Fire Emblem!Con (aka Tekko 2018)

Just got back from Pittrsburgh and I had a fantastic weekend at Tekko!

We all know at this point how obsessed i am with Fire Emblem, so when I saw an instagram post by CarletteCosplay that they were doing FE7 stuff at Tekko, I immediately hopped on that train.  Little did I know at that point that I also knew almost everyone else in the group. It was several weeks later (and two days before leaving for the con) that I was still trying to figure out what all to take with me, and discussing prospects with Marjolycookie and finally decided to just make this Tekko Fire Emblem!Con.

Friday was Innes, because I am so pleased with how this cosplay turned out that I just want to wear it all the time. And his underneath bits are comfortable enough to travel in. I was super lucky too, because I arrived in just enough time to get a great parking spot in the close cheap lot just before it filled up. Also it was 60* out so I could just put my costume on in the parking lot, without having to wiggle into things in my car.

The friend I was staying with in Pittsburgh was actually staffing the con, so I even got a free badge, which was awesome. And I immediately saw Big O Cosplayers as soon as I got out of the badge line.

After fangirling at them for a bit, I finally made it up to the con, and found a bunch of friends. I was pretty impressed that there were some people who actually recognized Innes. There were definitely a few people who asked for photos who were like "I don't know who this is but it's pretty awesome," which frankly is one of the best compliments as a cosplayer because you know it's sincere. They're not asking for a photo because they appreciate the character so much as they appreciate the cosplay itself.

There was a second, smaller convention going on concurrently in the other part of the convention center, and it was actually a yarn/fiber arts/craft show.... which was perfect to go along with Tekko. The knitters/crafters were definitely entertained by all of the costumes, and a bunch of the con-goers went over to check out all of the yarn and other cool stuff at the crafting expo. My friend and I went over and checked it out, and I got lots of compliments and questions from the folks running the different booths. I also discovered a needle felting booth called GoingGnome which had awesome stuff, including a Smaug and the entire crew of Dwarves (plus Gandalf & Bilbo) from The Hobbit. They were doing needle felting classes where you could make a gnome. Unfortunately they didn't have any openings left for Friday, so I signed up for Saturday instead.

After hanging out at the con for a while, my friend and I decided to head home and order some dinner from an asian noodle place (which was soooooo good) and watch Thor: Ragnarok... which of course we fell asleep halfway through.

Saturday morning I decided it was far too appropriate not to go back to the yarn festival as anyone other than Yarne, so I suited up in my fur loincloth and we headed back downtown.

My friend staffing had to be there at 8.... and literally no one who did not work at the convention center was around. So I hung out and played Heroes for a bit while people started slowly trickling in. Allison was the first to find me, dressed at Kylo, and we hung out and chatted for a while. Another Kylo cosplayer wandered past and recognized me, telling me his girlfriend loved the character and was cosplaying Grima!Robin. So they came back by later and we got this gem together.

I was also amazed to meet an Athena cosplayer, PhantasmagoriaCosplay, while I was hanging out there.

There was an FE photoshoot at noon, so I went to that. It wasn't huge but it was still fun. It was about 90% Awakening, and 80% of that was all Robin (and a Morgan who pretended to be Robin for a couple photos).

After the shoot it was time to change for our FE7 meetup. We had all 3 lords, plus Florina, Ninian, Nils, Guy (obviously), and eventually we even had a Rath! And because we're all ridiculous we had 5 disguises to play with too. If you're unfamiliar.... this actually happens in the game:

I'm stupidly excited to see photos from this. We all froze our asses off (Except Hector and his stupid sweater and armor and stuff), but it was totally worth it.

When it got to be evening again, we went back and ate at a little restaurant that;s close to my friend's house... that I can't remember the name of, but it was delicious and food coma-inducing. Nevertheless we went back and actually managed to finish Thor before passing out for the night.

Sunday was Ranulf, since he's comfy and pretty easy, besides all of the stupid wrappy bits that all of the Laguz (except Naesala because he's too fabulous for that) seem to have. I spent 20 minutes wandering around the outside of the Westin trying to figure out how to get to the Starbucks, but eventually managed to get some breakfast/coffee. When I got back to the convention center I was immediately recognized/photographed, which was pretty cool. And then at last all my friend arrived in their rainbow of FE4 outfits.

I've never played this game, so I don't know any of the characters besides Sigurd and Dierdre in the middle (thank you Heroes), but this still made me so happy. And what was even more miraculous was that while we were all standing around, a Lyon materialized out of the Aether.

Well, I couldn't well pass up the chance to get photos with him since I had Innes in the car, so I went and changed.

It was pretty great, because anyone who had already seen me that morning immediately went "wtf?" when they saw I had changed costumes, because who the hell does multiple cosplays on a Sunday. Clearly only this guy, and only when hypermotivated lol.

Well, that was Tekko, and it'll be a while before I have any more con stuff, which is probably a good thing because I have a bunch of commissions that I need to be working on. But I will definitely share photos from out FE7 shoot once we start getting them back.

WIP Wednesday: Frelian Finery

Hey folks, welcome to another WIP Wednesday edition of MDC. This week, we're taking a look at my current personal project (since I don't have a ton of commissions in process at the moment) for some time next year: Prince Innes from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.

If you can't tell just by his art, he fits into the "Asshole Archer" archetype that we see a lot in FE games.

Innes has been a favorite character of mine for a while, despite being kind of a jerk, so I decided it was time to make it happen! I got started immediately after Youmacon, riding my post-con high which tends to lend itself well to getting a head start on projects. I honestly still have no clue when I'll be debuting him, but it seemed a shame to waste my motivation so I got right to work.

He is so fancy it's absurd.

Since Innes was somewhat recently released in FE Heroes, I had to make a tough decision: which design was I going to go with? I really like the fancy designs on his Heroes coat, and the artwork is a lot clearer/you can see the details a lot better, so I decided to base my design primarily on that version.  I am planning on using his original bow, however, because I don't like the look of the one they gave him in Heroes. The designs (particularly the white scrawling pattern) was a little too intricate for me to easily be able to do, so I simplified it a bit.

To get all of the intricate designs onto my lovely light blue fabric, I made a pattern on some cardstock, ironed on some stabilizer to the back of my pieces, and traced the design onto the stabilizer. Then came the arduous task of satin stitching all of those pieces on.

To do that, I pinned a sheet of the light satin to the front, satin-stitched around the design, and then clipped out the excess fabric from the front.

You can see the white designs here, both before and after the excess fabric was cut away. After the designs were set, I got to do it again with the gold.

At this point, the satin stitching is finished for everything except the sleeves (since I don't have enough of the gold to do both, and I want to make sure they at least match each other if I have to use a different satin). But with the designs done, that means I could start sewing the actual garments together!

Since the capelet is smaller, I got that finished first, and added the gold trim, which is all satin ribbon that's been folded over the edges and hand-stitched on.

The buckle-thingies were both done with layers of cereal box, and the actual belt buckle has a clip in the back so I can actually put it on when the belt part is attached. Obviously, they look a little fancier all painted.

With those done, I finally made it to the store to get more gold satin for the sleeves... except that whatever I have doesn't seem to exist any more. Frustrated, I did find some lining fabric that was really close in color (as close as anything I could find anyway). but it doesn't have the same luster as the satin. I got it anyway, along with an entire bolt (almost 10 yards) of one of the casa color clearouts because I cosplay FE so I'm definitely going to use it. And I don't want to run into this problem again, ever.

I REGRET NOTHING

So after agonizing over it for a couple of hours, I finally had moment of clarity that manifested itself on Twitter...

I had sleeves, the details matched, and there was much rejoicing. That meant I could progress a little (or maybe a lot) further on the project and actually wear the thing without looking like a goon.

Some more trim and a zipper later, I have something wearable.
But that's not all, since the weather has been super warm [because our climate is fucked] I could actually work in my garage and I decided to start working on his bow.

Now originally I was planning to make the bow in his original artwork, because I thought the one in his heroes design looked stupid. 

Look at this, it just looks like it has knobby ends that he's going to NEVER MIND

But then I found artwork of it that's not at a dumb andgle and it's SUPER COOL. Those are snake heads on the end, that's why they're wider like that!

So obviously I had to make it because SNAKES and it is a legendary weapon, after all. I wasted no time in getting to work!

The base is wood and the details are worbla scraps I mushed together and molded. They even have fangs *KA KAH*

So with things being wearable and half a bow finished, it was finally time to try everything on!

There's obviously a bunch of work left to do on both the bow and the costume, but I'm incredibly happy with how this is turning out. I just wish I had a con to wear it to, but I don't have any more conventions until Ohayo at the end of January. Alas, my pompous prince will just have to wait.