Jaylah's Journey, Episode 3: I Blame the Pants

Never in my life did I think I would admit defeat to a pair of pants in a blog post, (or anywhere else, for that matter), but here I am.

Today, August 21st, is the deadline to enter the 2026 Salt Lake FanX cosplay contest, and I am officially... 

...not entering. There are many reasons, the main on being that Jaylah's pants continue to mystify, elude and humiliate me in the strange and maddening way only a pair of costume pants can.

Anyway...

I'm afraid this is where Jaylah's Journey comes to a very abrupt, anticlimactic and unsatisfying end. For now, at least. Long story short, I ran out of time, which is entirely my fault. I hadn't even touched the cosplay since last Halloween. Over the winter, every time I glanced across the room at it minding its business on the dress form, I entertained fleeting thoughts of working on it. Then those thoughts would be shoved aside and replaced with daunting memories of what a huge pain in the butt certain parts were and how much I didn't want to deal with them. 

...Until a couple weeks ago when I suddenly remembered how cool this cosplay is and how awesome it would be to bring her up to competition standards. Ultimately, I think I grossly misjudged the amount of work it actually needed, and I especially didn't take into account the little glitches that inevitably turned into major hiccups.

I was so, so close to finishing. Since much of the cosplay was already done from last year, I only had a few things that needed to be improved or made or detailed, and I was pretty happy with how most of them turned out. 

Freshly remade shirt.

This weathering turned out so cool!

More weathering.

Base boots.

I remade the undershirt, fixed the boot covers and the bolero vest and did some really cool weathering and a few details. But none of that matters if the main parts of the outfit -the vest and the pants- don't come together. Last night, after trying on the vest with the bolero attached and seeing it in the mirror, I realized it didn't fit well and that there was no way I could fix it in time to enter today. It didn't look good at all and was nowhere near where it should be for a competition.

And the pants. 

THOSE STUPID, STUPID PANTS.

I was going to make them from scratch, but so many things went wrong from the beginning. So many. 

First, I couldn't find the right fabric. Huge problem. Nothing I looked at online or already had in my stash seemed to work. I searched the only local options that have at least something other than quilting fabric (Walmart and Hobby Lobby) to no avail. It came down to either online or going out of the valley so I finally settled with the closest thing I could find on Etsy. When it arrived, I was disappointed to find that the fabric looked nothing like the picture, because of course it didn't. Shipping was fast, though, I'll give them that.

Wrong color.

Nevertheless, I cut out the pieces, got some dye remover and lightened them up...twice. Amazingly, it looked good, but by the time I'd finished the whole process, the edges of the fabric were so frayed from the constant action that I worried that it had taken off the inches of seem allowance I needed to sew it together. Looking back, I should have dyed all the fabric at once and cut out the pattern later.

Cutting out the pattern.

Un-dyeing.

Re-dyeing the un-dyeing.

The undead/re-dyed and frayed fabric drying.

Second, the subtle details had me stumped for a bit. Jaylah's outfit has a very distinct hexagonal motif, which is especially visible on her pants and I felt it was necessary to include it. However, I just couldn't wrap my brain around how the design worked and how to pattern it. I got it eventually, but discovered I was right about the fraying. After all that, the pants were too small. Fortunately, I had some backup fabric, but again, I had to dye it, which took up a huge chunk of time.

The pattern I finally came up with.

First attempt with the frayed fabric.

Dyeing the backup fabric.

Even more dyeing of even more backup fabric.

Because I was simultaneously juggling the other parts of the cosplay, that second pair never got made. Last night, I was sitting on the floor about to cut into the backup fabric when my cat plopped down right in the middle of the pattern and fell asleep. I took that as a sign that this wasn't meant to be.

This is as far as I got on pants attempt #2.

But it's okay. I'm not beating myself up over it. Am I disappointed about not entering the competition? Yeah, but at the same time it's kind of a relief. Jaylah has not been easy to make, let alone wear. She has stretched me more than any other character I've worked on, and I'm really proud of what I've accomplished. I've learned a lot of new things and improved many skills that I've struggled with in the past, such as sewing and makeup. Besides, let's be honest, with how steep the Salt Lake FanX competition has become, there was a very good chance I wouldn't have made it in anyway. While I enjoy competing, I think this particular contest has outgrown my capabilities as a cosplayer and left me in the dust.

So, what's next?

Well, for starters, I'll take a break today. Then I'm going to clean up the huge mess I made and put it away for a bit, start tackling the stacks of laundry and dishes that have been building up, make sure everybody's ready to go back to school, pet the cat,  and keep organizing my house. 

And FanX? I'm not sure I'll bring Jaylah (like I said, she's not easy and the required prep is exhausting...and I am very out of shape, which doesn't help), but we'll see. As for the rest of this year's lineup, I have a few things in mind. Astrid will be there in some shape or form so I can volunteer with my groups, of course (and because I have to cosplay my girl). Maybe I'll bring Scoot back or throw on my proton pack or a Star Trek uniform. I have options but no solid plans at the moment. What I do know is I don't want to not cosplay for the con, but I'm not particularly feeling like making much right now. Maybe 2026 FanX will be my super-chill cosplay year.