Can I Get a "HELL YEAH?!"

So I finally got off my beautiful ass and made the central piece to the entire Rydia costume.

I used a Green Pepper pattern for figure skating costumes. The leotard pattern was in two pieces but I elected not to do that and butchered the pattern to my own desires. I used olive green jersey knit which is soft and glorious!

It turned out to be alot simpler than I had in my head. Thank goodness. That is one more costume mountain made into a molehill. It fits perfectly with no adjustments. I elected not to finish the edges because the fabric won't unravel and I feel like it would look clunky with finished edges.

The straps are brought together with a gold metal wire star with jewels on either sides. The capes are also attached at the shoulder.

The gold sash was a cop out. I was going to use the same fabric I used for Lenna's sash and then realized I can't two costumes at the same time, and Katherine won't be wearing Lenna at AZ after all so I borrowed it from Lenna.


As for the capes... they're probably my favorite aspect of the costume. I used 30 yards of wired Christmas ribbon I got on sale after New Years. The base fabric is a light green crinkle fabric that is light weight and sheer. It's close to the white most people elect to use while doing this costume but without the harsh contrast. The ribbon is patterned and frankly it's pretty amazing in person.

Now left on the Rydia TO DO list:

• Arm bands for under sleeves.
  
• Thigh highs, this will require a friend to draw/paint on them while I wear them.
• Hair beads.
• Earrings.

And that ladies and gents will conclude Rydia!!

Rydia Wig and General Head Progress

So the constant struggle with this costume is to decide which version to do. The classic Amano concept art version or the DS Re-release version. I still haven't decided but I needed to start working and since this week is the week of giving good cosplay head (lawls) then I decided to start. At this rate I'll have both versions >.<. So without any further ado:

General process here:

Starting with the feathers, the largest feather was an after Christmas sale find at Michaels. I painted a black feather gold with gold leaf for the second feather. The third non feather thing was a fake flower arrangement I attacked with gold spray paint back when I was doing Lenna. I love gold.

The flower is a clip I got at Claire's last September as part of a 10 for $10 deal. It was an odd shade of green and involved feathers and rhinestones. Not something I'd actually wear outside of costume mind you. So I added gold leaves from the fore mentioned flower arrangement, tipped the blossom with gold leaf and glued on a once white, now red rose also edged in gold.

The crown is foam and hot glue spray painted gold. I glued on green beads as the jewels, and attacked to two pins that hook to m hair under the wig.

As for the wig, I haven't done anything to it. I saved this beauty from my friend Stephanie who didn't love it as I love it.

So that begins Rydia! Lets see if this weekend between apartment hunting, bike riding, and website updates I can get some more progress on at least one of my costumes done!

Psyduck Progress

I'm trying this new thing where I take more photos of my costumes while in progress and take more detailed records of how I make them. Here goes!

Before I dive into today's project, here is the original design by Katherine Stocking (Cosplay Pirates and Best Friend)
It's adorable right?! I don't plan on deviating much from this design other than the wig. I'm opting for a more flapper feel to go with the head band so a short blonde bob wig.

So today I started at the bottom with Psyduck: the shoes.

I began with an old pair of gold flats I loved to death but they were starting to look rough. Because they were still comfortable and I'm a fan of recycling and cutting costs with Cosplay I saved them from a trash can fate.

I started by making a pattern with construction paper then I used the pattern I created to cut out pieces of craft foam. One for the sole of the shoe and one for the top. I hot glued them onto the shoe and brought the pieces of foam together with black gaffing tape (photographer sign numero uno). I then covered the shoe and foam with a natural cotton fabric of a khaki color using hot glue (my one true love).

Here's the end result:

I chose to photograph the shoes with the fabric for the main garment. Perfect colors in my opinion.

So stay tuned for the next part of Psyduck... or any of the other costumes on my docket.