Anyone who knows me or reads my blog will know that I love a bit of fancy dress. Coming up with the idea, putting the pieces together and choosing the make-up to go with it (and then blogging about it, obvs) all get my creative juices going. However cosplay wasn't a hobby that was on my radar until recently, despite my love of pop culture and fancy dress making it a hobby that would seem quite fitting.
I had previously attended Deecon in 2011 however I didn't stay long as I was only just stepping into geek culture at the time. It was only when I decided to go to Comic-Con in Glasgow last year that cosplay came onto my radar as I found out some of my blogging/online friends take part in it. Fast forward to 2015 and I attended Dee-Con again and decided to dip my own toes into Cosplay with this Misty costume.
I watched Pokémon as a kid and have been re-watching it recently (I never owned Pokemon cards though as there was a BBC report on kids mugging each other over them and my parents wouldn't allow them ha!). I know it's a big thing in the cosplay community to cosplay as a character you're a big fan-girl of but for the sake of my very first cosplay I picked Misty as it's a pretty straight forward costume to do.
A lot of the other cosplays I've seen of Misty are literally a yellow vest/denim shorts/red suspenders combo, but because I'm a perfectionist I decided to add in the details. I spent a Saturday handcrafting my own Togepi (that afternoon at #hillaryscrafternoon did come in handy!) which I'm proud of as I couldn't find any tutorials online and had to work out how to do it myself (it included a lot of un-stitching and re-stitching...). I also made my own pokeball keyring from clay I found in the Art Store on Queen Street and I'm impressed it lasted the whole day (I had seen some on Etsy but my savvy-spending senses reminded me "Morag, you could so make that yourself"). I added the yellow felt details onto my shoes with double sided sticky tape so I wouldn't mark the shoes and could wear them again (they did cost me £10 - I'm getting my moneys worth). And then I threw on a red sports bag as my handbag for the day.
I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I could have left it at the basic shorts/vest/braces mash-up where people would at least 'get it'. But I had people come up to me and tell me they loved how detailed the costume was. I went out that night (free entry at Kage in costume!) and bumped into another Misty but someone came up to me later and said mine was better ha!
The next con I'm hoping to attend will be MCM Scotland Comic Con in September. I have several ideas for my next cosplay, and on my summer visit to my parents in Aberdeenshire I'll be able to nick my mum's sewing machine to put a few together and have on stand-by. Though Comic-Con was boiling last year so I'll maybe have to go for one of my non-bulky ideas!
Do any of you guys cosplay? Or will any of my Glasgow followers be at Glasgow Comic-Con?
Do any of you guys cosplay? Or will any of my Glasgow followers be at Glasgow Comic-Con?
The details in your outfit are really impressive and so is the fact that you made them! ^_^ I'd probably get into cosplay if I had mates who were into or if I was meeting bloggers that I knew there, as I love fancy dress myself.
ReplyDeleteIf you ever want to come up to Glasgow, feel free to show up at con time. If I get *really* serious about cosplay I may even show up at the odd English con!
DeleteThis is so great, I love your Togepi! :)
ReplyDeleteGreat effort. If I went to a display event I would either be Misty or Leeloo from The Fifth Element or any other redheaded character really haha. Once I went to a party dressed as April O'Neil, the reported in Ninja Turtles using my mums yellow jumpsuit from the late 60s.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the other characters are on my copslay to do list are fellow red-heds haha!
Deletelove the costume and i used to love togepi haha
ReplyDeletedanielle | avec danielle
That Togepi is amazing! You look great :) I'm currently trying to rush out together a Poison Ivy cosplay and a Zatanna cosplay for two conventions in May, then I have Fem!Cecil (from Welcome to Night Vale), Fem!Bucky (Winter Soldier), and either Adora Belle Dearheart or Susan Sto-Helit (Discworld) for a charity cosplay marathon at a convention in October... it'd all be much easier/quicker if I had craft skillz
ReplyDeleteAmazing cosplay I love it! I want to do stuff like this but I don't know anyone else that's interested unfortunately :(
ReplyDelete