Cosplay for the first time

I remember my first convention or "con" as they are called by many. Megacon in Orlando, the year, 2012. My wife and I attended on a Saturday and it was packed. Apparently, Saturday is the busiest day of the 3 day convention but we weren't complaining.

There were literally thousands of people, many of them dressed in costumes. As we entered the main hall, we stopped to watch R2-D2 and C3P0 do a little show as the crowd parted to give them room. Moving further into the convention our senses were assailed and overwhelmed. Fans of comics, science fiction, fantasy and anime were everywhere, colorful and loud. The smell of what can only be described as "fair food" hit us but food was the last thing on our minds.

When we finally got past all of the panel rooms that were full or filling up quickly, we found the main entrance into the vendor's hall. There was a large open area with midget wrestling in the corner and a special autograph booth for the venerable Stan Lee. Veering to the right we entered the main hall and started looking at the different booths.

The wares for sale varied greatly. On one table was a collection of hundreds of bladed weapons, throwing stars, maces and cudgels. On another we found anime cards by the 10's of 1000's. That particular vendor was dressed as some Manga character. I must admit, I do not read anime so I would be unfamiliar with any of the characters but I had to admire her for her efforts.

As we plodded through the dozens and dozens of tables, I looked around at the crowd. Everywhere you looked, there were costumes. As a matter of fact, at least 50 percent of the crowd was in costume at that point in the day. At this point, my wife and I started talking about the costumes, how cool they were and what fun it must be to make one. And most of these costumes were hand-crafted by the people wearing them. We looked at each other and an unspoken shared idea was formed. We would dress up on the following year!

Spin the calendar ahead a full year and we found ourselves entering the same halls of chaos. But this time, we had a different level of excitement. For now, the crowds were looking at us. My wife and I had chosen a genre of costume play called "Steampunk." There are variations of this genre but we really wanted to go with the Victorian theme.

As you can see, we were pretty happy. We handled the accessories as far as fabrication and bought the clothes. My wife did some alterations to her clothes and I included a fake beard and a gear covered cane. We received a lot of compliments on our costumes and had an amazing day.

This year, my wife decided to stay with Steampunk but I have veered off into the realm of Middle Earth and the Hobbit. The biggest difference is that this year, we bought a sewing machine and my wife has made all of the articles of clothing, including boots. It is going to be a fantastic year and I look forward to posting pictures including step by step procedures on some of the crafting. Cheers!