Full list of cosplays

• Elsa casual
• Black Canary (Kotobukiya version)
• Froppy
• Nana Shimura
• Nana Shimura (UA uniform)
• Tomoyo
• Chi (rainy day artbook)
• Chi (brown uniform)
• Moka Akashiya (teacher)
• Moka Akashiya (maid)
• Ruby (volume 5)
• Mumei
• Mumei (haori)
• Black Canary (comic version)
• Asui Tsuyu (UA uniform)
• Asui Tsuyu (gym uniform)
• Kaguya-sama
• Chika Fujiwara
• Ochako (UA uniform)

The simple stuff

I started the year with very big projects in mind which of course never came to be. A very expensive trip to the emergency vets with my beloved cat Mileena did not help to fulfill my plans either (NOTE: don’t let your cats enter your sewing room, they will eat your needles!). Nevertheless, I still tried to deliver and made an Elsa casual photoshoot very early on in January. Simple, but I just wanted some photos with my awesome Olaf.

By February I had been feeling a bit unwell for a while. Let me tell you my symptoms: high fever, continuous cough and loss of sense of smell. Sounds familiar? Yep, it sucks. I was in bed for a month and still with pain on my ribs and lungs until summer. Yet Coronavirus wasn’t a thing at the time, and I never got diagnosed. When I was finally over it (yet still in pain) I managed to finish my Black Canary cosplay! One of my favourite comic characters ever. And I also made a second version of the same character just a few months later (I also made a pattern for the bodysuit here).

My Hero Academia fever

One of the animes that has hooked lots of people in the last few years is of course My hero academia. The only event I managed to attend this year was late February and Froppy was my character. The cosplay was virtually finished at the end of 2019 so I only needed a few bits. Later in the year I got a photoshoot with the amazing Ian Moore and I also wore my UA uniforms which I had purchased.

Nana Shimura was next. Again, this cosplay was almost finished so I only had to wear it (pattern for the catsuit here). And I took the opportunity to take a few photos with the UA uniform too.Ochako also got new photos as I had barely taken any the year before. These photos are from much later in summer with Granetalia, when we were still with a postlockdown strange situation.

Blast from the past

If you follow me, you know I can’t resist throwing in some old characters. They may not be popular anymore, but I still love them. When lockdown kicked in I made sure to use some of my stash fabric. Tomoyo was first, and I used some leftover fabric from other projects to complete her.

Also, after many years, I finally managed to wear my Chobits cosplay. She is my favourite character yet I wasn’t sure if I would look good on it. You will see her again for sure. Furthermore, my other beloved character Moka made an appearance with two looks from the manga covers, as a teacher and as a maid.

Finishing old projects

There is always a project hanging around that you never seem to get the time to finish. My Mumei in particular had been on the make for 4 years! Far too long. I guess it was a difficult cosplay with many little parts and I kind of decided to go for three looks in one go. Oopsie. She was the perfect excuse to use my new 3D printer for the first time as well! I honestly think the cosplay and the photos came out great. But as it wasn’t a popular character anymore it didn’t get the attention it deserved.

Recycling to the top

As cash in general has been short, and going out shopping wasn’t even a possibility, I took the chance to make some awesome cosplays using the fabric of my stash. For some reason I seem to make my better cosplays whenever I just use whatever I have around. Perhaps I just have too much around? My Ruby Rose was almost entirely done with things I had around during lockdown. This included my old bedsheets! Which became part of my skirt and hood as well as my shirt. Don’t you miss the full tutorial on my IGTV! The pattern for the corset is here too.

Last of the year

The last cosplays of the year were Chika and Kaguya-sama. Love is war was one of the animes I really enjoyed this year so I decided to make them. Actually, I took the photos for these cosplays in July and sadly, that was the end of the cosplay year for me. Actually you can download all the patterns here.

I did continue sewing more slowly but unfortunately did not have a chance to really complete any other cosplays. The second half of the year has been stressful. Sad circumstances with a big loss in our lives, a neverending house renovation and the return to work under the new normal sucked all my motivation as well as the time left of the year. But! Not all is lost, and preparations for 2021 are already happening!

Final thoughts

I may not have finished all the cosplays I have planned for this year, but at least I was able to tick most of the boxes of my Cosplay New Year Resolutions . Although it ended rather early, I still had the chance to make the most of my time during furlough, and I actually have several almost finished cosplays that hopefully will see the light in 2021! It has been tough but it is almost over. We made it! It doesn’t matter if you did a lot or very little. The important thing is that we are still here and we are all looking forwards to better times.

Do you like my posts? Remember you can support my blog in many ways, using my affiliate links, buying me a Ko-fi, or visiting my Cosplay Store! Following me on my Social Media and sharing my posts helps too! With your help I can create more cosplays, articles and tutorials to share with you!

The post My 2020 Cosplay Recap appeared first on Alice in Cosplayland.

Spooky features

Horns, wings and pointy ears. Every creature of the night has its own traits. My personal favourites are the vampires. Have you got time to make your own articulated wings? If the answer is no, don’t worry, you can always download my free bat wing pattern and make cute bat wings with foam. Do not forget your fangs that you can make with your favourite thermoplastic Worbla’s deco art. However, beware of werewolves and their giant claws!

I only used wire and paper to make my Maleficent’s horns. And if you prefer something fancier you can also go for my Dragon’s headdress. Making your own elf ears with foam clay and masking tape should also be easy.

Dressed to impress

I can hardly imagine a vampire without a corset or a magician without a cloak. Get some fabric and make a lace up bustier and a hooded cloak. They make a great base for magicians, pirates, sorcerers and vampires!

I cannot forget the superheroes, precisely because it is Halloween you may want to do your best to fight evil. This simple turtle neck bodysuit or the front seam fitted bodysuit are just perfect. You can also wear a catsuit if the night is cold.

Last but not least, there is also space for princesses, pretty dresses and big bows. You can be absolutely anything or anyone! Maybe you want to be Mulan on her Chinese Han Fu, or you just want to add a big bow to spice up something you already have.

If looks could kill

Finally, don’t forget your special make up. Maybe you are cutting it short if you haven’t ordered your contact lenses for this Halloween, but there is always express shipping! Some of my favourite coloured lenses are the Sweety Vampire Red and the Sweety Pro Black from Uniqso. You also get a 10% discount if you use my code ALICECOS. Is it your first time wearing contact lenses? Stop! Make sure you ask a professional first and get your eyes tested. It won’t take long and they can answer all your doubts about contact lenses.

It doesn’t matter what you wear this Halloween. I doesn’t even matter if you are not going out this Halloween. The important thing is to be creative and have fun! Honestly, even if I have a big Halloween cosplay collection, I have my own reasons not to wear a cosplays this Halloween. Whatever you decide to do, have a great night! And let me know in my social media which ones were your favourite Halloween resources!

Do you like my posts? Remember you can support my blog in many ways, using my affiliate links, buying me a Ko-fi, or visiting my Cosplay Store! Following me on my Social Media and sharing my posts helps too! With your help I can create more cosplays, articles and tutorials to share with you!

The post Halloween resources for cosplayers and costume lovers appeared first on Alice in Cosplayland.

To this date I have worn about 125 cosplays, and this doesn’t include the ones I made for friends and family nor that time I dressed as Captain Hook for a school carnival when I was 12 (Who wants to be Wendy when you can be a pirate?).

2009. When cosplay and conventions were new

Anime, comics and fantasy films where not new at that time. I personally had grown watching Star Wars and Dragon Ball Z on TV, reading Black Canary and Batman comics my father owned and devouring Fushigi Yuugi and other mangas which had started to appear when I was a teenager. I had heard of big conventions in London, Barcelona and the Comic Con in the USA (I am from Spain) but there were only local meetings in our little city.

It wasn’t until the very end of 2009 when new conventions started to appear in the smaller cities. At the time Death Note was a great hit, and of course I did have a try myself. However, my first ever cosplay was Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy and my new discovered hobby, videogames. At the time most cosplayers made their cosplays with things in their wardrobes, but oh boy, this hobby was cool.

2010. Spreading the love.

In my first year as a cosplayer I was just one more jumping in the new fashion. By 2010 I had a few friends willing to give it a try. We had decided on our cosplays, had gone shopping for fabric, everything was planned.

Of course they didn’t stick at it for long. But I did want to cosplay! It was cool! I would find myself the day before the convention improvising a cosplay like my Persocon cosplay and I had so much fun. In 2010 I only made one cosplay, but that was about to change.

2011. The competition starts

Fast forwards to 2011, the competitions seemed to be a thing. The prizes were terrible, an old fashioned trophy and some old comics, not worth the effort, but joining did look like fun.

I entered my first competition with my Megurine Luka. I barely knew how to sew at the time, and it was around here when I bought my first decent wig. Of course I did not win, but I did make so many new friends! I was hooked! I couldn’t wait to do more cosplays.

2012. Getting better

By 2012 the cosplay community was growing. More and more people were joining the hobby and conventions were getting bigger and happened more often. There was also more information on internet and I did start my own blog too.

It was in this year when I won my first ever cosplay prize with my Ignis cosplay. I had improved a lot, now I could make my own patterns and some props, even improvise a few moves for the skits.

2013. Cosplay all year around

In this year there were even more new conventions. Not only in the main cities but in some towns too. I had the chance to talk in my first ever panel about cosplay and I did join the local geek club too!

By now I knew or had heard the names of most of the local cosplayers. It was before my first panel when I met her. The most awesome cosplayer in my city (arguably, but she was kinda cool) and it was cosplay love at first sight, that year I made 16 cosplays and many of them with my partner in crime Larxenne, including Asuna Yuuki! Not only that, I joined my own gang of geeks, we could talk about cosplay all day! It was just awesome, you could cosplay all year around.

2014. The big prizes

So far I had only heard of small prizes in small cosplay competitions, but this had started to change. The prizes were getting bigger. Some conventions started offering big sums of money. It was clear that cosplay was getting popular too with lots of cosplay and long queues to compete and to watch too!

Of course I started traveling with my group of friends from convention to convention, we entered many competitions, one of them with my Kindred Vampire, but overall, we just enjoyed the ride. We just had fun and we met even more cosplayers in the process.

2015. The professional cosplayers

As I said, cosplay was getting bigger, and some people were progressively getting more known. Jessica Nigri, Yaya Han and Kamui had been there for quite a while but other names were starting to surface.

This year my friends created a new and better convention in my city, we invited non other than Jessica Nigri to the convention. I myself was getting better at crafting too. And I also entered cosplay panels like the one with my Koujaku. It was all like a dream.

2016. The peek of cosplay

For me 2016 was probably the craziest cosplay year. There were so many competitions, events, prizes and things to do. Virtually you could spend every single weekend in a new convention wearing a different cosplay.

This year I made a total of 23 cosplays. And visited at least a dozen conventions. My record to date. I also won several prizes, some of them with my best friend. Furthermore, that year I made my biggest built to date, Hana. It was epic, but it was also what seemed the beginning of the end.

2017. Going down

2017 was a strange year. I can’t explain how, but everyone seemed to have had enough. I moved countries (I live now in England) and had to slow down on my cosplay frenzy myself. However, everybody else seemed to need a break too. Cosplay competitions seemed to have less and less contestants and many cosplayers, including my best friend, retired.

Although I still made many cosplays, going to conventions didn’t seem to be as satisfying as before. The competition and the people going to the events had started to change. It was just too crowded, and it didn’t feel the same.

2018. New generations

I got back to the conventions in 2018. There was barely anyone from my old days behind the stage. But I began to notice a new movement. There was a new generation coming. A new wave of teenagers reading manga and comics, teenagers that were starting to make their own cosplays as I had done ten years before.

I still made cosplay but mostly on my own grounds, staying away from big crowds at conventions and having a much more relaxed time with on location photoshoots, like the one of my Wonder Woman cosplay.

2019. The digital era

Ten years have passed and I am still doing cosplay. Conventions are still a thing and they will still keep going for quite a while but the audience is much bigger today. It has changed too. It is much easier to buy good quality cosplays online so it is more easily available to everyone.

Today cosplayers don’t wait for a convention to wear new cosplays. As I did for Raven Branwen. Cosplay happens every day. Social media has made it super easy to share cosplays. You don’t need a convention anymore to showcase your love for a fandom. Now a days you can cosplay from home, you don’t even need to get out of your house. And books and blogs about cosplay are easily available everywhere. It has been a long journey but it has been a good one.

And what next?

Who knows what will happen next, my generation of cosplayers had great fun, some of them have decided to go back to where they left it. My bestie too! I don’t know what will be the next step, but for now, I will go back to my list of ideas to create even more awesome cosplays to share with you, and I hope it is so for many more years to come!

Like my stories? Remember that if you like my cosplays and tutorials you can support me on Ko-fi. Also, if you are looking for patterns and cosplay related downloadables make sure to check my collection!

The post A decade of Cosplay. A retrospective. appeared first on Alice in Cosplayland.

New assistants

If you follow me on Social Media, you will be aware of these two little cuties that have followed my adventures and been my cosplay helpers for the last few months. These two little sisters were rescued from the streets and now have a cozy home full of fabric to claw and patterns to eat (true story here)

Some accomplishments

At the beginning of the year I decided to make a cosplay list of resolutions. They included things like sleeping more, reduce my fabric stash or learn new skills. I think I did quite well in general! I totally got better at sleeping. Also, I was able to use some very old fabric for some of my projects and I got better at using Illustrator and Premiere to edit patterns and videos!

I managed to reopen my YouTube channel again! And hopefully I will be bringing you even more tutorials and cosplay features next year! I can’t wait to show you more of my work in action.

Also, I finally managed to get more patterns up in my Etsy store. I am super thankful to those of you who have decided to trust me and use my patterns for your cosplays. And I will keep adding more useful patterns for cosplay in the future!

I built a new sewing room too! That was stressful, but in the end all worked out so well and I am so so happy with it. It meant a 4 month sewing break! But I came back with lots of new awesome projects, and don’t worry I did catch up.

Another awesome thing that happened was my collaboration with Uniqso. They have been my favourite contact lens supplier since forever and thanks to them I have been able to bring you contact lenses and wig reviews. They also gave me the code ‘ALICECOS’ that you can use for a 10% off in their shop!

Finally, I did open a Ko-Fi page for those of you who want to support my work. Thank you so much! Every little helps. I promise I will upload new rewards and new content on it very soon!

My New Cosplays

And now for the part you love. The cosplay! In total this year I have worn 11 new cosplays. As usual I actually worked on more but they are either not finished or waiting for a photoshoot. I also bought my first cosplay! But I kind of needed to fix it so it wasn’t as hassle free as I expected. I don’t feel super accomplished as I wanted to do much more but circumstances kept pulling me back.

However, I did manage to upload galleries and building processes for most of my cosplays! And I did catch up with many of the old ones too. So feel free to look around if you missed any of them!

• Mulan
• Sena Kashiwazaki
• Jeanne
• Karuta Roromiya
• Carmen Sandiego
• Raven
• Asuka Langley
• Raven Branwen
• Ochako Uraraka (coming soon)
• Asuna Yuuki
• Super Sailor Moon

New photoshoots too

Not only I wore new cosplays. All these characters also got new photoshoots! I have been very busy taking pictures with some amazing photographers like Ian Moore, Stephen Sheridan, Stephen Johnson, Martin Jones or Lizzy Briggs just to name a few. Thank you all so much for your hard work! I wouldn’t be able to show my creations without you. Please check the galleries to see more of their amazing work!

• Athena
• Megurine Luka Synchronicity
• Megurine Luka Magnet
• Karuta Roromiya
• Nonon Jakuzure
• Sailor V
• Lady Sif
• Rapunzel Padawan

In general, 2019 has been a very busy year. I am all ready for 2020 and I am expecting it to be epic! Thanks again for all your support, comments and likes during all this time.

And what next?

Do not worry, I am already filling my new Cosplay Planner with plenty of new ideas! And some of them will be big!

I do not want to spoil anything but one of my first cosplays will be Asui Tsuyu from My Hero Academia. For now I only have a costest for the make up but everything is ready to start sewing and I can’t wait! Expect new tutorials, new videos, new patterns and much more!

But now, it is time to take a break, stay with the family, and gather some strength to be able to carry on! Looking forwards to see what brings the nex year, until then, Happy Holidays and Happy New year!!

Regards

Alice in Cosplayland

The post Cosplay Year 2019 Recap appeared first on Alice in Cosplayland.