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Cosplay

Warrior Rikku, Final Fantasy X-2

Worn At - London Expo, May 2009; Ayacon Revolution 2009
Difficulty - 5/5
Time Taken - 5 months
Cost - £200GBP
Costume Status -Active
Hardest Task - Catsuit, sword
Easiest Task - Shorts, boots, headband

Favourite Aspect - All of it? - I know, bit of a cop-out answer, but its true. There's not a lot about this costume I don't like. It was a hard costume to make, I'm not going to lie about that. But I worked really hard on it to make it as accurate and hardwearing as possible, so I like all of it over-all. Admittedly there are some bits that aren't perfect, but that doesn't bother me that much.

Least Favourite Shoulder armour - this is me being really pedantic, but the should armour could have been better.

Why? - I was originally planning to do Rikku's Alchemist dressphere for the may Expo, but it wasn't turning out how I wanted it to. So I scrapped it in favour of this. At first I was petrified of doing this cosplay because of the complexities. But after breaking the costume down into bits I realised it wasn't that frightening, and it really gave me some gusto to go for it.

Construction Notes

This costume took me so long to do. But admittedly, I didn't work flat out on it for 5 months. I took breaks and did bits and pieces over the time period which is the reason all my costumes take me so long. I hate, really hate doing a costume in a short time period because I end up doing things badly. So I tend to start ages before a convention so I'm not freaking out about things.

Okay - so with this I started off on the cat suit which is made of a slightly stretchy Parque material. I didn't risk using leather or suade in this costume, despite the fact it might have looked better, because I don't that the experience to master the materials. So I stuck with fabrics, which I think works (and at least I won't be dying).

Anyway, the cat suit was based off a heavily altered KwikSew pattern 3052 for an all in one unitard with a zip down the front. When I say heavily altered, when it came to sewing all the seams, I sewed the ones on the body, but let the legs dangling. Then, after making the red pants from red t-shirting fabric from another KwikSew pattern (3239) and sewing in the zip, I cut the legs off at the applicable place (about hip height) and attached the pants for an all-in-one look.

Next I made the hot pants from a stretchy cotton mix (its kind of hard to discribe and since I found it, I haven't been able to find it again!). Again, used a KwikSew pattern (3239) and once they were done and hemmed, sewed on the white stripes on the front and the yellow zipper.

The yellow panels on the front of the catsuit were done next, after sewing in darts to make the fit better. Because I couldn't find any yellow fabric that wasn't shiny or that was the wrong shade, I ended up buying some white t-shirting fabric and dying it to get the right colour. Once it was dry, cut two equal length and width strips, folded the edges over, and sewed them into place directly next to the zipper.

That was all the main actual outfit finished, which meant it was time to move on to all the additional stuff. The boots were a lucky find in Primark. They were spray painted black, and the yellow stripe and red toes were painted on with acyrlic paint. The boot cuffs were red t-shirting fabric hemmed each side apart from the top and then iron-in vilene was put in to keep them sturdy. They were glued into the inside of the boot, because the boot was too thick to sew them.

The leggings were fun(!) because of the multitude of different colours. It started off with a strip of the maroon cotton mix and a strip of the parque being sewn on either side of some white bias binding and then sewed together at the back. Then added the red triangle on either side, by folding over the edges again and sewing into place. It took a few tries to get them right. Because the didn't like staying up, I ended up threading some elastic through the top hem in an attempt to coax them to stay up. It kind of works, but I still require double sided tape to make them stay up.

I made the jacket in a couple of nights with my own pattern after examining the referance art quite closely. It started with a back piece which was the width of my back, shoulders and neck. Then a second front piece, the same measurements and cut in half. These were sewn together on the side leaving a large hole of my arms. After the whole thing was hemmed, a pair of hooks and eyes were added to the material and then the buckles (which are craft foam coated in gold acrylic paint) to hide them.

The headband was a nice easy task. Just a length of the grey parque with thin strips of the red t-shirting fabric sewn over the top. Then just kept taking the hem in until the headband sat comfortably on my head.

Aside from the boots and wig, the only other part of this costume that is actually bought are the gloves, which are a pair of maroon driving gloves with the fingers and thumb cut off. The rest of the gloves (the long arm section) was hand made again using strips of the correctly coloured fabric, and then the red t-shirting with vilene again to make the large gauntlets.

The grey... plank (which I affectionately refer to as the arse guard) was made from parque and vilene being ironed in to keep it stiff. Then it was hemmed all the way around with yellow bias binding. Finally, to keep it on the hot pants, there are two large and sturdy snap fasteners on the front of the pants and the guard to keep it all together.

My shoulder armour was made a similar way to how I make my bows for senshi costumes. The basic shape was cut from red t-shirting, and then stuffed with wadding. Once the opening to stuff the wading in had been closed, the three ring indentations were sewn in (with some difficulty). They are attached to the costume with snap fasteners on underneath each of the silver studs.

The sword was the most interesting piece of the costume to make as I'd never made a big prop before. Its a long wooden pole down the centre and then cardboard around it, taped together for the shape. Then a long papier maché process was done and then sanding to make the surface as smooth as possible. After that it was a matter of painting with acrylic and varnishing. I admit, its not the best sword in the world, but for a first prop I was really proud of it!

All the studs all over the costume were hand sewn into place. And I think there are over fifty on the costume as a whole. The wig was one I comissioned from SephNoir.

Photographs