The Fabric

A important part of making a costume is getting the materials.
More specific for this post, the Fabric !

I went to the fabricstore not long ago (I'm going to be honest, it was back in january.)

Prior to the trip to the fabricstore I had spendt countles hours on the world-wide-web,
searching for the perfect fabric.

I looked at fancy patterened fabric, and WOW, there are alot of amazing patterns!

Here are some examples:

I mean come on! Look at them! Tell me these are not simply amazing?

To my slight dissapointment, I was told by my wise mother that I had to look at what kinda fabric it was.

Haha, silly me. I can't sow a dress in quilting fabric.

So I started to put myself into the whole "different fabric" world.
There are alot of different kinds of fabric, and man it was dificult understanding all the terms.

So basically (for you non-pros like me) this is what I have understood:

The type of fabric is decided by what kind of "substance" its made of,

Wool, Cotton....      That wasn't really a shock.

But fabric is also decided by how its made. How the threads are put togheter.

Different techniques give different kind of fabric.

Stretchy - Non stretchy

Thick - Thin 

Soft - Rough 

How a dress will "fall" is also decided by what kind of fabric it's made of.

And I wanted my dress to fall just as I imagined, so I decided to go to the fabric store!
(As mentioned in the top of this entry)

I got my mother to drive me to a different town, so I could check out and feel the different fabrics.

The store had tall and wide shelves with all kinds of fabric. It was truly amazing!

Picture found online. From same store. 

I walked up and down the shelves while feeling the fabrics.

 I ended up liking the fabric called "Chenille" and it fell nicely.

I tried putting the different colors next to eachother so I would find a nice combination.
And as an indecisive person this took alot of time! Luckily my mom didn't seem to mind.
She wanted me to take my time and figure out exacly what colors I wanted.

In the end I got 4 different kinds of colors.

1. Cobolt
2. Turquoise
3. Antique blue 
4. White

The fabric felt nice and soft. Aswell as it felt strong, so hopefully it wont easily tear.
I bought alot of fabric..  alot!
 and it was then I realised how big the project I had taken on was!

This is me holding only the Cobolt fabric!

In the end was the fabric I got plain and without any fancy patterns.
Though that means I have the possibility to test my own craftmanship,
and try to make it fancy somehow!

Stay tuned, for more of my noobness, when I try to figure out how to make it FANCY!

~Cosplay Noob Tuva~

Hitting the dreadful wall

Hello again!

I do realise it has been ages since I last wrote anything.
There have been alot of times where I wanted to, but I never got myself to.

For this entry I wont be talking about any spesific cosplay-craft-thing.

This entry is going to be about hitting a wall during a project.

And I am hoping that this will maybe prevent someone from doing the same mistakes as I did.

Back in early March I had a week off of school.
There were no classes and no assignments.
So I decided to take that time to start sowing my dress.
I traced patterns, cut out pieces of fabric, and started sowing
(I will be posting entries regarding this at a later time )
I was spending countless hours day-in day-out,
JUST focusing on the costume.

I am sure I have mentioned this earlier in my blog,
but I am a kind of person who get's this "must finish" feeling
whenever I am having a project of some kind.

Must cut out- Must sow- I'm tired- Must get it done- Must work
-I need to sleep- Must finish project!

I start to ignore the fact that I am exhausted. That I need a break.
And in the end I'm a grumpy zombie who just wants to keep sowing.

(Yes I just made that JUST for this statement)

To be honest, I hardly sewed anything!
The tracing and cutting took ages.
And I spend ages just getting a sowing machine ready.

One day I hit the wall.
The dreadful wall.

I was tired, but insisted on still sowing.
First thing I was going to sow was a thing called "Piping"
Or "Bisebånd" in Norwegian.

Picture from this tutorial

And For a complete noob to try that was really hard.
I sewd and sewd. And finished the first piping.
Or atleast I thought. I realised the piping looked off.
Something was definitly wrong.


So I decided to unravel the stitches and start over.
It was also then I realised that I had put the sowing machine
on really small stings, so unravelling took ages.
Then I managed to rip a hole in the fabric.

Given the fact that I was already really tired at this point,
I broke down. I rushed the fabric to the sowing machine,
and somehow i broke the machine needle.

The unraveling.
The hole.
The broken machine needle.
The lack of sleep.

It all piled up.
And I hit the wall.

I left the sowing room. Closed the door.
And didnt open it for the rest of the week.


It killed my will to sew. And I have been avoiding the project for some time.
Until recently when my mom started asking me about it.
Saying I couldnt just give up.
She told me to take small steps.
"Sew only one piece each day, or each week!"

And that is what I am doing now.

I take tiny steps. Where I only sew little by little.
When I'm with the sowingmachine about to finish a piece,
I feel the thoughts of "Must finish" build up.
But I ignore them. I finish my piece and leave the room.

When I went to stitch togheter the
GIGANTIC HOLE- as my mind kept thinking.
I was faced with a tiny hole, that was easily fixed.

And now it's not even visible!
I can't help myself from laughing when I think back to how much I panicked.



So if you are ever facing a big project, take small steps.
Don't get carried away

And if something were to go wrong.
-Take a deep breath.
-Go rest
-And face the problem tomorrow

Don't hit the wall
- And don't give up.

Face Paint - The Tiger

I've decided to practise my facepainting skills.
Therefore I am going to make some short blog entries now and then,
which will mostly consist of pictures of the prosess when I put on the different facepaints.

I'm planing to go through the "basic" facepaints, and try them out.
You know, those "Butterflies", "Tigers", "Princesses" and so on...

The facepaint I use is a small palette with 8 different colors from Snazaroo. This Facepaint is made to be smooth for the skin, and isn't irritating for the skin. I dun have any problems with it!

I wish I had more colors, but they can be mixed, and therefore I can get most colors I want.


Today I decided to try out the tiger!

I found a tutorial on youtube, and tried to follow along, step by step.






First i washed my face, and put my hair up in a pony tail.
I tried to put the rest of the hair, and my bangs, away from my face, using bobby-pins.
Don't want to get facepaint on my hair.

Then I took the big round sponge and covered most my face in yellow. 


I only left out the part under my nose, and over my eyes.



I felt like my skin looked way to yellow, but I carried on without changing this.









Then I mixed red with the yellow on a plate.

And got Orange (duh~)

I took the orange on the same sponge and applied it to my cheekbones, the temples, on my forehead and some around my chin.

At this point I still felt a bit yellow, but it was looking alot better.

At this step I was supposed to use a sponge triangel,
 which I dun have in my possesion...


So I had to use my round sponge again. Which resultet in a less dramatic "parting" of the colors, but it also looked kinda nice.

I had problems getting the white, white enough.


(And it wasn't until later that I realised that I needed to make the sponge more moist.)










This part was the decidedly hardest!
I took the small brush and "soaked" it in black color.

Then I tried to do as the girl in the video, and make similar stripes around my face.

At first I felt like they looked uneven and sloppy, but then i realised that it only made the stripes look more realistic!

Finally I used the same brush to make the nose, and mouth parts.

I also made small dots around the eyes and over the mouth, to finish the look.

I had a lot of fun walking around the house, painted like a tiger.

Even my dog was a bit sceptic to me at first, but then he had fun playing around.



This is the video I followed:

(All rights to this video belongs toxMIMICKSx on youtube)


Any idea or suggestion for what I should try painting next? :)

~Cosplay Noob Tuva~

Polymorph Plastic ~ Experimenting Time!

I have looked up alot of different materials that I would like to try out, and maybe use for my costume.

Given the fact that I am pretty new to the whole "Costume making" thing, there is a lot of things I need to research, and consider. 

It's New and Exciting for me, but also confusing. 

I'm coming to this point where I think I'll soon have all the materials I will need for this costume, and I cant wait to start the process of actually making it.
But before I start on the actual costume, I have decided to try out the difernt materials I buy. 

And that is what I did today!


I got a package-note in the mail. At first I was a bit confused.
"I didn't order anything more.." I thought, and tried to think really hard.
What on earth was waiting for me at the posthouse?

I really had no idea. I really couldn't remember. 

But I don't really blame myself either. I have ordered alot of stuff, and I didn't really keep track of everything. I'm pretty unorganized in that way.

Picture from here

After checking my E-mail, I discovered that it was my "Polymorph Plastic"!

Polymorph is a plastic-material that melts at around 62 degrees celsius. 

It is therefore easy to mold and make into the form you wish and want. 

I am planning to use it for smaller details on my costume. I ended up buying alot of this material, mostly because it seems interesting and fun, and I am probably going to use it at a later opportuinty. 

Here's a little polymorph on a small plate

The polymorph looks like round pieces of rice. And the texture felt kinda like soap. 

I took a small pot and filled it with a bit of water, and started to heat it up.

After a little while I put a small handful of the Polymorph into the water.

Polymorph in the left side of the pot

The polymorph turned transparent in the water. At first I let em lose into the pot, and feared it would be difficult to get em out of the water, but as I experienced, the polymorph kinda sticks togheter into a ball of something that reminded me of frog-eggs. 

It was easy to get out of the water, and it wasn't really that warm, so it wasnt uncomfertable to work with. 

After taking it out of the water I started to squeeze the small pellets togheter into one big mass.
It was facinating to work with, and alot of fun.

First I tried to make a heart, but it turned out more like a T,

So I decided to put it into the water again, and then make it into a T instead.

Yeah it's pretty awesome, If you're not pleased with a result, you can just reheat it, and remold it!

Here is the result of my first time working with this material.
After I was finished, I let it to cool down for like 10 minutes.

Once it's cooled down completely, it returns to a white, and hard state.

I also bought some colored powder, that I can use to make it prettier, but since this was just an "experiment" I decided to save that for later.

Here is also a picture of my dog, who was nosing around me while I was working with the Polymorph. He thought I was making food, and was probably hoping to get a snack.
Silly dog~

~Cosplay Noob~

Project FrostMage - Sketching

My new cosplay is going to be an frostmage.
Mostly inspired by WoW, where I so happens to be one.

The costume I'm planning is nothing like how my character looks.
It's more like I took the "feel" of an Frostmage, and transformed it into a desired outcome.

Picture of a Blood Elf Mage from here

In WoW there are different races.
I am a Blood Elf, who in my experience, is kind of bitchy. Not super bitchy, but they give me this "I am marvelous and you are nothing compared to me" kinda feel.

This was also in my mind when planning out my next costume.
Not long ago I dragged out my own "Top-Model" drawing book, and started designing a desired costume. I looked up different armors for FrostMages and ended up finding this.

(Tier 3 - Frostfire Regalia)

I took this as inspiration, and drew my own version of it.

The picture became a bit dark,
-I apologize for that.

Usually I end up making countless designs before I am content, but this one made me smile.
This was exacly what I wanted.

So basically, this is going to be my ground idea for my costume.

I plan on drawing each piece of the costume to a more detail, so I can plan it out with the materials, I am going to need, in my mind.




I havnt quite decided what color to go for yet, I know it's going to be in the "blue family" but not quite which shades to put where.

Here is another sketch. I made it trying to decide what details the top should have, but also the "overlayer" on the skirt.

I have a basic idea for most pieces of the costume already, but I have yet to draw em.

The belt on the other hand, I cant seem to get any inspiration for it. So I will have to work with that. Maybe if I leave it for later, I will end up getting some awesome idea when I see the rest of the costume clearer.

Thats it for now- My drawing supplies will finally be put more to use.

~Cosplay Noob~

My Saturday Night

It's saturday night as I'm writing this.
Sitting infront of my laptop as usual, strolling the internet and playing some games.
What amuses me the most with the weekends is reading all the entries people write about parties on Facebook.

(Picture found here )

I got to admit I am one of those people who will pick up her phone and check the internet when I am at parties or other events, and I know it must seem rude, but sometimes I just dont feel to "in-place" at some events, and tend to avoid any awkward situations, by yes, strolling the internet.
The people who amuses me, are the people who has a need, or an urge, to tell all their facebook-friends that they are "having sucha amazing time at this party!". 
The party might be great and amazing, as they say, but why do these people have an urge to tell everyone else?
Sure I feel a bit jealous when I read post after post about people "Hitting town tonight guyzz".
But I feel more annoyed than jealous.
You "party people" go have fun! Party! I don't really care. But dont spend your precious party time to tell everyone on Facebook that you are partying!

I gotta say, that was kinda off topic of what I was planning to write tonight. But I felt like it was needed to say.

What I really was planning to write about, is as the name of this entry,


My Saturday Night. 

Today, as most other days, I had an urge to plan out something..

- something related to my cosplays or costumes.





So I picked up one of my littlesister's drawing books, a "Top Model - MakeUp" sorta thing.
Basically it's books that have predrawn girls in it, and you draw their makeup.
Don't get me wrong, I can draw faces myself, but when that isn't my goal, I would rather use a pre-drawn one.

I started drawing a "makeup design" that was going to be inspired by some ice-mage.
The drawing was quickly done, because I was just going to make a sketch and see if something somewhat like it would work for a future costume.






I got out my makeup. And started experimenting with the colors, and tried to put this design onto my own face.
And I gotta say, Putting makeup on a 3D face was way more difficult than on flat paper!
It turned out kinda bulky and uneven, but this is also one of the reasons that I do these kinda things.

For practice!




I am not expecting to be a pro at these kinda things from day 1.
I've seen the people who do amazing makeup-art on kids at the mall, and it doesn't look easy, so I'm in for some practice indeed.

I liked the main-idea of how it turned out.
Thought next time I want to make my whole face a hint of blue first, then add the "spikes" ontop.




Once again I had tons of fun doing something related to my cosplay-dreams.
And I feel like it was a Saturday Night well spendt.

Signing out with my awesome
WoW-Tshirt!

~Cosplay Noob~

Welcome to my new "adventure", my new blog!

In the past I have been blogging now and then (I am a person who likes to share my opinions)

I never managed to keep a blog going, but this time it is going to be different!

Lemme "Start" with a breif backstory, or you might call it an introduction.

A story that leads up to this very moment!

It all started a long time ago, even as far back as when I was a little girl. 

I was introduced to the world of manga and anime, and lemme tell you, it was a wonderful time.
I would slowly start reading mangas, first Ranma 1/2. 

Then I watched Sailor Moon. 

Years passed and I was still interested in this "Otaku"-world.

I went to my very first AnimeCon in 2010,

It was Scary.

It was New.

It was Exciting!

I had ordered a cosplay online;

   - Haruhi Suzumiya-

And I felt like I was ready to take on the world!

Thought that feeling quickly passed...

Yes, the convention was amazing, 

and I felt like I was finally surrounded by people

who wouldnt judge me for who I was.

And Yes, I treasured this feeling ever since,

but at that time I was really shy,

I still am! But I am working on it.

In the following years I changed alot, I took school seriously,

and made new lovely friends.

But I never felt like I really had something to do, other than school and gaming.

I mean, I had alot I could do.

I own a keyboard, an acoustic guitar, plenty of painting and drawing supplies,

Even all I need for knitting a new sweater! Or embroider a new tablecloth.

My problem, isn't the lack of things, but the lack of will, motivation.

This all changed some months ago, I had just enrolled in university when I got this urge to

craft a costume. I couldnt stop thinking about it, so I started planning and crafting.

The result was a, in-my-opinion, a pretty neat costume.

It doesn't even compare to pro costumes, 

but I felt so happy when I finished it. 

I had finally managed to actually finish something!

Later I entered a local CosplayCompetition,

and I won!

It wasn't a big win, but it was just the thing I needed.

Ever since that day I have been constantly thinking about future cosplays. 

It keeps me up at night, as I cant stop planning out and designing different parts in my head.

And it is indeed sometimes tiresome, but I LOVE IT!

That Is my "short" backstory.

This blog will mostly consist of me sharing my ongoing-planning of costumes,

but also inspiration, and other thoughts I might want to write about.

As I started out with, I do like to share my opinion on stuff, so you have been warned.

~Cosplay Noob~