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Rydia Drake, Final Fantasy IV

Worn At - Amecon 2008
Difficulty - 3/5
Time Taken - 2 months
Cost - £85GBP
Costume Status -Retired
Hardest Task - Dress
Easiest Task - Wig, boots

Favourite Aspect - Wig, sleeves, tabbard and sash. The wig was the same as before, and the sleeves looked much better with the appliqued stars, so I was happier with them. The sash looked much better with some patterns on it, and it was understated enough not to take attention. And as simple as the tabbard is, I really like it.

Least Favourite - Dress and cape. The dress was a mistake. I liked the halterneck design, and the fact that it did up with a zip. But it was wrong and unflattering and the embroidery was a waste of time. The cape was a bit disasterous. It wasn’t so much the length of it, I just didn’t like the cape. It looked like it had been made badly. It should have been lined. But I’m lazy.

Why? - After the debuet of my original Rydia I was totally up for redoing most of it and improving it to make it better! I kind of had to! I didn't want to leave it as it was! So with gusto anew I started to remake bits and pieces of this, and add bits from the DS artwork.

Construction Notes

On the new version I started with the dress. No pattern for it, I used the same idea as before , just using a big sheet of fabric. It worked... to an extent. There was a massive gap at the back, so I covered that up with some extra satin, so it looked like I had a fish tail. I was wearing a cape, so it wasn't especially noticable. Because in the artwork Rydia has patterns on her dress, i tried my hand at embroidery. Never again. So time consuming and I was extremely disappointed with the outcome. But, ya live and learn! After the embroidery was done, I lined the top and bottom with gold ribbon for extra effect.

The sleeves were the original ones I used from my original costume. I just appliqued twenty five miniture gold stars on either sleeve. The sash was also from the original. I improved on it by painting some patterns on it in gold paint. It came out looking rather good, I think!

I made a tabbard to go with this, like in the DS artwork. Mostly a length of satin, with a length of different colour green satin down the middle. The outer and innter edges were lined with gold ribbon which was all hand sewn into place. To keep it on, a length of green polyester rope was sewn into place so it could tie up and was hidden underneath the sash when it was tied.

Once that was done with was time for the new cape. I followed the same idea as before. Length of satin, hemmed all the way around. Once that had been done I painted a gold pattern on it and stars. To make it a little more striking I added an under layer of gold gauze. It was two metres long. It looked great, but got stepped on SO MUCH!! But in all I liked the overall look.

This second one has now been scrapped and I'm currently taking my time on a third and final version hopefully for a Final Fantasy IV group!

Photographs

Taken by Seraphim Cry of CosplaySnap


Taken by Kimpey


Taken by Stephen Jones


Taken by Unknown


Taken by Michael Danby


Taken by Unknown

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