After 2 days of hard rushing, we finally finished the Zura costume for the Melb Anime Fest last Sunday. My first ever cosplay!!!!! A BIG thank you to Kels () for her help with the costume--couldn't have done it without her. She did most of the work, making the kimono by herself and nearly getting frustrated to death. I had figured that the costume should take no more than a week to complete, but maybe leaving it to the very last week wasn't a good idea, as it came to be the busiest week for both of us in terms of our part time jobs--there was basically no time we could spare. So it ended up being rushed on Friday night and Saturday night.
Disappointingly, there were only 3 other Gintama cosplayers at the Manifest: a Matako, a Sadaharu and one Gin-chan, the only costume that I really like being Matako. (She changed later for the Cosplay comp though.)Surprisingly, Katsura received some recognition, and I got stopped for photos a few times. Awkward for me.....being my first time doing cosplay xD Lucky I didn't really have to pose...since I didn't have a sword on the day, metal weapons being banned at the convention.
The Zura costume received a lot of curious attention on public transport though, I observed during my 2 hours on the train and 1 hour on the trams (return trip included). None of the white Aussies stared openly at me, though I caught one at Nando's looking away quickly when I turned his way. I received some strange looks from an Indian woman and an old man at Flinder St Station, to which I couldn't help but just burst into giggles. It didn't help that the only girl who came with me chose to dress normally.
At the end of the day I ended up with a ton of photos I'd taken of other cosplayers (or as much as my almost dead camera battery could take), a huge bag of books and VERY sore knees (kimonos are annoyingly constricting to walk in = . Though somewhat disappointed with the lack of doujin (I only found one that I wanted) and Gintama and Sengoku prints (Yeah I'm obsessed xD), I did enjoy cosplaying and will definitely do it again--once I get myself a sewing machine.

EDIT: A Big thank you to Isa for the make up and photography of the later lot of photos from the shoot!