This year I decided to attend the
Sydney Supanova Pop Culture Expo. It's a celebration of all things nerdy and features a range of special guests from TV, movies, animation and comics. Most years I find out about it when it's too late to buy a ticket, but this year I was organised! And just to make it more interesting, I decided to go in costume.
So this is how I made my Viper cosplay.
Inspiration
After a couple of nights researching various female comic book super heroes and villians, I settled on
Madame Hydra/Viper.
- Her look is basic green - easier to work with for a starter costume.
- Being a bad guy is fun!
- Snakes are cool.
Construction
I was very lucky to score a beautiful snakeskin brocade on sale at The Remnant Warehouse, and chose a lovely green poplin for the rest of the dress.
This is the first dress I've made, and while a skirt is easy, a bodice is another matter entirely. I purchased a couple of vintage dress patterns, but unfortunately my current measurements make it hard for me to fit a standard dressmaking pattern. So after a dissapointing mockup using an old sheet, I decided to try another approach.
This
Body Coutour Cosplay Tutorial on YouTube was most helpful! If you're not familiar with how to use a bodice sloper, or if you have a tricky figure, this is a pretty good approach for a one-off design (provided you can get a dress form with your measurements. I had to make some..ahem..additions in the bust region).
|
First I made a paper+tape bodice to fit Dolly |
|
Cutting a practice bodice from muslin. |
|
An acceptable fit! |
|
Cutting the bodice from the brocade and poplin. |
|
The skirt cut and sewn, with pockets! |
|
Back view |
|
Front View |
At this point, I still had to add some facing to the bodice, and fix the ugly side zipper.
|
Back view |
|
Front View |
The buttons are to hide the spot where the seams all join.
Results
With some fun accessories off ebay, and a bright green wig, it wasn't exactly what you'd call an authentic cosplay, but it was fun to wear. And the best bit was that it made wandering around a crowded convention centre much more fun. Now to plan next year's effort :)
|
Heading to Supanova!
|
|
Wearing boots to cover up a bandaged ankle. |
And best of all, there was a fantastic camera to take a picture of my work!
No comments:
Post a Comment