I can has: Card Captor Sakura's Star Staff

When I first cosplayed Sakura from Card Captor Sakura, I only borrowed a staff because I didn't have time to make one. Months later, I had the urge to make a staff for myself, so I picked up some scrap rubber sheet (remnants of some other props project I made months ago), bought a new can of spray paint, bought gems, and looked for the perfect star tutorial online for the staff head.

Finding a material for the star was difficult. Most online tutorials only cater to stars made out of paper, and we all know that paper won't stand spray paint, plus they'll get destroyed easily. Paper mache is another option, but I don't have time to do that.

Finally, after a tiring day from work, I dropped by the department store and there was a perfect star with the perfect size in the Christmas ornament bin! Ha! XD

Two nights later, I finally have my own star staff:


Staff Head.

The wing part was only temporary because I ran out of white paint to cover the rubber sheet wings. The red gem was bought from Divisoria.



Here's the staff in full. I think its about 2/5 ft long, including the staff head. I still need to update the bottom part, which needs a red gem as well.

The head and bottom of the staff are detachable, which makes it easier for me to carry it while travelling.


If you're interested in having a Star Staff made, I would be more than happy to make one for you! I think I can still make two more, since I still have two extra stars at home. Just leave a message here. :D

Thanks for reading!

Commission: Fleece Hat with Ear Flaps

Hello! I recently finished two commissioned hats for my Mom's officemate. Here they are!



Purple


Red

I'm not really sure how these are called - fleece beanies with ear flaps? Haha. I need to do my research. At least I was able to make them exactly as my client described.

I used the basic fleece hat pattern by clearkid (from deviantart), then modified the bottom part to accommodate the ear flaps (apparently, he/she already put up a tutorial for hats with ear flaps. I only discovered this after I made the purple hat). To make the yarn pom-poms, I used a tiny pompom maker device that looks like this:



Photo from shoponline2011.com

I got mine from a local anime convention for only 50 pesos! As for the type of yarn, I use the brand Red Heart since it produces the best-looking pompoms. I believe you can make your own pompom maker with circular pieces of cardboard, but I haven't tried that method yet. I'll put up a tutorial as soon as I get to try that.

First Chikara Hats

Whenever I go to anime conventions here in the Philippines, I always see stalls selling chikara hats. I find them really cute. I would've bought one but somehow conventions are always scheduled on the days when I'm broke. Haha. There's a cheaper version of chikara hats though (the ones made with soft felt), but I want the fleece ones since they're soft and are easy to maintain - just throw them in the washing machine and they're good as new.

Being the cheapo that I am, I decided to just make one on my own. I Googled for possible sources locally and by some luck, I found a blogpost about an awesome fabric shop in Divisoria! Days later, I made myself this:



And this,



I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I used a tutorial on making the hat base from Deviantart (I will look for that tut, I promise!) and did the ear pattern myself. They were my first ones and I'm pretty happy with the results.

Here's a pic of me wearing the bunny hat:




I'm currently accepting commissions on these hats (plus some other hats that I will be blogging about in the next few days). If you're interested, just leave a message here or send me an email at madz.nievera@yahoo.com.

Hello World!

Hello! Welcome to DIY Lunacy! This will be my little corner here in Blogspot for all my sewing and D.I.Y projects.

I've been making small accessories and trinkets for a few years now. It started when I was browsing online lolita shops back in college - I wanted to buy a lot of their stuff but my poor wallet cannot buy any of those pretty accessories. So I decided to test my creativity. I scoured for easy online tutorials, picked up a yards of lace and ribbons, and made myself a lolita headpiece.



And another,



then a choker.



A lot of my friends liked my work, some even encouraged me to sell them online (I tried, and failed though. haha).

Back then, I was starting to get into cosplaying as well - a pretty pricey hobby for a college student with a meager allowance. With a bit of creativity and keen eye on detail, I started to play with other materials and ended up making a chest plate and crown for my Princess Emeraude costume.



Right now, I'm mostly making plushies (yes, plushies!) which I will be sharing to you guys very soon! So stay tuned, and thank you for visiting DIY Lunacy!