Crochet Frank the Bunny from Donnie Darko Amigurumi

A few years back I crocheted a Donnie Darko amigurumi. I had intentions of making a Frank but took me a while to get to it. I crocheted his base last year but got stuck on his bunny mask. I put off finishing him for over a year and finally got around to making the mask. I used this pattern here for his base. I used a pet brush to comb out the yarn once I was finished to give him that fur effect.

I used two different colored safety eyes. One brown one for his regular eye and one black one for the shot out eye. I used red puffy paint for the blood around his shot out eye. I sewed his mouth by pulling yarn through the back and around the front where I wanted it to be and then putting the yarn back inside. I just tied it in a knot and called it good. For his hair I used longer pieces of yarn for the top and filled in the rest by sewing it in.

For the mask I crocheted a piece that would fit around his head. I brushed it out to give it the fur effect. I drew a template of the bunny face and then cut it out of felt. I glued the eyes, teeth, and nose/forehead piece to the base. I painted it with silver metallic paint and added details and dimension with chalk pastels.

I think that is basically all I did to make my Frank. I'm not 100% happy with him and it is not my best work but I think overall he looks pretty good!

Leela from Futurama Cosplay

I mentioned in a previous post that I really love Futurama. It is my favorite show of all time so when I started getting more into cosplay Leela was an obvious choice. She dresses like I do normally so I figured she wouldn't be too difficult to put together. 

For her outfit:

This one is easy. I already owned the white tank top and black leggings. I bought a purple wig off of Amazon. I bought a pair of black boots from Payless (RIP) and painted the boots grey. I taped off where I wanted the boot strap details.

For her armband:

I used the pattern for the thing she wears on her wrist (haha) from this website here.  I cut it out of foam. I cut out the design on the arm band to match Leela's in the show. I primed the foam with watered down white glue and painted it a teal color. I cut another piece of foam that I had primed and painted dark blue. I just glued that on the inside of the arm cuff where I cut out the design. I used velcro to secure it on my wrist.

This thing has seen better days. It has been to 4 cons in 3 different states.

For her eye:

I used plastic canvas that I believe is used for cross stitch. I cut out a bean shape with eyelashes on it. I used black felt for the pupil and eyelashes. I glued those on with hot glue. I tied thin elastic to it so it can go around my head. I have a rough pattern I drew that you can find here.

That's it! Leela is pretty easy cosplay to put together but I thought I would share my own interpretation of her. My partner bought me Nibbler so he's a perfect addition to the costume.

If you have any questions feel free to ask me. I am normally pretty quick to respond. Follow me on instagram for more up to date posts and pictures @cherelledx. 

Princess Carolyn from Bojack Horseman Cosplay

I started watching Bojack Horseman in 2017. I instantly fell in love with it. I think it is a very smart, witty and real show and the characters are awesome even with all their flaws. My partner and I were deciding on what to dress up as for Halloween in 2017. We landed on Bojack Horseman and Princess Carolyn kind of by accident. We put both the costumes together in about 2 days and used a lot of materials I already had laying around. I think all of one person recognized us on Halloween. We've worn them to conventions about 3 times by now and they always get a good response.


For her outfit:

The yellow cardigan was a lucky thrift store find. The teal dress was a lucky Target clearance buy. The dress isn't 100% accurate but it is pretty close. I glued yellow fish that I cut out of felt onto the dress in a diagonal pattern to match her pattern on the dress. The belt I already owned. I bought pink fuzzy gloves from the dollar store. For her shoes I bought black pumps and painted them red with red leather paint. I wish I would have taken more pictures of all of this but when I was putting this together I was just in the zone and completely forgot!

For her necklace:

I used yellow ribbon for the choker part that I just tied around my neck. The jewel part is made out of perler/melty beads. I glued an eye pin to the ribbon and to the charm that I made and used a jump ring to connect them.

This is stained pink from all the pink body paint (haha)

For her ears:

I cut the ear shape out of craft foam so that there are two connected. Then I wrapped the ears around a headband and glued them together. I primed the ears with glue and painted them pink. I added the black lines with sharpie.

Makeup, hair, and turning yourself pink:

The first few times I wore this costume I did my makeup and hair. I am not the best at makeup or hair to be honest. I painted my face and exposed skin with pink water based body paint. Used purple eyeshadows to give myself a smoky eye and used black eyeliner for a cat eye and whiskers. For my hair I gave myself Princess Carolyn's signature hair bump and sprayed it with pink hair spray. I never could decide which way to wear my hair. For turning my legs pink I dyed white tights with Kool-Aid. There are plenty of tutorials on how to do color something with Kool-Aid. This method works really well and I've even been able to wash them!

This is what the white tights looked like before. 

 

At one of the conventions I went to I saw some other Bj & PC cosplayers that had made masks for themselves. I decided I was tired of doing my hair and makeup before the con and that I would make my own mask. I used the Paper Mache baloon method. I followed a tutorial pretty closely that can be found here.

Make a balloon base. Try it on. Look like Mysterio. 

I added the details with cardboard and attached them with masking tape. I used thicker cardboard for her ears and thinner cardboard for her hair and fur. Then I covered all of that in paper mache. 

 

After the paper mache dried. I primed it with white Gesso. Then painted it pink. Cut out the eye holes. I added the details with black sharpie and a white acrylic paint marker. I added black pipe cleaners as her whiskers and just hot glued them on to the mask. I can't really see or hear out of the mask so I carry it around with me at cons and if somebody asks for a picture I will just put it on then. 

That's how I made my Princess Carolyn costume. I hope this helps if you are on your own quest to making your own PC costume. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I am normally pretty quick to respond. Follow me on instagram @cherelledx. I post more up to date pictures and progress on projects there!

The IT Crowd Cosplay: Moss & Roy

The IT Crowd is one of my all time favorite shows. When my partner (Devin) and I started dating he had never seen the show before. I told him to watch it and he instantly fell in love. It is one of the shows that we constantly quote from. Last fall we went to Santa Fe Comic Con for his birthday. I wanted to make a new costume but didn't have a lot of time. I had the idea to dress up as Moss & Roy. This is essentially a closet cosplay. 

I got all of the stuff for Moss at the thrift store. Luckily it was around Halloween so they had a lot of costume items out. I was able to find the afro wig for pretty cheap. The wig was really easy to style. I just parted it where I wanted it and then just pinned the back down so it wasn't totally round. I bought the shirt, tie, and pants from the thrift store. The watch we already owned. The glasses are my real glasses. (haha)

For Roy we had to decide what shirt from the show to recreate. We decided on the Space Invaders shirt because it is the shirt he wears in the first episode and the one he has in the opening theme. We just printed it on fabric transfer paper and ironed it on a plain black shirt the day of the con. I bought the army green jacket from the army surplus store. We printed a sign out on computer paper and called it a day. 

Every time we wear these costumes they always seem like a big hit. We've worn them to three cons at this point. It is always fun to see people's reaction to them. Most people will recognize me as Moss first and then when Devin shows them the sign they get more excited. Moss & Roy have turned into our favorite casual, easy day cosplay. 

"Couldn't we just have hidden behind those bins?"

Check out my instagram for more up to date posts and things that I am currently making @cherelledx and check out Devin too @lyn2win! 

Soldier 76 Grillmaster Cosplay

Last summer I bought a PS4 and was playing a lot of Overwatch. My partner (Devin) and I decided to dress up as Soldier 76 and D.VA for Denver Comic Con. We didn't finish them in time so we wore them for Colorado Springs Comic Con instead. This cosplay was deceptively difficult to make. I didn't think it would take very long but it has a lot of little details. Anyway here is how I did it.

Apron

First things first was the apron! I used an easy pattern to make the base apron. (I don't remember which one.) We bought a spatula and tongs from the Dollar Tree, spray painted them black and added the neon details. The spices were just empty spice jars from my cabinet that I spray painted the lids black.

For the pockets I made a pattern out of paper. I used two pieces of fabric and sewed them, right sides together, then turned them inside out to form a strip. I folded that strip into thirds to form the pocket. They are useable pockets albeit not very good or big ones. I sewed them on the apron with black thread to kind of match the original design. I left the bottom open so I could add the silver wire detail. I added silver rivets to the top flaps of the pockets and I glued black bias tape to the top flap as well.

  

I attached the tongs by making button holes where I thought they should go. I painted hooks from the dollar tree to match the fabric and put them through the button holes. I just glued them in place and they held pretty well. If I had more time I probably would have sewn a patch over the hooks on the back for extra security. Then we just used hair ties to keep the tongs/spatula on the hooks.

To attach the spices I used two strips of fabric. Sewed them right sides together, then turned them inside out. I placed the spices where I wanted them to be and pinned the fabric around them so that the fabric would hold them in place. Then I just sewed the strip of fabric where I pinned it. Then put the spices back in and they held all day pretty well. 

For the "Raise the Steaks" and "Dang!" details we took them to a place to get screen printed but I do not suggest this entirely because they didn't do what we had asked. I personally am a control freak and I don't like giving away creative control to somebody else. I have a PDF for a graphic that I made on google docs here. The first go around of the apron we tried to paint it on but the stencil got stuck to the apron and it didn't work out that well but if we had more time it would have worked better I think. It is all a learning process and the end result turned out fine. 

Shirt

Remember you're painting Hawaiian flowers and not four leaf clovers. (haha) Luckily I only painted one bad one and was able to fix the rest. 

For the Hawaiian shirt we just bought a red shirt from the thrift store. I painted on the Hawaiian flowers. I tried to use stencils but found it to be more difficult than it needed to be. I just free handed them with chalk and then painted them with white paint. The 76 on the back is cut out from felt and glued on to the back. I have PDFs of the 76 you can download. I hand drew them myself. For the 7 you can find it here and for the 6 you can find it here. 

Arm Band

For the arm band I just used a children's belt from the thrift store and cut it down to fit around Devin's arm. I spray painted empty soda cans silver. 

I created a graphic for the cans out of pictures online. Then printed it out on normal printer paper. It is not the best but it gets the job done. You can find the PDF for it here. I just used Mod Podge to glue the graphic on the cans.

I cut down another belt I bought from the thrift store and glued those pieces around the cans. Then glued the cans onto the arm belt.

Shorts, Sandals, Watch, & other small details

Nothing too crazy here. We bought a pair of cargo shorts from the thrift store. Bought the dad sandals at Kohl's. The watch and socks Devin already owned. We sprayed his hair and beard with white hair spray. We made scars out of liquid latex and lipstick. The sunglasses we bought from the thrift store. The dish towel we bought at the Dollar Tree and just stuck it in one of the short's pockets. 

All in all I think this cosplay came out really well. It was well received. I think my favorite part of wearing our Overwatch cosplays was when a little kid came up to us all excited and told us that these were the skins they had on their players.

Found a cool McCree. I'll post how I made my D.VA in another post!

I think I would like to add some of the other details from this skin  but haven't found another con that we will wear these to. Just have to wait for Overwatch 2!

I hope this was helpful if you are on your own quest to making a Grillmaster 76 cosplay! If you have any questions feel free to contact me! I am normally pretty quick to respond. Check out my instagram for more up to date progress and pictures @cherelledx! Also check out Devin's Instagram @Lyn2win 

Bender Tile Graffiti Granny Square Blanket

One thing about me is that I absolutely love Futurama. It has become such a big part of my life. I quote it on a regular basis, have t-shirts, stickers on my car, and I have cosplayed from it as well. So when I saw the episode Proposition Infinity, I knew I had to make Bender's tile graffiti into a granny square blanket. 

I have never made a granny square blanket or even a granny square before so it was definitely a learning experience. I used this tutorial for the squares and this tutorial to stitch them together. I fleece lined it as well using this tutorial. It took me about two years to finish crocheting all the squares, stitching them together (because I did it wrong) and fleece lining it. I am a pretty slow worker. 

Overall I am pretty happy with how it came out and it is really comfy and warm. It does sort of class up the place. ;)

Follow me on instagram for more up to date projects that I am working on @cherelledx!