My last con of the year is going to be Nan Desu Kan next month, in Denver, Colorado. This was the con that was supposed to be my very first con, about 3 years ago, but I ended up not being able to go and see because I moved to Boston and had to start a new job around that time. This year I’m finally going to make it and I’m pretty excited about it. I hear really good things about this con. I believe (correct me if I’m wrong) that it’s a smaller con, definitely smaller than AB, but with a really good and friendly crowd and lots of fun stuff to do.

Since it’s across the country, ain’t no way I’m bringing any of my big costumes, so Gaara and Shadow and the like are out. I’m bringing Suboshi cause that one can pack pretty flat, and I just ordered a new wig for Tifa which should come in by the end of the month.

I’ve also, because I am CRAZY, started a new costume that I’m hoping to finish by NDK. If any of you have seen the anime Black Cat, it’s Eve, the fighting nanomachine girl and THE best character in the entire show. (there are a lot of characters too. but she is the best).

In full fighting mode she has blades that sprout from her arms and giant wings on her back. I obviously can’t fit the giant wings in a suitcase, so I’m not making those. Blades should be okay though. (sometimes she turns her hair into a giant punching glove, but I’m not doing that with a wig – I’m not that talented XD)

I started her dress tonight. Patterning took an hour, cutting out and pinning took another hour and a half, sewing took an hour and a half. Overall, four hours. Not bad for my first dress (yeah, I’ve never made one before). This also marks the first time that I’ve sewed a female costume for myself, because all the full costumes I have sewed up to this point are male costumes (Suboshi, Gaara, 4th Hokage). It was a bit weird measuring my chest without my binder on XDD

The pattern that I got wasn’t quite what I wanted, but it was the closest one to her dress that I could find at JoAnn. The original pattern was for an empire-waisted dress, so I had to modify and elongate it to stretch down to the waist. I think it turned out pretty good. Again, I had no idea what I was doing, just kind of did stuff till it worked out. I also sewed in an invisible zipper for the first time, which was a lot easier than I expected, except that I couldn’t for the life of me seem to be able to sew the end of the zipper smoothly into the fabric. It took me like 10 tries.

I need to hem and finish the collar tomorrow. I also have material for a small petticoat to wear under the dress so it poofs out. Then I just need to make the shoes and blades.