"Restac", the Leader of the Silurian Warrior Class

The challenge with this one was that there were no patterns!  As Lisa can tell you, I'm usually lost without a pattern, but I finally got to put those draping classes to work. Here you exchange the discomfort of a corset for the discomfort of neck rings where the paint never dried.

I ordered the cowls from Decimated Designs. This is just your garden-variety latex house paint. I don't own a spray gun, so all this is by hand.

You can see a photo of Restac here :Restac photo

 For the makeup, it is better to put on a bald cap first, so you don't end up gluing you hair, but my boyfriend is not skilled and putting one on yourself takes waaay too much effort, so I opted for some glued hair strands.  The cowl fit me much better than it fit Roger, probably because of the mass of hair stuffed in the top of it. I had to put the costume on first because I couldn't make the opening big enough for the head AND have it stay on my shoulders,

 I made a shift out of double-sided quilted material, which I bound with quilt binding. This didn't have the flexibility I'd envisioned and I felt as if I were wearing a giant pot-holder.

I draped some material over the dummy for the jacket.  The first time I did it, it was too small because I draped it over just the dummy without the rest of the costume under it! The "potholder" dress added so much bulk that the coast had to be much larger. The "armor" is craft foam with gold scrapbooking paper glued to it.  Then I slit and laced the shapes together, then glued those down. I wore it as a sort of apron, just pinned inside the jacket, as the jacket would never be removed.

The only problem with the gold paper is that it bounces light.
For the sleeves, I did a test crochet for chain mail, but decided on just a straight garter stitch for the sleeves.  Had to do those twice - the first time they were too skinny, the second time, a little large.

The neck and arm rings are just plastic tubing, painted.  The paint wouldn't dry, so I doused them in baby powder. That helped a bit, but they ended up in the trash the next day. Gonna have to find a better paint for those rings!

All in all, I'm happy with these costumes.

Silurian Eldane makeup

 The cowl was a one-size-fits-most, but Roger's head is small, so I put scrap fabric in between his head and the cowl to take up space. I glued down the cowl with spirit gum, then painted his face with green grease paint. To break up the monotony of all green, I stippled yellow in highlight areas, added the hand-drawn scales, then added a few purple discoloration marks. After powdering thoroughly - TWICE - he was ready.

Silurian Eldane for a Dr. Who-Dunnit Murder Mystery.

"Eldane" and "Restac" at the Murder Mystery

For the Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild Dr. Who-Dunnit murder Mystery, I went to Cosplay for the first time. There are no patterns for these things, so I just made it up as I went along.
For Eldane, I bought a graduation robe from Amazon, made a stole, then added purchased ribbon in stripes to simulate the Eldane look.
Couldn't get wide enough cream ribbon, so I bonded two pieces together, then laid the red one on top.

You can see the original Eldane here: Eldane pic

The cowls were fun to paint.  I ordered these from Decimated Designs, a wonderful site that has latex costume supplies. These were unpainted, so I got to play with stippling and breaking up the colors. Then I outlined the scales to give it depth.

There is a separate post for the makeup.

Here's my sweetie in his final costume.  The neck rings were problematic as the paint would not cure. I finally doused them in baby powder, but ended up throwing them away after the evening was over.  Wrong match of materials, so if I use these costumes again, I'll have to rework the rings.

Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin - Cosplay Build - L

OK, I admit it.  My last post was a few weeks old.  I forgot to hit 'post'.  Here are details and pics.  Some of this has been discussed in other posts, but I wanted to put it all together.  And show them in action.

Jacket - I used a super easy woman's blouse pattern in a shoulder size that fit each kid.  For my daughter, I left the darts in.  I removed them for my son.  Removing darts was harder than I thought.  I also made the shoulders a bit wider since I wanted to emphasize that narrow hipped anime look.  It took 3 tries to get the collar right.  The collars are somewhat oversized and have a high stand but they are clearly NOT two part collars.  I used the collar that came with the blouse pattern, but I had to change the shape of the entire collar a little, adding more curve, but making the collar points bigger, and longer. I used transfer paper to print the emblem and ironed it onto muslin.  Then, I used heat and bond to attach it to the jacket.  I had to leave the paper on the transfer until I was done with all the ironing and I'm not entirely sure it will hold up to washing.  It took a bit of practice to get the process right.  And even with all that, Annie's collar got flattened under her hoodie.  there may be transfer paper that will iron onto dark fabrics.  I just could find it.



Eren's Shirt - long sleeve t-shirt
I removed the ribbing at the neck and cuffs, and catch-stitched the hems.  I made eyelets for the lacing and used a bit of iron on interfacing to reinforce the lacing opening.  Annie's shirt is a hooded t-shirt.
Pants and belts - pretty self explanatory, I used pleather strips for some of the belting (like around the knees) and tacked it down in a few spots to keep it in place.  I used upholstery weight thread to hold all the belts in place.  It's nearly unbreakable.

I got the real belts at Ross and got two of them REALLY long.  They go over the shoulders, cross, through the waist belt at the back and wrap back around to the front.  I sewed them by punching holes with an awl and tacking them where they meet.  'Annie' got her own pants and belts but used the same process.


Boots - I used an on-line tutorial (Sidney Eileen) for gaiters and added a shoe cover.  They close with velcro in the back.  I also added the high front as a sewn on piece, backed with felt.  I just measured the shoes and estimated the shape for the foot piece.  I made paper models before I cut the pleather.  I cut them a little big at the edges and trimmed what hung over.  A sharp curve over the toe helped hold them in place, along with elastic under the sole. It's important to measure while wearing the pants and shoes you will actually be wearing. They stayed on great and looked like boots.








 
3D gear -  never again.  I made 2 full sets and it was too much.  We decided early on that we wouldn't actually sheath the swords.  Made the build easier, and we didn't have to worry about wrecking the finish on the swords. When not in use, the swords tucked into the top of the gear and stayed put.  We chose the manga version as it seemed easier to me since there wouldn't be as much bulk in the back.  We deviated from 'accurate' for the little boxes/bits that sit at the hips.  Mostly, we just ran out of time.  And when I say we, I mean me.  

All the parts before construction

Boxes - made from foam rubber covered in heavy silver poster board and using silver washi tape at all the joins.  I put a piece of black felt under openings for blade storage.  It's non-reflective in photos.  I did jam a bit of painted wood into a couple of openings to look like extra blades. The boxes are light weight and look pretty good. If I did it again, I might spray paint after taping.  The vertical lines on the boxes are heavy craft foam cut, sealed and painted.  In the manga version, these vertical pieces go over the canister in the back, and under the canister handles in front.  I used a darker paint on these to increase contrast.

Gas canisters - PVC tubes with half a styrofoam ball on top.  The styrofoam was light but hard to work with and seal.  After lots of work, it's still sorta bumpy.  As I was finishing, I realized that light weight spackle would have been the best choice to smooth the surface.  I was out of time to go over them again.  Live and learn. PVC tubes look awesome but are a bit heavy.  Then again, the weight was useful to keep the gear from flopping a lot while it was worn.  I used craft foam to seal the bottom.  Eventually I got scared that the PVC was too heavy.  I drilled holes and ran heavy nylon picture cord thru them, so I could hang them from the shoulder belts.  I didn't want any dropping pants.  The cord is tied to S hooks (with one end crimped shut) and the other end hooked to split rings run thru the shoulder belts.  Easy off and on.  I shoved doweling into the top of the cans and stuck a piece of 1/2 inch tubing across the dowel for the handle.  Made them black with sharpie.  I also stuck some thin black nylon cord into the cans to look like the tubing.  I used a washer at the top for finishing.  The advantage to the anime version is the the side decoration goes over the canister in two places.  The mange version only goes over the top in one place.  This caused great fear of failure.  The cord/tubing ran from the canisters to the hip bits.  The canisters were painted with 'hammered' finish spray paint.

Swords - 1 1/2 inch pine lathing, spray painted silver and finished with rub n buff.  I cut out a bit at the handle end and made the trigger out of foam core board.  I'm not hugely happy with it, but it will do.  I made the handles out of sculpey and glued the whole mess together.  Then I covered it in pleather.  I also included the same black nylon cord to be the cables.  It was annoying to put in the cord BEFORE I was sure how long it needed to be.  That cord also attached to the hips bits.  I needed complete 3D gear to get the right length.  Made the lines on the blade with sharpie.  Because I can't costume without a sharpie.

Conner Kenway complete - Lisa

All the detail is in the previous post.  Here it is.
done with all the gear.  Please note, he decided to wear my Uggs at the last minute and didn't want to wait and hide them under the leggings.

Conner Kenway costume IS DONE - L

SCROLL DOWN (and down and down) FOR MOST RECENT WORK
Part One - Jacket and Shirt

As promised, I am making a Conner Kenway (Assassin's Creed 3) costume for my offspring.
This is straight up cosplay which isn't really my thing...and yet, figuring out the coat is something I've  been thinking about a lot.  There are a couple patterns floating around on the interwebs but I didn't find them helpful.  I ended up using a woman's jacket pattern (Butterick 4929) modifying it (both in shape and in size).  I made it narrower but longer.  And I make the two piece front into one piece because no boobs.  In addition to having no boobs, my son also has no waist which I didn't account for in the first muslin.  Major 'do-over'.
The main part of the jacket was pretty easy.  It's the devil in the details that is gonna get me.
There are also brighter images of the character at this site
Conner Kenway

Since the video game is set during the American Revolution,

technically he should wear a coat, a vest and a shirt.  BUT there is a plethora of detail around the shoulder that was probably fun to draw but not so much to sew.  I have opted, like other cosplayers, to make the top coat into a vest and put the sleeves on the 'vest'.  I got the sleeveless coat drafted and sewn in a day.  I also drafted the over-shoulder piece along with the blue waist detail.  And I picked one of the boy's shirts that fits well to use as guidance for the vest/sleeves.

The front of the vest has a horizontal pleating detail so I needed to make a muslin first and pleat the white denim before I cut.  Just easier.  The back will only be muslin so I can sew in a big tuck to alter the fit as he grows.  Although I swear he's outgrowing it as I sew it.  I made the sleeves narrow but with a gusset at the elbow.  This gives him more room to move and the character has three buttons there anyway.  I'm leaving the lower arm seam open until I make the forearm pieces.





The jacket shoulder has some fussy strips of blue and leather.  I made the strips and then sewed them

over the lining layer, turning back the top layer, and sewed them in using the leather (read: ultra suede remnant) to bind the raw edges.

So here is a bad picture of my progress so far.

Followed by an exciting (ha!) action pose.

I have a LOT of accessories to make and a lot of 'dirty-ing' to do after I take a break to clean the sew-pocolypse in my dining room.

 

PART 2 - The Stuff - and holy cats, there is a LOT of it

Hood - I ended up making 5 drafts before I got it right  - no pictures yet - still have to make the symbol on the center front.  Oh good!  Drawing!  Something I'm pretty bad at.

The 'metal' bits - made of sculpey, painted silver.

The left bit is the back of the tomahawk, center is the belt piece, right is the bracer piece.  The blade of the tomahawk is, well, done.  Turns out I'm even worse at sculpting than I am at drawing.                         And the handle is a bit of scrap wood painted brown.  I'll wrap the handle with microsuede and hemp twine to make it look less like an afterthought.   The same goes for the arrows (doweling painted brown) quiver (cardboard covered with fabric and decorated) and bow (lathing strips, glued and painted brown).  I'll put up pictures when I get a chance and they are a bit more finished.

The 'beaded' armbands are made of burlap and painted to look sort of beaded.  It would be interesting and fun to actually bead them, but TIME!!!!

Here is the sash, finished buckle with belt, and one of the two cheap pistols we bought (Amazon, $10 including shipping) and painted.

And the bracers, one matches the coat, and the other is 'leather' with a metal bit and a hidden blade (which will be left off because... 12 year old boy).  They are only partly done and smaller than they ought to be because my 'client' likes them better that way.

I did this all in a day.  And as I was working on the leather, one of the cats decided I was done for the day.                                He was right.  I'm taking a couple days off from this costume.  

Back with the last of the gear!

Bow made of lathing painted brown, jute string to cover the join.  Arrows made of painted doweling and glued on seagull (rhymes with eagle, RIGHT?) feathers.

 Bow with string.  I already snapped it once and had to re-glue it.  Quiver with some decoration in a similar theme to the game image, and six arrows.  and the 'leather' bracer with metal symbol.  Don't ask me what it is.  I never finished with Ezio much less played this game.  It closes with velcro and has a secret blade compartment in the wrist.  With any luck, no neighbors will be injured in the making of this Halloween.

And the tomahawk.  Did I mention sculpture was NOT my strong suite?  Still it's made of sculpey, rub n buff, jute string, yarn, ultra suede ALL on a bit of 1x2 scrap wood.  I did some serious gluing to hold this together.  It has heft.

The boy LOVES it.  There is a wire loop to allow it to hang from his belt.

And the $1 stretch gloves from JoAnns with the fingers cut off (and tacked to prevent runs)

 The leggings have straps to tie around his legs and over his cargo pants.  A bit of twine will tie the front of the leggings to his belt loops (as with game Conner).
Microsuede doesn't really fray so these were easy.  The cat should provide scale, but only if you know how big he is

And finally, I have failed to photograph the buttonholes and buttons on the jacket, the gun holsters and belts that wrap over the coat, and the final part of the turnbacks on the jacket, the tamale pot full of coffee grounds and salt to age the white fabric, and the torturous hood.  They'll be clear in the next post with the boy WEARING this costume.   My final picture is the eagle emblem on the hood.  It is 'embossed' with yarn and specially 'aged' to highlight the symbol.

Staying tuned for the 'wearing of...'