Construction Details:

I love Toph and planned on doing her Earth Kingdom outfit (I still do), but decided on doing her Fire Nation disguise first to match my friends Hime no Toki and Himura's Fire Nation Aang and Zuko! I also wanted to have this done for Halloween because I plan on volunteering this year. It's a relatively simple costume; the pants were a simple pattern with the legs flared out. I put horsehair braiding around the hem to keep the shape nice and full. There's also a little fire nation button for the closure to match the button on the back of her flaps, but you can't really see that. The tube top was also very simple: basically a lined square, since it doesn't have any shape to it. The wrap was just a piece of stretchy brown fabric that I draped on my dress form until I got the shape right. The flaps (seriously, what do you call them) have the golden stripe appliqued on, and they're fully lined. I had to use a quilter's cotton, which I usually don't like doing, because I couldn't find the color anywhere else. It's not so bad, though, since I lined and appliqued them, so they have more weight. They still wrinkle even when you look at them the wrong way but... oh well. The button on the back that holds them together is just a simple plain button I painted the Fire Nation symbol on. The gloves were also pretty simple to make, and only required a single mock-up to get down. They're made out of fabric with thick interfacing on the bands. For those interested, I made a tutorial for how to make these gloves. It's on my Deviantart. The wig was a lot easier than I expected. I started with a base that was cut short in the back and had long bangs in the front. The bun was carved out of upholstery foam, painted black, and wrapped in hair similar to the odango method. It was sewn onto the wig itself - and that was it! The wig is extremely light weight. I'm very happy with it. I have a tutorial on my DA for that as well! The shoes were a nightmare. I am a total stickler for accuracy, so naturally, I didn't want to have soles on my shoes. I tried 3 different methods (plain fabric, building them out of craft foam, and carving them out of upholstery foam) and nothing worked. I realized that it's the sole of the shoe itself that gives the shoe its shape. The shoe would look fine until I cut the sole off and put them on. They'd conform to my feet rather than squish my feet in to look nice and feminine. In the end, I just bought a cheap pair of flats, built up the pointy shape in the front with upholstery foam, covered the very front with craft foam, and covered it entirely in fabric. They hurt my feet a lot because they rub and cause blisters, but I'd rather them hurt my feet because they have no soles ;-; But unfortunately it looks like that's not gonna happen. Oh well.

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