I should really share more about my crafts but for some reason I've been wanting to keep them close to my heart lately and not posting much publicly. I know it's mostly a result of some health issues and not the best course of action, so I'll try and do some dumb little WIP posts for my dumb little mental health, as one does.  

 I can't believe I haven't updated anything here about making Jester. She was a project I started before Covid and very slowly (Covid pretty much coincided with my chronic fatigue period) continued during it. I mostly finished earlier but then did a couple of small touch ups for the Desucon craftmanship competition this year.

In 2017 I made Cassandra to accompany Elinacosplay 's Sophitia for fun and so we could bring them WCS for the alumni trip. But I didn't have the time to make her weapons. So when she and Maija asked if I'd like to wear it again for Desucon I thought it was time to make them finally.

Photo taken by Shinjicosplay

This entry is a little different and not about cosplay. Instead like the title says, I'll talk a little about my national costume. Mine is from my home area, Kokemäki. A lot of people choose their costume based on where they are from, but you can also pick any costume you like, so it's not limited in any way. The costumes are generally on the expensive side if you want to make it your self or buy new, but you can get some good deals on second hand national costumes. I was given mine as a gift from a relative who'd grown out of it.

Since I have some good time to chit chat (for once) I though I'd do something I don't usually do and share some of my plans here in the blog! I've been in a bit of a runt ever since the Eurocosplay finals because real life has been so pressing, and with a new job I finally find my self with a bit more time and energy for costumes again <3

I promised to upload my presentation about thermoplastics for beginners, and I apologize for being a little late with it! Unfortunately the actual presentation is more of a list, rather than an in depth lesson, because I use it as notes when I explain about the materials, but if you have been to the lecture this might help bring some things back to mind.

Uploading it here feels like I need to update and make it a bit more visually pleasing, since this version relies on me doing the talking. ^^; Maybe I can upload a better version later!

In the meanwhile, I've been working on Cassandra's shield and sword to get them ready for Desucon~
I made the costume in 2017 and took it to the WCS alumni trip, but it's never felt really finished with the missing props. I'll do another post about them once they are finished!

Well it's almost six months since my last update, because I've simply been too busy to update. Yeah right? Well honestly, saying I've been too stressed to update would be a more correct way to put it. In between has been five conventions, so I'm going to do a small recap of those and then... our flight to WCS is leaving in just five days. Yikes!

The Cosvision table representing at Yukicon.

A fairly long post a head, even if I'm mostly skimming through the events.

No costume entry this time but something else I have been working with for a while.

I have dreamed of a dressing-form for some while already, and not just A dress-form but one that would be my own shape and size(I have a tad longer back and larger bosom than what a standard dressform would have). I've been fantasizing about how much easier it would be to make patterns especially for the backside, because you know, it's not very easy to try to draft a pattern on yourself with the help of a mirror... So I decided to try to make one myself.

The net is full of tutorials of how to make a duct tape form, and that's what I tried first too. But duct tape is rather soft, it doesn't hold it's shape very well and with time, it will start to droop. It also ended up way bigger than what I am and was pretty useless to tell the truth. My next plan was to make a plaster mold and use it for a glassfiberform. This didn't really work either because the plaster wouldn't harden, and after three hours of standing up covered in plaster strips I had to call it quits. (We tried twice with two different types of plaster). After some research I found a third method which has worked the best so far, and that's using papertape. Papertape(or cardboardtape) is a lot stiffer than duct tape, and will hold it's shape a lot better.
The papertape form was pretty successful, it's not perfect and it would've probably been a bit better if I didn't have to mutilate it a bit in the filling part, but it's rather close to my size and shape. Some of the measurements are exactly the same, some are 1-2cm~ smaller(hips for example), so I need to remember to add ease to my patterns.
Here's how I made my form in case someone is interested :)