ACParadise Forums

Hi!
I'm a beginning cosplayer and I will be doing Lulu from Final Fantasy X for my first costume. I will be making my debut with it at Anime Oasis in March. I know what pattern to use for the costume, but the fabric has caused me some confusion. First of all, I have looked at several reference pictures, and the color of her dress is a charcoal color. I also checked out some other Lulu cosplayers to see what they did, and most everybody has done a grey to black dress. However, when I compare this to the references I am using, their costumes either look a bit washed out if they used charcoal or far to dark if they used black fabric, so I am at a loss of which way to go.
Secondly, I was thinking of doing this costume in bridal satin, but that is an extremely expensive material and it wrinkles far too easily, not to mention the fact that it is a pain in the butt to work with. Black Cerenity did hers in grey denim, but I personally did not like the look of that and could not even find the material. I like the look of the costumes that were done in PVC and vinyl, but those are incredibly expensive and hard to work with. I am hoping that someone at the board could help me with fabric suggestions and input on the dress color. Arigato!

I used a very dark gray synthetic fabric (doesn't wrinkels) for the skirt an dthe same fabric in black for the top.
For the lace I've cut out the flowers of several lenghts of coloured lace and hand-sewned them on the sleeves and skirt.
I made this outfit for a friend.

what ever you do do not use teh shiny material... it makes the costume look fake but on some costumes such as sailor moon costumes it might host an exception... but the shiny material also makes people look a little bigger then they are around the waist.

I agree with Kohyoh, satin and other shiny fabrics aren't always usable and sometimes make your well-done craftsmenship go down the drain. Satin is a good choice because of how low priced it is but the frustration of working with it will make you regret ever using it and unless you get a heavy base satin, you'll be dealing with wrinkles everywhere. You'll dedicate more time to ironing out Lulu rather than actually wearing her.

What I used for a commission I did a while back of Lulu was a very nice stretch leather that went for 8.00 a yard. Sometimes if you're lucky, you can get some of this stuff for discounted prices at Joanns but mine here rarely sells anything good so I mostly get it online.

I'm glad that your first cosplay costume will be of someone as difficult as Lulu though. Glad to see that newbies are trying to start out hard rather than going for the Shinji school uniform look of Evangelion

you could also try using a cheaper thin cotton material if you want to flowie look... thats what i used for my pants for ukon... <--- i feel so sad... no one knows of ukon

I know of Ukon. It's held at the Miskatonic Student University of Kentucky on January 30 and the 31st and it's 5.00 to get in. My friends and I were thinking of going there

LOL i'm sorry
::wips a tear from her eye::
ukon is also the name of an anime character from ayatsuri sakon... that's the one i meant... not the con

OHHHHH!! I thought you actually meant the con! Haha!

nope... if you go to other conventions on the forum and click numa rei... it will have a pic of him...

I saw the picture but I never really figured that that was him

yesh...
::nods::
thats ukon!

Lulu's dress material is tough. It took me three tries to finally get the look I wanted. I really don't care for the shiny look. I guess it makes me think of more fetishy outfits and I don't see Lulu as that type. I would've loved it if the color came in a non shiny pleather..anyway, it was an upholstery velvet in a brown taupe from Joanne's precut section for about $2 a yard?. That's how I interpret her outfit color. It can be confusing since it's more grey in the game, but on the FMV it's more of a brownish tint. I'd say pick one you'd like to emulate and go for that. Because the velvet was so light it draped nicely on top of the innerskirt which held the belts. And if you can get a hold of it..hoopwire is your best friend. It gives you shape to bell out and support as well. I'd suggest not using anything stiffer than that because it will be hard to move or to sit. The hoopwire is nice because of its flexibility and strength. It makes decent boning too, if you can't get adequate structure for your corset.
You can check out my latest version on AC. Good Luck! I look forward to seeing it! ...Out of Breath.......

there you have it ^

oh, and some (hopefully) helpful links:
http://www.grannd.com/
http://www.farthingales.on.ca/

hope to see teh finished project on acp!