Introduction

Hey.
I'm Haydn, and quite recently myself and my girlfriend Naomi have gotten into Cosplaying at events in the UK. Our first was last year (2011) at Manchester's MCM Expo, which I have come to learn was a pretty small event, but scary for us none-the-less. As it was my first time, my outfit was very simply put together, and I had no real clue what to expect from it. I paired up with my friend Joe for Mario and Luigi. Myself as Luigi.

As you can see the costumes are very basic. They were made up of regular jeans, blue braces, green/red shirts and a Mario/Luigi hat that were ordered last minute off of ebay. It worked, but obviously no one was in awe.
Naomi on the other hand struck luck, she had a handsome refund from tax, and was able to commission a handmade Lightning Farron outfit from Final Fantasy XIII, which arrived just in the time. 

This is her from the 2011 Expo with Ezio from Assassin's Creed, a friend she made while attending the event. As you can see the outfit is incredible, even more so compared to the sorry excuse I put together. The boots weren't something we could find in a shop, and given their expense on eBay, Naomi decided to try her hand at making them herself out of a regular pair. She achieved this quite easily by sewing pink ribbon up the front of the boot in order to make the 'tongue', and used a thinner width silver ribbon for the buckles. They weren't a perfect match to Lightning's, but the overall aesthetic was amazing. The reaction to her costume was overwhelming, and she came home with some great memories of the day.
It was in fact, after this event that we decided we were going to do this more often, and it has somehow became a hobby of ours. The amount of time and effort that goes in to some costumes is crazy, but there is no better feeling then getting to an expo and being told just how much your work is appreciated, and being able to see all the other amazing people group together in the masses.
This is the reason why we have decided to start this blog, for us, it's a way we can show off the hard work we put into getting our outfits and props right, but at the same time, it gives us the chance to share our knowledge with you guys, allowing you to try it for yourselves at home, and hopefully even give us some tips on how we can improve.
Most of the stuff we will be working on will be made from materials and with tools that can be found quite easily. I will try my best to get as many photos as I can while I'm crafting, so I can give a very detailed explanation here for you folks to then use as you please. Feel free to let us know about any techniques you think would work better as we'd be more than grateful for the feedback.
Keep your eyes peeled, as I'll be kick-starting this blog with how I put together my Darth Maul costume, as well as Lightning's Gunblade.