Laughing Beauty - Metal Gear Solid 4

I was planning on completing MGS4 Raiden for Comic Con 2011, but when Konami asked me to judge their cosplay contest, I put that project down to make something I could judge in.  I chose to do Laughing Beauty because I already had usable fabric on hand, it would be something comfortable enough to judge in, and it was a costume I was already planning on doing in the future. 

This costume was made with wet look spandex and 4-way stretch vinyl.  I rush ordered custom stamps to put on all the white text and barcode detailing.  For more information on the sewing aspect, check out this blog entry.

I only had about 3 or 4 work days, so there are a number of things that were incomplete or need to be redone.  In the future, I plan on making the correct gloves, styling the wig better, and maybe even tinting the dark grey fabric to make the contrast more drastic.  Also, while all the white text is there, it isn't as clean as I'd like and I plan on redoing it.  For the time crunch, I am happy with it!

Photos by Eric Ng and Mike Rollerson

Swimsuit Selvaria

I made this costume for Anime Conji 2011. Swimsuit cosplay isn't my normal thing, but the convention is so small and is just hanging out with friends, so I didn't want to wear anything too complicated or uncomfortable. It worked out perfectly and I was able to comfortably wear it the whole day, except for needing a light jacket at night.

This is obviously nothing spectacular construction-wise. It's essentially a heavily modified bikini with an added bolero, and a holster which only made it into one photo because the knife and gun made it too heavy to walk around in.

Selvaria Bles & Radi Jaeger - Valkyria Chronicles

My big project for 2010 was putting together these two costumes. 

For Selvaria, I remade the blouse a few times with different materials to get the correct fit.  I had custom embroidered fleur de lis made for the cuffs, which were made from velvet.  Additional cuff details were made with trim and gold puffy paint.  The pattern on the pants was painstakingly hand-drawn, but they're my pride and joy!  The knee pads were made from craft foam.  For the lance and shield, my husband created a foam and wood base based on blueprints we both worked on.  I took the base pieces and covered them with individually cut pieces of craft foam which were later sealed and painted.  It took many, many hours for me to do that!

For Radi Jaeger, I hand seamed the fabric for the coat to match the pattern and used the same velvet seen on Selvaria's cuffs for the front of it.  I then crafted the skull, which had a plastic roast chicken as a base--a perfect example of creativity when it comes to cosplay!  For the metallic vest, I sewed craft foam together, sealed it, applied stud detailing, and painted it.  My husband made his own gauntlet, and we both worked on the thigh armor.

Old Snake - Metal Gear Solid 4 Photos

Two and a half weeks before we left for Tokyo Game Show, my husband asked me to make him an Old Snake to wear at TGS.  I made the entire Octocamo suit, and my husband made/sourced everything else (except for the Solid Eye, which our gracious friend Jill lent to us to help us save time).

Getting a suit this complicated finished in such a short amount of time was hell, but I'm so happy with the results!  It includes padded and seamed detailing, optical sensors (washers), and two types of white text applied with custom stamps.  The only thing I'd really like to improve is my husband's old age makeup-- we're always running out of time when I apply it, so I can't make it dark enough/contoured enough.  It doesn't help that he's got perfect skin to start with either...

Thanks for looking!