Well, my Kiyone costume was quite successful. My Gaga orbit… not so much. Between the heat and the time constraints and the stress, the costume fell apart. I was so crushed, but I’ve shelved it for another day. It will get done for next year’s con season. Anyway, back to Kiyone. I don’t have an amazingly clear photo on here of the guns, but Theresa and I took dollar store toy guns, shaped them with cardboard and covered them with Bondo body filler and acrylic paint. They were amazing. My wig was a bitch. I couldn’t afford a nice blue wig, so I went to the local costume shop and bought the cheapest, longest blonde wig that I could (24in for $9) and bought a tube of blue acrylic paint and dyed it myself. It took a lot of trial and error to get the wig remotely close to the color I wanted. I had to thin out the hair and trim it slightly because of the dying process. ugh… The costume was fairly simple, the vest was a modified simplicity pattern that I used blocking techniques for the chest stripes and applique for the black curves. The skirt and leggings were recycled from my Meryl Stryfe costume and the gloves and headband were made out of the t-shirt I used on my Mario costume and leftover yellow scraps. The black undershirt was drafted by me and I made it completely on my “new” serger (new to me anyway). Then I drafted a collar to attach to the undershirt and the red “tie” is red scraps stuffed with stuffing. The blue triangles on our shoulders were crafted by me out of sculpty.

I loved this costume. It was fairly comfortable. And as disappointed as I was over my Gaga costume, I was very happy that this one worked out. Most of the pictures above were found, so if I took your picture and you want credit please let me knpw.

Interestingly enough, most of my costumes this year require less sewing and more construction.

So, around the time of my birthday it was announced that Lady Gaga was adding extra tour dates and one of them just happened to be at my home! As a b-day gift to myself I purchased tickets for myself. Before I did this I had already planned a Lady Gaga costume for 2011. This:

However, as awesome as this costume is, it is too cumbersome to wear to a concert. But I plan to use it as my primary cosplay this year. For the concert I have already begun to work on this one:

As you can see, I chose some pretty revealing costumes this year so far. I’ve been trying to get into shape for them both. The concert is April 4th, so if I’m not in shape by spring break (which is two weeks before the concert), I might switch to the costume Gaga wore on American Idol. I didn’t realize until the other day that it is made almost entirely of zippers. It just appeals to the crafter in me.

I’m going to need to buy three different wigs this years because my anime cosplay for the year, much like Lady Gaga is above, isn’t a brunette like me. Theresa let me pick out our duo cosplay this year. I decided on doing Kiyone and Mihoshi from Tenchi. We had trouble deciding who would be who, but we quickly decided out of my financial necessity and lack of time. Theresa will be Mihoshi and I will be Kiyone as one of Kiyone outfits will basically recycle the skirt, leggings and boot covers from my Meryl costume. 

And finally, when I was in high school I had purchased a Lt. Saavik jacket pattern from Trek Expo. I finally have decided to do it (And I’m doing the Kristie Alley Savvik, not Robin Curtis’s). However, if I get into good shape for the Lady Gaga costumes, I may trade in Saavik for a more famous and daring Star Wars costume ;)