The Suffering of Cosplay Planning

I love cosplay. I really do. Sometimes I hit on just the right character and I can make something that turns out pretty decent. 

Sadly, most of the time my procrastination eats my face and things don't turn out the way I'd hoped; see all my incomplete cosplays, alas.

I am after all a master of procrastination.

However, this year I was originally gonna do one thing, then i was cruising through patterns idly when I saw Simplicity pattern 8971 and I started getting IDEAS.

I saw that and wanted to make a Ho-Oh gijinka.

BORB.

Obviously the pattern as-is is never gonna fit me, and will have to be sized up dramatically to get close, which means it's time to finally make myself a custom dress form out of duct tape, hurrah!

So I always build my inital concept off of what the pattern has available - that looked like this:

But now I gotta consider what will actually look good with my body, as well as realistic modifications. That involved looking at a lot of Chinese fantasy costumes - which this is obviously based on - and figuring out my options. 

For example - the corset presented here is not going to look good on me. I'd need to modify it to be more of a bra-area cover, because I am belly, hips and ass, and I need that good old empire waist to have stuff like this look nice. Alas, my jiggly fat, it infringes on my plans so much sometimes.

This belt might be a good starting place:

Maybe narrow it a touch, move it higher so it holds up like a wide belt - which is a look I can work, after all - and then lay on some visual interest. 

Like - oh, look what sort of belt things pop up when I do a google image search:

Now don't these look promising?

Also you can probably kind of see what my vision looks like at the moment. 

However I am still super fat, and need to accommodate for that, which these designs don't...we'll have to see.

Like, I am a huuuge fan of a stiff design at the edge of a light fabric, because Ho-oh's wings are a garbage heap. 

But look how neat this purple one looks!? 

How did they make it look so nice??? 

COSPLAY, MAN.

(For the record, for that long drape shall thing, I've totally acquired a huge rainbow silk ribbon already. It's literally hypnotic to play with.)