Cosplay Making: Astrid from How To Train Your Dragon 2

I decided a little while ago that I would love to be Astrid from the popular movie How To Train Your Dragon. However, her outfit was never really something I found appealing…until the sequel came along! Astrid in the second movie is cute and funny, and she also has a kick ass viking look. I fell in love as soon as I saw the screenshots. It also helps that my friend looks just like Hiccup, so voila! The How To Train Your Dragon 2 group came into existence.

Astrid from How To Train Your Dragon 2 (my cosplay)

Hiccup from How To Train Your Dragon 2 (Friend's Cosplay)

As you can see, these costumes are not going to be simple. I'm sure a lot of leather, fur, worbla and other ridiculous materials will be used. I already got some pieces of both costumes done, I am in the process of striping and dying pieces of Astrid's shirt, because as you can see, her shirt has stripes of different colors of maroon. I bought the perfect maroon stretchy fabric at a yard sale (like 10 yards for a dollar, honestly go read my Cosplay on a Budget blog ), I cut it into thick strips and put some of the pieces in tea to soak for 48 hours.
Side Note: Dying some fabric in tea can give it an aged look, turn it a few shades darker, and all around make it look more awesome. I use it all the time for costumes. I used it for my Tiny Tina costume (Check It Out!) As well as some others.
I figured for a hard core viking like Astrid, making the costume look as rough and tumble as possible would be the best idea. Of course I don't want it to look like no effort was involved but I do want it to look like she just made it herself. Its hard to explain, because it will be good but…oh well….lets just go with accurate. I want it to look accurate to the time period, environment, and character.
I also have the pants done for Hiccup. His pants are a dark brown/sage green color. I happened to find the perfect color and fabric and I got started immediately. I have not added any of the leather pieces or straps to the pants yet, I need to find a good deal on leather before I can do any of that.
Also, guess what, Hiccup has one leg. The challenge of figuring this out will push me I am sure, but I think I can handle it. I have a few ideas of how to go about it, but I have to see what will work first. I want it to look like he has no leg there, but I will have to test out some theories.
Anyway, I will keep you up to date on my progress with Astrid, Hiccup, Zarina, Nora, and whoever else I will work on. I love to bite off more than I can chew, and then surprise myself in the end. Thanks for reading.
Sparkle on
Rennie

Fairy Cosplays (I do a lot of them): Zarina Progress 3

Well, my friends, it has been a long and super annoying journey but Zarina the ever evading Pirate Fairy is almost complete. I have just finished sewing her skirt into final position (cuz I promised myself I would not tear it apart again) and I am super thrilled with how it turned out.  It needs a few more tweaks but considering for days I had no clue how to go about making it at all, I think being able to put it on and finally assess it as a whole is great progress.
My problem was trying to bustle it as one whole piece of large green fabric, when really if i just stepped back and did it in strips it would come out how I wanted.
And yes, that means I put it on and took some pictures of it. Seen here:

Pay no attention to the chair on top of the dog cage...

Now keep in mind that this picture is not final. I have zero makeup on and I did not receive my wig in the mail yet. The shirt is on my sewing machine as we speak so I couldn't try it on, thus I am wearing a shirt from my closet. Plus I have no belt on because it is in a pile of red beads on my table. Despite all this though, It is so close to being done that I can taste it. The corset is done and boned, It just needs the adornments, the skirt will be done tonight with some final fixes, the belt is almost done it just needs to be properly strung on the wire, which I will do tonight as well. Everything else is on its way. I am proud of this outfit so far, and I am hoping to wear it to Metrocon here in Tampa in July.  

I will keep you posted as I finish up the other pieces of this costume. Also, more blogs to come about more costumes I am working on. Here are some that are in the works!
Astrid and Hiccup from How to Train your Dragon 2
Alisa from Tekken 6
Nora from RWBY
Stay tuned and Sparkle on!
Rennie

Cosplay on a Budget

So any of the people in my life will be able to tell you, I spend money like a fiend. I am a poor college graduate who decided her life long career move would be performing…I didn't think that through. I'm always out of a job, I love to spend money, and this leads to the inevitable fact that I am broke…a lot.  Yet I can somehow still compete with the best of them in cosplay competitions.  Is it because I am that good? I would like to think so. I obviously didn't spend the thousands of dollars some people think is necessary in order to have a well-made costume.

This costume (Sexy Ewok from Star Wars) I made for under $100

Well, my big secret is a combination of little things that all add up to help the everyday cosplayer put their best foot forward while not spending top dollar. Here is how I do it, now you can too!

1.Goodwill and other various thrift stores are absolutely your best friend.  I will go there just looking for fabric or scraps I can use. Buying a ten dollar leather jacket is going to be a whole lot cheaper than buying letter straight up. I have bought so many giant dresses that happen to be the right color rather than buying the fabric. Because believe me, making things by hand is not the cheapest route.
2. Never ever ever go into Joanne Fabrics, Micheal's, or any other craft/ fabric store and pay full price. I signed up for coupons that the store texts to me on a weekly basis, and they are great discounts. Get the emails, flyers, whatever you have to do to save yourself a few bucks. In fact, if you happen to have a smart phone, go on google and look up some coupons. They, especially Joannes, always has recent coupons and discounts on their website.
One more for good measure, 3. Be creative with things on the costume. Many things in the costumes I have made, I found at home. For example, wire hangers make awesome frames for things like props or wings, just unwind them. Look around your home and think of what you can use.
There are ways to be an awesome cosplayer and not spend a lot of money. Hopefully these tips help any beginners or even seasoned cosplayers who maybe need help saving money. I know it is hard in this super competitive, super expensive hobby, but there are ways!
Thanks for reading!
Sparkle on
Rennie

Fairy Cosplays (I do a lot of them): Zarina Progress Part 2

Ok, back to Zarina. In my ever-infuriating journey with this costume, I have fought the good fight and I believe I have found the evading solution to all my cosplay-induced woes.  As some of you may remember, Zarina's skirt was so half-hazardly placed into the wrong position, nay not just wrong but complete opposite from where it was shown in the picture.  This was no one's fault but my own.  Once I realized this fact I raged-quit and refused to go back to it for another couple of hours. That is when inspiration struck in my darkest hour and I rose up to sew once more!
Yeah that was dramatic, but what do you expect? I'm a cosplayer and performer by trade.
None the less, I fixed the Zarina skirt and decided to keep my blog updated with this info and some pictures.

So this is the skirt and top and partial belt after everything was fixed. The skirt in this picture is just pinned and not totally sewn yet but I will work on some of that later today.  

Thanks for the happy thoughts and prayers. I will get this working!

Sparkle on!

Rennie

Fairy Cosplays (I do a lot of them): Hipster Tinker Bell

Tinker Bell is my spirit animal. More specifically, hipster Tinker Bell.  I mean it, I'm pretty sure my patronus would be a coffee-sipping, blonde, book-reading fairy…with glitter. A few years ago, I was invited to go to a convention here in Tampa, however my friend Jorge is extremely last minute on just about anything he does, so I knew about this con the day of.  Me being a cosplayer, I would never turn down an opportunity to dress up in costume.  So I came up with an idea…Tinker Bell….but out of things I already own.  I drew up a sign and voila! Hipster Tinker Bell was born.

Now this costume became instantly famous, solely because it was something no one had done before. I do give inspiration credit to Traci Hines (Hipster Ariel) and some random easy costume ideas on Pinterest, but for the most part Hipster Tink was my brain child.  She is basically just an extension of myself. Also the fact that my sign dissed Twilight and all it stands for might have helped my popularity at said con.
Anyway, I bring all this up to maybe help someone out there who might want to get into cosplay but not sure how.  Making a deviation of a famous character, but brought into modern day life, is an awesome way to get started. Here is what I did:
Step 1: Think of any clothes you currently own that maybe that character would wear. Remember to stay in the color scheme of that specific character, also do the right hair color. Iconic things like colors really help the audience to know whom you may be cosplaying.
Step 2: Make a sign. This works really well in pictures and gets the point across that this isn't just a normal version of said character.
Step 3: Rock it out.

Anyway, just felt like sharing some of these ideas with the whole of humanity. Thanks for reading!
Sparkle on!
Rennie

Fairy Cosplays (I do a lot of them): Zarina Progress

So if you follow me on literally any social media site (twitter being my favorite) you will know that I am currently making Tinkerbell's newest friend Zarina the Pirate Fairy from the brand new Disney Movie.

"What a cute and simple costume"I thought to myself one day. "Certainly this will be easy to make, comfortable to wear, and I can put it on and walk around the con floor with ease!" ….so far this is not the case. Now of course she is cute and I love the character, however I just about gave up today when the brand new skirt I had made was, get this, completely backward.  That's right, I somehow managed to put the slit and the pattern on the opposite side from the picture. So needless to say (especially with me being a detail-oriented, OCD, perfectionist) I scrapped it and started over.  I haven't gotten the guts to go back to it as of yet but I will return and when I do, this skirt won't know what hit it! mwahaha.
In other news, the corset is beautiful and the belt is coming together just fine. I already own the wings, and I am extremely tempted to somehow make that sword…

Yes, this is the picture before I destroyed the stupid backward skirt.

Basically, the corset I made from cheap pleather I already owned, it did have a shininess to it that would work for a fairy. It is properly boned, as a corset should be. I need to add the gold buckles on the corset and possibly weather it to make it look like it was out at sea. 

The belt was made out of pearly 16 mm beads I purchased at Joanne Fabrics, I spray painted them the perfect color. I now need to add the metal separators into the belt, which I will probably end up casting and molding myself.  

I obviously haven't made the white ruffled shirt yet, but never fear, I will get to it. I just need to find the right material.

I have a feeling that once all of this comes together, and I finally dawn the costume, the wings, the makeup, the wig, and all I will love it. At this moment however, it is exceedingly frustrating and I really want to take up another project instead, but I will stay strong and make sure this gets done. 

Anyway guys I will post again soon! Thanks for reading.

Sparkle on!

Rennie

Who Am I? (insert Les Miserables song here)

My name is Rennie Starks, I am 22 years old, and I have been cosplaying since I was 6, so 16 years of cosplay experience. However, only within the last 2 years have I actually thought about (and did) taking my cosplay more seriously. I started doing panels at conventions, selling prints, posting on social media, and even winning a few competitions.  Well, and since I love to write, a blog is the perfect way to express my feels when it comes to this crazy cosplay-induced life of mine.
What is this "cosplay" you may be asking yourself (go ahead and talk to yourself, I don't judge). Cosplay put simply is: Costume + Play = CosPlay. Not only is it the art of dressing up, but of also becoming any character that one may deem worthy enough for said cosplay. Anyone can do it, and it can be done in any which way. Some, like myself, find joy and pride in creating the costumes they wear. However, this may not work for everyone, and that is where commissioners come into play. Commissioners are people who make costumes while others pay them for that costume (aka my dream job).  Well the point is that no matter how a person may choose to cosplay, it is just that, cosplay.
If my mac changes cosplay into costly one more time I'm gonna rage….well now that I think about it they are basically the same thing… cause you know, drugs would be cheaper.
In this blog I will share my joys and triumphs as well as my struggles and heartaches. I want to share my experiences in the greatest profession in the world out on the internet for anyone, cosplayers and cosplay fans alike. So get ready for some cosplay craziness, cause its about to get real.
Sparkle on!
Rennie