Hyper Japan 2016

Hi everyone, this post is gonna be about cultural events happening in London during July. The main event is Hyper Japan which is a convention all about Japanese culture, from food to fashion. I'm going to tell you about Japanese peformance in this blog entry, specifically about Edo anime and Studio Ghibli's live musical performances at the 10th Hyper Japan event.

Azumi Inoue and Yuyu at Hyper Japan

Azumi Inoue performed at Hyper Japan this summer with her daughter Yuyu (who's only 11 years old), Azumi is the singer of songs from several of my favourite Studio Ghibli movies such as My Neighbour Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and Laputa: Castle In The Sky. Azumi became noticed when she performed the end theme of Laputa: Castle In The Sky and has since performed the songs "Changing Seasons" and "Mahou No Nukumori" for Kiki's delivery service, a favourite of mine. She also performed the opening and ending theme for My Neighbour Totoro, "Stroll" and "My Neighbour Totoro". Furthermore she's performed the official theme song for Peter Rabbit and classic songs from school textbooks.

Azumi's daughter Yuyu made her debut when she performed for an NHK TV show Minna No Uta at only 7 years old! She was quite successful with her performance as viewers had requested that the show be repeated, Since then she has performed two more songs for the show, collaborating with rock band Watanabe Flower for "Tan Tan Tan" in a 2013 and a duet with her mother in 2014 for "Hanbun Otona".

Here's video of Yuyu singing Tan Tan Tan - a comedic song about a father and his daughter arguing about the last piece of serloin steak.

Visit http://www.doremi-net.co for more information about these great musicians and their upcoming concerts and tv features.

Edo anime at Hyper Japan

The second performance I'm going to tell you about is Edo anime which is a type of animation in which moving  images are projected on a  screen accompanied by live music, voice acting and/or narration. Hyper Japan showed several Edo animation masterpieces including "Kobutori" 1929 directed by Yasuji Murata, visionary director and "Akai Rosoku To Ningyo" ("The Mermaid and the Red Candle") by Mimei Ogawa a children's storybook writer, so if you're an anime fan be sure to check these out.

Hyper Japan also showed "Samurai Opera" as a special feature, it's a Samurai musical drama which combines traditional samurai storylines with English-language opera in a 20 minute humurous performance. I think it's very interesting to see traditional Japanese anime and learn more about how it has developed over time, you can refer to my previous post about Edo anime titled "Edo anime at Hyper Japan" for more information about the history behind it.

Minwaza also performed at Hyper Japan again this summer, they're an artistic group that aims to entertain people by using traditional methods. It's creative and different so I would encourage anyone to see a performance if they get the opportunity. Being a great fan of anime, especially studio Ghibli I find it interesting to see how animation has developed and changed in Japan.

 Visit their website for more information http://www.minwaza.com/edoutsushie/index.html

I hope you enjoyed this post!

Cherusa 

(´ . .̫ . `)

Outfit post!

I've been wanting to do an outfit post for ages so finally here it is hope you enjoy!

The shirt I'm wearing is the Spirited away shirt that I mentioned in my latest haul, I decided to wear it with marvel comic leggings that I got from Primark. I'm also wearing a mint coloured hoodie with canvas shoes and frilly socks which are also from Primark.

I decided to make it a little more interesting by wearing different coloured shoes.

Also I'm wearing my awesome tiger backpack that arrived in the post just yesterday, I was so excited to get this! There are better pics of it below

And for accessories I went for a mood ring, which is why I took two pics the second one is a much more pretty colour. And my turtle ring that my parents got me as a birthday present a couple years ago.

So that was my first outfit post, I hope you enjoyed it! There will be more to come :)

DIY Totoro bag Part 2

Hi there, here's the second part to my Totoro bag tutorial. If you haven't seen the first part then click here to go to it. In this part I'll show you how to construct the outer part and the ears and arms, at this point the lining of your bag should have been made.

This is how your bag should look so far.

Pin along the bottom of the ears and the arms, make sure that the right sides of the fabric are facing inwards.

Sew the shapes but leave the bottom open, after I sewed mine I cut seam smaller (so that it was about 5mm) and then I made marks on the bottom as you can see so that I wouldn't sew them the wrong way round or something.

Turn the pieces inside out.

Going back to the main piece, pin the top of front of the bag (and the ears/arms, the ears and arms should be on the inside) to the side piece that has the zip on it.

Check whilst you still have the pins in that the bag looks like this when you turn it inside out.

This pic is of the bag turned inside out after I sewed it (that's the next step obvs - you have to sew).

This pic is just to show you how the top looks like with the front sewn on.

The next thing I did was pin the bag strap onto the side that doesn't have the zip on it.

And again more sewing.

Next thing I did was sew the edges of the sides together (these are the smaller egdes I'm talking about).

This pic shows what it will look like when you turn the sides inside out.

Here's anotherpic of thesame thing cuz the last one was a bit crappy : /

Now pin and sew the bottom side to the bottom of the front. At this point I realised that the bag was floppy and needed some support, so I went hunting for this to use. Cardboard wouldn't work although I had quite a bit of that, I tried wire but it wouldn't make the exact shape I wanted and I didn't want the things I put in the bag to bulge through the front so...

I found another old backpack that I was already using for spare bits and found more of this plastic board stuff I'd used before for my fairy kei bag, I still don't know what it is most likely a type of polystyrene.

At the front I inserted it in between the front inside and the lining, I used 9 small stitches around the edges of the front (looks like Totoro has dimples now lol, It's more noticeable in the pictures. But the reason why I sewed it on instead of glueing it is because glue ruins fabric, and it might disolve if you wash it).

When I added the padding to the back of the bag I sewed two arrow pointing up, it helps to keep the foam stuff in place.

Nearly done! =) turn the bag inside out (so that the outside of the bag is inside, it will need turning again later. Don't forget to put the strap on the inside).

Pin the back of the bag to the sides and sew it, leave a gap atthe bottom for turning it.

Turn it inside out so that it's the right way round, sew the gap at the bottom closed, I used my sewing machine to close the back so there's a line of stitches running along the bottom.

So this is what the finished thing turned out to be like, I'm quite happy with the result. Here's a pic of the back of the bag after I finished sewing it up, the bottom where I closed the seam is a bit rough. But I'd been working on this for so long and I was in a rush so I just finished it like that. If you wanna make yours neater just hand sew a ladder stitch to close it :)

Phew, that was a lot of work. I'm so happy to finally have this up I've been working on it for days I hope it was useful to you :) Have fun making your own!

DIY Totoro bag

I'm not gonna lie when I first saw Totoro I thought that the people who made it were on drugs :D It was the first studio Ghibli film I'd seen, but after a while I loved all of the studio Ghibli animes. Totoro is one of the best ones though so I decided to make a Totoro bag.

                                         

Awww look it's a baby Catbus, a little bit creepy but lol :D I'll probably end up making a Catbus bag too!

And here are some cute Totoro backpacks that I found.

This is what my Totoro bag looks like:



                                         

What you will need:

• Grey fabric - about 10" x 25" and another piece about 5" x  40", the fabric I used was recycled from a pair of trousers.
• White fabric - Just a small amount as wide as the bag half as tall, this came from a shirt.
• Lining fabric - this can be any fabric, you'll need as much of it as the grey fabric. I used some black cotton with pictures on it.
• Ruler.
• Tape measure.
• Thread - black and white.
• Embroidery floss - brown use two strands.
• Scissors.
• Pencil.
• Zip - 18" long.
• Sticky tape.
• Pins.
• Paper - three A4 pieces.
• Felt - Black, white and brown.
• A strap.

Whoa just realised how long that list is... Anyway here's how you make the pattern for your Totoro bag.

So lets get started, draw a rectangle measuring 25.5 cm x 18 cm on one A4 paper.

On the top edges measure 5 cm on each side and mark it, then mark 6 cm down on each side as shown.

Draw a curve connecting the two marks on either side.

Fold the template in half (measure to make sure the fold is halfway across the bottom of the rectangle shape), Draw a line 6 cm high in the middle.

On the side of the rectangle measure a point 4 cm high, this is shown by the arrow.

Draw a curved line to connect the top of the line in the middle and the mark on the side.

Repeat on the other side, the shape you just made is Totoro's belly.

Draw a line vertically that goes from the midpoint of the bottom and the top (halfway between the fold and the edge, basically it's a quarter line).

Mark a horizontal line on the vertical one where you want his eye to be.

With the mark in the center draw around the sticky tape, the tape I used was the perfect size for Totoro's eyeball and pupil.

This is what it should look like.

Repeat the same on the other side, If you have tracing paper you can use that to make it symmetrical.

Now you can rub out the guide lines you used, it looks weird at this stage. When I made it I thought I'd have to redo it but it will look better once you complete the rest of the features.

Draw a horizontal line on the fold that is in line with the middle of the eye, (make the line 3.5 cm long).

Draw a nose using this line.

On the belly draw three identical curved shapes.

Make a mark where the top of the curves are and make another mark 3.7 cm away from it on the top line this is where the ears will be. Make two marks on the side where you want the arms to be, these should be 4 cm apart.

On another A4 page trace on the eyes, nose markings and belly. Create the ears and the arms, refer the the pic when drawing the shape.

Now moving on to pattern cutting:

Cut out all of the templates.

Trace the template of the belly onto your white fabric.

Trace the main template, markings, ears and arms onto the grey fabric (you need two main shapes, three markings, four ears and four arms. Trace them onto the fabric that is 25" x 10") With the little markings could just cut it because the fabric I used didn't fray, you can use felt for it instead of the main fabric. If the fabric you do want to use frays use apply bondaweb to the back.

Trace the eye template twice onto the white felt, and trace the nose template onto the brown felt.

Cut out the inner circle on the eye template, cut around it twice so that you have two black circles.

Cut out all of the templates so that you have this pile of fabric.

Finally we can move on to putting the bag together:

Pin one of the white felt circles onto the main body of Totoro (on the right side), make sure that you use your template to put it in the right place. Sew it on using your white thread, make the stitches really small.

Repeat it with the other white circle.

Sew on the black circles in the middle of the white ones using your black thread.

Pin on and sew on the nose using the brown embroidery thread.

Get your white fabric with the belly drawn on it, pin across the curved line at the top of the shape.

Turn it over on the right side a iron on the curved line at the top using the pins as a guide.

Remove the pins and iron it again, it will look like this.

Pin it onto the main shape.

Sew along the curved line and remove the pins.

Using your white thread sew on the markings.

This is how you can make the sides:

Lay a piece of thread all the way around the edge of the template traced onto the grey fabric, cut it when it goes once around.

Stretch out the thread so that it's straight, measure it with the tape measure mine measured 33".

 

Get your other piece of paper and cut two strips 3.5" wide.

Stick the strips together using tape.

My string measured 33" so my strip had to be half as long, I cut it 16.5" long.

Trace this onto the other grey fabric twice.

Now we get to put it together finally.

Split one in half horizontally by drawing a line.

Cut the strip on the line that you just made.

Draw a line parallel to the cut that is 7mm down from the top (my zip was 1.5 cm wide, I made sure that if I had sewed the zip to both strips that it would be the same width that it was before I cut it).

Pin the line that you just made to the edge of the zip.

This is how it looks on the other side, sew along the line where the pins are.

When you remove the pins it should look like this after you've flipped the grey fabric back.
 

If you use a sewing machine to sew the zip on you should use a zipper foot, it makes it easier to sew because the foot makes room for the zip.

Repeat with the other piece of the side that you split earlier.

Lining

Trace the side pieces and the main templates onto the lining fabric, I don't have a pic of this because the fabric I used was dark so you couldn't see it properly.

Split one of the sides as you did with the grey fabric.

Pin the pieces of the lining that you split to the wrong side of the zip, it should be directly under the grey fabric.

On the right side sew a line parallel to the edge of the grey fabric.

This is what it would look like on the right side when one piece of lining is sewn on.

And this is what it will look like on the under side, fold the flap to the side where the sewed line is.

This pic shows both pieces sewn on on the under side, this will be on the inside of your bag.

This shows both pieces sewn on the right side.

Pin and sew the other side of lining and the front and back/ main pieces together to make a box shape with some of the side missing.

This is a photo of the inside of the bag, sorry the pic is a bit crappy : / But it's supposed to be looking into the shape you just made.

Pin and sew the box (made from the lining fabric) to the lining of the zip, do NOT sew it to the grey fabric.

This is what it should look like, open the zip and you can have a look at the inside of your bag.

Now to build the outside... This post is already really long so I've made another page that will show you how put the rest of the bag together, visit part 2 here  =D have fun making!