Black Worbla.

Helpful Tutorials:

Inkscape

How to use the Cricut to Cut Foam

Gloves

Ugh, I hate how inconsistently the Eternals especially are drawn. Sometimes Moon is drawn with the points on her gloves, sometimes not. My preference is with them, for a very specific reason: hand access.

For these gloves, I bought a base pair of white wrist gloves from We Love Colors. I then made arm stockings from the same material as my leotard for the top (the glove rolls were made using our normal approach over at Cosmic Coterie and then adding on the feather clips). To create the point, I made some bias cut satin strips and used the same angle I use for hip rolls (app. 90 degrees). I then treated this as really fancy bias binding and stitched it around the edge of the arm stockings, gluing crescent moons I cast out of resin on the tip.

Once the bias binding was on, I hand sewed snaps on the stocking and the base glove, enabling me to easily remove my glove while in costume without having to take the whole piece off.

Boots

There’s not a whole lot to say on these that hasn’t been approached in other Eternals write-ups. I bought a pair of base white boots, but unfortunately they weren’t quite large enough for my calves. This was a pretty easy fix, thankfully. The boots had a center seam in the back, so I opened it up down to the bottom of my calf and sewed in a wide pieces of elastic.

After cutting the boots at a 45 degree angle, I stitched more pink bias cut satin around the tops and then glued on more crescent moons that I cast out of resin. Easy peasy!

Other Accessories

  A few years ago, my Cosmic Coterie teammate Space Cadet Cosplay had plans on making ESM, so she bought a ton of generic molds for this project. When I mentioned I wanted to do this build, she was super sweet and gave me the molds. I used the mold she gave me to create all the stars you see on this build. The crescent moon molds are from MoldsbyMia.

For the heart/moon piece, I built a small model in TinkerCAD and printed and cast them as I described above. These two pieces are mounted on the choker, which is also a piece of bias cut satin stitched at an angle.

Thoughts on this build:

I nearly talked myself out of wearing this build so many times, but its one of my favorites to date! I love how everything came together and how many new skills I picked up, which is refreshing after making so many Sailor Moon costumes. I do plan to add on to this build for competition later in the summer and will absolutely document the process to share with all of you.

In the name of the Moon, make gorgeous things! ❤

Photographer credit: Chez Photo

Costume Notes: Eternal Sailor Moon Photographer credit: Chez Photo Oh man, talk about a big project! I decided to tackle this fuku for a couple of reasons.

[thedappleddragon]

hehehe today I did something exiting >:) BUT IF UR MY IRL FRIEND STOP READING BECAUSE ITS A SURPRISE. 

but first we’re going chronologically. my cat woke me up by clawing at my sheets for the first time in a while. every morning she used to paw at my sheets, snag one claw in them, and detach it with her mouth until I got up to feed her or whatever. so it felt weird and reminded me of when I was waking up at noon everyday for a while. I said goodbye to my mom because she’s taking a trip to see her best friend/boyfriend to help with her mental health. I talked with her a bit and waved her goodbye and went back inside. I had breakfast and lily wanted to keep going outside, but I didnt want to go out because it was cold. I went out the first couple times she asked, but for the rest of the day I just opened the door to let her in and out, keeping an eye on her. I filled out 2 sketchbook pages because my brain was busy with other things. I played a little harvest moon and got to summer and finally looked up some of the mechanics like fertilizer and stuff. but mostly I was thinking about my friend’s birthday party and the formal dress code for the first half, how I dont have many dresses, and how cool it would be to make one myself. so I scoured Etsy and joann’s for dress patterns until I found one with a circle skirt and a sweetheart neckline that I thought looked really cute. ive never make clothes before, so I hope I do a good job. I wanted to go to Joanns but I had to wait for my sister to get home from track practice, so I just kinda sat at home alone. I'm usually more or less alone all day anyway, so I dont know why this felt so different. when she finally did come home dad handed us $40 for Taco Bell and to put gas in his car and we were off. my sister and I talked about what she did at track and my job interview yesterday while I did a mediocre job driving. when we got there I wasn't really sure what I was looking for, so I just kept going around in the clearence section touching everything that I thought could be a cute color/pattern for this dress. there were a lot of interesting fabrics and a lot of ugly ones I could only imagine on a toddlers and tiaras beautypagent dress. we settled on this light blue fabric with a white flower/leaf design and a soft plain blue fabric for the front panel and lining. it was about $33 worth of fabric, which I thought was a little expensive until I realized we would have paid more than double if it was full price. the patterned fabric is thin and flows nicely but isn't see-through which I really like, and the solid blue is very soft and stretchy. I'll probably use scraps from both after I'm done for other stuff. I wasn't sure what measurements I needed so I handed the lady at the fabric cutting booth my phone with a picture of the fabric requirements. she was very sleepy and had to convert between centimeters and yards, and I just watched as she unrolled the fabric and made very small snips. aaaah I love the fabric section of Joanns, even tho im horribly indecisive and I spent way too long just wandering and mulling it over. but im happy with my choice! I didnt want to pick a fabric I wasn't in love with, since it would suck ass if I put hundreds of hours of work into this dress and hated the outcome. OH MY GOD I JUST REMEMBERD THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. THIS DRESS WILL HAVE POCKETS!! :D I can make the pockets as big as I please >:) I'm fitting a small child in these pockets if it kills me. lmao I'll probably just follow the pattern and do the size it tells me. speaking of sizing after we got home with Taco Bell and joking about among us tiktoks in the car, I read through the pdfs and locked myself in the bathroom to take measurements, going through the list 3 times just to make sure I got an average. I kept landing between a 44 and a 46, but I must have taken my front and back waist measurements wrong?? they were way too short and not even on the sizing chart, so I guess I was thinking my waist was higher than it actually is. I decided for simplicity to use the 46 pattern all around. I only landed in 44 with the neck and bust numbers, but I can alwasy pull it in at the seams I need be. ohhhh I hope it turns out good.... I haven't even begin cutting or patterning yet, I still need to cut out the paper pattern I printed off. but first I wanted to use a big paper cutter to cut a centimeter off each page to make lining up and taping things easier. my little paper cutter only fits the short side of printer paper :( so I'll either use and exacto knife and a ruler on all 25 sheets or see if dad's work or the library will let me use a big one. tbh I'll probably do the first thing. I also learned how to do a bunch of seams today, some of which  I might practice and use for my dress. and I called my dad’s boss about job openings, but he didnt answer so I left a message. I ALSO said for gas in cash for the first time today, which was a little weird. it was simple enough but I probably looked like a fool to the booth lady. I would get stared on at least prepping the paper patterns tonight, but its almost 2 am and my cat is asleep on my feet so I guess im trapped here. 

[agosnesrerose]

Studio Saturdays: Mixed-Media Planner, Part 2

Hello, and welcome to Part 2 of our Create Along on how to make a mixed-media planner. I hope you had fun making your covers, and that you enjoyed the shortcut of working with a repurposed book. In today’s installment, we’ll finish the covers and then bind the book with a very easy stitch that has a big “wow” factor. In Part 3 next Saturday (January 28th), we’ll decorate the pages, and you’ll be on your way to documenting your creative life in 2017.

This planner is inspired by the one Dawn DeVries Sokol made for her article “Creative Days Ahead” in the January/February issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. Although she used a Moleskine journal in the article, she often makes her journals from scratch. I love how Dawn’s unique approach to creating a planner makes it part art journal, part planner, and all her. Using her techniques, your planner will reflect your artistic style as well. If you missed Part 1 of this Create Along and want to catch up, you’ll find it here.

Here’s what you’ll need for this week’s installment:

• Bookcloth

• Scissors or craft knife and cutting mat

• Ruler

• PVA glue

• Glue brush

• Bone folder

• Book text (optional)

• Collage papers or decorative papers

• Other decoration for the cover, such as labels, stickers, or vintage postage stamps (optional)

• Paper for the pages (see below for specifics)

• Graph paper (optional)

• Thin awl

• Artist’s tape or washi tape

• Waxed linen thread, about 7 yards (you may need more or less, depending on the height of your book). I recommend 4-ply waxed linen.

• Bookbinding needle or darning needle with an eye large enough to accommodate the waxed linen thread.

When last we left our planners, both the front and back covers were done, but the spine was untouched. Although the spine on your book is (hopefully) intact and in good shape, this book is going to get a lot of wear and tear over the course of a year, so it should be super sturdy. That’s why I decided to cover the existing spine with an extra layer of bookcloth. Bookcloth is paper-backed fabric, and it’s often used in bookbinding because it’s extremely strong and wears well, especially for the hinge. The hinge is where the cover and spine connect, and this area gets a lot of use.

Place your covers in front of you, right side up. To cover the outer part fo the spine, cut a piece of bookcloth 1 ½” higher than your cover, and 2 ½” wider than the spine, and the spine of your book should be about 2″. My book is 2″ wide at the spine, 6″ wide from the spine to the foredge (the front edges of the cover), and 9 ¼” high, so my outer spine bookcloth piece measured 4 ½” wide x 10 ¾” high. The bookcloth should be cut with the paper grain running vertically; you can determine this by bending the sheet of bookcloth one way, and then the other way. The way that it bends more easily is the grain direction. Whenever paper is going to bend or fold as it’s being used, the grain should always run parallel to the bend. With the paper side of the bookcloth toward you, spread PVA glue over the entire piece, working from the middle out. I usually do this on top of some scrap paper. Then, place the bookcloth over the spine, centering it. There should be about ¾” hanging from the top and bottom of the spine.

Attach the bookcloth to the spine, pressing it with a bone folder to make sure it’s adhered in the gutters, those little valleys where the covers and spine meet. Pick up the covers and check for good adhesion; if there are edges lifting up, lift up the bookcloth, spread on more glue, and press it back in place.

Cover the spine of the planner with bookcloth to make it extra sturdy.

Flip the covers over, place a fresh sheet of scrap paper under the covers, apply more glue to the overhanging flaps, and adhere them to the inside, again pressing with the bone folder.

Glue the flaps of the bookcloth to the inside of the spine.

Cut another bookcloth piece for the inside of the spine, also with a vertical grain. This piece should be the same width as the bookcloth piece you just adhered, and ¼” shorter than the covers (mine was 4 ½” wide x 9″ high). Glue the paper side with PVA and lay it over the inside of the covers, over the spine, matching up long edges. Press with a bone folder to adhere. Place a few sheets of scrap paper under and over the spine, place everything on a table, and put a heavy weight on top, like a stack of books. This is an important step and prevents the covers from warping. Leave for a few hours to dry.

Gluing another piece of bookcloth on the inside of the spine further reinforces it.

I wanted a little something extra on my covers, so I cut some pieces of book text paper ½” wide and glued them to the seam where the bookcloth and the cover meet, on both the front and the back. I also added a vintage label and a vintage postage stamp to the front.

I chose to collage the inside covers, using a variety of book text pages, some printed napkins, and stamps, and adhered the papers with PVA. You can choose to use just decorative paper, or paint the inside covers—it’s completely up to you. I glued the papers about 1/8″ in from the top and bottom and foredge side, and about ¼” away from the gutter. Don’t apply paper over the gutter, since that will make the book difficult to open and close. When everything was in place, lay scrap paper over the covers, weight them again, and let them dry for a couple of hours.

I collaged the planner’s inside covers, but they can be covered with any type of paper.

During the dry time, I cut my inside pages. The type of paper you choose should be based on how you plan to use your planner. I knew I’d be using wet media like paint, gesso, and watercolor, so I used fairly heavyweight (98-lb) paper from a Canson XL Mix Media Pad. Test a few different types of paper to see what works for you.

To determine the page size for your planner, measure the pages from the text block of the book you repurposed, and double the width. If those measurements aren’t available, subtract ¼” from the height of the book, and measure from the flattened spine to the foredge, and subtract ¼”. Your pages will be that height x double the width, and then folded in half. Based on my dimensions, my pages are 12″ wide x 9″ high. You’ll need 36 folded sheets to form 7 signatures (a group of folded pages nested together) of 5 folded pages each, with one sheet left over for a punching template. You’ll be able to fit two months in each signature, and then have one signature left over for notes, drawings, or whatever you’d like. Try to cut the paper with the grain parallel to the height of the pages.

Folded pages nested together for a signature.

I promised you that this binding is easy, and it is. The binding is by book artist Keith Smith, with one variation. One trick that I use when binding books is to create a sewing template using graph paper. I’m comfortable eyeballing certain things, but when it comes to binding a book, I like my stitches nice and even, and I find that using 1/8″ graph paper (8 squares to the inch) makes the task of plotting the holes so much easier. I first mark off the exact size of the spine on the paper, then determine how many signatures I’ll need (in this case, 7). With a 2″ spine, it was easy to plot 7 rows spaced ¼” apart. This leaves a lot of room between signatures, but there’s a reason for that: I want to include a lot of extras in my planner, like small envelopes, ephemera, and maybe some tipped-in pages, so I’ll need room for the pages to expand.

I created 10 horizontal rows of holes, from top to bottom; the first two, which form the anchor stitch, are spaced ½” apart, and the rest are 1 ¼” apart. You can space your stitches any way you like. Each vertical row is sewn separately, and you can mix up the spacing and the thread colors if you want to create a different pattern.

Once I had the sewing template done, I cut it out along the border, and placed the leftover folded sheet of paper on top, centered it, and made a mark along the fold at every hole. I unfolded the sheet, carried the mark across the fold, and wrote a ‘T’ on top, so I wouldn’t transpose the template. I also marked a ‘T’ on top of each signature.

Use the sewing template to plot the holes for your signatures.

To punch the signatures, place the template, with the marks now inside, into the middle of one signature. Holding it open at a 45-degree angle, hold an awl parallel to the table, and punch through the template and signature at each hole. The goal is to come out right on the fold, but if you’re a little off, that’s fine, it won’t matter. Repeat this process on the remaining six signatures, and remember to remove the template from the last signature.

Punch holes with an awl at each mark, going through the template and the signature.

Place the covers, right side up, on a cutting mat. Center the sewing template over the spine on the outside. Tape it in place with low-tack artist’s tape or washi tape (don’t cover any marks).

Tape the template to the spine of your planner to hold it in place.

Poke a hole with the awl at each mark. Carefully lift the template off, and re-poke any holes that aren’t very visible.

Punch a hole with an awl at each mark, going through the spine.

Time to bind! Thread the needle with a length of thread about 2 ½ – 3 times the height of the cover, and don’t knot the end of the thread. Pick up the first signature, place it along the first row of holes on the inside, and take the needle into the second hole from the top, from the inside, going through both the signature and the cover, and leaving about a 3″ tail.

Take the needle through the top hole to the inside, going through the signature and cover, and make the threads tight by pulling both the tail thread and the working thread opposite each other and parallel to the spine. Never pull straight up!

Take the needle back through the second hole again from the inside, and back through the top hole from the outside. You should now be on the inside of the signature, and there should be two stitches between the first and second holes on the outside. If they’re twisted, make them parallel.

Pull the stitches tight again, and tie a double (square) knot at the second hole from the top. You’ve just created the anchor stitch.

Take the needle down to the next hole (third from the top), through the signature and cover, to the outside. Slip the needle from right to left under the double stitches you just made.

Pull the thread downward until it’s snug.

Quick tip: If you have trouble going back into the cover and signature from the outside, re-poke the hole from the inside with the needle; this widens it a bit.

Slip the needle under the double stitches again, going from right to left.

Pull until the the loop you just made is tight around the anchor stitches, and enter the hole you just exited (third from the top), going through the cover and the signature. Try not to split the thread as you re-enter the hole.

Tighten the thread by pulling it parallel to the spine in the direction you’re sewing, and enter the next hole down from the inside, going through the signature and cover. Repeat the process you just did, always slipping the needle from right to left under the double stitches, pulling the thread tight, and slipping the needle under the stitches again. Re-enter the same hole, pull the thread parallel to the spine to tighten, and enter the next hole down from the inside. Repeat the sewing all the way down until you’re on the inside of the signature at the last hole. Here’s how things should look after sewing the first signature. Note how none of the stitches are twisted:

At the last hole, you’ll need to tie the thread off. To create a half-hitch knot, slip the needle under the last stitch, and pull until you get a loop.

Take the needle through the loop, pulling downward, until you create a knot. Repeat, and trim this thread and the tail thread to about ¼”.

That’s all there is to the binding. Repeat the sewing for six more signatures, and you are done, my friends. Next up: We’ll decorate the pages, using a variety of easy and gorgeous mixed-media techniques, and we’ll get this planner started. If you have any questions about the materials or techniques, or the meaning of life, please leave them in the comments. See you next week!

Learn a few bookbinding tricks, and you can make your own planners, art journals, and sketchbooks. These resources from North Light Shop have tons of ideas and techniques!

Get everything you need to start making accordion books, including an instructional video, with this great Accordion Book Bundle!

See Dawn DeVries Sokol’s article on making creative planners in the January/February issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine.

Learn how to create unique backgrounds and bind no-sew books in this Backgrounds to Bindings video with Kari McKnight Holbrook.

Discover how easy it is to make a stunning custom sketchbook cover with a variety of mixed-media techniques in this Art Lesson by Sandrine Pelissier.

The post Studio Saturdays: Mixed-Media Planner, Part 2 appeared first on Artist's Network.

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