Sarelcon

Just a crafting gremlin vibing and making cosplays as a hobby to keep my sanity.

[sarelcon]

With Twitter’s continued existence being a bit uncertain, I felt like branching out and moving to a new platform so here’s all of my cosplay creations I’ve made in 2022 as sort of an introduction for what to expect from me.

I’ve been cosplaying since 2019 and I’ve made 13 cosplays in that time. I also do tutorial/WIP content and just generally geek out over materials and crafting techniques. I also do craftsmanship contest and panels so con-related content will show up too.

Pics (in order):

Persephone (Lore Olympus) inspired by Hannah Alexander Art’s redesign of the character

Rosaria (Genshin Impact)

Slyvie’s sword (Loki)

Gyurato’s Blood Sickles (Demon Slayer)

Slyvie (Loki)

Witcher Ciri (The Witcher) based on fan art by Aleksandra Skiba

Barbarian Armor (Diablo III) based on Barbarian armor set redesigns by Zach Fischer

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Leatherwork adventures

I’m working on a cosplay of a piece of fan art and decided that this would be the time to take the plunge into leatherwork. I got a roll of veg-tan leather on sale last year and have been slowly getting the hang of making tooled leather.

I did the gauntlets first as a test piece. They’re a little wonky but not bad for baby’s first leather work. I used a bevel stamp, tri-weave stamp, and two abstract texture stamps. Every last inch is tooled. Edges have been hit with the beveler. All holes punched with 1/8 inch chisels. The two layers of each gauntlet are stitched together with a leap frog stitch (variant of a saddle stitch). I used a gel dye and then burnished my edges and did a wax finish.

I am currently stitching up the panels of a leather faux corset (there’s an actual, fully boned corset under it btw). This has been days of work since all 8 panels are tooled. The cross stitch (ironically called a corset stitch sometimes) takes sooooo long to do but is deeply satisfying once done. I have seven seams of this stitch to do and eyelets to install so wish me luck

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Got the photos back from that time I was being a feral fake-blood smeared gremlin in a parking garage (aka my Sukuna photoshoot)

Photos, editing, and smoke machine all done by m_e_photography

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I am still pinching myself but I placed 3rd Master (highest skill category level) at Animazement this weekend. The masters category was stacked and since I followed half of the people in it, I knew what kinds of cosplays were being entered. I did NOT think Sukuna stood a chance but the embroidery and shoes pulled through for me. Throwing everything I had at a simple design somehow won me an award. Specifically, it got me my first ever Masters award for my sewing and needlework.

I was covered in fake blood when I accepted the award (it was from my skit) so the photos of me on stage are of the judges’ laughing at my frantic ‘please don’t touch me! I have fake blood on me!’. And of course the ribbon got blood on it too 😂

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With one day to spare, my Sukuna cosplay is ready for a craftsmanship competition

Hiiii, I am exhausted but I finished not only 120+ hours of hand embroidery- I made shoes too and restyled part of the wig

Top left: obi belt plus all ten pieces of the bow laid out

Top right and bottom left: first text fitting with detachable bow

Bottom right: anime nonsense sandals

I still have to keep running practice rounds of my skit but it is almost time for Animazement this weekend.

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Did Sarelcon over complicate a simple design again? Guilty your honor.

Hi yes, back again with an unnecessary amount of detail for a simple anime character but this time it’s a scrungly cannibal man. Sukuna is the King of Curses so even when doing a fem version, only the best is worthy of our king.

I did light historical research to give some authentic details to something very anime. I decided to give myself more work by doing sashiko on a massive bow and doing hand embroidery appliqués.

The bow shape is based off of a woman’s in the Heian period and is constructed like a regular loop bow though the loops are more boxy and the tails are in a different arrangement. Every single piece is hand embroidered. (33 hours total for sashiko on the whole cosplay)

For the white details, I was inspired by some vintage kimonos I got to see on display at a convention (top two pics) On formal kimonos, it wasn’t uncommon to see couched goldwork threads. These are cotton cores with paper thin metal coiled around them. While I couldn’t find metallic white threads that wouldn’t cost a fortune thanks tariffs, I did find a similar thread. It’s a cotton cores with iridescent Mylar wrapped around it. It’s much easier to use and has a very subtle shimmer to it.

I’ve been making the appliqué by fusing the brocade to organza with heat n bond, couching down the threads in pairs, and then using a latch hook to plunge the ends to the back where I can sew them flat. I cut them out and use a lighter to melt the polyester fabric edges (to stop fraying) and then sew them down by hand.

I am 45 hours in and still not done. Send help 😵‍💫

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I am once again cosplaying an unhinged, evil character who should come with a warning label.

Long time no see. I am back again with random cosplay updates as I bounce between projects. A friend talked me into giving Jujutsu Kaisen a second try and I finished the anime in three days. Naturally, I picked a villain to cosplay. Of course I went for the worst guy imaginable and decided on making a female Sukuna. (I also have a skit idea so hopefully I’ll be competing in Sukuna soon. Still waiting to hear back on my application).

I have overcomplicated something that was historically meant to be simple. A kimono is supposed to be a garment that is easy to make due to being all rectangles but I said no to that and made it hard 😂. I’ve added western inseam pockets, sashiko embroidery, piping, and (worst of all) my arch nemesis French seams- even in the sleeves. I also decided to make the single most challenging wig of my life so I am regretting my life decisions right now (but not really because this is looks fantastic).

Anyways, I’ll be posting about my horrible pookie’s progress some more once I finish suffering through this kimono.

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More White No Face updates:

I’m still plugging away at this beast and slowly making progress. 2025 has been a terrible year for me and it’s barely even started so embroidery has become my coping/de-stressing activity.

Anyways- I’ve finally finished the French knots on the main hanfu body. I went through 9 8.7 yard skeins of floss. Now, I’m gooping up the collar

The collar has been through hell with all the re-hooping so the lightweight interfacing kind of disintegrated. I had to reinforce this before I could do anything. With all the puffs on, it’s basically impossible to hoop it and the frame is so cumbersome. I hate doing embroidery without any tension, but that’s what I have to do.

The puffs are made from leftover scraps of brocades and matte satin while the wrinkles are exclusively satin. I’m using some Italian wire mesh to blend out the edges.

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My Most Complex Project Yet: Plague-Bearer White No Face

Being a goop girly, I wanted to take up the challenge of recreating my foam clay textures but with fabric. Since Heaven’s Official Blessing makes my creativity go wild for some reason, I decided to remake White No Face. I decided to lean into the whole creating human face disease thing and decided to make something creepy and nasty yet elegant.

A key element of my design is a black-to brown- to white splotchy color gradient paired with abstract swirls + screaming face motifs. There’s also going to be controlled ragged hems.

I ended up getting inspired to try 3D fabric manipulation so I did some test pieces using techniques from my favorite reference book (pic of cover below). I decided on pairing hand gathered pleats with puffs for a pustule/diseased look. I also added couched cord + embroidery floss details. My test piece was done in muslin but the final piece would be in cotton gauzes.

Anyways, the explanation is done so enjoy some progress pics of the goop.

So far, there’s been over 540 puffs sewn down (far more have been made) and I’m not even a third of the way done. The sleeves aren’t even assembled yet (literally are just panels of fabric draped over the back of a chair atm). This is going to be a 1000+ hour project.

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Shared proofs from a new photoshoot and realized I never shared the rest of my Black Water photos??? How could I forget my baby girl murder ghost?

Anyways, enjoy some more villain photographs brought to you by the lovely @final_egirl (Instagram)

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Any Silco fans interested in a little gender-bend of our favorite crime/drug lord?

I shot with Justin Pineda at Colossalcon North this November and he sent me the proofs. The bar and arcade area were serving up the best vibes for us.

Crafting details: Cosplay made entirely by me (with a the exception of a friend 3D printing the shimmer vial caps for me) and features flat-felled seams in the pants, gold leafed accessories, fully lined coat with pockets, foil HTV details, and removeable boot covers. The shimmer fluid is actually UV reactive pigments in baby oil.

The scars are rigid collodion from Mehron (tried to do latex prosthetics but my skin had a bad reaction to the adhesive) and contact lenses are from Uniqso. Wig is from Wig is Fashion

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Since Salem got a lot of attention, I’d like to mention that the cosplay in those pics was actually the second attempt. I made version 1.0 in 2020 and took the photos at home with my phone. Version 2.0 was remade with better sewing, the Orb Son, and photographed by a professional

I couldn’t figure out how to make the sleeves also be the cape on the first go through so the cape is an entirely separate piece. I reused the wig and chest piece for Verizon 2.0 to save me time.

Come back to old projects with better skills and remake them. It’s worth it just to see how much you’ve learned. Salem was the cosplay that first put me on the map and she (and Orb Son) will always be special for me. I’m glad our queen of evil got the dress and photo glow-up she deserved

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Frothing at the mouth because I just got back my Salem pics that I got with the incredible Adoyible (Molly Doyle) while at Cosplay America. These are gorgeous and vaguely unsettling, which is perfect.

Also got detail pics too which highlight the beading and of course my beloved Orb Son 🥰.

Edit: since this has blown up a bit, I would like to add the hilarious context that we shot in a hotel lobby right next to the breakfast bar at 8 in the morning. People were just eating eggs and meanwhile there was an eldritch horror in the corner. I also immediately went for coffee directly after the shoot, still in full cosplay. The folks there for a church retreat were VERY bamboozled.

Also, that first photo is barely edited at all. The background was a digital screen off to one side of the dining area. The moment it changed to abstract smoke, we were booking it across the lobby to be able to get a photo with that as our background before the screen changed again. Adoyible shoots with prisms and friends that hold lights so very little of the visual effects are edited in post. She is incredible as a photographer

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Cosplaying From Destiny After Loving The World For 10 Years

After having Destiny brain rot for ten years and picking back up the game in time for the Final Shape, I have a mighty need to FINALLY cosplay from this series. I also will be flying halfway across the country for a con and need armor that can pack flat. My solution to both problems? Eris Morn.

I am still in the patterning stages for 90% of the cosplay but I’ve gotten started on the bottom fabric layers as I wait on electronics to come for the eyes.

The biggest piece right now is the skirt panels that have eyelets and some kind of metallic trim at the bottom. I bashed out a pattern with a grid for the eyelets and sewed together the base panels. I spent an afternoon punching 100 holes and now I’m hand sewing eyelets with embroidery floss. Somehow armor keeps coming back to embroidery for me 😂.

I also have the tunic patterned and the pieces cut out but I’m busy embroidering since I need all the hand-sewing done before attaching the skirt panels to each other

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Got some Morrigan pics on the con floor and I didn’t melt despite being in over 90 degree weather

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I decided to make an entire cosplay for a con I’m guesting at and I had a month to do it. I just finished two days before leaving 😅

I made a staff for Morrigan from Dragon Age: Origins way back in 2021. I even bought fabrics and a wig but never made anything. While this isn’t 100% finished, I have a wearable cosplay three years later. I have been in belt making hell this past week as I made 31 fabric belts, 7 foam + fabric belts, and hammered in almost 200 eyelets. I also overcomplicated what should have been a simple paint job and did battle with my nemesis: jersey knit.

Some grimy, gritty old metal for a swamp witch. The texture is mostly dabbed-on primer.

Suffering through hammering a multitude of eyelets.

Testing the shoulder armor with the necklace feat. The top being on the dress form completely incorrectly lol

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My little eldritch Gumball machine, my little orb son got me a judge’s choice award at Cosplay America. Apparently, the judges gushed over the texture. Once again, the goop reigns supreme