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Character: Lady Sif - Thor (Marvel)
Costume made by Yaya
Photography by Kevin Green
Makeup and model: Yaya

Kevin gave me photo CDs from all the cons this year so it was like an early Christmas of piccies! I really loved these portraits of Sif taken inside the Marriott at Dragoncon. The lighting was filtered through the large windows on the 10th floor, making it a nice photoshoot location admist a huge crowded convention. Also, if you squint, the background could pass for Asgard. ^_-

Costume construction notes:
I made this costume for San Diego Comic Con after gathering materials and reference for several months. I love badass warrior girls and the color red, so Sif was a no brainer! I really liked her character in the comic book as well, from the fact that she grew up with Thor and trained along side him, to their on and off romance over the years, and Sif's strong, loyal and courageous nature.
I used a mix of materials for the costume, from suede to leather to metallic 4-way stretch to fur and wood. I drafted patterns for all the pieces and made everything within about 3 - 4 days. The corset is steel boned, and it was fun to make arm and leg armor pieces. I also enjoyed beading the wig and making the adornments on the hips.

Full gallery and thoughts on my website: [link]

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A blast from the past! I never released these images for some reason eventhough I made and wore Misty May back in 2008. I sometimes forget what costumes I've made and what shoots I've done lol.

Character: Misty May - Otaku no Video
Costume made and modeled by me
Photography by Geoffrey Nicholson
Reference images of Misty May: [link] [link] [link]

I watched "Otaku no Video", a Classic Gainax anime about a Otaku taking over the world, a galaxy even, about 15 years ago while I still lived in Germany and the anime scene was brand new in Europe. For someone like me who grew up with anime and mange in China, it was like discovering the fandom all over again. I loved the fun and cheesy way Gainax presented the Otakus to the world, and created Misty May as the original mascot girl - the original anime bunny girl even - to charm the world! BOME came out with a gorgeous Misty May figure a few years ago which inspired me to make the costume and show some Old School love.

More images and info on this costume and how I made it on my website: [link]

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Eeeeh brand spanking new photoshoot with LJinto, taken this past weekend in New York City!
as Poison Ivy - costume made and modeled by her
Catwoman made and modeled by me.

Jenni took us to this decrepit bridge right by a graveyard with all this graffiti and fences... really great location for a Gotham city shoot. I had to climb all the railings like an idiot while Jenni was all vixen and ladylike. We had a blast posing in these outfits, and the cold, shocked onlookers and low lighting didn't faze us a bit!

Thank you, LJinto, for doing the photoshoot with us, and thanks also to Judy, Adam and Cole for trucking along in the cold and darkness of Gotham.


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See more info and photos of this costume on my website: [link]

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More photo collaborations with Benny Lee of Emanon Designs!

Retro Space Girl costume designed and made by me, also modeled by me

Photography and post-processing by Benny Lee

Benny did such an amazing job with creating the outer space environment for this shoot. I am really blown away!

Costume construction notes: The idea of doing a space girl has been floating in my head for a while before I made this costume. I love old sci-fi movies ala The Day The Earth Stood Still and Barbarella. For my ode to retro futura, I drafted up a bodysuit and made it out silver PVC vinyl. It's fully lined in a comfortable stretch material, and I added pink trim all around the edges and keyhole. I also made my own trim by stretching spandex over batting - yay puffy retro futuristic trim!
The belt, arm warmers and leg warmers were the finishing touches. I lost my cute pink boots from the original shoot, or I would have used them over the flimsy leg warmers. I'm considering getting more vinyl and making boot covers. The wig was bought locally and I poofed up the back for a beehive look. The headset came from Target and I used a nerf gun which I painted pink and silver to match.

More photos and info on the costume can be found on my website: [link]

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New costume debut - Dragoncon 2011

Character: Baroness - G.I. Joe
Costume made by Yaya (moi)
Armor made by Pit Viper Studios
Photos by Paul Tien, thank you so much!

This is a collaboration between Pit Viper Studios [link] and moi. I was approached by Len and Audrey several months ago with the idea of modeling a one-off set of Baroness armor for their prop studio as a way to promote their company and our mutual fandom love for GI Joe. I was honored to be considered! Since I had been planning on making Baroness at some point any way, it seemed like the perfect time to get to work.
Toby and Audrey sculpted the pieces, and Len, Kevin, John and the rest of the Pit Viper crew cast the amazing set of armor for me, made of fiberglass. It is surprisingly comfortable and sturdy to wear and I could move around easily. And it looks totally badass and protective!

I took on the responsibility to put the rest of the suit together. Looking at many many reference images of Anastasia ( and amongst others), I decided to put my own spin on her signature bodysuit. My goal was for it to be more than just a spandex bodysuit, so I designed a two piece suit featuring seaming details and quilted sides down the arms and legs, as well as scalloped three-piece sections of leg armor. The material is a rubber coated 4-way stretch spandex, which I chose because I wanted the gloss-coated armor to stand out from the matte-finish suit and contrast each other. I made a pattern for the bodysuit and sewed it from scratch. The wig is a pretty lace front that was sleek and not too long, since I didn't want to cover up the armor too much. The glasses were a surprising bitch to find lol. You can't walk into an Optic store and buy a set of rims, they'd have to do an exam and fit non-prescription lenses in. And I didn't want to have lens-less rims! So after much searching I got these at a Dollar Store.. in Montreal, Canada lol.
The weapons were so much fun to pose with. I borrowed a big ass gun from since she did Sweet Pea from Sucker Punch the day before. Thanks, babe! I had also brought a P-90 which would have looked cool but I couldn't carry more than 2 guns around. The hand gun is my Amber gun haha.

Honestly the only thing I'm somewhat missing is a belt. I debated for a while whether or not to have a belt because it will break up the stream-lined seams I so painstakingly put on the bodysuit.... then I got stuck in Germany for three days because of Hurricane Irene and lost that time to work on costumes for Dragoncon. So I said screw the belt. But after wearing the costume, I must say it would be nice to have someplace to put my room key/money/phone, so a belt will be made when I find the time!

Check out Pit Viper Studio's work here! [link]
Photos from the Cobra's Finest meet coming soon. Thank you everyone for having me in your group!!

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My last cosplay of 2011! Litchi has been on my to do list since the first arcade game was imported to the USA at Planet Zero in Houston a few years ago!!! I was lucky enough to be in the area and was one of the first people to try my hands at it. Litchi's design and fighting style with the staff was instantly my favorite. I also really approve of girls in glasses. AND I love pandas, and she has one hanging on her head. It was love at first button push lol.

Character: Litchi Faye Ling
Costume made and modeled by Yaya (moi)
Photography by the talented Elysia of Fenyx Design

You can see the panda and glasses pretty well in this portrait!
Costume construction on this Deviation:

You can see a video collage from Ikkicon with Riddle and me where Litchi is featured here: [link]

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Teaser image from the Christmas themed photoshoot I did with BGZ Studios [link] Since I made this costume ON Christmas last year, I missed the chance to take Holiday photos with it. Was very glad to pull it out this year for some shots.

Darrell came over with giant bags of Christmas decorations, lights and fabrics and we created a very merry set in my living-room. I can still find glitter on furnitures and on the floor lol. Darrell does minimal post-processing so the lighting in the photo is from his awesome set up that day.

Excited to see more shots, I will share what I get back! Thank you so much, Darrell, for the photos and beautiful decorations.
Check out BGZ Studios on Facebook here!
[link]
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Costume Construction:
This cosplay is of Urd, from the classic anime Ah! My Goddess. Many anime girls have little Christmas outfits and I already had the wig for Urd (I've been planning another costume of hers for a while). The design is based on an outfit Urd wears in one of the episodes, but I changed it a little bit to fit my taste in fashion and shape. For example, the neck bow in the design is green and ack I really dislike the green/red color combo, so I changed it to red. And I made flare sleeves instead of gloves because I often have to handle money and sign things at cons, so gloves would have been annoying.
100% of the materials were found at home - the red velour is left over from my Scarlet Witch cape (I loved being able to use up all the scrap!) and the white fur was acquired at a clearance sale ages ago. I even had the boots already from another sale.
Costume constructed in a day over Christmas weekend (after much lint rolling the excess fur off the velour). I made a self-lined corset, top stitched and reinforced, with boning and eyelets for lace up, drafted a pattern for a three panel skirt and flare sleevelets. I also made a matching Santa hat and hand stitched the fur trim onto all the hems.

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Character: Wonder Woman -DC Comic Ame-Comi Collectible Figure design
Costume made and modeled by me
Photo by Benny Lee (EmanonDesign)

I have more Dragoncon photos to share but am too excited about getting Wonder Woman studio shots back to not share at least one of them. Thank you, Benny, for these great photos! You can read about how I made this costume and see more photos on my website: [link] [link]

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Character: Lady Sif - Thor (Marvel)
Costume made by Yaya
Photography by Brian Boling
Makeup and model: Yaya

I made this costume for San Diego Comic Con after gathering materials and reference for several months. I love badass warrior girls and the color red, so Sif was a no brainer! I really liked her character in the comic book as well, from the fact that she grew up with Thor and trained along side him, to their on and off romance over the years, and Sif's strong, loyal and courageous nature.
I used a mix of materials for the costume, from suede to leather to metallic 4-way stretch to fur and wood. I drafted patterns for all the pieces and made everything within about 3 - 4 days. The corset is steel boned, and it was fun to make arm and leg armor pieces. I also enjoyed beading the wig and making the adornments on the hips.

More pics coming soon, and I plan on re-wearing Sif at Dragoncon!

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Character: Amber - "Sucker Punch"
Costume made by - Yaya Han
Photography by Kevin Knight
Model - Yaya Han

Thank you, Kevin Knight, for taking these shots at SDCC!

You can see the costume pretty well in these pics - I made it the same way they did it in the movie, which is by cutting up a Vietnam era pressure flight suit and altering it HEAVILY.
If you look at the images of the actual costume on display here: [link] On the right side of the hip there is a finished hole, through which an air hose is attached to the plane and on the inside of the flight suit there are rubber air bags sewn in that expand with air and compress the pilot's body parts so they won't pass out from all the flight maneuvers.
Brian was able to get his hands on such a flight suit for me and I spent hours seam ripping the inside air bags and the pressure tubes that followed the length of the arms, legs and back of the suit.
Then I chopped it in half and replaced the zipper, made the pants into chaps, lined them, and used the left over matching fabric to make the hat. I had to make my own pattern for the hat.
The gun/magazine holster and belt were the next to tackle, and I give many thanks to Kathy of GodSaveTheQueenFashions for helping me pick out the leathers and tools and showing me leather working techniques. I used a heavy veg tan leather hide and made my own pattern for the pieces, cut them out and punched stitching holes for hours. Then heavy duty snaps were added as well as D-rings. After making all the pieces, I hand dyed them black and shined them up. It took about a day and a half to make and assemble the whole get-up.
The gloves are neoprene and leather.
Last pieces to make were the panties, bra and choker, and thank God I found the right pleated trim. I altered a bra by adding the zipper and the trim, same with the panties. Add some fishnets and a lollipop and I was ready to kill zombie nazis!

I'll say that by the end of SDCC, I had eaten 6 lollipops and was pretty sick of them. Thinking of casting a fake lollipop, but then I'd have to put plastic in my mouth ugh.

Looking forward to more Sucker Punch timez with my ladies at Dragoncon!

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