cosplay process

comic con

planning

Birmingham comic con is a bi-yearly event in which many people attend to buy media related merchandise, meet new people and see cosplays.

this gives a window of 4 or 8 months depending on weather the convention is in march or November, for this outfit was made for march convention giving me four months to prepare, plan and construct.

patterns and measurements

this piece is a recreation, therefore attention to detail is important as it will need to be as like the original as possible, as a result its essential to constantly compare, measure and adjust to make it way for the more specific elements, however a rough estimate will often work for sections that will not be receiving as much attention. for example, the sword was made as close to the reference image as possible to scale with my form, to achieve this I measured the length, with the total making 100%, then I compared how long the sword should be and rounded it to the nearest 10 for the sake of ease, I then converted that value to 100%, then added up the section percentages by dividing them by the total length to form a value between 0 and 1. while the shirt was made by simply using a shoelace to mark where to cut so I didn’t have to draw on the fabric and using an existing shirt to create the pattern. overall the purpose is to make the process as time efficient as possible by only focusing completely on essential elements. because this is a cosplay most of the detail will be toward the front of the outfit and less attention to detail will be toward the back as no requested photographs will be from that angle, saving time and expense overall.

elements

shirt, leggings, wig, corset, boots, gloves, armbands

the leather elements of this outfit consisted of the boots, corset, scabbard, and glove rims

gloves and boots

the gloves caused so much trouble for this project as the thread from the sewing machine didn’t catch properly on the fabric and as a result they had to be sewn by hand, taking several hours longer than they should have, in addition to this I had a very limited amount of material to work with and as a result they were much smaller than they should have been but still fitted relatively well despite this.

on the other hand the boots were one of the most enjoyable parts to make using a pair of cheap boots brought online, and pleather, along with a few other elements.

prepared sections to fit around shoe, spray painted them with thin layer of black spray paint to darken the tone

glued sections onto the shoe

leg wraps were made using rectangular pieces that were crumpled using elastic, then a thin cardboard sheet was placed inside to help hold the shape, and to add further support bindings were  attached and secured with Velcro to ensure they are held together. the two parts were then attached with Velcro, the reason Velcro was used is because it holds extremely well but is still very easy to remove. the issues that presented themselves with the boots is that the cardboard did rub a bit and cause a blister, as a result I may later some more pleather of place a plaster to prevent contact with the skin, overall this should be an easy fix, in addition to this there is also some instances of paint ware on the soles, but at not really a notable amount so it’s an issues that doesn’t really need to be fixed.

sword

the process used for the sword is a similar process to what is used to make larp weapons, however I have simplified the process and used cheaper and more readily available materials, the process itself involves using three layers of 1.5 mm foam in which I used a core of twisted thick wire to help maintain the shape, typically, three layers of foam will be used with a fibreglass core will be used to enable the weapon to be durable. since this is only for aesthetic purposes I only made the hilt since the blade would be tricky to make in addition to this it would not need to be seen, in addition to this I would not have any need to seal the paint with latex. the painting process involved uses spray paint to create a black base coat followed by silver, after this I used mod rock to create a bandage effect around the grips of the hilt and painted them with yellows and browns. the processes overall is  inspired by that used by Daniel parker however the weapons he makes are made to last using better materials to achieve better results but taking a longer time to achieve this.

as the sword is just a hilt I needed to make a scabbard to hold the weapon, this did have more issues than intended but overall still turned out quite well. I created this using red pleather to create the scabbard itself and handbag straps to create the handle and wraps, i did intend to sew these parts on however because of the thickness of the faux leather I was forced to use impact glue which held very well apart from a small section which had to be safety pinned back to the scabbard. for the final details I used foam to create the metallic parts of the scabbard.

belt

my initial plan for the belt was to make the entire thing out resin however because of time and material concerns I chose to make the majority of it out of foam and the gems out of resin, however it is best that foam was used for the main part as after working with resin it seems to brittle to use for the main part of the belt.

however the after finishing this and waring it for the day I found that the paint rubs off very easily to reveal the colourful foam underneath, as a result of this it would probably be best to use a sealant of some kind that would add a protective layer. 

overall this was a very successful project as many new processes and techniques have been applied 

however there were still significant flaws in the outfit that I hope to deal with for the next con I wear this at. for example I hope to put elastic on the sleeves to prevent the sleeves from riding up and also help prevent the gloves from falling down, in addition to this I also need to find a way to prevent the cardboard inside the boots from rubbing and causing blisters. one of the most visual issues however is the paint rubbing off the foam and some of the pleather, this can be sorted by repainting for each wear however I would like a more permanent solution, as a result some form of sealant is needed.

leggings
one of the simpler elements as all that needed to alters was than a simple design needed to be added and metal studs needed to be added.
over 40 studs added overall

belts
mostly from charity shops
used spray paint to make the metal parts look more like brass.