Vána: Original Design

I have been a huge Lord of the Rings fan since I first saw the movies in early high school.  As I never got to see them in theaters I always thought that my chance to make a LOTR costume for a movie premier was long gone.  You can imagine my great surprise and excitement upon learning that the Hobbit would be made into a set of three films.  I decided that I would have to make an elven coastume for myself to wear to the film.  Unfortunately there are no female characters in the book to name the gown after so I then decided to name my gown after a Valier.  This way the gown would be somehow related to not only the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings but also to all the other works Tolkien wrote about Middle Earth.  I chose the Valier Vána because she represents the spring and that is my favourite season.

Design:

It took me a while to decide what design I wanted to do for Vána.  I knew that I wanted a simple gold under gown and a green over gown.  The under gown always stayed the same design, a plain long sleeved gown with arm ties for the forearm.  The over gown underwent many design changes and phases.  At first I wanted to have bell shaped sleeves on the over gown.  Then I decided that I wanted sleeves that opened from the elbow down, leaving a bunch of fabric to hang loose at the elbow.  I also experimented a lot with the neckline.  I first decided to have it match the under gown's neckline, then changed it to a low scoop neckline.  I finally settled on the triangular neckline.  I always wanted to have the rectangular cut outs in the skirt of the gown, though I was undecided for a while if I wanted to edge them or not.

Concept art

Construction:

Under Gown: I chose to follow a pattern (for once) for the under gown.  I used Butterick B4827 with the thought that I would add ties to the lower arms.  I bought a pale gold, textured material (the texture was random crinkling here and there).  I am not quite sure what material it is as I didn't see a name to it when I bought it.  It had a nice drape and sheen to it; not too stiff and not too shiny.  I followed the pattern directions, altering it as I went for fit.  I am rather pleased with the turnout of the gown.  I used a gold coloured cord for the lacing in the back.  I added wrist ties out of the same gold cord to give a little bit more detail to the gown as it is a very simple pattern.  I really love this gown, I hope to get in a photo shoot soon, maybe when it snows for the first time.

Back

Front

Arm Ties

Finished back

Over Gown: For the over gown I loosely followed the same tunic pattern I used for Nausicaa that can be found here.  The fabric I chose was a dark green crushed velvet.  I would have preferred to use a jacquard or a stretch velvet but I didn't have the budget for that.  I made the gown slightly bigger than I would have made it normally as it was supposed to go over another gown that already had some substance to it.  The long hanging sleeves are lined and sewn onto the upper sleeves.  The side insets were cut so that the gap on the side of the gown would start from my knee.  I added a train to the back to match the train of the under gown.

This was my first time sewing a trim around sharp corners.  I found a really cool trim with a textured flower pattern that I thought would match to character really well.  I am really quite pleased with how the trim turned out.  I took my time sewing it so that I would look smooth and clean.  I didn't buy enough of the trim to add to the neckline unfortunately.  Maybe my next trip to Fabricville will include getting more of that trim!

Boots: The boots are the same ones that I used for my Nausicaa cosplay.

Cloak: The cloak was made out of an old curtain that I purchased at Value Village with the hope of being able to use the fabric for a project. It has a nice weave to it and a nice woody colour to it.  I have no idea what it is made out of but it is quite sturdy and easy to work with.  You can check out how I easily transformed the curtain into a cloak by checking my tutorial.

Belt: I found a really cool leaf maille belt at value village which I had to get for this costume.  It helps to give the gowns a little bit more form around the waist as they are both a little loose.

I really love how this costume turned out.  It is perfect for the winter which we have a lot of in Canada.  I can't wait to wear this to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in December!  I entered this costume into the Ottawa Pop Expo 2013 masquerade.  I didn't win anything but it was still fun to go on stage and show my work!

Completed Costume

The Shredder

This was a joint effort between my boyfriend and I.  I really wanted him to have a halloween costume and he decided to go as the Shredder.  Thankfully he decided to go with the version that didn't have a full suit if armour!  I was in charge of the actual clothing and he was in charge of the armour.  I helped out a bit with the armour whenever he needed an extra hand at cutting out shapes.

Construction:

Tabard -  I followed a very simple pattern I found on http://www.reddawn.net/costume/tabard.htm. We got dark grey suede as the material. The tabard came out a little thinner than I would have liked but it does the trick.

Sewing the Tabard

Shirt - We used a black crepe fabric to make the shirt. I folded the material and laid it down on the floor. I drew out the pattern on the fabric by folding one of his T-shirts in half and laying it along the fold line. I used chalk to mark it up and basically eyeballed the design, giving lots of room for seam allowance and length in the arms and shirt. I had to do this twice to get the front and the back parts of the shirt. After cutting out the basic pattern, I chalked out the neckline and cut that out. I made my first seam along the top part of the sleeves and the shoulders. Next, I sewed along the edge that started on the bottom of the sleeve all the way to the bottom length of the shirt. There was considerable editing with the side seams and much cutting of excess fabric. I cut and hemmed the sleeves, the neckline and the bottom of the shirt.

Drafting the shirt

Pants -  I used the same black crepe for the pants as I used for the shirt. I used the pattern provided on this site http://www.reddawn.net/costume/drawstri.htm with some alterations with the measurements to meet my boyfriends needs.

Drafting the pants

Cape -  The cape was completely hand drafted by me. I started out with a rough sketch of the cape which consisted of a rectangle topped off with a semi-circle. Along the line between the rectangle and the semi circle would be the neckline. Once I figured pout what I was doing I just chalked it out on the fabric, leaving lots of room for errors. I turned the rectangle into a trapezoid so that the bottom of the cloak would be wider than his shoulders and thus have more swoosh to it. I cut the semi circle and the trapezoid separately with appropriate necklines and then sewed them together. I made an interfacing for the neckline out of scrap material that that it would be sturdier.

Armour -  We started on the shoulder and wrist armour first to get the right shape and size.  We drafted out a few shapes on poster board and cut them out.  Then we sized them up against my boyfriend to see which was the better template.  We used that template to then cut out two pieces of poster board for each armour piece (eight pieces in all).

Shoulder armour prototype

Before we put the pieces together, we had to decided how we were going to attach them to him.  The shoulder pieces we decided were going to be pinned to his cloak and his wrist pieces were going to be tied to his wrist. Since each piece was going to be made of two layers, we cut slits in the bottom layer to allow pieces of scrap material through, short strips for the shoulders and longer strips for the wrists.  Once the layers of fabric were in place, we glued the top and bottom pieces together and curved them.

Painted shoulder armour

My boyfriend drafted the claws on foam board and cut them out using an exacto knife.  We needed four pieces per armour piece so we had to cut out sixteen in total, along with some extras in case we screwed up somewhere.  They were were hot glued to the armour in the desired direction.  Before we painted them, we tried them on the costume to see if the attachments worked.  Once everything was figured out, they were all spray painted silver by my boyfriend.

Putting the helmet together

My boyfriend did the helmet completely himself.  He took a hard hat as a base and cut out small circular sections out of poster board.  He attached them all around the hat for the top of the helmet to try and make it as round as possible.  He them took an old coat hanger, unwound it and wrapped it around the base of the hat with one end sticking up.  The wire would support the spike that protrudes from the front of the helmet, which was also made of poster board.  He made the front lip of the helmet after the spike was attached.  To finish it off he added the neck protection.  He used the same silver paint on the helmet as he did for the armour.

Finished Shredder

Padme Ripped Battle Costume

I've always wanted to make a Padme costume but all of her costumes seem so difficult to approach.  I decided to start with her battle costume because it was the simplest of them all and seemed the easiest to do.

Construction:

Shirt - I bought a cream turtle neck sweater at Value Village and modified it. I cut off the collar, being very careful not to cut past the neckline.  I then went and cut off a little at the bottom.  I tried it on and noted how short it was.  I kept cutting and trying on the shirt until I was satisfied with the length of the shirt.  I took some smaller fabric scissors and cut some jagged lines along the new "hem" of the shirt to make it more realistic.  I then cut some slashes into the back of the shirt, being careful not to cut too high to avoid showing my bra.  The last thing to cut was the right arm.  I cut off most of the length and finished the ragged edge using the smaller scissors.

Back of Shirt

Front of shirt

Pants - I bought some cheap white leggings for the pants.  Since the material of the leggings is quite sheer I also bought some nude panty hose to wear underneath to give it a more even skin tone look.  When I wear the panty hose and the leggings I have to be careful that the hose does not show above the waist line of the pants.  I just roll the top down until it is concealed.  I don't mind the bulge too much as I know that the belt and the pouches will cover that up.

Boots - I once owned a pair of beige boots that I bought for really cheap at a thrift store.  My mum however gave them away because I hadn't worn them for a while so now I'm bootless.  I do have a pair of nude heels that I can still make boot covers for.  The heel isn't as sturdy as Padme's actually is but in this cosplay I'm not really going to crazy attention to detail as it is a closet cosplay.

Belt - I bought a beige fabric belt at H&M years ago.  I will use that belt for the costume as it is a good colour and good material for the costume.

Belt Pouches - Coming soon

Wig - I have an Irish dancing bun wig that matches my hair colour.  It is made up of really tight curls that are supposed to bounce when you dance.  Padme's real wig is actually a bunch of twists of hair made into a bun so my wig won't be exactly accurate but it will be a close enough estimate.

Back Scratches - Coming soon

Armbands - Coming soon

Princess Jasmine Cosplay

During the construction of the ginormous pants for my Nausicaa cosplay, I was struck by the fact that the pants would be perfect for a Jasmine cosplay!  I knew that I had enough material for it so I just went with it, figuring it would make for a great Halloween costume!  It can also double for a belly dancing costume, which I just took up this past summer.

Construction:

Pants - See Nausicaa

Top - Jasmine's top was completely improvised as I went along.  From the extra cut parts from the pants I created a double layered band first.  It was too wide for me so I cut it but I accidentally cut it too small to be closed by hook and eye closures.  My solution was to have eyelets and a ribbon to tie it shut.  I also figured that I would add an elastic to the bottom of the top so there wouldn't be any "accidents".  For the shoulder loopies I sewed two layered bands and attached them so they were loose on my shoulders.  To make to front of the top pretty I added in some runching in the center.

Finished Top

Wig - I bought a long black wig years ago for a Halloween costume that I never actually used.  I styled it using thin, old elastics and some spare ribbon.  The first time I styled the wig I made the ponytail off the side.  I decided I didn't actually like the way it hung so I changed it so the ponytail hung in the back.

Wig and headpiece test

Headpiece - I have the colours for the jewel mixed up here but I couldn't find a blue stone bead to work with.  I sewed the yellow stone onto a circle of blue crushed velvet.  For the actual headband part I used an elastic wide band that I never wore that was the perfect colour!  The velvet circle and stone were sewed onto the headpiece.

Jewelry - I bought the necklace at Ardenes.  I am most likely not going to bother with doing earrings as I don't have pierced ears and my ears are covered by the wig anyways.
Shoes - I had bought a pair of cheap black slipper shoes from Ardenes figuring that I would either wear them with the costume as they were or I would turn them into blue genie shoes.  In the end I was able to turn them into genie shoes!  I started out with analyzing the shape of the shoe itself and analyzing the shape of a curly toed shoe.  I came up with a rough sketch of what the pattern would look like and decided which measurements I would need to take and how much seam allowance I would give myself.  The shoes curled when they were standing on their own so I had to wear one while taking the measurements to get the right numbers for the pattern I was drafting.  I drafted the pattern for the shoe on some newspaper and used that to cut out the four pieces I needed.

I sewed the two endpoints for both shoes together then fit the fabric over the shoe, pinning it in close to the sole of the shoe.  Both fabric pieces fit perfectly on the shoes which was awesome as that way I didn't have to do the whole thing over again!  Sewing the material to the shoe was the hardest part.  The shoe material was quite thick and so I couldn't put the pins in properly.  The pins were all pointing in towards the shoe which meant that I had to be very careful when sewing or else I would get poked.  This was the first time I ever used a thimble and by the end of the first shoe I had developed a method of sewing (as well as many wounds from the mistakes I made).  The second shoe went by so much faster and with a lot less pricks from the pins.

Sewing the top down

I stuffed the toe of the shoe with scrap material until the toe stood up with enough stiffness.  For the first shoe I sewed up the front part of the curled toe first then sewed the top part of the fabric to the shoe.  This was a mistake because then I didn't have enough fabric to be sewn all the way around the top of the shoe.  There is a little triangular gap were the stuffing can be seen and the over layer isn't attached to the shoe.  I learned from my mistake however and the second shoe turned out to be perfect!  I waterproofed them with a special spray and let them dry to finish.  Next time I attempt to sew shoes I shall get some heavy duty needles and pins.  I don't think the ones I used will ever recover!

Finished shoes

Belt (Detachable waistband) - I used the same material for the belt as I had for the shoes. I made it detachable so that the pants wouldn't just be Jasmine pants. I cut out a pattern I drafted on some newspaper. I also cut out the same pattern out of fusible interfacing. I fused the interfacing to the back of the belt and then sewed along the edges of the belt, tucking in the fabric. I hand sewed two hooks and eyes for the fastening.

Jasmine was so much fun to wear!  It was a great Halloween costume, everyone recognized me and I wasn't dying of the heat!  When I wore it to Anime Boston I got so many people asking for my photo.  My favourite part of wearing this costume was when little girls came up to me and said that I must be a real princess!

Completed Jasmine Cosplay

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