Paint teasers.....

Thank you Billy for the awesome paint job, it turned out great!

Some progress pictures of it.

Dat codpeice!

So Kain, has this....wonderful? Questionable? Weird? purple banana hammock thing going on. I think it is meant to be a codpeice, but one can never quite tell with Amano inspired artwork.  So, with all the armor over to our painter to be primed and painted, it was time for me to start the fabric parts of my costume (HOORAY FINALLY!!)

So, I am a lady, and a many banana hammock would have just looked.... bad, so I had to think of what to do to make one work for my shape.  And then I recalled I had won this "lingerie rose" at my friend batchlorette party earlier this winter and therefore had a nice cheap thong to hack apart and take a pattern from.

Remember kids, when cosplaying, recycle, reduce and reuse!  Everything has a purpose!



After what was a very short time, I had that lovely red thing taken apart.

Very soon after that I had a pattern for it.

I made this lovely thing out of a purple leather look fabric and some black stretch cotton.  Once on it is much smoother, it is the lingerie stitch making it look all rippled.

 I'm here, lets talk about ALL the fabric stuff! WOO

Next up: The corset!

So to begin with, I cut out the shape of the yellow dragon stomach thing Kain has on his under armor. I personally think it looks like a turtle tummy and not a dragon tummy, but eh!

I cut out a piece that looked like a fat peanut and then I made a small paper template of the diamond/ Zelda Rupee shape that it is quilted with.  I started in the center and worked my way out, tracing out the shape till if filled the entire price with a pencil.  Then I sewed it to make it look like it was quilted or embossed.

 After I had it all quilted, I went over my vinyl with a yellow wash of acrylic paint, the above picture is actually the (now painted) piece leaning up against the original fabric.

Close up: the acrylic wash made it come out mottled looking like actual lizard skin, and highlighted my stitching even more. The effect is pretty awesome.

The next step was to attach it to the corset I made, well fake corset, it has no boning and zips up on the side.  I took my judy off her stand and laid everything out on her and then pinned my tummy piece in place.  I then sewed it down by hand with invisible thread.

 The next step after the tummy part was attached, was to attach the silver leather cord piping for the piped details.  I  drew out the pattern on one side first, then attached the piping and then (again) used the tracing paper/etching technique to get the pattern and transferred it over to the other side so they are mirror images.

After the front was done, I did the same with the back. You can see my red chalk lines from where I traced the pattern onto the second side.  The piping is also attached with the invisible thread by hand.

The final product (back).  Now that I have worn this, I plan on adding some straps. While it fit well in the front, I think the edge of my back armor caught it and caused it to wrinkle in the back and I want it to look smooth everywhere when I wear it.  So I am hoping straps will fix that issue.

For some reason (probably I was running short on time) I have no pictures (yet) of my finished butt-cape.  But here is the pattern pieces. I'll try to get some better pictures later.

I think this is where I left off?

Apologies if this is a duplicate post! I looked though, and I don't think it is. I think the photos just look familiar because I took them. :)  The deadline came up and well, the poor blog feel to the wayside.

So Collars!  It was pretty easy, I took a piece of tracing paper and etched out the lines of the front and back necklines.  Then I made a collar shape on that and cut them out of the craft foam.  

The raised edge in the center is a thin strip of craft foam I glued to the bigger piece (like I did for the belt) and then once everything was attached I added a tiny bit of worbla piping to finish the top edge.

I then repeated the process for the back.

Here it is all together, along with some extensions I made for the Velcro overlap at the shoulders.  For some reason, while it overlapped fine when we first made it, by the end it the front did not overlap the back. I blame the constant heating of the worbla.

  Next up! The shoulders!!

I used this tutorial to make my mold.  Cosplay Supplies, btw (the website that link goes to) is where I buy all my Worbla and Wonderflex.  All you need to make the mold is a balloon, newspaper and some paper mashe mix, then go to town like it is grade 4 all over again!

The result is a rounded mold. I did mine in 4 layers of paper mashe, and then once that was done, I sanded the heck out of it to rid myself of any lumps or bumps.  I still found it a bit lumpy in the end so I taped over the whole mold with masking tape, building up any areas next to lumps till it was all pretty much smooth.

Then I found my centers which I would need to know for placement of the spikes on the armor.

I was running up to my deadline for it to be done and didn't want to make 2 balloon molds. Plus I wasn't sure I could get them to be the same size and shape so before I started covering it in worbla, I covered it in saran wrap so the worbla would not stick to the mold.   I then drew on the (basic) shape of my shoulder armor.

Then once that was done, following the above mentioned tutorial, I cut out rounded pieces of the worbla and started coating my mold. Eventually I got these weird looking things below.  The 1 layer however was pretty flimsy, kinda like the way an empty pop bottle feels, so I ended up doing a second layer inside as well.

After I got the shape I wanted, it was time for the edge of the armor to be attached and to make the spikes.
I made the basic spike shapes from worbla and craft foam. I'd like to take this moment to thank first season Digimon Adventure, without it, I would have gone mad by this point. (aka, hint: to make the VERY long process of armor making less tedious, find a show to marathon while you work).

This is the basic shape I drew out for the base of the spikes, to help me male  the other parts later.

Again with the tracing paper, etch out the shape of your worbla.

Then fix up that rough shape with a sharpie.

Then repeat the process for the other two shapes of the spikes.

 I used wonderflex for the spikes. It has a weave in it like duct tape, which makes it easier to work with and it stretches, which worbla does not.

 After a lot of shaping, pinching, cutting, shaping and more pinching I got a shape I liked.

Not pictured is how I attached these suckers to my  armor.  Inside is a O-ring hanging from the top, from that is an loop of elastic which goes around my upper arms.  On the rounded edges towards the back are 2 more O-rings which attach with velcro to O-rings on the actual body armor.  I require a friend to help me to get them on.  If you do this cosplay, have friends.  O-rings are like D-rings but more rectangle shaped.