Not Writing

I'm trying to solidify my thoughts before starting on my second draft of my NaNo from this past year, so let's take a look at what I'm doing when I'm not writing, because I've been doing a lot of it lately.

Since Dragon*Con 2007, I've been an avid cosplayer. Cosplay is simply dressing up and acting like a favorite character, usually at a convention, though I would randomly announce "informal cosplay" days at school where we'd dress it a character's signature colors and have a go at their hairstyle. Maybe as a procastination technique for writing, most of my free time the past week or so has been dedicated to my first serious costume in several months, a variation on Belle from Beauty and the Beast and, more to the point, the gorgeous Disney-Square Enix video game Kingdom Hearts II.

The variation I'm doing is an original design and I'm pretty sure it hasn't been done before (I call it the "What if?" that went insane), but basically it's a cross between this:



And this:



Interesting, yes? Yes.

I've made a lot of progress on it, but it's not to the point where it's wearable (or recognizable as clothing). See:



There's almost two yards of fabric in twelve pieces in each of those large, funny-looking shapes.

And here's a little detail I'm adding to the inside of the jacket once it's hemmed:



It's kind of the logo for Organization XIII, the people who typically wear the black coats seen above. That piece of pretty white fabric, smaller than a piece of computer paper, has four feet of edges that need hemming. Four. Feet.

But it'll so be worth it during the costume contest judging at AWA.

Yes, I'm a dork. In so many ways. And yes, that is a stripey beach towel. I use it on my ping pong table when the ironing board's too small.