Nausicaa Cosplay

I saw Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind only this past year and I fell in love with the film and the character. As I was planning to go to Otakuthon 2012 (which I did and it was awesome despite me being sick!), I figured that I might as well try a cosplay!  I chose Nausicaa because her costume looked relatively easy enough to pull off without having too many crazy things going on.  This is my first official cosplay so I hope you guys like it!

Construction:

Pants: The pants were made of a lightweight, almost sheer, turquoise material that had been given to me a couple of years ago as spare fabric for my beginner sewing projects.  I got the inspiration to use that fabric for my Nausicaa pants when I was cleaning up my materials box.  I didn't have any sort of harem pants pattern at my disposal so I went to my lovely friend the internet and looked it up.  I came across this site here: http://www.reddawn.net/costume/drawstri.htm.

Finished Pants

I followed the directions and once the pieces were put together I discovered that these pants could have easily fit two of me inside them!  I also discovered that my pant legs were wayyyy too long for my legs!  So I chopped them off at my ankles to shorten them and proceeded to create an elastic waistband (instead of a drawstring).  I added elastic ankle bands as well to keep the poofiness of the pants.  Those were a pain to sew!  There was so much fabric that needed to be gathered into a tiny circle that I only managed to sew half of both on the machine.  The rest I hand stitched O_o.

Tunic: The tunic is made of  a blue crushed velvet material that drapes really nicely.  I chose velvet as my material because I wanted my cosplay to have an authentic feel to it; she is a princess after all, even if she is living in a post apocalyptic era.  I found a really good T-tunic pattern on this site here: http://forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/Tunics/TUNICS.HTML.

Tunic

This was a good pattern to work with for the basic shape but I did have to tweak it a little and improvise.  A lot of the piece that I ended up cutting out were too big so I had to cut them back a bit.  It turned out well enough; I had my mum help me with pinning up the hem because my little brother refused to stand still for me and I apparently can't pin things in a straight, horizontal line.  The only thing I regret is cutting the neck hole too big.  I forgot when I was cutting it that I had to hem it and thus make it bigger.

The pattern on the tunic was drawn out by me.  I used scrap material for the design.  I sewed the red part onto the white part first using a zigzag stitch and then I sewed the whole thing onto the tunic with more zigzag stitching.  It was a bit of a rushed job but it does look authentic enough.

Emblem on tunic

The collar is my first attempt at a mandarin collar!  The collar itself turned out pretty good (in stiffness) except for the fact that it was too small for the neckline :S Basically there is a gap in the neckline at the back which is hidden by the wig I wear.

Update (March 2013) - I removed the mandarin collar and I hope to make a new one.

Boots: The boots were bought for a cheap price at Sirens a couple of years ago.  They are made of faux black suede and have straps that tighten around the legs using a buckle.  They are the wrong colour unfortunately.  Maybe one day I'll get a pair of brown boots.

Wig: I bought it at a Halloween/Party store as I didn't have time to get a nicer one or the money to do so.  I ended up only finding a 70's style short red wig which curls at the ends in a really annoying manner.  I tried to comb it out with my fingers and that sort of worked.

Belt: I plan to actually make the belt one day.  I ended up not having the time to do it so I went with a bought one that looked like it would fit in the time.

I learned a lot during the making of this.  My seams are crooked, my hems are uneven and my collar is messed up.  Despite all the flaws I am proud of my work.  I really love this character and I have big plans for this cosplay!  I want to remake it in it's entirety and make a life sized baby Ohm to model with it!  I just think that would be so cool and so iconic.  Wish me luck!

Completed Nausicaa Costume