A Postcard From Lidia

I received a postcard from Lidia today, looks like she's happily waging battle with the demonic legions on the lower realms! No idea when she'll be back, but I got the hint she's wanting me to craft her main weapon for her when she does...

Hrist's new outfit! 50% of it anyway... tunic and vest still to go! I know... where's the gold???? :O Big shock, not to worry though, the tunic's going to be decked out in gold to make Hrist happy. Main reason that parts taking so long to finish also...
Got a lot of nice feedback at the dollmeet 2nd day, particularly on the liners in both blouse and pants. Do to this feedback I'm pondering the idea of redoing Lidia's coat. >_>;

Rose's Rear Brake Pads Replaced

Well my new pads for Rose came in last night, so I decided to take the time and install them before work today. Sure glad I did... the old pads were definitely on their last legs. Sure was a bit tricky to get the inside pad pushed out into the caliper on my Harley FXD Dyna. Not a lot of access room to work with. but after a while of fussing and pushing it both bores were fully retracted.

Upon inspecting the old pads I noticed one corner was really well worn in. Talk about cutting it close. Installing the new Hawk Performance sintered pads I got was a breeze. Initial set in for the pads went well too, I could definitely feel a stopping difference, best of all I don't have to push the brake pedal all the way to the floor anymore for response! Saved myself a good amount of $$ on service and learned quite a bit in the process. I sure love working on mechanical things!

Arizona Matsuri 2014

What an exciting weekend!  Martsuri Festival 2014! This year I was lucky enough to be able to go both days. Hrist had a wonderful time too. I'm starting to think she might enjoy a bit of the spotlight from now and then. But it's better she gets the attention then Lenneth. ;)

Hrist with her usual suspects. Reminded me of school group photo.

Taiko Drums! This group was amazing! Loved their performance! Hope they're back for next years!

A very beautiful Kiki! And what's that? Theres Jiji! :O 

 

Homura! Very nicely done cosplay.

Loved this outfit, so did Hrist!

Kyoko!

Lots of cosplayers this year! Some good, some, well.. not so. I think it's always important to pick out a character that fits the cosplayer most, but to each their own right? :) Always nice to see how much hard work people put into the making of outfits and stuff. always amazing. I'm still impressed with the Kiki I saw this year! Definitely was probably my personal favorite. Real nice girl too.  Ok Somo back down out of the clouds now! Homura was pretty cool too.  Wound up actually chasing her down a bit just to get her photo! Luckly wound up in an amazingly lite area by the sun and natural lighting, right near the dollmeet from earlier in the day! What are the odds ;) Strangely enough Day 2 started out with me bumping into that Kyoko.
Miku, lost track of Miku sightings, and Titain stuff... wow, everyone must be on the bandwagon for that one... all over the place.

A very dramatic Hirst with signature pose.

Hrist loves old style buildings!

Hrist near the insanely long food lines.

 Hrist had quiet a number of people come up to her and talk to her, some even wanted her autograph! She had a small pack of people follow her around for a bit, in-between photos, they'd watch.
One little girl started to get to close, and I put on my most dramatic Rarity impression "Back, ,back I say! No body move! And this gown won't get ruined!" as Hrist made a hasty exit. 

Day 2 Mostly BJD's that showed up.

The BJD's were quiet interesting. Hrist thought so too... just when she thought the regular Dollfies were weird and strange... Enter BJD's..... we're talk'n a whole different world of strange here Hrist. Everyone seemed to be having a great time though. Lots of interesting stories and info sharing.
It was nice to hear some nice comments about the outfits I've made too.

One of the locals watching the dollmeet.

Hrist's body guards. Don't mess around with them!

 Hrist will turn them into Valhalla's finest einherjar yet! Might take a bit of work though :X Charlotte was rather clumsy during this meet. Forgot how many times she tripped. Definitely wasn't her day. :X

Hrist's new album! :P

The Iaido demonstrations were pretty cool. I liked that this year, they had a rather documentary style commentation for the whole show, rather then just dive right into a few moves, that leave you scratching your head wondering.... hmm, what did I just see? Did they really just do that?  o_O
So a big plus for how this years group did their demonstration.

Figures and more figures! Day 1 went by without a hitch! Saw some figures that caught my eye, but had the will power to walk away with money still in my pocket. Day 2.... didn't go so well. some how a small figure of Saten caught my eye. $5.... damn, can't beat that... >_> it's only $5 Somo! Let's do this! Then... something else caught my eyes. Wang... wtf! Noooooooooooooooo -_- must buy! "I'll take.... BOTH these! D:< "  so I wound up buying both -_- I'll hopefully have some photos to post of them later on. Sure glad I brought limited funds or I'd probably have bought the Homura figure as well.

In other news...
Crafting should get back to normal on Hrist's new outfit. Still need to make patterns for her vest. and finish the tunic... and that chainmail... ugh don't even want to think about that crap. Was getting somewhere only to find out I had a few flipped links... I might just say F this chainmail. And quiet possible half ass it big time. not sure yet :S

Chainmail Hell

Phew.... working on up-link #3 or what ever it's called >_> No clue, don't even know if I should care at this point for a proper name, as it's ticking me off something crazy right now! :P Nothing worse then finding a botched link after you've put in several, these links are 7mm. So they're small, for me, with my big'ol hands that like to fumble rings around like crazy. Not exactly the most fun learning project yet. And I'm debating upon even finishing this side up I need two sides -_- so not sure it's worth it or if this will become an epic back-burner project >_> remains to be seen for now. Had to vent before something went flying :P


                             OOOOOOO
                              OOOOOO
                             OOOOOOO

Where's I'm almost currently at. 3 up and roughly 28 wide.

Hrist's Casual Outfit V

Yet more work done on Hrist's new outfit! I managed to get around to starting on and finishing her leather belt up all in just one day! :D The belts for her pants. I might make some additional belts for another idea I had during concept, not sure if I will though or not.

Genuine Leather underside.

I love the smell of leather! Makes working on it rather enjoyable over the scent of some fabrics >_<

Ah, the joys of organized chaos!

Belt turned out to be a real simple project, just assimilated what i learned from Lidia's leather belt and actually had a legit buckle to use that didn't need to be printed! Woo!  So much work still left to do though. Finishing up the tunic which will be a tedious part, I need to still start on the chain-mail for it that drapes as well X_X Hope this gives it that extra punch I'm looking for.

Bat cape! Nope, it's just the liner for the tunic! >_>;

Sewing up the main bulk of the tunic's been rather easy without to many flaws :S nothing major to make me want to smash it into the sewing machine at least. Maybe it's level-up time with this part! Or some serious luck. :X for once... >_>



And lastly... my secret project I did for someone. It actually extends from the button.

1/3 scale!

Congrats if anyone knows what it actually is! ;)

Now... to get back to making chain-mail links.... :(

Hrist's Casual Outfit IV

Photo from the last Dollmeet.

Busy weekend, + extreme laziness = not much done. However I did manage to complete the core of Hrist's new tunic! All that's left is to make sure the fittings are correct. and spam all the gold on the outfit that Hrist can handle. Hopefully by next week I'll have the main tunic done. All that will remain is the leather vest! If all goes well I should be able to post some production photos in the next few days or so... :S

Hrist's Casual Outfit III

Work has been pretty steady paced lately, spent pretty much my entire weekend working on this stuff. Lucky for me the patterns I created worked very well for not doing a test of them. 

Work begins on the liner.

Pants were completed on Friday, I totally failed to take photos of them though. Hrist is currently wearing them however, and the pockets for them turned out pretty well as did the liner for it. I'm just stumped if I should leave them blank black, or add something to them.... really depends on how the skirt mechanism design thingy I have in mind but am not 100% satisfied with the design works out... it could morph into something else before I start on it X_X

The blouses liner.

As for the blouse it's currently 85% completed as I write up this blog entry. One sleeve to go, which should take a few more hours to finish with all the beads. And then the closing buttons for the blouse need to be installed. Less then two weeks before Matsuri though! Not sure if I'll be able to cram out two more parts of this outfit in time xD still have a lot of belts to make and other crap for this as well!

Sleeve work begins!

Was a white liner nesscary for a white blouse? Probably not, but Hrist was telling me she desired complete comfort with this outfit, and no chaffing seams to worry about this time. I think she liked the soft feel for it when she did a test fitting earlier.

In other news, Lidia's still adventuring throughout the abyss hunting down remnants of dragon clans and waging war with the demonic legions. I have a feeling she'll be requesting her primary weapon once she gets back...

Hrist's Casual Outfit II

You know when you get so involved in a project that you totally forget about everything else in life? Like updating blog with information and such? X_X Sadly, that's what has happened in the last few days or more >_>; Hopefully I'll have time to post some photos eventually of what is going on at the moment. Pattern making and pants proto-type have been underway! Pants are nearly complete, I need to start working on belts and straps for them. I am super tempted to add some kind of gold trim to this but I'm not sure yet. haha It is Hrist's signature clothing mark, it wouldn't seem right to skip out on it ;) But I'll see how it goes in the end. I do want to eventually make her Leone version pants. I got the purple material for that. But that's jumping the gun on another project >_>;
Blouse work will be starting tomorrow, I'm not even going to test out the pattern to make sure it fits X_X kind of rushing this project a bit, and am pretty confidant that it'll work out ok... I hope :S

Hrist's Casual Outfit I

Well I've finally got around to putting down some ideas into some stone for this project I've been planning to do for a few months. Create a casual outfit for Hrist so she doesn't have to lug a giant gown around when she goes to the lake, or events and what not. As tough as she is and doesn't mind sporting a gown in the worst of environmental conditions. A lighter outfit would be really nice for her. I haven't decided if I want to do some custom made parts for this outfit yet along with a new sewing project. I should have some sketches or something to post within the next few days or week, depending on what free time I get to work on this project. Pretty excited to get started on it though!