In which I am making Erza Scarlet

For the past 2 weeks I've been spending my spare time on a completely new creative endeavor. It's like the wedding prep time all over again! By which I mean part of my mind is constantly on the project and all my hobby time and artistic attention are devoted to it. I think about neat ways to make it better as I am falling asleep, and I am just so so excited.

I am making an Erza Scarlet cosplay outfit.

This is Erza:

She's a wizard from the anime Fairy Tail. A character who is motivated by loyalty and the desire to defend her friends. She doesn't take any nonsense, taking everything seriously whether that's saving the world, winning a race or getting a picnic exactly right. I recommend watching the show if you are looking for an anime to start.

So as you can see from the picture there is a whole lot of stuff to make there!

I've been working on the main chest piece for most of the time. There was a slow beginning and I had to do a lot of maths (ugh) and measurements to get it right for my chest. But now it's all cutting and gluing and fun stuff. I've just about done with the breast plate and am super excited for the painting stage. My problem is that I am just too impatient!

So what do I have so far?
1. Shoes. I'm actually going to use platform black canvas shoes with knee length black socks. This is because comicon is roasting hot and I don't want to bake my legs or buy shoes I won't wear agani .

2. Wig. I bought a specific Erza wig which has already arrived.

3. Pauldrons. Shoulder pieces are made! But need to be painted.

Making initial measurements.

Curve number 1 glued in place

Completed pauldron.

4. Breast plate. Almost all done except for the neck, and then painting.

It fastens with a zip!

Basic body shape before extras

 

Making a paper template for the neck piece

And now! A little bit of detailing, and putting those pauldrons on!

Pauldrons are attached with split pins so I'll be able to move my arms about. Always useful!

So what's left? 
Yeah so, quite a lot. That would be the sword, gauntlets and little winged elbows. Plus her diamond earrings. But I am confident it's going to get done! Comicon is 23rd May so I'm going to have to keep working hard.

In case you think that I am incredibly clever to have come up with how to make all this, I am not. Yes, I made it and did the measurements, but I am actually following a tutorial I found online!
I'd decided to go for Erza from that start but Google found me this amazing girl who had made it all before AND put up every single bit of instructions online.

I'm sure mine will turn out a little different, just through having different materials available but the girl below is basically what I am aiming for:

Image by SIMCAT on DeviantArt. The instructions written by the model are all available on her page on Inustructables.

Have you ever made armour like this? Got an tips? 

In which Neverwinter happens

 It's been a bank holiday here in England this weekend and I did spent most of it playing Neverwinter, which is an MMORPG. It's sincerely addictive. Andy can't believe that I am still playing it, not bored of it yet as I often get of things. But I tend to have two moods with something which is either 'swiftly bored' or 'completely obsessed'. Thus is the difference between Borderlands (boring, gave up fast) and Civilisation (why am I not playing this right now!?). Yet Neverwinter is still completely addictive, the music still makes my heart warm, as does smashing lots of animated skeletons to pieces. In fact you can tell how much I love it by the fact that I talked about my blogging break in June being almost entirely down to the game. So there the weekend did go, on quests and failing at dungeons. Actually the game was so hard that we only succeeded on 1/5 dungeons, and still we come back for more. I wish there were more exciting things I could tell you, but it was a weekend of domesticated nerdry.

The only other thing I did was go to a meet-up in London to do the crazy brave thing of trying to meet some new people at a book swap event. It went pretty well so I'm considering going again. I find meeting new people terrifying but I thought that I would be ok with books, a topic I am fairly confident on.

I wrote a while ago about how I need to do more sport and get fit but I find the thought of it scary. I don't like being bad at anything, which I would be. And I get competitive really easily and then beat myself up for how much better other people are than me. It was while I was worrying over this that a stranger giving me a lift to one of Andy's many orchestra events and asking me about my hobbys that I had a bit of a revelation. She asked me if I did anything musical or artistic myself. It suddenly occurred to me that I didn't have to do sporty things to make friends. So I have got myself booked in for some Japanese lessons in October. And as they cost a lot I can't chicken out of going to them when it comes round!

It was an incredibly windy day for these shots, I had to hold my hair in place!

 

I think I am actually allergic to this necklace as my neck got a bit spotty after I wore it last so wearing it under a collar is my solution in place of abandoning it.

And a behind the scenes shot!

I am still completely in love with this skirt but it doesn't seem to be the greatest quality as sadly a number of the threads have pulled and it frays a little at the bottom. I know a few other bloggers own the same Romwe skirt, have any of you had this problem? Have you tried hemming it yourself? It's so delicate I don't want to damage it.