Throwback Thursday: Jushiro Ukitake cosplay from Bleach!

Hello you all!

This will be my last Throwback Thursday post for this time and it's gonna feature my fourth cosplay (fifth, if we count an OC) who, just like Ichigo on my first post, is a Bleach shinigami. The difference is that this time we'll be climbing up the ranks to a captain!

Ever since I found some really old cosplay WIP photos in the deep dark corners of my laptop I've been wanting to do something with them – like, for example, show them to the world because we all started somewhere. Yes, I totally took progress photos before I even started cosplay blogging. 

This means that, once a week, on Thursdays (because it's called Throwback Thursday for a reason), I will invite you all to experience a 'blast of the past' with me – featuring old cosplay photos, WIPs and stories ranging from late 2009 to 2011. Fasten your seatbelts, we're gonna be riding the time machine one last time and you'll get to backtrack into my cosplay history and see some never-published-before photos on this here blog!  
Be warned that this, naturally, means a lot of (potential) embarrassment for me and highly varying photo quality for you. ;) I only had a crummy compact camera back then and didn't even notice if a photo was blurry or not...

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Jushiro Ukitake. Bleach.

Ah, good old Ukitake. He's the captain of the 13th Division in Soul Society and, despite having a fatal illness (similar in symptoms to Tuberculosis, although I'm not sure if it was ever officially revealed), he kicks some serious ass. He's a well-liked and highly honorable man who treats even enemies and those weaker than him with respect. Ukitake has a high moral code as well and goes out of his way to protect those he cares for. He's a really kind and likable guy who dislikes unnecessary bloodshed – he's the shinigami cinnamon roll, in other words.

From the first time I saw him in the manga he has been my ultimate favorite character in Bleach. I have a bias towards white-haired/long-haired guys anyway, lol. He will always be a dear character to me and, even though I haven't followed Bleach for years, I can't stop caring about him and wondering what has happened to him since then. Jushiro Ukitake to me is not just any fictional character – he is so much more. I know this probably sounds cliché but he is tied to me on a deeper level, because of a really personal experience, which happened almost exactly 6 years ago from today. I know that the story below may sound unbelievable but I want to assure you that it's all 100% true. Read it if you want but I warn you, it's quite long and not really a happy one.

~storytime~

A long time ago, during the year 2011 and when I still lived at my mom's, I had decided that I wanted to start working on my next cosplay. I was aware that on an upcoming weekend the following Monday would be off from school, which meant a 3-day weekend to spend on cosplay making. I had planned to start working on my Ukitake cosplay on said weekend, which was now some few weeks away. This 3-day weekend was in the end of January or beginning of February, I'm sorry I can't remember more exactly.
So I waited and waited and on the Friday, the day before, I suddenly got struck with a headache and felt very slow and tired on the morning. I still went to school, not thinking too much about it.
When school was over I went home to one of my friends, who lived near school back then. While there I started freezing like hell and shivering the whole time. So when I finally got home (I had to wait for mom to finish work and pick me up) I had developed a fever and was declared sick. Oh well, I though at first that it was nothing more than a common cold, but after five days the fever didn't go away (it became worse, if anything!) and so we had to go to the health care center. There they listened to my lungs, took some x-rays and stuff and they soon found out that I had some defects in my lungs, gave me medicine and sent me home. Please note that because I'm scared of hospitals they gave us the option to continue at home.
Some days go by and my condition keeps getting worse, I couldn't hardly do as much as get up from the bed without feeling like I'd collapse or some such. Just simply walking around the house had never been so hard before. So yeah, you can guess that I couldn't work on my cosplay and oh dang, was I disappointed.

The week before the third Kitacon was to be held (Kemi, Finland) –which I had been looking forward to since forever– I had to leave for the hospital in Kemi because my condition was... alarming. Needless to say I couldn't attend Kitacon and the worst part was that the con was so close to the hospital that I could have thrown a stone from the hospital's parking lot and hit the con building. So yeah, meanwhile my friends were having fun at the convention I was stuck in an isolated hospital room, fearing that I'd die. It was horrible. I could even see the convention from my window. At least my mom went there and bought me stuff like Pocky and a Byakuya Kuchiki plush. #momgoals

At the hospital I got a room far back in the corridor. All the rooms were numbered and I got room number................. 13. Thirteen, just like in Ukitake's Division. When mom said that (yes, I had to ask her because I wasn't allowed to leave the room and, physically, I couldn't anyway) I would have burst out laughing, had I not completely lost my voice and, even if I tried to laugh, it would have immediately turned into cough attacks and I can't even start to describe how painful those were. The closest I can think of is to imagine that a shitlot of needles stabbed your chest for every single cough – and I coughed 24/7. All the time.
The reason why I got a room so far back is because the doctors wanted to isolate me and my mystery disease, as a safety precaution. This meant that except for getting room number 13 I also didn't have to share it with anyone, which was a luxury in misfortune. I remember how hard it was to get up from bed and walk those five steps to the bathroom – heck, even when I was just lying in my bed, not lifting a single finger, it still felt like I was endlessly running for my life; I remember even telling my mom that it feels like I'm constantly running a marathon. I don't even want to know what my heart rates might have looked like because they must have been in the skies. There's that one early morning I remember being woken up by a nurse and she, half-jokingly yet in a concerned voice, asked me if I was alive – my blood pressure was way too low and I assume I looked like a ghost...

I also had to use a nasal cannula because I had respiratory problems and couldn't breathe sufficiently on my own. I could easily take it off though and put it back on and I remember how even being a short time without the breathing aid felt like slowly choking. Don't ask me why I messed around with it, it was semi-annoying to wear and would dry out my nose sometimes.

I was in the hospital for a week and the doctors didn't know what the hell I had gotten. They thought at first that it was H1N1 but the tests were negative. I had to take several different antibiotics (not everything at once though) because this sickness was immune to almost everything – now that was scary. I actually legit cried during the nights because I was too afraid of sleeping, thinking that I might never wake up again – and it wasn't even an irrational fear, it was highly real.
Not to mention that I had 41 C° fever going on and off in waves, which was pure torture. I've read somewhere that 42 C° fever is enough to cause irreversible brain damage and, in the worst case, possible death so yeah, 41 C° is pretty damn horrible in itself and I don't want anyone to experience that. The fever came and went really suddenly and thus, whenever it struck, it made me shake violently and just feel generally miserable; I remember being in so much discomfort I had to press the buttons to get a nurse to come with gel coolers because it was unbearable, those seconds I had to wait felt like the longest in my life. Do you know that feeling when you're in so much pain that your body starts crying unwillingly? That was my everyday whenever the fever hit me...
So, at last, they gave me this one antibiotic and I remember the doctor saying that normally they wouldn't give it to people under 18 years (which I was at the time), unless as a last resort – that one actually helped. Sweet Jesus, the relief.
Afterwards I got to know what it was that I had – I was MYPM positive, Mycoplasma Pneumoniae. There's a 10% risk, I read, that when getting this sickness (which starts of as a common cold) it evolves into pneumonia and, because I'm such a sure-fire Donald Duck, I of course got it. ._. MYPM is also known as "walking pneumonia" and I've read that it's actually the least scary kind of pneumonia (my ass!) and that's because it's a mild one and does not generally require hospitalization; you could have walking pneumonia and not even know about it. And then there's me who, on top of it all, got a double-sided case and it was bad enough for me to balance on the brink of death for a week. Fuck my life. :)) I was born with underdeveloped lungs (and anemia) and I've had childhood asthma as well, which could be a reason for why it seems that I'm prone to get shit in my lungs...

I still remember clearly that final day in the hospital, when they had decided that my condition was decent enough to let me back home – two nurses came to assist me in leaving the bed and doing a test-walk in the corridor. They had to support me from both sides and even then I barely managed to walk more than a dozen steps without feeling like everything was blackening rapidly before my eyes. It still feels like it could have been yesterday – my body was disobeying me; never has it been so extremely hard to do something as simple as walk and breathe at the same time. It's something we take for granted and when you realize that something so ordinary gets taken away from you it... it feels unreal. It destroys you in a way. It's hard to find words for it.
I had to use a wheelchair to get to the main entrance after the test-walk (they deemed that I couldn't walk on my own, obviously the right choice) and I remember how other patients, of all ages, around the hospital looked silently at me during the way down; I still wonder what they were thinking. All of this has burned into my memory – the helplessness, the fear, the uncertainty, having death breathing on my neck. Ever since then February has never come without me being anxious, scared and just extremely uncomfortable. Some years later during two separate occasions, around the same time of the month, two different family members got into life-threatening situations as well. I'm rightfully traumatized by February...

Because of all this Ukitake nowadays has a really special place in my heart. This cosplay and character means a lot to me – it's a memory to not take life for granted, to stay strong and believe in yourself. I'm glad that I survived, it can't even really be put into words the gratitude that I felt and still, to this day, feel from being spared from death's grip. Just because you are young doesn't mean that you're immortal; I used to think that nothing will happen to me yet but oh lord, so very wrong I was.
I guess it's a human trait to deny one's own mortality...

tl;dr - I got a serious, life-threatening lung sickness one day before I was going to start working on my Ukitake cosplay. I got hospital room number 13. Let that sink in.

~storytime end~

Okay, so with that cleared up it's time to talk about the costume process. ^^
Because I already had a shinigami shihakusho (the black robes and hakama), from my Ichigo Kurosaki cosplay, I already had a big part of my Ukitake cosplay done – I just needed to get a wig, make the captain's haori and make Ukitake's zanpakuto. I tend to call the white overcoat a haori but some people refer to it just simply as captain's coat or cloak or whatever.

I started to work on this cosplay some time after I got home from the hospital, which means in early 2011, possibly around March. Back then I lived at my mom's (same goes for the other TBT cosplays I've posted about) and so I had easy access to a sewing machine etc and also woodwork opportunities

– which meant that making Ukitake's zanpakuto myself was not a problem. But I'll get to the sword making later, first I'll talk about the haori progress. ;) You see, my mom is a former fabric store owner and once she closed her business she ended up with a lot of leftover fabrics and well, this has been extremely useful for me as a cosplayer – free fabrics! :D Yes, this haori didn't cost me a single cent because we had fitting fabrics at home. 

Warning: almost all of the photos below are of poor quality, especially the progress pics. They are almost all taken with my old compact camera and originate from 2011-2012.

13th Division insignia sewn on.

Above is the first progress photo I have of this project. I had already appliqued on the squad insignia really carefully; I had to measure it to make it the right size and attach it at the center. The details and strokes I paid a lot of attention to and decided to make them as how they appear in the manga, aka more calligraphy styled – I'm still to this day really proud of how it turned out. I've also gotten a lot of compliments on the insignia, haha. The insignia is made out of some ordinary black cotton fabric and it's backed with interfacing fabric, so to not wrinkle once sewn on.

The haori itself is made out of some kind of heavier off-white bridal fabric, possibly a cotton blend. It's extremely pretty, has a very slight shine to it, drapes very nicely (despite its weight) and just overall is a quality fabric that feels luxurious. I thought it would be perfect for a captain's haori because of the high rank.

Lining cut out and "tried on". Bottom details done.

The fabric that I used for the lining is actually not a proper lining fabric – it's a deep red/crimson quality satin, I think. It's not as thin and overall shitty as satin fabric tends to be. Mom had good fabrics. 

All those details on the bottom of the haori are appliqued on in the same way as the division insignia, and of the same fabric. It was extremely tedious because I had to carefully measure the distances so to not screw up a single centimeter. I'm still surprised that I didn't mess it up and it ended up looking really professional. It surely took a lot of time and patience but it was so worth it!

Finished Ukitake haori. Front.
(flash photo)

Finished Ukitake haori. Back.
(flash photo)

The haori was so beautiful when it was still new. ;_; I'm so angry at myself for ruining it at that one convention many years ago, just thinking about it makes me want to punch myself... in the face... with a frying pan. LU BU SMASH!!
The story goes like this: at Finncon-Animecon in 2011, which was held in Turku (Finland), I did a terrible mistake that I regret hard to this day. Me and my brother were sharing a hotel room for the con. On con mornings it was common practice for us to always put on our costumes in the hotel before leaving for the con, so much easier that way. I still do it. The weather was cloudy and gray while we were walking towards the convention, which was maybe half a kilometer away or something, can't remember. Oh well, guess what happened? It started raining, of fuckin' course. :)) And of course did neither of us have an umbrella at hand. So yeah, I ask my bro to go to the nearest shop to buy one and just one; we were cheap and didn't have much money on us. He comes back with one umbrella and we continue walking.
I notice that there's pools of water on the streets and it's raining quite heavily. I also notice that, to my utmost horror, my shoes (zori) are flinging up the shitty water onto the lower half of my coat while I'm walking. But at this point I really can't do anything because we're half-way away from the hotel and the damage has already been done so yeah, I continue walking and thus destroying my cosplay further with every step I take. Just imagine the mental self-hate and regret going on in my head. I'd probably had cried if it wasn't that I was so motherfucking angry at myself for not checking the weather forecast and putting on the cosplay at the con instead...
I remember that when I got to the con and met up with the Bleach cosplay group (my first cosplay group in Finland and from which I got some lasting friends) some of the cosplayers were worried and pointed out how dirty my coat was. I mentally panicked. Luckily the Rukia cosplayer quickly escorted me to the nearest bathroom and helped me clean off the big chunks of dirt; I'm still really thankful for the help because really, I was on the verge of a breakdown. ;_; We managed to get the worst shit off but my cosplay still looked horrible and cry-worthy – the lower half of the coat was a muddy grayish brown and filled with stains and just completely soaked. I just wanted to disappear and pretend that it didn't happen. It was horrible, I felt so bad – I had just ruined my nicest cosplay for good and it was only the second time I ever wore it to a con (the debut con was Uppcon 2011). The disappointment was real.
Once I got back to my dad outside Stockholm (we took the Finland ferry to the con and then back; it was during our summer vacation when I visited dad) his wive put the haori in the washing machine. After that it got notably cleaner but there's still some faint stains left, but that's not the main problem – the problem is that it shrunk unevenly. You see, I never pre-wash my cosplay fabrics (I can't be bothered because most times you never really need to wash a costume because it either can't stand it or it won't be worn often enough) and, well, the white fabric shrunk while the lining fabric did not. This makes it so that the sleeve mouths and the bottom is constantly "rolled up" and it just... looks ugly. It's the main reason why this costume hasn't been worn since 2013, even though it's one of my favorite and signature cosplays and I would have loved to wear it out more – I'm just so terribly ashamed and regretting that I messed it up. I hate myself for it, even to this day...
Psst, many years ago I even made a rage comic about the situation.

This is the best photo I have in regards to showing off the back's
bottom detailing.

Above is one of the only photos of the haori that shows off the back nicely, especially the hem details. It's actually an unintentional/candid shot – I was just about to stand up, after having been lying on the ground for some other photos, when my friend snapped this one.
Nowadays I'm really happy that this photo was taken because it's probably the best one in regards to showing off the bottom details of the haori, before it got fucked up of course.

But now, let's talk about the coolest part of this cosplay and what greatly added to the wow-factor of my costume on the old days of deviantArt – namely the swords. You see, I wanted to stand out and be mega cool and so I tackled the challenge of making Ukitake's shikai, aka the released form of his zanpakuto – Sogyo no Kotowari. A bit of an intimidating project for some, perhaps... but I did it. I guess my thought process was something along the lines of "I've done Ichigo's shikai Zangetsu so this shouldn't be so much harder...", lol.

As per usual I started out by making wooden bases. Cutting out those 'secondary backward blades' was a bitch, to be honest. I had to be really careful not to accidentally break the swords while cutting, because of the thinness. I don't understand how those back-running blades could ever be useful in actual combat but oh well, it looks cool. xD Bleach logic.

Blades painted and tsuba is test inserted.

The blades are painted with silver spray paint for the edges and the black is actually just some kind of indoor paint meant for painting walls, lol. It worked and we had a whole can left over so why not? Getting the silver parts to be crisp and clean was a bit of challenge since I had to really carefully use masking tape to block out all the black parts before spraying. I remember having had to repaint the black along the meeting spots a couple times because the silver paint kept bleeding onto the black anyway.

Finished tsuba.

The tsuba are plywood (not 100% sure) with craft foam details and painted with gold spray paint. All Bleach shinigami have their own distinctive tsuba designs and so it's important to pay attention to the details. I remember having had a hard time finding clear reference images of the patterns back when I made these in 2011, you know, with inconsistent references and the like...

Habaki made out of clay.

I made the habaki, blade collar, out of air-drying clay. It was my first time working with modelling clay and it went well, except that the clay cracked a bit once it had dried (it shrinks). Luckily it's not really noticeable from a distance and so I never originally bothered with covering it up, probably mainly because I didn't know how to.
At this point I also attached the tsuba – they were tight enough as-is so I didn't have to fasten them with anything. Besides, I would thicken the handle anyway so the tsuba would get locked in place.

Habaki painted. Made five silver charms.

Same progress as above, just a different angle.

Ukitake's shikai has those weird metallic-looking silver charms hanging on the rope that connects the two blades. Back then I didn't even know what worbla was and so I made these by layering craft foam, sealing with a water-glue mixture and then spraypainting them silver. I used a cardboard cut-out as a template to get identical ones. It's not the sturdiest build ever and especially not on a windy day – I've had several of them bending/creasing badly at the thin 'neck' and I had to repair them with duct tape during the con. Ah, memories.

Additional pieces added to thicken the handles.

Close-up. Same progress as above.

Both of the handles were thickened by adding a block of wood to each side, which I then filed down and sanded until I got a comfortable, slightly rounded grip. The blocks are kept in place by two screws that I drilled in.

I learned how to do tsukamaki (Japanese handle wrapping) and wrapped the handles by myself, using some deep red satin ribbon. I used a bit of universal glue at specific spots to make sure that the wrapping would last and not come undone – it hasn't gotten loose yet.
I screwed on hooks at the end of each handle and from those I hung some square-shaped, err, things. xD I'm sorry but I really have no idea what those are called but I know they're used when making houses and stepdad happened to have a few in reserve, which I immediately thought would be perfect for Ukitake, lol. I spraypainted them gold (they were white originally), attached each one to its corresponding hook and then I got some wide satin ribbon to make the 'rope' – it was the best that I had readily available at home. 

Finished shikai form Sogyo no Kotowari.

Close-up view.

Those charms are actually sewn in place with fishing line onto the ribbon, which means that it always looks as if they're defying gravity. :D The stitches are invisible (thanks to the fishing line being transparent) yet super strong and I've never had problems with any of the charms coming lose, even though I've worn this cosplay out on very windy days.

I'm still really happy with the swords and surprised that I even managed to make them for friggin' 6 years ago – I mean, I barely knew how to use makeup back then, lmao. Yes, this was during the time when I thought that the only cosplay makeup one needed was a bit of powder and some really basic black pencil eyeliner, if even that. *cringes*

The good thing with this cosplay is that it's probably my most worn cosplay and thus there's plenty of old photos to be found; I've worn Ukitake to 8 conventions! The debut convention was Uppcon 2011 in Uppsala, Sweden. Sadly Uppcon doesn't exist anymore – the last one was held in 2012. It was Sweden's biggest convention back then (and also the most expensive) and I still remember that year I wore Ukitake so very clearly – it's probably one of my most memorable con experiences. I got so much attention, it was insane! I remember how I couldn't walk from place A to B, no matter the distance, without someone stopping me for either a picture, a hug or to comment on how awesome my cosplay/swords were. Just remembering it all makes me really warm and fuzzy inside. ♥ So much kindness and attention was overwhelming to me; I've never worn such a popular/attention-grabbing costume before or since then, haha. Then again, back then Bleach was still popular and I saw a lot of other Bleach cosplayers. It was surely one of my best convention experiences, even to this day. People were so kind to me, even though I was socially awkward, and I experienced some really memorable encounters.

One of my first Ukitake cosplay photos.

The photo above is one of my very first Ukitake photos, ever. I was trying to recreate a scene on which Ukitake would have collapsed from illness. It was probably the first time I ever tried out the full costume. I even remember how this photo was taken with my laptop, my old Mac. x) I used the inbuilt camera's timer and messed around with it. The quality was shitty but it was better than nothing at all because I rarely had a photographer available back then. This was also during the time when I raped all my photos with bleach filters and auto-blur-the-corner effects... :'DD

Another early photo. I blur-raped everything back then. x)

The wig was bought from Epic Cosplay and that was a good choice because their long wigs are known for not getting tangled as easily as other brands. I eventually had to replace my original wig with an identical new one because lazy me forgot to comb it thoroughly and so a horribly knotted mess slowly built itself onto the lower back of the wig, you know, the neck area where the undermost fibers are that keep touching your costume. I still have the first wig lying around somewhere, I've thought about cutting it short and using it for some other character. The second wig is still in usable condition, thankfully.

One of my first Ukitake selfies. 2011.

The photo above is one of my earlier tries at taking cosplay selfies. Do notice how I have zero eye makeup on! Back then I refused to wear any kind of eye makeup for Ukitake, mainly because "it made me look less like the character". I'm pretty sure that on this photo I've only darkened my eyebrows and, at most, I might have some powder on. I remember how I once, back then, tried doing him with black pencil eyeliner (I had nothing else) and it looked horrible and so I never did it again, lol. xD
I also want to mention that I've had a lot of people telling me how I'm their headcanon Ukitake or just generally the one with the best suited face for him that they've come across – it's really flattering, even to this day and, especially, because Ukitake is such a precious character to me. ;_; I've never been happy with my face (save for my eyes), to be honest, and so I never expected such comments, popularity nor that I'd really fit any character. It's still a weird thought to me, even though I can kinda see why people say it... weirdly enough. I'm sorry, I'm just rambling.

Early 2012.

The photo above is from my first tries at using fake blood. I was home alone one day, bored and decided to cosplay; randomly putting on cosplay at home when I was alone/bored was a really normal thing to do back then. Nowadays I can't be bothered unless I actually have a photoshoot planned or such, lol.
Oh well, for some reason I often depicted Ukitake in a suffering state when I cosplayed him. I wonder why. It was easier and it came naturally, especially after all those, back then recent, experiences...
Speaking of which, at some of the cons where I cosplayed Ukitake (especially during 2011) I did end up with randomly occurring chest pains and breathing difficulties, which made for some unintentional in-character moments. I'm pretty sure that if anyone (except those who knew, of course) noticed it they probably just thought that I was acting or faking it just to be true to the character but... I was really not, sadly. ^^" I mean, I'm not suddenly freezing in place (because of sudden pain) or walking up stairs reaaaaaaaally slooooooooowly just for the hell of it. :D
I remember that one time at Desucon 2012, me and some other Bleach cosplayers were heading for a nearby Chinese restaurant to eat. Everyone walked there in a group but, because I had so much trouble with a slowly ascending uphill, I ended up way behind everyone else suffering on my own. It took its toll, I was really out of breath (for a normal healthy person they'd not be affected at all) but luckily Ri-kun, who cosplayed Izuru Kira, noticed and helped me by carrying my bags and just being close so I could lean on them if needed. ;_;
I have a lot more similar con stories but yeah, it'd be a bit depressing to go through them. ^^"

Old home photoshoot. 2011.

If we go back to my Uppcon 2011 experiences I want to tell you all about one of my most memorable and cutest con experiences!
I was wearing my Ukitake cosplay and it was around evening time. I was walking somewhere upstairs when I noticed a really young boy who stopped right in his tracks and looked at me. I'm really bad at guessing age but I'd say that he was maybe around the 7-10 year range. But whatever, this little boy was looking at me and not saying a word. Once I met his gaze he walked up to me with his arms spread out, still without a sound, and gave me a long, big hug. Then he turned, walked away and disappeared into the masses.
I continued my con day like normal, although I couldn't forget about this boy. I kept being stopped by people everywhere (I even noticed how some would take candid photos once I had passed them) and then, some time later, I ran into the same boy again. I recognized him directly and smiled gently again. He came up to me and hugged me again, without warning and without a word uttered from his lips. I didn't mind though, something about his presence felt really warm and innocent and I happily let him hug me as long as he wanted. He walked away again once he had hugged me, I didn't follow him or ask anything – just smiled.
It was now night and I was sitting alone in the video game hall, casually watching how some kids in front of me were playing games. I was mostly just there to enjoy the atmosphere and to rest my legs, I didn't play anything myself. At one point one of the boys playing in front of me just suddenly puts away his controller mid-game, stands up from the chair and walks straight up to me. I realize that it's the same boy (if I recall right he had changed into a Bleach t-shirt) and this time he gives me an extra-long, super warm hug. I was thinking that maybe it's because he'd have to go sleep soon (it was quite late) and so I decided to give him a lollipop that I had in my bag and... and... the face he made when he noticed it! I swear, it was the cutest, most innocent smile I've ever seen and I think my heart melted then and there. ;O; It's really hard to describe but imagine that kind of expression that a young child does when they're really happy – that genuine, heart-warming smile that is so pure and full of magic. That simple joy.
He happily accepted the candy, hugged me even tighter and, if I recall right, he actually spoke for the first time and told me, in a shy and silent voice, how Ukitake was his favorite character. I swear the cuteness level was over ninethousand. I just can't. ♥

I have a really vague memory that he might have been wearing a pink t-shirt and that he had a cap when I first saw him – not sure because it was so long ago. ^^" I have a really faint memory of his facial features but even those have gotten blurry with time. I sorta regret that I never asked for his name or anything, I still wonder who he was...

Oh and yes, I forgot to mention! One thing that I almost always did when I cosplayed Ukitake was that I handed out candies at the con. Mainly lollipops. I remember how at Uppcon 2011 I had my whole shoulder bag filled with lollipops – I had probably a hundred in there and everyone who saw it were floored. It was hilarious!

Another Uppcon 2011 memory is from when I was in the merchandise tent. I was just walking around casually when a Japanese holder of a nearby shop excitedly shouted out at me "Ukitake-taichoooouuu!" and, upon hearing the call, I stopped and went closer. She was really excited to see me and started saying something in Japanese to me; sadly I didn't understand much at all back then but I remember how she beamed lots of "sugoooiiiiiiii", haha. I knew they were compliments at least, it was easy to figure out from her body language. After a while I held out my swords to her (she seemed like she wanted to check them out) and she looked surprised, grabbed them and wanted her shop friends to come look at her while she did some poses – it was so cute, omg. So we all stood there, all happy and excited. I even have a photo of her holding my swords somewhere, haha.
Before I left I gave her a lollipop and, again, she was super happy and signaled with her hands a "wait a moment" sign. She soon came back and gave me a Japanese lollipop in exchange – it was so sweet and cute of her! After that, every time I walked by her shop, she would smile and wave at me in an adorable way.
A bit later I noticed that my digital camera was nowhere to be found in my bag. I panicked and tried to backtrack in my memories. I realized that one of the last times when I had used my camera was at her shop. I went back to her, tried to explain what was going on and she actually went out of her way to help me find it. ;_; She worried for me and told me to go ask at the information desk and, luckily, whoever had found my camera had been a kind soul; they had dropped it at the info desk and thus I got it back – with all my photos still there and no damage done.
Some people are amazing.

Taken at Desucon, Finland. 2012.

The photo above is one of the more recent photos I have of this cosplay and yes, I'm still without any eye makeup, lololol. :D On this one you can also see the haori after the shrinking accident and how the sleeves are rolling themselves in a fugly way; it bothers me to no end and I'll try to do something about it whenever I get around to repairing this costume. The swords need repairing as well, one of the square holder things broke at Närcon 2011 when a Matsumoto cosplayer accidentally struck it with her hand – the swords need a new paint job as well and, possibly, some partial remaking. I also want to add the tsuba designs on the other side because I originally didn't do that and, afterwards, it started bothering me, of course.
I can't wait until I get to take Ukitake out again and see what he'll look like in my current standards! I really want to have a proper photoshoot of this cosplay as well – those swords deserve to be showcased properly, goddammit.

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So yeah, Jushiro Ukitake is a cosplay that holds a lot of memories to me, both wonderful and painful ones. It's the costume that pawed the way for me – it made me go from basically a nobody to being known as the Ukitake cosplayer. :'D I don't think I'll ever be able to completely stop cosplaying this white-haired captain so expect him to be a long-lasting one in my cosplay repertoire. ♥
I'm probably forgetting to mention a lot of things about this costume but I feel like this post is getting way too long already so... yolo!

Current status of this cosplay: In need of repairs/update.

Thank you for reading this final post in the TBT series (for now)!

Shiro Samurai out.

Throwback Thursday: Ichigo Kurosaki cosplay from Bleach!

Hello guys!

I will start this year by doing something that I haven't done before but have had in my thoughts since forever – namely a number of themed posts all dedicated to my first few cosplays! :'D Ever since I found some really old cosplay WIP photos in the deep dark corners of my laptop I've been wanting to do something with them – like, for example, show them to the world because we all started somewhere. Yes, I totally took progress photos before I even started cosplay blogging. 

This means that, once a week, on Thursdays (because it's called Throwback Thursday for a reason), I will invite you all to experience a 'blast of the past' with me – featuring old cosplay photos, WIPs and stories ranging from late 2009 to 2011. So yeah, we're gonna be riding the time machine and you'll get to backtrack into my cosplay history and see some never-published-before photos on this here blog!  
Be warned that this, naturally, means a lot of embarrassment for me and highly varying photo quality for you. ;) I only had a crummy compact camera back then and didn't even notice if a photo was blurry or not...

I must admit that I originally wanted to use a more creative/original name for this blog post series (TBT is so mainstream, lol) but yeah, I couldn't come up with anything short, funny and something that everyone would instantly know that it means flashback time. So yeah, it became Throwback Thursday anyway. xD

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Ichigo Kurosaki, shinigami version. Bleach.

Oh, haven't we all done at least one Naruto or Bleach cosplay back in the days? *nostalgic*

Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach was actually the very first costume I started sewing when I 'officially' started cosplaying back in late 2009 – November, to be exact. But if we count that I made a couple OC outfits way back in school's sewing class, before I even knew what cosplay was (I had seen cosplayers on internet but didn't know that it was a thing), then that would mean that I started cosplaying in, err, somewhere around 2004-2006 or some such, yikes! Regarding those OC costumes I never made other parts except the clothes themselves, I didn't know about wigs or anything (I wanted white hair thou) and I had never heard of the word 'cosplay' either, hence why I often consider that 2009 is my official cosplay debut year because at least then I knew that cosplay was a hobby that anyone could do, I got all the parts needed for my costumes and debuted them etc.

I don't think that Ichigo as a character needs any introductions – he's the main character from the popular shounen series Bleach and is also a really typical shounen lead. The reason I picked Ichigo was simply because I had recently started reading the Bleach manga and I liked it. Back then many characters hadn't been introduced yet (I think I was on volume 2-5 or such, lol) and I chose Ichigo on a whim, thinking that it'd be easy to do and really recognizable – which meant that I'd possibly get new friends at conventions. Yes, I had almost no friends before I started cosplaying and thus picking a well-known character/series to cosplay was sort of important. My reasons were simple. 

I also remember thinking that if I started with Ichigo I could easily use the same main outfit (the shihakusho, aka shinigami outfit) for cosplaying almost anyone from the cast later, which I did.

Sadly I have no actual progress photos of this cosplay, only shots of the finished product.

Finished Bleach shinigami kimonos.
(note: this is a new photo but the outfit is the same)

It's worth mentioning that I knew how to sew before I started this geeky hobby. I also knew about fabrics (thanks to my mom having had her own fabric store for a majority of my life) and thus I'm not actually cringing when I look back at my old sewing work... :D Of course I've improved since then but I can still easily reuse my first cosplays without feeling a need to burn them, at least not the clothes. Needless to say that I conveniently avoided the common mistakes that a lot of first-time cosplayers do: shining satin monsters, "bedsheet cosplays", poorly hemmed or outright raw/untreated edges, random threads hanging, wrong fabric choices etc. But of course I had my Experience Zero™ zones too, namely I didn't know nor care jackshit about makeup and was bad at posing as well as doing facial expressions. Facing the camera and staring into the distance, anyone? I also didn't style wigs early on and that ended up with a lot of fibers blocking my eyes etc...

I want to mention in the same go a bit about my top robes and what they look like and this is simply because, over the years, I've had surprisingly many people contacting me especially to ask how I made mine because "it looks accurate" and/or "you seem knowledgeable". Think of this as a bonus mini tutorial/guide for Bleach shinigami cosplays! Truth is that because of these multiple requests I've been wanting to make a post about my shinigami outfit already earlier but now, with this Throwback Thursday nostalgy series, I got a fitting post to bake it into ~

When I made the shihakusho robes (yes, there's a top and an inner one) I did a lot of extensive research to figure out what it was supposed to look like. I had seen so many cosplayers doing it in different ways and when you add horribly inconsistent anime/manga references then the following confusion starts hurting your head. I ultimately ended up picking out some selected images from the manga and sticking with them, which I'm glad I did. The images I used showed that the whole front of the sleeve was open, likewise the back; there was also an arm opening like those seen on real kimono and from which the white under kimono could be seen peeking through. Tite Kubo either had no clue what he was doing when he designed the shinigami outfits or he simply decided that "screw the rules" was the way to go.
It's worth mentioning that during the time when I made this cosplay I had no idea about how kimono were traditionally constructed and thus this costume has shoulder seams, no okumi panel and the like. Yes, if anything then that's a reason if I ever wanted to remake this thing. Then again, considering all the inaccuracies of shinigami outfits anyway (at least when compared to proper kimono) then it's not a big deal anymore, lol. I mean, why does both male and female characters have the underarm slits and open back sleeves? That's reserved for women only. *rolls eyes*

Fully open sleeve mouth.
(note: this is a new photo but the outfit is the same)

The sleeves of the white under kimono/gi/kosode/whatnot I made a few centimeters longer than on the outer black one, so that it would stick out like it does on all characters in the series. Even this little detail strays from general kimono kitsuke ideals. The white and black robes are identical otherwise, except for that I sewed the white one shut under the arm and the back of the sleeve is closed as well. No idea if this is accurate to the series or not (lol) but that's what I did because I didn't want to potentially flash my may-or-may-not-be-there armpit hairs to other congoers...

Just me trying to show what the armpit slits look like. Notice that the white
sleeve peeks out from the open back of the black kimono.
(note: this is a new photo but the outfit is the same)

The black kimono is made out of twill cotton and the white one is from some kind of bridal quality cotton blend that mom had a leftover roll of lying in the attic. A bit overkill perhaps, but it looked really nice. xD Oh and yeah, both the robes are mid-thigh in length (recommended minimum) and this is so that they'd cover up the side openings of the hakama, so to not have my bare skin showing.
Speaking of which – the hakama. I must admit that I lazied out on this and, because I practiced kendo at the time, I simply just decided to order a black budo (martial arts) hakama for the costume. This saved me a lot of fabric, time and effort – and looks better. I used a heavy cotton aikido hakama but of course you can order some cheaper polyester ones too, or make it yourself if you're up for it. Just remember that if you decide to make your own hakama that it has 5 pleats in the front and 2 in the back.

My black aikido hakama (folded) that I use for Bleach cosplays.
(note: this is a new photo)

This hakama that I use is a lot sturdier and stiffer than your average synthetic samurai pants. What I do to get the iconic white sash/ties that the shinigami have is that I use a separate white sash, approximately 2 meters long (can be shorter, depends on your body and preferences), that I put under the koshiita (backboard), tie the hakama's own ties as I normally do and then I just turn or twist the white sash so that it covers as much of the black ties as possible and, finally, tie it in a loose ribbon knot at the front. It's a bit hard to explain, hope you can understand what I mean. ^^" Please note though that for this to work you need to prepare/set the white sash in place below the koshiita and the back ties before you secure and tie the back half to your body – the white sash is supposed to get 'stuck' and be kept in place by the hakama itself; it's only there for decoration/accuracy. 
Of course one could always do covers for the black ties or replace them altogether but yeah, I did it the easy way.

I also have some really old photos of the Shikai Zangetsu –aka oversized bread knife– back when I had just completed it. I did it completely by hand with a little sawing help from my stepfather (the curved thin part of the handle, if I recall right) back in mid 2010, I believe. It's about 150 cm long, made out of a block of solid wood and thus it's rather heavy. I planed it down towards the edge (to simulate the look of a cutting weapon), used masking tape to get a crisp line between the silver and the black paint and used silk ribbon for the handle. It was a really big project for being one of my first wooden cosplay props. I had actually done Sesshoumaru's (InuYasha) swords at woodwork class in school a few years before I tackled Ichigo's Zangetsu – again, before I knew what cosplay was.

Finished Shikai form Zangetsu.

Zangetsu close-up.

The white ribbon was actually only fastened by a few nails and not glued on, which meant that after a few conventions it started to loosen (because of shifting when held for long times) and currently it's lose to the point it's almost hanging/unraveling at some spots, showing the bare white-painted handle beneath. This doesn't look really good and I've come to wish I had done it another way; maybe I can still fix it or at least replace it.
I'm still mighty proud of this prop –especially considering the quality and how long ago it was made– but it's such a shame that the tip cracked at Kitacon in Luleå, at the end of 2010. It was a really small local con held for the first (and only) time; I let someone hold my sword because they thought it was hella cool and they then proceeded to strike a pose, struck it to the ground (too carelessly), tip down, and once I got it back I noticed that the tip had a horizontal split in it. I was too timid and meek to really say anything and just swallowed it and acted as if nothing happened. The tip hasn't broken off but it needs to be glued to prevent it from breaking and, well, since then I haven't cosplayed Ichigo. Lesson learned: don't let (over-excited) people handle your props.

I bought a short orange wig for this cosplay and used it straight out of the bag. I didn't know how to style wigs and the wig was, upon later realization, way too flat. I remember trying to constantly tease it during conventions to get it to be more spiky and fluffy but it always returned back into looking like a Kyo Sohma (Fruits Basket) wig instead. xD I tried to look for some really old cosplay photos to demonstrate but even though I lifted every nook and cranny of my computer I couldn't find a single one that I could use! The few (and I mean few) that I found either had another person on them blocking part of my costume, were a horrible red-eye-open-mouth-flash-photo candid shot or had an old non-blog watermark on them and the non-watermarked version was nowhere to be found. I might even have (accidentally) deleted all my Ichigo cosplay pics a few years ago when I stumbled upon them and acted on a spur of the moment... oops.

This is a cropped version of an old (already resized) photo.
It's just to show the red chain. Yeah I know, it's on the wrong side.

I want to make a special mention for the weird red chain, possible sword-carrier thingy, that Ichigo has going on. Fun fact is that I legit made it by taking a bicycle chain, taking off the grease and spray painting it red with car spray – it worked wonders! I don't remember if it was originally my idea or my stepdad's but whatever the case it was genius. Sad part is that ever since I moved into my own apartment I have no idea where the heck this chain is...

[edit] A few days after I posted this (aka on 13-14 January) I went to my mom's and, while there, I took the chance to start up her old laptop and check in the image folders if there happened to be any of my old cosplay stuff in there because I remembered that I used to store photos in it back then – bingo! I found a lot of reaally embarrassing photos, including those from my very first Ichigo photoshoot. I must admit that most were a lot blurrier than I remembered and thus unusable but yeah, I found this one joke pic which, ironically enough, is one of the few that doesn't make me cringe badly. By this I mean that at least I'm not lowering my chin enough for my neck to completely disappear or any other hilariously bad posing shit. xD Actually the only reason I can show you guys this one –without being ashamed to death– is because at least I was clever enough I think it was unintentional originally to block out most of my (horrible) makeup-less face with the sword. 
So here ya go, a really shame-inducing cosplay photo from early 2010! :'DD

Ichigurr durr.

Just... don't ask me about the pose. It was some kind of out-of-character joke about Ichigo being shy or whatnot, lmao. At least it showcases the sword and yeah, I'm holding up the ribbon because otherwise it would have been dragging behind on the ground. You probably also noticed that I'm wearing zori and not waraji and that's simply because I was afraid of making/wearing waraji because I thought they'd be uncomfortable, a lot of work to make and would break easily. Oh and yeah, I'm cringing at that wig – I mean, it's good quality and all but oh lord, do I wish I had spiked it... [/edit]

I don't have so much more to say about this costume, especially since I only ever used it at two conventions and both were really small local ones. I have some nice memories of it (mostly other congoers gushing over how badass my sword was, which felt really nice since I was a lonely beginner xD) and I actually competed at both the conventions I wore Ichigo to and, funnily enough, I placed both times. Second place and shared second place, lolwut. It was my first time ever trying a cosplay competition and I was horrified and so nervous that I don't even want to think about how awkward I must have been on stage; I've never been good at standing in front of people and during my school days I avoided oral presentations like the plague itself because I started shaking so much. The competitions were both of the "pose in the middle when it's your turn and walk away" kind and there were a shortage of competitioners anyway, hence why I got asked to participate, lmao. This was still during the early days when there weren't any hardcore armor cosplays in even the smallest cons but just good ol' Narutos and closet cosplays – aka if you had a big cool-looking prop you were almost sure to win. No way I'd ever stand a chance if I had competed with Ichigo in today's standards, hahaha... no. :-DD

Oh and yeah, before I forget! I actually made a Substitute Shinigami Badge a long time ago as well but I never got around to using it, sadly. It's made of wood (the base) and craft foam for the details. I'm not sure if I'll ever get use of it but at least below is some photo proof that I have indeed made one. This was one of those spontaneous projects when I had scrap materials lying around, by the way.

Substitute Shinigami Badge.

Substitute Shinigami Badge.

 __________________

So yeah, Ichigo Kurosaki was my first cosplay that I 'officially' started working on, back in November 2009, and although I started Ichigo first it's actually not my debut cosplay that I wore to a con – that would be Byakuya from InuYasha, which I'll talk about in another TBT post! 

My Ichigo cosplay will always have its place in my heart and even though I have no idea when, or if, I'll ever rewear him out to a convention again I still plan to at least have a photoshoot, to get photos that are up-to-date with my current standards.

Current status of this cosplay: In need of repairs/update and a new wig.

Stay tuned for next Thursday's episode!

Shiro Samurai out.

Tsurumaru Kuninaga sword WIP – part.1

Hello geeks!

So for my coming-later-this-year Tsurumaru Kuninaga cosplay from Touken Ranbu I wanted to start by making his sword, in good time. Technically he is a sword himself so... yo dawg. x) But yeah, you get the point...
I decided to split my progress in several parts to avoid a text wall. I also want to mention that this first part, the beginning, mostly consists of me being a disaster master – everything that can go wrong went wrong, basically. Can't succeed every time. I never do anyway, who am I fooling? trolololo.

Reference image.

What I did was that this time I decided to do things a bit differently. You see, previously I've always made wooden swords from scratch but this time I decided to try the "let's modify a toy sword" approach. With that said I bought a cheapo toy katana from Partajshop and I must admit that I was quite surprised with the quality of the thing – I was expecting something really flimsy and low-end with all the parts glued on but yeah, what I got was an extremely modification-friendly plastic sword that had all the parts easily removable by just pulling them out. Said store gets both my thumbs up for their cosplay-friendly fake samurai swords! ヽ(^o^)丿

So yeah, what I started with is your generic plastic toy katana:

This is what the sword looks like straight out of the package.

This is the naked sword, all removable parts removed.

I noticed afterwards that it's for the better that I keep the part that is the "mouth" of the sheath since it provides support for when the blade glides back in. I thought I'll just cover it with worbla because it looks otherwise really cheap and fake with that overly golden color...

The sheath comes with these two "hanging loops" on each end.
I cut them off with a scissor and then sanded them flat.

I don't know how visible it is on the photos but the sword's handle came without any kind of wrappings which is a good thing because yeah, on toy katanas the wrapping always looks like complete and utter shit. No handle wrapping (aka tsukamaki) makes life easier for me because I don't have to start undoing it and neither do I have to worry about ugly glue remains. :)

I started by making the tsuba. I decided to try my hands at the sandwich method and I must say that it... didn't go quite as planned. I almost ruined my work twice but, by some miracle, I managed to save it. I want to say a few things about it because I ended up with a hilarious fail. xD You see, at first I started heating the bottom worbla piece on my freezer's lid. I had no idea what was a suitable working space for worbla because the damn tutorial didn't say a word about it so yeah, I thought that plastic shouldn't be all that bad – WRONG. My worbla stuck to it like hell (even though glue side was up) and I had to rip it off with force, to the point the whole thing got deformed, bumpy and almost tore. Seriously, don't do the same mistake.
My second thought was to use a metallic surface. The idea was good and I was on the right track but yeah, much to my disappointment I had no worbla-friendly metallic surface to work on; the closest would have been the sink/stove area on my mini kitchen but the problem was that it's way too uneven to work on. As desperate as I was I went to the common kitchen and dug through the closets and then I found a... metallic tray. It had some intricate designs on it but because it was flat I didn't think much more about it – BAD IDEA.
So, well, I did the other side of my worbla piece and –while it didn't stick as horribly to it as with the freezer– the tray had another surprise up its sleeve...

OH MY FUCKING SHIZZLE DRIZZLE .........

I swear that when I saw that the worbla had stolen the tray's print nyysijä!worbla with it I was laughing so hard that my stomach hurt. xD Thank god that it's from my apartment house's common kitchen and not my mom's – mom would soooooo have killed me. I don't think anyone even uses this tray so I should be safe, lol...
Later on it finally hit me that aluminium foil might be the best surface to work on and... guess what? Of course that's what I don't have at home. So yeah, I had to call Sacchan to fetch some for me since she was coming over to my place anyway.
I need to say that I was right – tin foil is by far the best surface to work on that I've tried so far. The worbla doesn't stick to it! I guess you learn from your mistakes. But seriously, my mishaps didn't end there, no no. You see, because I did a layered design on the craft foam I had the stupid idea that I wouldn't need to glue the detail layer onto the main piece... I guess I don't need to even say that it was a bad idea too. :) Needless to say that when I had done one side (all nicely for a change) the other side moved and the second layer (detail layer) fucked up during the bonding process. I ended up with a tsuba that is not identical on both sides and thus, because the edges don't meet, it looks like shit. I tried to save it the best I could but nothing's gonna make it identical so I just have to suck it up. Oh and guess what? I also got a horrible king-size air bubble inside the damn thing too!! I did get rid of the air bubble but I had to really press down on it with my full palm, whole body weight and use protection gloves (warm worbla is warm). The problem is that because I've used my gloves for woodwork they're damaged on the surface from all the sanding etc and yeah, of course this shit caught onto the worbla and gave it a dirty and knobbly surface. HOW MUCH BAD LUCK CAN YOU HAVE IN ONE GO? щ(ºДºщ)
Note to self: fucking glue the craft foam details onto the main foam piece before using worbla on it. It will save you from raging and screwing up your project.

My first sandwiched worbla piece done.
It's fugly but it'll suffice... I guess.

Because my apartment has no spray paint friendly area shower doesn't count and because it's cold as all hell outside I couldn't paint at home; I had to wait until I had my furniture makeover & redesign class in school on Thursdays. During said class we work in a garage and yes, my teacher totally approves that I do cosplays in school, lol. So yeah, I bought some glossy white spray paint and started spraying the sheath white. I did several coatings but –because I'm horribly impatient with waiting for spray paint to dry– I ended up with a less-than-perfectly-even surface. Oh well, I have a fair chance of getting the ugliest spots covered by random details later anyway.

My creative "where to put it to dry" solutions.

With the sheath turned white it was time to add some worbla details on it. No, just kidding – I decided to start working on the handle first. Oh boy, I need to say that I was up for some serious shit... as if it wasn't bad enough already.

Read ahead for a disastrous PU-foam story. Learn from my mistake and fucking don't do it yourself, okay? Thanks. Oh, and warning for foul language ahead. 

Okay, so after some brainstorming with my teacher and one of the, err, I guess he counts as an extra teacher/helper, we came to the solution that I should use PU-foam (aka expanding foam) to fill out the gaps of the handle. I had taken with me my barely used can of PU-foam and started shaking it and preparing it for use. But yeah, as you know my luck is as shitty as that of Donald Duck so of course nothing came out when I pressed down on the "trigger" on the straw piece that I had screwed in place. Nothing. Nada. Nope. I started twisting and turning the straw and heard some soft clicking sound and hoped that it was the "turn the nozzle to activate it" sound but nope, still no foam came. At this point I started getting both frustrated and confused so I just kept turning the plastic straw around until it fucking locked itself on the can's screwable plastic mouth piece. Fuck me. :) Now I got even more irked and because I was ashamed to go ask someone for help at this point, for such a simple thing, I decided to try and do it myself and oh lordy lord do I hate myself when I catch myself thinking like this – things never end well when I don't ask for help, especially when my gut feeling tells me that I should.

Okay so, I seriously got so frustrated that I just thought that it would be a good idea to start from the beginning and so I tried to pull off the straw from its attachment point on the mouth of the can. Horrible idea, okay – I accidentally ripped up the whole damn straw, with the can mouth/dispenser still attached to it. >_> They were really inseparable, lol...
Now I just had the black rubbery pipe-like thing still standing and if I peeked into it I could see the foam in the can, oops. I just felt so lost and so infuriatingly stupid and self-hating that I had no choice but to ask the extra teacher what the fuck I should do now. He just casually told me that it's possible to buy a new mouth part for the can. He also wanted to check if the foam hadn't hardened already since he said it does that after a while and, well, I had had mine for over half a year. He looked at me and said: "you can also do like this – take something thin and stick it to the can! :D".

...

...

JUMALAUTA.

EI HELVETTI.

PERKELE.

KULMIKAS VITTUSAATANA.

I kid you not – as soon as he poked whatever thin object into the can a loud explosion was heard across the whole garage, followed by "PFFFSSSSSCHHH" and then foam started gushing out of the can in all possible directions! It flowed so rapidly that it was uncontrollable and it ended up on the floor, into open cardboard boxes, tables, walls etc – fucking everywhere, basically.
It was like trying to stop the goddamn Niagara Falls, except that it was Foamgara Falls.

Remember doing shit similar to this during chemistry class in school?
– Yeah, something like that.

I swear every goddamn inch of foam came out like a mad erupting volcano from hell and it felt like it would never end. The teacher assistant guy was running around with the foam fountain in his hands and I followed after; neither of us had expected that the foam would be so, err, explosive, and we both were, quite frankly, panicking. When it finally ceased (it seriously took several minutes) I was surrounded by a sticky mess. When I looked around it finally hit me that around me were the scattered remains of my almost filled can of expanding foam; my almost unused can was all wasted and that, I tell you, made me feel wasted – that was material for several cosplay projects down the drain. My jeans ended up being a sacrifice to the angry foam gods and so did my expensive winter shoes and, almost, my Sonata Arctica hoodie as well (thank god I had rolled up my sleeves!!).

This is what the can looked like once the foam explosion finally ended...

I spent several hours after class trying to salvage at least my shoes from the grip of the sticky goop of hell. I first tried to wash it with soap and water and scrubbing vigorously with one of those more robust brushes but lolnope, it didn't do shit – the brush seriously went and died before even a centimeter of the foam came off. I also got some of the foam residue on my fingers and I washed my hands thoroughly with soap 3 times during the first 15 minutes (countless times afterwards too) and rubbed my hands like no tomorrow and it barely did anything; I swear the foam residue stuck to my fingers so hard it felt like a second skin (especially when trying to peel it off), except a lot tackier – this crap is impossible to get rid off.
Regarding my shoes I sat for over an hour with a blade from an exacto knife just carving off the fucking foam, painstakingly slow, from my shoes. I was so angry I was gritting teeth and just wanted to kill something. No wait, correction – I wanted to drown something in PU-foam.  
Do you know that feeling when a stupid disaster happens, that ends up costing you a lot (both in materials and time), and you just try to joke/laugh it off with your classmates but inside you are about to break down and start crying/screaming because you hate your life and your fucking constant shit luck so fucking much? That's exactly how I felt.

I got some foam where it was intended at least... very overkill though.

I think I'll gladly just end this post here because it's starting to get way too infused with my deluxe bad luck. (ﾉ_ _)ﾉ Maybe things will go better in the next episode of this project... or at least I goddamn hope so. I'm getting really sick of this Donald Duck curse that's been plaguing me for the last few cosplays, ughh.

Thanks for reading my... err... explosive foam experiences and unintentional worbla prints, I guess? xD If nothing else I hope you won't need to experience these mishaps yourself, lol.
...

I also guess it would be uplifting to hear about the not-so-successful cosplay making stories of others, so feel free to share your bad luck adventures with me so that I don't have to feel all alone in this misery, huaah.  ╮(─▽─)╭

~ Shiro Samurai out.