cosplay Archives - Journeys Are My Diary

Happy Birthday Closet Geek

August 22, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

Can you believe it’s been a year? I can’t!

Yes, that’s right, one year ago today, I opened my Closet Geek store. Something that started as just sewing for my own children, for Amy and I to cosplay and for Liv to wear to WDW, turned into this tiny little business selling hair bows, pencil cases and girls dresses.

Now a year on, I honestly can’t believe how much support and love I’ve had. I hit 1000 followers on Instagram a few months ago and I’ve had over 1500 sales on Etsy. In addition to the dresses, pencil cases and hair bows I started with, I now sell Disney ears on a fairly regular basis, bunting and cushion covers. I take inquiries for custom skirts and cosplay, along with anything else people are interested in.

Though I’m yet to crack it yet, I bought a laser cutter a while back and I also experimented with screen printing. In the next few weeks I hope to dedicate more to time to them. I’ve also signed up for 4 days of Christmas Market in Lincoln during December, so prep for that will begin soon. I made a post called “Almost a year on…” on the Closet Geek blog, discussing some of my popular items and some of my favourite.

I’d love to explore the possibility of Subscription boxes throughout the next year, plus more fandoms that just Disney and Harry Potter. I can’t wait to be writing a post that’s “two years on” and I hope that you’re all still following me to see it! Thanks again for all the support.

Disney Bounding

May 10, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

I love to sew and make cosplay costumes or even inspired outfits, but I have to admit I have never actually gone Disney Bounding. When we went to Disneyland Paris the first time, it was very much an impulse visit (we were 10 hours away, further south in France) and when we went again a few years later, it was far too cold to think about dressing up (it snowed!). The same was true when we visited the Christmas just gone but now in May we are going again and then myself and my two best friends are going in June too. I love the idea of Disney Bounding and it doesn’t take anywhere near as much effort as cosplay. Here are some ideas I’ve been toying with.

Pic Credit: Vivien of Holloway

Minnie Mouse is very iconic of Disney, as is her dress. As such, a Minnie Disney Bound is a pretty obvious choice. With all sorts of variety when it comes to red spotty dresses, it won’t be hard to find one in a style you like. Pair it with some yellow shoes and maybe even some Minnie Mouse ears on a headband and you’re all set to go!

Pic Credit: Jones and JonesMake it Pink! Make it Blue! No matter which version of Aurora’s dress you like, its fairly easy to find something in either pink or blue. This dress screams Aurora to me, because of its shoulder straps, but its short length makes it much more re-usable. Couple this with a little crown or tiara and you’re totally a Princess!

Pic Credit: Chi Chi London

This beautiful shade of blue dress says Cinderella to me and if you couple it with the right shoes and maybe even a plush mouse or too, you’re definitely on your way to bounding Cinders. Maybe a glass slipper necklace or some pumpkin earrings if you’re into the finer touches, but really you can’t go wrong.

For me, I much prefer the idea of being a Disney Villain to be honest. Luckily it’s fairly easy to shop for sexy black dress for Maleficent or the Evil Queen. That’s what I did when I was dressing up as Morticia Adams. In fact a lot of the Disney Villains are simple plain dresses, that can be made to look more bounding with a few accessories.

Whether you prefer to wear dresses or if you’d rather throw some top and trouser combinations in there too, Disney Bounding is really such a simple idea. When Amy, Nat and I visit in June we’re hoping to bound so stay tuned for whatever we pick to wear!

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MCM Birmingham – What we wore

November 27, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

Last week myself, Lily and Amy all attended MCM Birmingham Comic Con. It was something we decided fairly last minute and as such we decided to wear “put together” costumes instead of handmade ones. I’d previously posted about putting together a cosplay costume, where I’d showed you how I intended to make a Gogo Tomago outfit out of clothes bought from the high street. It was this that decided us on Gogo and Honey Lemon from Big Hero 6 and since I sell a Baymax dress at Closet Geek, Lily wore this to go with us.

Though I definitely didn’t feel as happy dressing up in store bought clothes as I do when I make it myself, it was still a lot of fun to do. Amy and I both wore wigs and while they weren’t as nice as some of the wigs we’ve previously worn, they did the job. Majority of both mine and Amy’s costumes were bought on Ebay, though we both did make alterations. While I don’t know how much hers cost to put together, the total cost of mine was around £40, plus the wig.

jacket – £10 (eBay, second-hand)
t-shirt – £4 (Peacocks)
shorts – £4 (Sports Direct)
2x leggings – £3 each (eBay, new)
trainers – £8 (Shoe Zone)
wig, gloves and sweatband not pictured

I have to admit I did feel a little fat in it and I didn’t really think of Gogo being sporty until I was actually wearing the outfit. I was pleased at how easily it came together but sadly I don’t think I’ll wear it again.

Luckily I was pleased with the selfie instead!

Lily on the other hand looked cute as a button! (excuse my washing in the background!).

Making a Cosplay Costume

November 10, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

In Summer, Amy and I (plus Kariss who we met there) attended SFCC (Sheffield Film and Comic Con). Last year we were attending LFCC (London Film and Comic Con) but unfortunately the timing just wasn’t right to get to that one this year. I’ve also attended MCM Comic Con in London this year, back in May. However in the end we decided not to cosplay for that, so SFCC was our first cosplay of the year.

Amy and I decided on Disney cosplay (surprise surprise). She was going as Briar Rose and I was Belle. Both choices are their “peasant” dresses, so in a way we’ll be a pair.

I started on Amy’s first as I couldn’t get the fabric I needed for mine without ordering. The first thing I did was find a pattern that would work for what I wanted (I only ever work from patterns). It was pretty easy and didn’t take me too long. Ironically it was another Disney pattern, one used to make Elsa’s Coronation dress.

Next was to pick out some colours. Luckily both costumes comprise of basic block colours, so cotton poplin is perfect for what we need. I headed off to Boyes, picked out come colours and then started to work with the pattern and fabrics.

So once I cut out all the pattern pieces I was sure about, there was the grey to figure out. I picked one that I thought might be a bit dark and when placed together with all the other fabrics, it was decided between Amy and I, that it was too dark. Sadly this began our own 50 Shades of Grey disaster which took about 8 fabric samples from Ebay before locating. However with the grey only effecting the skirt, it was easy to still continue and make a start.

Once the top was done and the grey was found, it didn’t take long to sew it all together and add the zip. It was lucky too as I ended up making Kariss an Alice in Wonderland dress and apron, before also making my own Belle outfit. I was fairly pleased with how they all turned out too.

I have a post on Closet Geek dedicated to all the Cosplay outfits I’ve made so far. But keep an eye out as I will be updating it before too long I’m sure!

Easy (Disney) Cosplay Tips

October 16, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

So as you know, I love to make costumes and I love to cosplay. I’ve been to a few conventions now – LFCC last year, London MCM in May of this year, SFCC in August and a small Lincoln one in September, two of which I cosplayed for. However not everyone has the ability to sew (or the money to buy handmade) so I decided to share some tips about costumes you can threw together easily, using clothes readily available in stores and online.

For MCM Comic Con, I was originally choosing to go as Go Go Tomago. If you haven’t seen Disney’s Big Hero 6 then you’ll have no idea who that is – and if you haven’t seen it, then you should! Go Go is an awesome female character and her “everyday” look is really easy to replicate.

The costume is basically made up from a black leather jacket, white t-shirt, black (and purple) leggings, black shorts and black trainers. Depending on how exact you’re wanting to be with your costume, sourcing the exact items might prove tricky. However if you’re happy to improvise, you should get most things fairly easily.

I started with the leather jacket. Of course I wasn’t going to get actual leather, as that would be expensive. I headed off to Ebay to find something cheap and secondhand. The important thing to note about Go Go’s jacket was it’s style – the way it zips up, neckline etc.

Pokerun_Womens_Marylin_Leather_Jacket_zoom

Can you spot the difference between the two?

After the jacket, the rest should come fairly easy. A simple white t-shirt, relatively non nondescript. Black leggings, with purple poking through rips – either a double layer of leggings, black over purple with tears cut in the black – or black leggings with rips, patched up underneath with purple material. Black fingerless gloves. Black trainers. Black shorts. Depending on how close you’re wanting to match, I’m sure you can find black trainers with a splash of purple and black shorts with a splash of red. Failing that you could always add your own – paint for the trainers and ribbon for the shorts.

Last but not least, this leaves the hair. Of course if you’re radical you could cut and dye your own (I actually tricked all my facebook friends into thinking I’d done that) or you can buy a wig.

So long as you plan fairly far in advance (allowing time for shipping from China) you should be able to pick up a relatively cheap cosplay wig. Mine was around £10 mark and took about 3 weeks to arrive. There are some great bargains out there, for all things cosplay, the more time you allow and the further it can travel from!

38/52

September 20, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

Today’s 52 Project photo is actually taken today. We attended a small sort of a comic con in Lincoln called “Geeks” and both girls dressed up. Lily had wanted for a long time to be Harley Quinn, so I made her a dress for the occasion. Megan wasn’t really sure what to go as but since she had the Belle dress from when we went to Florida, and the apron, she decided to go as Belle. Neither were really cosplaying, more just inspired, but it was lovely to see them enjoying dressing up!

Week 37 – Monday Round-up

September 14, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

Yes, it’s Monday and I’m actually making my round up post on time, woohoo! So what has happened this week? Sadly it’s a little same old when the kids go back to school. Megan and Lily were at school every day and Chris was at work all but Wednesday (even the weekend too). Monday and Tuesday, Chris was at work from 2.30pm until 11pm which was weird to say the least (he hasn’t worked that late since Ladbrokes). I spent both days sewing, getting on with both a Briar Rose dress and Snow White rags dress. On Tuesday I also finished off Amy’s Wendy Cosplay, after a quick visit to the market for ribbon that morning. I also cleaned my oven Monday/Tuesday… that was fun. Though Tuesday I did get a new phone and that WAS fun.

On Wednesday Nat came over for the day. It was Chris’ day off too but he spent most of the day upstairs on his computer. Nat and I spent the day working on some of my Closet Geek project – she helps cut out material and even just bounce ideas with. I got Amy’s package ready, with the four dresses I had already made (Woody, Briar Rose, Snow White rags and Wendy) but I also made a surprise Minnie Mouse dress too. I then made a few bows and added it all to her parcel before picking up the kids from school and dropping it off at the parcel shop.

Thursday I worked on both of my current custom orders. I cut out the pattern for one and printed out the pattern for the next. It felt good knowing Amy’s dress was out of the way and I could get on with other things. Chris was working till 11pm again so in the evening I let myself relax, watch some TV, but also do some research on nearby fabric stores.

Friday I spent the day sorting out the pattern I’d printed out. It was 62 sheets that I had to lay together, stick down and then cut out, all to get the 6 pattern pieces I needed. After I’d done that I was able to work out how much fabric I would need and order that too.

In the evening I cut out the fabric for the prom dress I would be working on over the weekend. I think I mentioned it in another post, the Back to the Future prom dress from the first movie. Anyway I cut out the fabric and the organza, ready to work on the following day. I also finally got time to watch more Grimm, after 2-3 days of not doing so!

Saturday and Sunday were fairly similar. I worked on the school website on Saturday but then did some sewing in the afternoon and into the evening. Sunday I sewed on and off most of the day, though mum came around from lunchtime onwards. She helped the kids do their homework too so that was great and time saving for me too. By the end of the night I’d got the dress to a good point and I was happy to leave it there. And that, pretty much, sums up my week!

What I’ve been up to!

September 4, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

It’s been a quiet week on my blog and that’s basically because I’ve been busy! The girls were back at school this week which took up a lot of my attention, but I’ve also been working hard on my new site, Closet Geek. I’ve been making and sewing, sourcing and thinking, browsing the web and just constantly thinking!!

If you missed the memo, my new site is sort of One-Stop-Shop (or it will be, eventually), for geeky apparel. Right now it stocks jewellery, hair bows and pencil cases, along with Disney inspired dresses for children. In the near future I want to add adult clothes, but at the moment I just do them on a custom order basis. If you want to keep up with what I’m going, Instagram seems to be my main platform as its great for visuals.

So this week I’ve been finishing off a Wendy cosplay that I’ve been working on for a while. It’s almost finished but not quite so I won’t share it here yet. However I have completed a new Woody inspired dress for girls and started working on some other projects.

Woody Inspired Dress

I have two custom orders in process at the moment, the first one of which I’ve ordered fabric and have a pattern for, the second being quite a big project! The first one is the Prom Dress from Back to the Future. Know which one? Marty’s mum, Lorraine wears it.

Back to the Future, Prom Dress

The second is a Cinderella cosplay which I’m still looking at fabrics for at the moment. I’m pretty excited, but also a little terrified too! As well as that, I’m making a Briar Rose inspired dress and hopefully a Snow White rags inspired dress, fingers crossed they’ll be done over the weekend. I have loads more planned but I really need to get on with my custom orders.

Finally on top of all that, I spent almost one whole day making hair bows. I had some in my store but I’ll be adding more, again you can see those on my instagram. My favourite by far is Eeyore though. It was quite fiddly but such a good outcome.

Eeyore bow

In the future I’ll be adding a range of Villains bows. I’ll also be adding some Superheroes too!

So this is what I’ve been up to. How about you? I love working from home but I tell you, its hard to separate being at work and not being at work – switching off your brain and actually getting “me” time seems a thing of the past!

Week 35 – Monday Round-up (on Tuesday)

September 1, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

Trying to keep on top of my week this week, as it’s a bank holiday weekend and then the kids will be back to school and I don’t want to get too far behind! This week started off really great! Monday the girls had been overnight at their Grandma’s and then went on to their dad’s so I still didn’t see them. Chris was off work though so it was nice to spend the day together (well sort of). I spent the morning working on orders, to make sure I could get them sent off that day. I then grabbed a shower and Chris and I went out for lunch. Since we ate at NYC Bar and Grill (again), we ended up going for a wander around Bawtry at the same time. It was lovely having a walk around somewhere new and the weather was good too.

On the way back to Gainsborough, Chris’ car started playing up and that was a worry. We came in and I started sewing, but he had to call the garage and get it checked out. Luckily it didn’t seem like it was anything to worry about so I spent the rest of the day sewing, answering emails and working on my orders. Chris and I headed to bed around 11pm though as we were both tired.

Tuesday was another day off for Chris but we had a lot planned. I was out the door at 8.30am as I needed to pop to market before heading over to my mum’s. Chris was coming too but decided he would take his own car and give it a run. Luckily it was fine though we still popped into the garage to make an appointment, just for it to have the once over. We then headed on to my mum’s, where I worked on the Saxilby School website with her and Chris fixed an issue with her computer/printer, while causing one with her internet! However we couldn’t stay and fix it as I needed to get the girls from their dad and then head over to Louth. I picked the girls up and then we all headed over to see my Auntie Pat. She had her grandchildren around so it was sort of a playdate, but it was nice to see Pat and catch up. We had a lovely lunch and the kids played nicely. I almost felt bad that we had to leave. Chris headed back to my mum’s to fix the wifi he’d broken earlier and the girls and I went to Scunthorpe so I could scout out a Fabric Warehouse I’d found online.

The girls and I had a wander around the fabric store and I did buy a few bits. We then went to The Range where we spent a bit more! Finally we headed to Costa and grabbed coffee before we all headed back. Chris was already home by then but we were all pretty worn out so we did our own thing. The girls weren’t hungry (I think from the coffee) and neither was I. We postponed dinner for a while and I worked on Amy’s cosplay outfit. Finally we had dinner and as the girls were finishing I realised it was 9pm! I have no idea how it got that late but after letting them have a few minutes for their food to go down, I soon packed them off to bed – with Megan having a while longer for iPad time. I spent the evening sewing until eventually Chris and I went to bed as well.

On Wednesday Chris was back to work and on an early shift too. This meant that I got a lie in till 9am which was really nice. When I got up, I realised I had quite a bit of blogging to do so caught up on that (and started this). The girls played happily on their computers. I spent the morning working on Amy’s cosplay costume, working out a custom order with a possible customer and browsing the net for ideas/supplies. To be honest I don’t really know where the day disappeared to, but I got quite a lot done!

On Thursday, Nat came around. I spent majority of the time sewing, though we did go out into Gainsborough for a while and treated the girls to Subway while we were out. I bought some things I needed for Amy’s dress and continued to work on that. When I ran out of the things I needed, I stopped to order them online instead. I spent the evening working on yet another custom order idea, now having two in the pipeline!

Friday we were up early and out to take Chris and his car to the garage. Luckily it didn’t need much doing and so we headed into Lincoln and got the girls their school shoes. After this we met up with Nat and her kids, wandering around town, doing various bits of shopping. Chris went off to work and we took the kids to McDonalds for lunch. Afterwards we headed up to Lincoln Castle and had a lovely afternoon there. Finally we dropped Nat and the kids back off at her car and went to grab Starbucks. We then headed home and collapsed. Before bed we needed to pack as we were off to London the next day, but we managed that without too much fuss!

Saturday and Sunday were spent down in London, but I documented them separately and there is no point me doing it again! This was yet another lovely week and I can’t believe the kids are back at school soon!

Week 33 – Monday Round-up

August 17, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

As always, another busy week here in Casa de Smith-Lecoat. It’s been a good week though, so no complaints!

On Monday the kids headed to their dads and I ended up reading ALL day, despite having loads I should have been doing. I was reading John Green’s Paper Towns and since I was enjoying it do much, I didn’t want to stop. By late afternoon I was finished but since I had a bath that night, it sort of sucked I had nothing to read. Instead I caught up on some short stories relating to the Sanctum, Fractured and Chaos series I had been reading.

Tuesday I picked up the girls and we went into town to get change for a carboot sale and then had lunch in Subway. We did a bit of shopping too but afterwards I came home and tried on my Belle cosplay costume, just to make sure everything fitted. The evening was spent making my apron, so that everything was complete.

On Wednesday the girls and I did a carboot sale at Torksey. It was so warm and nice, though it meant we got really hot. We made almost £50 and had a lot of fun, but afterwards we were exhausted. After coming home we all just collapsed, which was rubbish as Chris had been sent home from work ill and so we were all just done!

Thursday I spent the whole day making bows. I started the morning by watching some YouTube videos and then once I decided I knew what I was doing, I made bows. I also succumbed to a guilty pleasure, putting on Glee to watch while I was crafting. I haven’t seen past Season 4 so I decided it was time to catch up. Though Chris headed to bed fairly early, I worked on bows till gone midnight before heading to bed myself.

On Friday, Amy was due to arrive but because of crappy trains, I headed out to intercept her at Retford. We came back via Clintons, stocked up on Tsum Tsums and then came home. We spent majority of the day sat at the dinning table chatting, my mum came to get the girls and later Amy and I headed out for dinner. We went to NYC Bar and Grill as we’d planned, having four cocktails between us, burgers, fries and coleslaw but still not managing to fit in a dessert! We came home, sat for a while longer and then headed to bed!

The next day was SFCC (Sheffield Film and Comic Con) so we were up early and getting ready. We finally left at around 10.30am, getting to Sheffield for around 11.30am. We had a lot of fun at SFCC, bought loads of Pop Funkos, met up with Kariss and her boyfriend Harry and then even fitted in time to pop to the Disney Store and Starbucks. Finally we headed back and picked up the girls from mum, before coming home and collapsing. While I’d planned to cook steak and chips for dinner, I was too exhausted to bother. Instead we ordered pizza and just did nothing! Amy and I spent the evening chatting again before we all finally headed to bed.

Sunday was spent lazy for the morning, then taking Amy to catch her train at lunch. In the afternoon I worked on some blog stuff and also tried to relax. Chris was finally feeling better so we managed a nice meal from M&S which I’d bought a few days before, and then just spent the rest of the evening doing our own thing.

Another busy week this week and my store opening on Saturday. I hope to update you all next weekend as to my success and of course the rest of my week ;)