Construction Details:

☆ SHIRT: Made of a lavender-colored linen I bought online. I had a hell of a time trying to find a fabric I was satisfied with for this; either they were the right texture and weight but not in the color I wanted, or vice versa. I didn't want any binding I might do to show through, but I was also being a bit picky about the color and texture. The linen I ended up with frays like crazy, but it has just the right kind of texture for the old European-style shirt, and it's thick enough that I'm comfortable in its, er... opacity. The purple trim is a satin ribbon I folded over the top edge.

★ VEST: Made of a pretty, organic marine blue twill I got online (again), with interfacing sandwiched between it. The black trim is just something I stockpiled at JoAnn's -- it's not a soft satin like the shirt's trim, but it's a bit stiffer. I'm not especially proud of my craftsmanship with it; I messed up more times than I care to admit, and the seams are too thick because I was still learning how to sandwich interfacing between fabric. But it's workable, and I'm pretty satisfied with the stiffness, especially in the collar, which can fold back or stand up straight.

The white... thing (what am I supposed to call it?) that drapes around the shoulders and at the back is made of a very nice home dec vinyl I found at JoAnn's long ago. I think it was originally a really nice tablecloth fabric of some sort, but it has a great texture without being too shiny. Same trim as the vest itself, and it's hand-sewn onto the vest at a few "anchor points", including beneath the buttons and at the seams. I made a few drafts of this from a white broadcloth I had sitting around until I got the perfect size -- sadly, there are no patterns for this sort of thing, and I had no one to help me measure it on my body at the time.

☆ PANTS: Cannibalized a pair of black skinny jeans I'd recently bought, and sewed the same purple trim from the shirt onto the thighs. Nothing special.

★ LEGWARMERS: Brown suede -- very, er... southern! (Forgive me, I couldn't resist.) They're too loose to stay on my leg when unbuckled, but the tabs wrap around my calf just under my knee and buckle like a belt would on the outside of my legs. The red domes on his shoes are made from a pair of big googly eyes I cut open and painted the inside of, glued onto black clay borders that were then glued firmly onto the legwarmers themselves. There's a piece of velcro attached to the arch of the shoes, so I can pull the black velcro down and hook it up there without screwing up my step or ruining the shoes otherwise. The domes are also anchored to the shoes with velcro on the inside.

☆ SHOES: A pair of white leather pixie boots I found online in my size. The trouble I have with shoes and boots is that my calves are rather... shapely (read: wide), so I can't wear many knee-high boots. Plus, Johan has black soles that don't have an enormous heel -- good for me because I have no coordination in heels whatsoever, but bad for actually finding something that would work. I settled on these ones, since they're very sturdy and just the right color and shape. (Actually, they're very slightly off-white in color as opposed to perfect white, but you can barely tell on the cosplay itself, since they do the job adequately.)

☆ DECK HOLDER: I have one! I gutted an old, beaten-up plastic deck holder I had laying around and sewed a brown suede cover for it. I then sewed the arrow in red suede (not very well, but it works), attached a snap to the suede and the arrow, attached the bottom of the arrow to the suede and glued it onto the case. The snap holds the case closed, though the arrow tends to wiggle around a bit, because I think I might've attached it slightly off-center to the snap. It can be shifted, though. I glued a belt hook (for leatherworking, technically, but hey, take what you can get) to the back, as well, so it can attach to my belt.

★ OTHER: The green contacts are Dolly Eye Green, and they're gorgeous. I also have an Academy Duel Disk for use as a prop -- you know, the type they sold in toy stores when GX was still running and popular? One of those. It's great for cosplay purposes, actually, because it extends like the ones in the show. Manually, but... still!

Personal Thoughts:

So ridiculously proud of this costume. No one will ever know the extent of my pride. ;_;

Sorry, you must be a registered user of and logged in to view and add comments. Either log in or register now!