Ah. A convention.
A gathering of like-minded people coming together to just plain geek out. I’m really not sure there can be a greater place to be. Even for me and my awkward social anxieties.
I had a few.
Did I say few? I meant many.
Did I say had? I meant still have to this very day.
After having been into anime for a while I decided to go to my first convention. I felt like I had waited a little too long to experience this wonder of fandom. I was 22 and had been a fan of anime for at least…geez…10 years. What hell took me so long?. Well, lack of money probably had something to do with it.
Even with my mild fear and not liking to draw attention to myself, I was going to take the plunge and cosplay. My husband (then boyfriend) was surprised at this. He couldn’t believe that I would put myself in a situation where I would have to interact with people I didn’t know and have to *gasp* talk to them! But I was committed and we got our tickets for Anime Central (ACen for those in the know).
I decided that my first ever cosplay was going to be Lucy from “Elfen Lied”. I had just finished the series and I had really enjoyed it. I love a dark gory anime, even now. Not only did I like the anime, but at the time, my hair was super long, almost all the way down my back. So I was going to dye it pink (OMG) and get myself a costume.
This is the outfit I was going to make. Only problem, I had (and have) zero sewing skills. At most I could sew on a button, but it wouldn’t look nice or hold up over time. The only solution I had was to go shopping. But then there is that lack of money thing again, so to the thrift store I went. This was the start of it all.
The pieces themselves weren’t all that hard to find. A pink long sleeve shirt, a red tank top, a yellow skirt. I think I may have spent less than $10 on those three pieces. Next was her hat. I went to Joann Fabrics and bought some fabric and cute little puff balls and some lace for the tank top. Again, super cheap.
I still needed some help with the sewing, so I went to my younger sister and had her sew on the lace, make a quick hat and shorten the sleeves of the pink shirt. She did a great job.
As you can see in the picture the pink hair dye didn’t take to well, but I was really happy with it. And in case you are wondering, yes I did make a pair of horns. They were made out of white polymer clay that had a little sparkle in it. they came out so nice.
I met this girl who was dressed as Lucy in the wrappings who was great. She flagged me down before I could even get in and wanted to take a picture with me. This was amazing to me. Someone wanted to take a picture with me? I couldn’t believe it. I sourced this cosplay well enough that other people liked it and (most importantly) recognized who I was. What a great feeling. And a great picture, too.
She knew what she was doing. I didn’t. But it was still a great picture. I had this problem the whole con of not knowing what to do with myself when people took my picture, so I just sort of stood there. I had never done this before and I was like that scene in Talladega Nights when Ricky Bobby keeps putting his hands up in the frame awkwardly. I’m sure it was hilarious to my husband.
Anyway, I had a great time for the whole weekend at ACen that year. It was the beginning of my love of cosplay and it showed me that I don’t need to be a master seamstress to make a costume.
thriftstorecosplay 