London Anime Con
February 10th-11th, 2012
London, UK

Hyper Japan
February 24th-26th, 2012
London, UK

London Film and Comic Con
July 6-8th, 2012
London, UK

Comic Con International
July 12-15th 2012
San Diego, California, USA

Dragon*Con
August 31st – September 3rd, 2012
Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Additional conventions MAY be added… Hope to see you at one of them!!

AT LAST IT COMETH!

This video is to help anyone having trouble sewing my bunny hood sewing pattern that I used in my very own Fionna costume.

It doesn’t go into quite as much detail as the .pdf pattern directions but it provides a good preview for making the hat if you’re not sure you have the skill to make it!

You can buy the printable sewing pattern right here on VentureCosplay.com!

£6.50
Approx. $10 USD

Thank you so much to my dear hearts who have already bought it, I hope you love the video too!

X O X O X O

Merry Christmas Venture Cosplayers! I freaking love Christmas! As you can see from the photo above, for this year I re-made my old Dr. Girlfriend christmas costume! The new one is 1000 times more awesome. Part 2 to my previous post is coming soon! (Hopefully this week).

In the meantime, enjoy these Venture Brothers Christmas songs courtesy of Venture Bros. Blog! They’re on my Christmas playlist, that’s for sure, which my dinner guests should find interesting.

XO XO XO XO XO

Hello Venture Cosplayers! It’s been quiet around here for a very good reason. My Fionna costume, despite its simplicity, was a really big hit at Dragon*Con and I’ve got a ton of requests for the following tutorials: how to make her sword, how to make Finn’s backpack, how to make a Cake plush, and how to make Fionna’s hat. I’m still working on a tutorial for Cake, but I’m happy to say I finally finished making the downloadable pattern for Fionna’s hat! So you can have the pattern in your hands in real life.

Since I was making the downloadable pattern anyways, I figured, why should I stop at Fionna’s hat? I’ve always wanted one of the bunny hats from Animal Crossing too. What if I made a pattern that offered 5 different bunny hats that you can customise to your liking? SO. That’s what I did. Kinda crazy!

This is a professional quality sewing pattern, like the ones Simplicity makes. Except unlike the ones Simplicity makes, you get to print it out on your printer at home instead of going to Wally World to buy one.

When you buy it you get:
• Professional Quality Bunny Hat Sewing Pattern to be Printed out at home on regular size paper in YOUR printer! (or a friend’s printer)
• Illustrated directions for printing and putting together the paper pattern
• Ten pages of fully illustrated sewing directions drawn with my hands for making the hat for your eyes only
• Envelope illustrations complete with garment flats OOOOHHHHH yeah I went there

Get it here, get it now.

£6.50
Approx. $10 USD

But! I’ll show you the juiciest parts of the tutorial for free BECAUSE I’M NICE!

Ok so. The most important thing you get is the printable pattern pieces. But I’m going to post a video version of the tutorial next week so everyone can see how it’s made. (See above!) Until then, I’m going to share with you guys the juiciest part of the pattern: how to get the ears to stand up. This is what everyone asked me about the most and what everyone seems to have the most trouble with.

The simple answer to this question is: armature wire! I think I mentioned this before, but this stuff is seriously amazing.

So in order to make your (awesome) bunny hat:

1. Purchase the .pdf pattern here from the Venture Cosplay store and print it out. The download you get includes directions on how to assemble the pages of the pattern.

2. Assemble the pattern according to the directions included in your download.

3. Make the hat according to the sewing directions included in the pattern!

4. Ok now here’s the juicy part, which is making the rig to get the ears to stand up.

You’ll need a thin headband about 1/4 inch (.6 cm) wide. The one in the pictures in this tutorial is a little over a quarter inch wide. You can get them at any craft store, on eBay, Etsy, or you can use one you already have lying around the house. If you want to use a wider headband, you will have to measure out more wire and it may be more difficult to work with.

You must absolutely under all circumstances use only armature wire (pictured above!) for this project. You can not use prissy wussy jewellery wire for this. And don’t torture yourself by attempting to use a coat hanger. You can not use any other type of wire. Armature wire works perfectly because it’s lightweight enough to bend with your hands, but sturdy enough to hold your ears up. I always get mine on eBay, but you can try Michael’s or A.C. Moore as well. I also sell it in my Etsy store sometimes. You don’t want to get anything too thick either, get some that’s around 2 mm in thickness.

Measure a length of wire about 24.5 (62 cm) long for the short ears or 30 inches long for the long ears. If you are using a headband wider than 1/4 inch, you will need to use a longer length of wire.

5. Fold it roughly in half as pictured. We’re going to make two of these and they are going to become wire ears that go inside the fabric ones. These don’t need to look perfect or even good, as they’re going to be covered with the fabric ears anyways.

Now, where you put the wire ears on the headband isn’t super important as long as they are the correct distance apart. But they should be roughly symmetrical. Following my pattern for the ear placement, they wire ears should be around 3 inches apart. However, the beauty of the armature wire is how easy it is to work with – if you’re finding your wire ears are too close together, too far apart, or too asymmetrical you can easily move them into the correct placement.

Line up the folded wire against the headband so that about 2.5-3 in of wire sticks below the headband, as pictured. As seen in the picture below, wrap that exposed section of wire tightly around the headband as many times as you can. You may find it helpful to use pliers to do this, but I didn’t find it necessary.

6. Do the same for the other side of the ear, but wrap the wire in the opposite direction for added stability.

Repeat this step for the other ear.

If you’re having trouble wrapping the wire tightly enough around, or if they won’t stay still, you can also apply some hot glue or other type of glue to the wire so it stays put.

7. If you want to, you can cover up the bottom of the wires by hand stitching little squares of felt (or any fabric) around the bottom of the wires. This is to prevent the wires from sticking you in the head. I didn’t bother to do this for Fionna because I knew I was going to be wearing a wig anyways, but if you’re going to be wearing it over your real hair, you might want to do it.

8. Insert the wire ears into the ears and that’s that!

9. If you want, you can stitch the headband in place by hand sewing it into place. Usually though, I don’t, so that I can remove the wires if I want to wear my hat with floppy ears instead!

10. Stitch or hot glue combs to the headband if you want to help it stay on your head (optional).

11. Wear with joy!!!!

I hope you enjoy my tutorial! I worked super hard on it so I totally appreciate it if you buy the pattern.

£6.50
Approx. $10 USD

Thanks to everyone who let me take their picture at Dragon*Con and took a contact card. This was my second time attempting to take pictures at a con and I have a new found respect for people who do that, cuz it was not easy.

You can view the photos:

Here on Facebook, if you want to tag your face.

Here on Google Plus, if you’re too good for that facebook shit.

And of course I’ve posted them here on the site as well.

If you want the high res version of your photo, just send me an email and I can send you one… Thanks!

Not me, just an awesome 21 cosplayer I found

This is a guest post by Kevin from MicCostumes.com

How to Make Pandora Hearts Alice the B-Rabbit’s Giant Scythe?

Believe it or not, it’s an interest thing to make your own cosplay prop, especially when it can be made according to a simple and clear tutorial. Below, tips on making Pandora Hearts Alice the B-Rabbit’s giant scythe are shared with you.

Tools: art knife, all-purpose adhesive, saw blades (for cutting the PVC pipe) and adhesive tape.
Material: PVC pipes of 25MM, EVA boards of 5MM and foam boards, spray paint like propylene.

Step 1: Draw the outline of the scythe on paper and then cut it off. Draw the blade along the inner side of the paper.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Step 2: Put the paper on EVA and use the pencil to draw its outline. Then, cut it from the EVA board by an art knife. While using the knife, make sure it’s a little slant. In this case, to stick them without any crack is much easier. Since you need to make sure the cut board is symmetrical on both sides, you can draw the outline also on the back side of the board.

Step 3: After making two pieces, cut the inner side on the board. Put the board onto these two cut pieces to draw the outline. Then, cut them off.

Step 4: Protruding parts on the middle main body are slant. Then, cut them straightly to form right-angle sides.

Step 5: Paste these blade parts onto the scythe once again. Since some angles have been cut, edges will appear after being re-pasted. They are exactly blades.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Step 6: Use PVC pipes and foam boards to support the framework. There are lots of ways to make a framework. You can also directly use PVC pipe joints to make the frame. Daub some all-purpose adhesive at the junction between pipes and foam boards. Actually, you can also neglect this. Then, use paper adhesive tape or kraft adhesive tape to fix the pipes and foam boards.

Click to enlarge

Step 7: Bond two pieces. The scythe has been finished!

Author bio: Kevin works for Miccostumes.com, a shop supplying cosplay items online, like Pandora Hearts Cosplay Costumes. He likes to share funny stuff about cosplay and anime on his blog.

I am sad to learn that Mike, the creator of Conpix.net has recently passed away.

I met him for the first time at Anime Expo 2006 and he took some of my absolute favourite cosplay pics of me and my precious friend Krys (in our Gundam costumes). It was a random set of pictures and not a scheduled photoshoot, but they remain important to me because they remind me of that moment that I first met Krys and all the joy I experienced then.

In retrospect, I wish I had thanked him from the bottom of my heart for taking those.

So express gratitude for what you enjoy in this life experience and always remember to let others know of the positive impact they have made in your life! Because you may not ever get the chance to.

I’ve been on kind of a Naruto kick lately because I bought my boyfriend a copy of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2, so I decided to add some of my older Naruto costumes to the my costumes page. Originally made around 2005 I think – Haku, Sasuke, and Temari. There’s also Tsunade.

Enjoy!

So you have an amazing costume, and you want to add finishing touches to it? While they certainly aren’t a requirement for good cosplay, special contact lenses can add an extra something to your costume.

Things to know about cosplay contact lenses

Theatrical lenses like the ones mentioned in this post are thicker than regular lenses, so can last you many years as long as you take care of them and don’t wear them for too long at a time. Generally you want to wear them for no more than 8 hours, or until they start to feel itchy/irritated. The contact lens fluid you buy is also as important as the contacts themselves – don’t wash your contacts in water! I happen to use Opti-Free, though you may need to experiment with a few different brands to find what works for you. Did your theatrical lenses dry out because the lens solution leaked out of the case? Don’t worry – just re-fill the case with fresh solution and your lenses will re-hydrate after soaking in solution for a little bit.

1. Do you have perfect vision? You won’t have to look very hard.

If you have 20/20 vision, you are very lucky! Plano contact lenses (i.e. non-prescription) can be found pretty much anywhere and are really cheap. You can even buy them in the dealer’s room at conventions most of the time. EyesBright is an example of a UK vendor that sells only plano lenses, but no matter what country you live in, a quick look on google will yield many results of places to buy these kinds of lenses. If, like me, you need corrective lenses, don’t worry! There are plenty of places that carry them too.

2. CosplayLab

CosplayLab is where I got my red contacts for my Ninon costume. They are the vampire red ones from this page. My eyesight is REALLY bad, so I got prescription ones. Not all the lenses they offer are available in prescription, but many are. The reason I chose CosplayLab over the others is because of how easy it was to order from them – I just sent them a scan (or photo, I forget) of the prescription I got from my eye doctor at the time, and they sent me the contacts. The prices are also really cheap, and my contacts have lasted me years. I intend to order from them again in the future.

3. Cosplay Eyes

Cosplay Eyes is a Japanese seller of theatrical contact lenses, but they have parts of their site in English and they ship to all over the world. They offer many different colours, styles, and have prescription lenses. You can also find the very popular circle lenses (“big eye lenses”) in their web based shop. I haven’t ordered from them yet, but next time I need cosplay lenses I’m probably going to give them a try. I’ve heard lots of good things, and their lenses are just really cool!

4. ContactLenses.co.uk

If you live in the UK like I do, it might be worth it to order your contacts from a UK based seller like the one mentioned above. ContactLenses.co.uk is where I get my regular coloured prescription lenses, but they also carry the WildEyes brand by CibaVision.

There are many more places out there that sell lenses, these are just the ones I’ve seen and liked. Remember, no matter where you decide to order from, Google is your friend: use it to find reviews of stores you’re thinking about ordering from to help you decide which place is right for you!

Related Posts:

Where to Buy Cosplay Costumes

I get emails all the time from people asking me to make them costumes. While I appreciate how much you all love my work, I’m way too busy to make custom costumes for others! Luckily, I’ve gotten so used to answering this question that I’ve come up with a list of places where YOU can buy the costume of your dreams!

I have not ordered from any of these companies, however, I’ve researched all of them and have read many good things. BUT, don’t feel limited by the stores on this list! There are hundreds of cosplay shops out there that I’m not familiar with, that have lots of beautiful costumes for sale, so feel free to check them out too! If you’re unsure about ANY company you’re ordering from, simply google the company name, with the word “review” after it. Or, check out the Commissioner Reviews thread on cosplay dot com! Now without further ado:

1. Need cheap cosplay costumes? eBay is your best bet.

eBay is full of sellers who sell not only already made costumes, but custom made costumes as well. It’s easy to see which sellers on eBay are reputable, too, using eBay’s feedback function. Because many eBay sellers are based in Hong Kong or China, the exchange rate tends to work favourably for those of us based in America, Canada, Australia, or the UK – i.e. you can find some really low priced costumes! The only slight downside to eBay is that there isn’t a ton of variety there – most of the vendors on eBay only offer costumes of the most popular characters. It’s ridiculously easy to find costumes from things like Naruto, Bleach, Sailormoon, Utena, Batman, and so on. However, if you’re looking for a complex costume, or a costume of a character that’s not often cosplayed (like something from Assassin’s Creed or even Venture Brothers for that matter), you’ll probably want to look at one of the other places on this list.

2. Limebarb.com

The sexy and talented Barb of Limebarb.com

3. Taeliac Studio

Gorgeous Yuuko cosplay from xxxHoLic, made by Taeliac

4. Cosplay Magic

A costume of Rei from Neon Genesis Evangelion, available at CosplayMagic

5. ezCosplay

Luka Megurine from Vocaloid cosplay, available at ezCosplay.com

6. MicCostumes

MicCostumes have a great selection of costumes, accessories, and wigs. Plus, their website is beautifully designed and easy to navigate. Their prices are also very reasonable! I haven’t bought from them yet, but their wig selection looks great so I’ll probably get one from them soon. I’ll let you know how it works out!

As you can see, finding the perfect cosplay for you is actually very easy – you can still cosplay even if you don’t know how to sew at all! No matter what your size or where you’re located, there is a costume maker out there ready and willing to make your dream costume a reality!