New Cosplay: Itachi Uchiha - Female Nurse

Hey everyone! ♥

I'm extremely late with this post and I apologize for that! It's been insane with my finals and exams but now it's over and I have some free time!

In May I started and finished a new costume: Itachi Uchiha - Female Nurse from Naruto!

FanArt by ちゅん太郎

I saw this Fanart on Tumblr some time ago, and I thought it would make an interesting cosplay (considering I never saw anyone doing it and, as everyone knows, I love cosplaying Itachi)! I finally had my chance to do it for the con Anicomics 2013 that was held also in May!

I must warn you that I don't have many pictures. Please try to understand that I did this in 4 days and was in a rush!

I found this very light pink fabric for a cheap price. I wanted something a bit darker but it still worked pretty well for what I wanted! I didn't, however, realise it was so sheer which became a problem to me considering every bra that I owned showed through.

I later fixed the problem by sewing some of the fabric on an old white bra that I owned. It still showed a little bit, but you could barely see it.

Some progress photos of the dress ♥

This dress was a lot of fun to do and also a lot of hard work. It seems pretty simple but it has a certain amount of detail that requires special attention, specially the collar.

I ended up adding two types of white lace and light pink ribbon on the collar to give it an extra girly and cute effect. I think it looks so much better that way!

1. Pattern | 2. The hat already cut | 3. Lace and Ribbon | 4. Almost finished!

Finished! (Apologize for the bad photo)

This was my first time doing a nurse hat! I decided to make a pattern out of paper so it could guide me. I think it worked quite well! I used interfacing to give it a more rigid form (also used on the collar!).

I also decided to add the ribbon and lace on the hat. The Uchiha symbol was made out of fake leather that was left from Madara's costume! The white part is also the same leather but painted with white acrylics (it works perfectly but you have to give it 5/6 coats).

Left: the shoes I used | Right: the miraculous savior aka spray paint

What happens when you use spray paint but don't wear gloves!

After starting this costume I noticed that Itachi isn't wearing any shoes - only socks. And I can't really walk walk around barefoot (I actually can but I prefer not to).

I had those old shoes at home from back in the days I was 13. They're a bit tight but still fit me, and since I didn't want to go over budget and buy new shoes, I decided to paint them pink!

That spray paint isn't the best choice, considering the paint started to peel off after walking around at the convention for 3 or 4 hours (I must note though, that I did photoshoots and laid on the floor several times), but it worked out pretty well! I wanted a slightly lighter pink, but this one is still good ♥

Some photos of the finished costume!

At Anicomics 2013 I ended up doing a small photoshoot with Fiaziinha as the photographer! Most of the photos are really, really pretty! I'll start posting of DeviantArt soon! In the meantime...

FULL GALLERY OF THIS COSTUME

You didn't thought I would leave you without photos, right? Hope you liked it ♥

XoXo,

Gothica

New Cosplay: Madara Uchiha (Naruto)

Hey everyone! ♥

I'm finally bringing you a blog post about a new costume: Madara Uchiha from Naruto!

Official Artwork from the Databook I believe

This costume was a dream.

Not a lot of people know this, but when I started watching Naruto I used to hate the Uchiha clan. The years passed, a lot of things changed and as you know I now love them more than the actual series itself. With Madara was no different, I used to hate him but as the story progressed I eventually fell in love.

Screenshot from the anime

I've been planning to do it for quite some time, but I came to the conclusion that I had a problem: wig. I searched but never found a wig of my liking and I am horrible at wig styling so that wasn't even an option. 

One day I spoke with Manon (an amazing portuguese cosplayer), explaning to her the problem and she agreed to help me! She and Leonor (one of my cosplay idols) styled my wig and it turned out awesome! ♥ Specially considering the wig I gave them SUCKED.

Photos by Manon! Thank you so much! 

The sewing part of the costume went pretty well. The shirt, pants and waist "skirt" were quite easy to do! I did not have time to do the shinobi sandals, so I adapted Mikoto's (basically cut them short). 

Pants progress!

And the finished pants!

Some pictures of the progress of the shirt! I still hadn't cut the collar at this point.

Unfortunately I don't have more photos of the sewing parts. I didn't take any of the waist "skirt" or the finished shirt, but you can see those when I start posting photos of the costume!

To me the real challenge of this cosplay was the armour. I had an extremely short budget, which meant any expensive material was completely out of question. So after thinking a lot on what would be the best and most economic thing to use, I decided to do the armour with artificial leather (Napa para quem é português). 

Cutting the patterns

The final pattern of the armour! Everything made of paper. 

I did a sort of pattern out of paper before cutting the real thing. I wasn't sure of the size of each piece (26 total) and didn't want to mess up the final product, so I made everything out of paper to see how it looked like! I LOVED the result so I went ahead with it!

Next I cut every piece in red cardboard and glued the fake leather on top. I could have used just the leather but I thought it would be too soft so I decided to add the cardboard. I then made small holes in certain parts of the armour (the same places you can see in the pictures above) with a hot iron and used white wool to tie everything together!

Armour progress

The front and sides of the armour complete! The back is missing but it's the same as the front

With all honesty, I'm extremely proud of this armour. It was the first time I've ever done something like this and I love the final result ♥ The only problem with is that it's not very resistent, specially on the torso (I used it for about 5 hours on the con and it looked horrible at the end, I had to iron the whole thing). Besides that it's extremely comfortable!

Last but not least, the other challenge of this cosplay: the Gunbai (Madara's weapon).

Drawing the Gunbai

I've had this idea on how to do the Gunbai since the beggining. I didn't want something too heavy since I knew I had to carry it around at least for the entire afternoon, but I wanted something resistant. Once again super expensive materials were not an option.

I found this sort of plywood at an extremely good price, and I thought it would look amazing as the Gunbai's base. Plywood usually has one side that is smooth and another that's not. This one has both sides smooth. I drew everything by hand, only with a reference photo.

Left: The Gunbai already cut (and upside down -.-) | Right: Gunbai with the handle glued

What I used to paint the Gunbai (+ black and red acrylic that's missing)

Left: The primary paint | Right: Completely painted and almost finished!

It took me around 4/5 hours to do the Gunbai. I only finished it on the day of the event but it turned out great! The only thing that's missing in the last picture is the bandages around the handle and both the bottom and top of the same. I did those with papier-mâché.

This costume was both the best and the worst cosplay experience I ever had. There was sweat, tears and blood (especially tears) in the process but I feel so good when I wear it. I feel happy with how it came out, and I usually don't feel 100% happy with my costumes.

When I can I still want to remake the sandals and just give some finishing touches in little things, but it's overall completed! I already had two little shoots and I want to post pictures soon! Maybe tomorrow!

Hope you liked it ♥

XoXo,

Gothica

New cosplay: Carla Radames (Resident Evil 6)

Hey everyone! ♥

Even though this is going to be a small post (I'll explain why further on), I wanted to show you guys my newest costume: Carla Radames from Resident Evil 6!

SPOILER: I do not want to spoil anyone but this is not Ada Wong, please do your research.

I'm not sure if this picture is from the actual game's artwork, but it's the best reference on the web

Probably some of you know that Carla is a relatively new character to the RE fandom, so it's still a bit hard to find decent pictures of her. That is one of the reasons this post is going to be so small, I don't have many reference pictures to show you : (

I wanted to bring this costume for FIBDA 2012 (AmadoraBD) which was held last month. However, I only decided that I wanted to do it 4 days before the event, so this costume was made in just 3 days! It was one of the most thrilling and at the same time scary cosplay adventures that I ever had!

Just a reference for the back of her dress, it's open like in the front part | Picture from Resident Evil 6.

Yes, I know what you're all thinking, I don't have the body type or the looks to cosplay this character. I know and I do realize that.

But Carla is (just like SnJ Kakuzu) a challenge to me. It's me trying to portray a character that I really like, and stay true to her but making it manageable and appropriate for who I am. Obviously a person with a nice body would look much better than me, but I'm just trying to say that you don't have to be all sexy and perfect to do this type of character.

As for photos of the making-off, I barely have anything to show you (that is the main reason to why this post will be a miniature compared to the others). I was always in a huge rush, so I didn't took many pictures ;___;

I already had the dress completely cut in here but I still had a lot to do!

Working on the sleeves and on the right it's my grandma's hands (she was helping me out)

This is all I have of the dress! Like I said, I didn't take many pictures... I know the color looks a bit off, but it's because of my camera's flash (I worked during the evening and night because I have school in the morning, so I had to take photos with the flash on).

Left: The earrings before I cut most of them out | Right: Finished earrings

I honestly thought that the earrings would be the hardest part because as many of you know I don't have my ears pierced (personal choice), so when a character has earrings I always have a lot of work ahead since I usually can't find what I want with clip-ons.

But this time it was different, I found those earrings at Claire's, they were super cheap and pretty much what I wanted! I had to cut the inner part out as well as some of the hoops but that was it! 

The boots before I did anything to them

Those are the boots that I bought for the costume! They were super cheap as well and they're actually quite confortable (though after walking for about 2 hours non-stop you just can't stand those heels anymore). I removed the studs because Carla's boots don't have them.

The shitload of studs that I had to take off

Believe it or not, my fingers were so hurt and bleeding a bit after I finished taking off all of the studs... they were so hard to remove!! 

And here is the wonderful (not) WIP picture that I posted on my Tumblr the night before the event! I still had to sew the bottom seam and the scarf (it looks finished, it's not). The belt and gloves are from my mom (she lent them to me).

I really like how this costume came out, I think that I look pretty in it (not sexy but pretty)! I know her dress has an opening on the bottom but I chose not to do it. It's not really that important, you can barely see it in the game anyway.

Here goes a photo with no edition that I took at the con, just so you can see the costume:

Photo by Fiaziinha

I have more photos but I'm waiting for the right time to do a proper photoshoot in a more urbanistic place (probably Expo) since well, Resident Evil is all about that. And zombies, but that I won't have XD

I also appeared twice on FIBDA's cosplay video. Here's the link!

That is all! I will update when I have more stuff for you guys!

XoXo,

Gothica

New cosplay: Mikoto Uchiha (Naruto)

Hey everyone! ♥

I am finally making another post here! And yes, I already have another new costume! It's Mikoto Uchiha from Naruto!

Artwork from the official databook

I've wanted to cosplay Mikoto for a long time. I've always thought she was a very interesting, gorgeous character and also a very good and lovely mother! Besides, she's the mother of the famous Uchiha Brothers!

After Naruto chapter 590 came out, I immediately started planning this cosplay. After finally knowing the entire story behind the Uchiha clan massacre, I had to do it. Though, I only started it some weeks ago!

Here goes two more reference pictures for you guys:

Both pictures are real screenshots from the anime

Like I said, she's such a beautiful woman! And I've always thought her facial structure fits mine so it was another positive factor that made me gather enough courage and do the costume!

As for the fabrics, here's what I bought:

THESE ARE THE REAL COLORS OF THE FABRICS!

I decided to discard my first idea, which was to do everything except for the shirt (that would have been bought somewhere), and do everything by myself! I think that way it looks so much better and besides, I feel an even bigger connection with the costume because I did every single thing!

I admit that during the process of creating this cosplay, I was really lazy to take pictures. so I can't show you the exact process of how I made everything. Though, I can explain it to you if you want!

(I apologise for the bad quality of some pictures)

Left: Process of cutting the apron | Right: The straps for the back and shoulders!

Almost finished!!

I had never made an apron before, so it was a new and great experience! It's actually really easy (in my opinion). I could have finished it in a day, but as you know I'm lazy, so I did a bit every day during 3 days.

After this one I feel like doing more for me or maybe even to sell, since I'll re-open commissions soon :3

Left: Process of cutting the shirt | Right: The skirt at about 60%

My grandma explaining a couple of things to me before I cut the shirt. I used another shirt as a reference

The skirt wasn't really hard to do, because I used my grandma's patterns. She explains and teaches me a lot of things, otherwise I wouldn't be able to do half the stuff I make. Besides, she also helps me out quite a lot!

As for the shirt, it was challenge time. I hate making jackets and shirts because I'm horrible with sleeves. This time it was no different, but once again my amazing grandma gave me a hand and everything ended up coming out super nice!

Now for the real challenge: the Shinobi Sandals

4 of the steps to make the sandals

I had never made shinobi sandals in my life, but it was pretty cool to make them! Fortunately I found a good tutorial online (thank god) which explains it super well and also in a sort of easy way!

THIS IS THE TUTORIAL I USED!

I bought some cheap flipflops at the chinese store, which surprisingly had the perfect color! Though I wish the fabric was a bit darker, but still, I think it came out perfect for the occasion.

2 more of the steps!

I finished both of them in two days, and of course that I procrastinated a bit (as always). I didn't took a pictures of the heel cuff part, but you can see it in the tutorial (it was pretty much the same anyways). 

Everything was glued with hot glue (which a rarely use, but it was how the tutorial said, so I followed it). And they're actually quite confortable to walk!

Here are some pictures of the (almost) finished costume!

I apologise for the colors! The camera didn't capture them properly, that's why I posted that initial picture with the fabrics all together!

And yes, the costume wasn't 100% finished when I took this pictures, but you can already see how it looks like! Of course, it looks so much better in real life *o*

As for the wig, I wore my (super) long black wig that I bought for Gothica about a year ago. It's such a pretty wig but I kind of ruined it a bit with the time ;__; It's way too big for Mikoto, but I didn't have the money to buy a shorter one, so this one it is! And I actually liked to see together with the costume!

I took this photo before going to last weekend's con: Midori II (it was taken with my webcam just before I went out). I already have lots of photos of this costume! I did an awesome photoshoot! *o* But I'll talk about that on the next post, which will be about Midori II!

And no, I'm not going to show any pictures right now. You'll have to wait a little bit more, not much though. Probably just some days.

That's all, hope you guys liked this one! <3

XoXo,

Gothica