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I hope you’re all ready to fight the new year with the strength of 10* Briggs men. . . . My Olivier Armstrong is featured in the new ‘Anime’ issue of @cosplayrealmmagazine with some amazing fma cosplayers, which is a nice affirmation to start the new year. Thank you for a full page, cosplay realm! 💙 . . . 📸 by @MarkWillshirePhotography . . . *1 Briggs person = 10 normal weak cowardly people. Beat 2020 into submission.

#2009vs2019challenge making edition as I’ve only been cosplaying for two years. I’ve lost pretty much all of my university work (in no way a tragedy), but this was a ‘70’s inspired nightgown that I made for a grad film that I designed. It was made very quickly with no measures (the actress’s agent ignored all of my requests), so it had to be hemmed to length very quickly during the shoot. Which is to say it was hemmed very badly and I ran in between every take to trim all the straggly bastards. I think that you can see an early nod to my preoccupation with structure and silhouette, and tendency to work with single colours. Olivier is my best work to date. I’ve had a very weird and discomfiting amount of negativity both online and in person for this costume so it is difficult for me to remember what an accomplishment she is in terms of technical skill and that I won two prizes with her which I’m incredibly proud of. When I remember. I have made a LOT this year, mostly small projects focusing on skills and technique so I haven’t shared much. I’m looking forward to continuing to challenge myself into improving and learning, and continue working towards accepting that what I make I make for me first of all whether or not (emphasis on not) it is accepted by anyone else. No best nine bc it made me sad and is irrelevant to my interests and achievements. Happy Hogmanay, everyone. I have no idea what 2019 was.

At HyperJapan someone asked me for a quote to sum up this costume. The only thing I could think of was, ‘made from 90% Brexit rage.’ I watched FMAB for the first time a little over a year ago and it was the perfect anti-fascist story that I needed. I started the construction of the costume in earnest as we started hurtling towards the original brexit date, staying up all night sewing row after row of padstitching whilst following the latest news and bullshit. We haven’t had a government that we truly elected since 2015. The tories have been in power since 2010, and hundreds of thousands have died under their governments. When they took over there were a handful of food banks in the uk, now there are thousands. They have crippled the nhs and are poised to break it apart and flog it off to line their own pockets. Benefits have been hacked and slashed, public servicea have been defunded, erased or sold off. And then there is brexit. They have actively lied, cheated, slandered, pulled out every possible dirty play in the lead up to this election, in the lead up to every alleged brexit date. If they win a majority tomorrow then the damage to the uk may we’ll be irreversible. So: vote. Please go out and vote. Urge, harass, drag everyone you know to go out and vote, and make sure that you vote tactically for your area. Remember that this is not about the perfect party - they don’t exist - but is about pushing the best party for right now, for the country and for the future. Vote. It’s what Olivier Mira Armstrong would do. Don’t make me brexit rage another costume. . . . 📸 by @markwillshirephotography

I show up with heart a-blazing Ready to achieve amazing things But I'm left waiting in the wings . . . This has been a fun exercise! Patterned after an 1890 Symington corset, this was both a character and technical exercise for its own sake. I enjoyed making the base corset for my Zelda costume, and needed a distraction. So, as I had been catching up on Tangled the series (it’s beautiful and fun and charming! Go watch it!) and looove the antagonistic direction Cassandra has gone in, I decided to have a go at an entirely different corset silhouette and methodology inspired by moonstone cass. External channels and cording were things that I desperately wanted to try. Initially I had planned to make this from some left over Lust underpinning fabrics, but then I remembered this remnant damask I picked up 4ish years ago. The colours are all Cassandra’s and the pattern reminded me of the lanterns - it felt v corona-y. I wanted to create a feeling of the blue creeping, breaking through and overwhelming the warmer colours so the blue weave reverse of the fabric was perfect for the channels. I saw a very small screenshot of a later period corset with two external waist ribbons caught under the channels. I didn’t bother to do any research beyond thinking it looked lovely so I just.. copied it. And it looks lovely here and adds to that sense of creeping blue. I still have flossing to go, but I’m going to let my wrists rest a bit - the plan is to essentially envelop the channels in silk and try to capture that painterly style that the show is animated in. But the base is done for now. I’m not sure if I’ll do the full costume; I did a two minute rework into more of a military silhouette, so I’ll let it sit until I’m inevitably dying for a more utilitarian project. Otherwise this is effectively a character study in fabric. I have a lot more learning to go. . . . . Constructed from a layer of coutil, a fashion layer of damask, with external boning channels of coutil and the damask reverse. External waistribbons and edging in poly double satin ribbon. Also a petersham internal waistribbon for security. 46 bones, a spoon busk (That needs some shaping), and 32 eyelets.

Quit gaping like an idiot and bring me coffee . . . Finals are over! I didn’t win, and am so excited to see what the amazing winner, Calley MacLeod, will do for Chicago! Her firebird was stunning. I still can’t believe that I made it to the UK finals with Olivier. She is my favourite costume and greatest achievement to date, so it is incredibly gratifying to have had that recognised. I got some lovely feedback after the competition. I’m looking forward to giving Zoldo all of the love and care that she deserves over the next few months - I think I will definitely try my hand at competing again next year. For now: time for the general to sleep! I very much hope my anxiety dreams will find some chill.

I’m not even sure what the right thing is any more. . . . Today has been a ‘wake up and feel sad about rebels’ sort of day 📸 by @jonjamessmith

Less than a week to the UK Crown Championships finals at @mcmcomiccon Birmingham. Eep. Make sure to check it out if you’ll be there; the other finalists so far are incredible and I can’t wait see who will be the last to join us. Also I will be there, I guess. Every photo of me from Glasgow is very much not good as I was trying very hard to not cry. Zelda - @eglucy Jinx - @sayochuu

Open your eyes. . . . Corset for Zelda is finally done! . . . This is a 1902 straight front corset that was intended for a ‘stout’ figure. Rude! I copied the pattern from ‘Corset Cutting and Making’, making only a few sizing alterations, remapped the boning and removed the front busk for a clean line. I also added a couple of darts at the front at the very end bc it was doing... something. The flossing was essentially done mindlessly - I had planned some designs but no matter what I did they ended up looking bulky and awkward. Pretty is not my thing! I ended up sewing freestyle to find shapes that nod to the triforce and Hyrule royal family without being explicit. . . . It may seem an odd choice to go Edwardian for Zelda, but there is purpose! In her botw character turnarounds she is illustrated with her pelvis tipped back which creates an s-bend silhouette. It immediately made me think of the Belle Époque, which is a perfectly bittersweet reference given Zelda is primarily portrayed through memories from before the Calamity. For this costume I’m referencing pre-raphaelites (see @lothlenan’s beautiful art!), turn of the century theatrical costumes, Worth, Poiret and the flirtation with the new empire line, Fortuny, Gibson girls and post dress-reform. I want to nod to the fact that zelda is a princess more interested in her scholarly pursuits. I also want to play with the ‘rule of triangles’ that guided the botw game developers when designing the landscape of Hyrule, incorporating those shapes everywhere I can; the edwardian period was built on gussets and gores which makes it a perfect reference point. . . . The body is a layer of coutil with a fashion layer of cotton faille. Boning channels and waist tape in petersham. Gores and gussets are three layers of coutil and one layer of cotton quilted. All flossing is in beautiful silk from @Handweavers. Edging is a double faced polyester satin ribbon. Eyelets are grommets handstitched for security. Topstitching is a wreck bc a year plus ago I smashed my machine hook and it finally decided to yell about it last month; I didn’t have the heart to redo it. I would make this entirely differently if I did it again.

It’s always the witching hour if you try hard enough.

It’s difficult to talk about, but I remember it well. . . . I was reminded of Numa in conversation with @lorna_ka, and luckily it’s #freerylothfriday! It’s still a thing... I love this costume and I love Numa so much, unfortunately it is extremely uncomfortable and the bringer of migraines. 📸 by @danielalfonzothomas

On October third he asked me what day it was, I said, ‘How dare you talk to me, you coward.’ . . . Don’t forget 3.Oct.11 Happy Mean Fullmetal Alchemist Day! 📸 by @markwillshirephotography

Absolutely delighted to place first at the Glasgow round of the Crown Championship of Cosplay today at MCM! As each place was announced I became more sure that, as I expected, I hadn’t placed; everyone had done such incredible work! So when they said my name I shouted out ‘what the fuck’ because really, what the fuck. I was incredibly gratified to hear the lovely judges recognise the research, work and historical and technical details which are so easy to overlook or miss. Given just how, to me, political and personal this costume is both thematically and in my thinking when making it (and the state of the country), it is very meaningful to have a trophy for Olivier emblazoned with Scotland. ‘Such a parcel of rogues in a nation.’ This means I’ll be going on to compete with Olivier in the UK finals at Birmingham in November! I can’t wait to see the other finalist’s amazing costumes

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