progress today! blocked out and cut fabric for higanbana's blouse, and picked up trim for the collar + pin pleats + ribbon. ready to start sewing... actually i'm a lil uneasy abt how thin the fabric turned out to be but we'll see how it turns out

one asked what i was using the trim for so i got to take out my phone and introduce a bunch of people to dancing higanbana. her influence will continue to grow

thank you! to be honest, that might change next year - i am absolutely considering selling this stuff as an income source if my job hunt situation continues. i do take pride in my work, so i'm glad that it impresses people ^_^

i'm still waiting on delivery of the 7 (!) yards of lining for her skirt / petticoat, / blazer! 😭 so i'll be starting with her blouse! as always, i hope for an easy build; sewing is 80% preparation, right...?

re-visiting the breakdown, there aren't any other unknowns:
- wig + thigh-socks + shoes are all out-of-the-box items supplied by the wearer
- the hair ribbon is just a ribbon w/ lace trim, can be pinned to wig
- i already built the nametag once for marie, it's easy

the last main garment is the puffy blouse. i did a prototype at the end of october; it still needs work, but i have it mostly figured out. definitely the most challenging garment on construction: button-up blouses are complicated even without trim, pin-pleats and two-tier collars

in september i also prototyped her blazer. this was modified from an existing pattern (the itch to stitch jacket which i also used for the st. lucia academy uniform), now converted to a waist-length blazer with pointy shoulders. it has phone-sized liner pockets which i am pretty proud of ^_^

the skirt is meant to fit both me and a friend (she's also meant to pair with my existing marie cosplay), so i designed the waistband with a hybrid elastic-drawstring setup. elastic keeps sizing flexible + cinching on the back; the drawstring securely holds her up at the waist!

then i drafted her skirt (i ended up doing 1/2 rather than the 2/3 circle initially proposed) & built the prototype in october. the skirt pattern has now been revised + has a matching high-low petticoat; it's easily the centerpiece of the costume imo!!

this started with a breakdown of the costume back before otakon. there's lots of surprising nuance: like her dress shirt is actually an off-white vs. the pure white of her skirt... if i'm gonna build her i want to build her right yknow

it's interesting to me that there hasn't really been a breakout indie hit that's clearly just doing metroid prime the way we've had games that are doing super metroid, but i think that speaks to how rare it is to get something that dialed-in with that quality of execution

i watched the footage and it seems like this is more of a limited section that'll presumably rotate through the cast rather than how the whole game is. it's not what i want from a new prime game, but some of the reactions seem a little overblown. i dunno. we'll see the reviews

i thought it was a mistake to even have named characters delivering prerecorded voice messages in prime 2, but that ship sailed when i was in middle school. there's never gonna be another one as oppressive and lonely as prime 1

i also need to make a few templates from her kagura suzu mace - yes i am making the mace too! fortunately there's lots of good screenshots out there that capturing the details

(i suppose i could just datamine for raw textures but that's less fun to me)