Nico Yazawa Choker

Heyllo!! This tutorial will be one of many for my Nico Yazawa cosplay that I will be showcasing at Fannatiku Fest 2016 along with the rest of my Love Live group. :3 this is a fairly easy tutorial and I completed it in about an hour. :)

STEP 1: Reference Pic!!

STEP 2: Gathering Materials:

• White fabric and thread
• Red ribbon and thread
• Straight pins
• A pencil
• Velcro
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Sewing machine
• Flexible measuring tape
• Rotary cutter and mat (optional)

STEP 3: First you're going to measure the circumference of your neck. Once you've got that number double it and you have the length of your white fabric piece. The height of your white fabric will be about 3-3 1/2 inches. Cut out your fabric using either your scissors or rotary cutter and mat, to get straight edges use your ruler to draw a line on your fabric as a guide.

STEP 4: Once you've cut out your fabrichem all of the edges. Make sure the hems are as small as you can get them. Hem all four sides. You don't have to do a double folded hem, just a single. Like so:

 

STEP 5: Next take your ruler and lay it next to your fabric strip. You'll be marking your pleats. For mine I did 1 inch pleats, you can make your pleats as big or small as you need them to be. Make small marks on the INSIDE of the fabric strip on both the bottom and top hems. I messed this part up which meant that I had to remark it.

STEP 6: Now this part is a bit tricky. You're going to fold your pleats. Look  at your first three little marks, you're going to take the second one and fold it so it matches up with the third one. Then flatten and pin the pleat. Take the fourth mark and line it up with the fifth, flatten and pin. Continue this process until your whole fabric strip has been pleated. Once that's done sew down the middle. This is what is should look like:

STEP 7: Now take your red ribbon and lay it on the stitching that you just sewed. Leave about an inch on one end and half an inch on the other. The extra half inch will be folded under the white fabric to give it a finished look. The other inch is for if the choker isn't quite long enough to go all the way around your neck, like an extension of sorts. Rethread your  sewing machine with the red thread and sew the ribbon to the white fabric.

 

STEP 8: Last step! Once you've sewn the ribbon to the fabric measure it to see if it fits. Mark where the two ends come together. If you don't need the extra ribbon cut off just enough so that you can still fold it under and sew it.

Then you'll want to cut a small strip of Velcro. Put the 'hooked' part on the inside and the 'fuzzy' part on the outside so that they overlap and stick. If you are using the sew on Velcro make sure to sew it on. If you're using the adhesive Velcro I would advise not to try and sew it on. I did and it didn't turn out so well. It made the machine needle very very sticky and I had to carefully remove and wash it with soap and water.

Here's what the Velcro should look like:

And you're done! I hoped you enjoyed this tutorial and that it was helpful to you. Depending on when I can get the fabric and other materials will dictate when my other Nico Yazawa cosplay tutorials will come out. ^_^;;; hopefully you won't have to wait for too long. :3 thanx for viewing and please check out my other tutorials! :D

Here's a pic of the finished product:

New Cosplay Project!

Hey guys. I know I haven't posted in quite awhile but I have come to tell you of my newest cosplay project! The character is from Love Live! School Idol Project. Her name is Nico Yazawa and she is adorable. :3

This is what she looks like and the cosplay I will be doing.

I currently have only a couple of things completed and collected for this cosplay. I just finished the choker and will post that tutorial soon. Probably later today. :3 thank you for supporting me and all of my blogs! :D

~animefangirl1221

My Cosplay Closet! :D

Hey guys! I know this isn't a tutorial but I just wanted to let you all know that I've finally gotten around to creating a page where you can view all of my completed cosplays along with the ones I'm currently working on! XD I hope that by seeing all of my cosplays helps to inspire all of you to make your own! :3 If you would like to view them just go up to the top and click on the 'My Cosplay Closet' tab. Happy cosplaying! :)

~animefangirl1221

What Happened That Day?

So I was looking at my stats and I saw that on April 18, 2015 I had the most views I have ever gotten on a single day! A whopping total of 55! XD So I was just wondering what was up on that day... was there a con or something that everyone was trying to get ready for? I'd love to know! :) I would also like to know what cosplays you want tutorials for. I haven't posted much and I'm not certain about my next project. I have Nico Yazawa cosplay planned towards the end of the summer and I still have to get my Formal/Fancy Elsa completed but I'm not quite certain about what I should do after that. ^_^;;; I'll put up another poll and I'll have choices that you guys can vote for. :) The poll will be open til the end of May! So get your votes in fast! ^w^ Love you guys for looking at my blog and reading my tutorials! :D

Happy 2nd Anniversary to Simple Cosplay Tutorials!!!!

Hooraaaaay!!! We've made it through year two!! XXXDDD this has been an awesome year all thanx to you guys! Currently I am not at home to enjoy this celebration, as of today I am in New Port, California. :3 My parents rented a beach house for the week because of Spring Break. It's beautiful here and the beach is a short walk away. ^w^ For the past couple of days it's been cloudy and overcast but today it's bright and sunny. XD I had the thought to bring cosplay on this vacation. :3 I was able to bring only one cosplay, and the lucky cosplay waaaas........ Kagamine Rin from Vocaloid (default)!! XD So please enjoy my photos of Rin at the beach! I will be posting all of my photos on my World Cosplay page. I will try to get them up by this Saturday. :3 If you would like the link then please click the 'My WorldCosplay Page' tab above. Again, thanx for the past year! Every one of my viewers made it epically awesome!!! XXXDDD 

Random Update

Hiya guys! I know that I haven't posted in what feels like forever but that's probably because the end of the quarter is approaching and I just don't have time for stuff. >~< School is getting in the way of me completing my formal Elsa cosplay that I need to get done for a con next month and right now I'm still drafting corset patterns! DX So...... FRUSTRATING!!!!! DDDXXX So yeah, I'll try to have some sort of stuff done before next quarter starts. >_< Hopefully. ^_^ Thanx for reading my tutorials! I hope they help all of you! ^w^

~Animefangirl1221

Enjoy some random Creepypasta. ;3

Jack/Jackie Frost Cosplay

Hey guys! :D This tutorial was supposed to be posted several months ago but I guess I decided that it needed to get ignored for a while before posting it. -_-;;; It was supposed to be for a con my friend and I were going to attend this past October but that never happened because she moved out of state. TTT^TTT I know, sadness. I have yet to fully complete my Jackie cosplay and for now I've put it on the 'Waiting to be Completed' list because of a bigger project I'm working on, I'll talk about that a bit more at the end. ^_^;;; Well let's get started!

STEP 1: Reference Pics!!!

STEP 2: Gathering Materials:

• Two dark blue pullover hoodies
• Light and dark brown fabric
• Brown thread
• Sewing machine or needle
• White fabric paint
• A sponge brush and small detailing craft brush
• A paper plate or plastic cup
• Regular scissors and sewing shears
• Scrap paper
• Pencil
• Tailor's chalk
• Straight ruler and a flexible measuring tape
• Brown wide ribbon (optional)
• Newspaper

STEP 3: First you're going to paint the hoodies so that they can dry while you make the rest of the cosplay. :) First you need to recognize where you need to paint, which is mostly around the neckline and upper chest area. Next are the ends of the sleeves and the edges of the front pocket. Some people add some on the edges around the hood. There are a lot of different ways to paint the frost on the jacket. Some people make the patterns very floral and swirly where as some make them more jagged and harsh-angled. I would say that if you can get a happy medium between the two would be best. :) Before you start painting test out some designs on your scrap paper to ensure that you will be happy with how you do it on your hoodie. Also keep in mind that the farther away from the edges of the hoodie you go the scarcer the frost becomes.

STEP4: Now that you've mastered the frost design/pattern you want to use, it's time to get painting! XD Make sure that you read the directions on the bottle of fabric paint so that you don't accidentally intoxicate yourself while using the product. :3 That would be bad. ^_^;;; First you'll want to spread out your hoodie on a sheet of butcher paper or several sheets of news paper. Make sure that it's in a place where it won't be disturbed until it has dried all the way. You'll want to do only one side at a time so that the paint has time to dry. :) You will want to go over some of the designs closest to the neckline, cuffs, and any edges where the frost is thicker. 

STEP 5: Yay!! You have now completed the most difficult part of the whole cosplay! XD Now onto the bottoms. :) For Jack you'll want the get a pair of tight-ish jeans and draft a pattern from them. Then when you have your pants all sewn and pretty you're going to take a pair of crappy scissors and hack at the hems of each pant leg. When the fabric is all frayed and it looks like how you want it take either strips of the dark brown fabric and sew them into a narrow fabric tube and iron them flat. Then sew the middle of the strip to the middle of the back of your pants. Do this to both pant legs. Then for extra detail (which is optional!) have a friend paint more frost on your pant cuffs and all the way up to the top of where your "straps" are. By doing this you add a detail that most beginner Jack cosplayers don't. :)

For Jackie she is mostly seen wearing either brown shorts or a brown pleated skirt and sometimes both in the combination known as skorts. :) You can do either one but I will show you how I did my skorts. 

All I did for the skirt was follow this tutorial: How To Cosplay: Pleated Skirt Then for the shorts I tried to find a pair before I made the skirt but it didn't happen so I used my Default Kagamine Rin shorts as a pattern for Jackie's shorts. I made them a bit shorter than the pair I used for a pattern so that you can't really see them unless I twirl around or the wind decides to flip up my skirt. :)

STEP 6: For Jackie's little ankle ribbon things you can either use actual ribbon or make more dark brown fabric tubes and iron them flat. I'm going to use the fabric method. First you'll want to wrap a flexible measuring tape around your ankle and lower calf however you want the ribbon/fabric to wrap around your legs. Then take two smaller, slightly wider fabric tubes/strips and tie them into perfect little bows. You can either glue or sew them to the longer fabric strips then use either Velcro or a snap to keep the two ends together. ;) You'll probably want to put a piece of double sided fashion tape on the inside if each ankle ribbon to help it stay up and not get in the way of you walking. :)

STEP 7: As you know many, if not all, anime conventions require you to wear shoes. As you may notice, neither Jack nor Jackie wears shoes. So to make this cosplay all the more accurate for conventions use this tutorial to make invisible shoes: andsewingishalfthebattle's invisible shoes tutorial Not only will these shoes work for cons, you can wear them for when you're wanting to just walk around in public as any sort of barefooted character! XD

Yay! Now you're done with the clothing parts of these cosplays! :D I will post two other posts for these cosplays dealing with styling the wigs and making Jack/Jackie's staff, and maybe another one for some basic make-up that I'm going to use for Jackie and depending on if my Jack is going to wear a bit of make-up I'll see if I decide on posting it with Jackie's tutorial. :) Thanx for reading this tutorial and please keep watching for new tutorials for these cosplays and all of my other projects!  I'll also post pics for this tutorial at a different time. :)XD I should be posting something for Elsa's ice dress at some point in the future. Right now I'm working mostly on my Masquerade/formal Elsa  :3 I'm making it for a con that's coming up next month. If you want to see a reference pic of what I'll be making then check out my Otaku Cosplay Journal. This project is one that will most definitely stretch my skills as both a seamstress and cosplayer. ^w^