Cosplay; Garnet ... Creating a costume

I've had a few people ask me how I made my costume for the comic expo and since I took pictures while I was putting it together, I figure they can do most of the talking. Enjoy!

Let's start at the beginning. An orange tank top, guesstimating the right shape and cutting. Make some holes and lace with yarn. I was torn between the lace being orange, burgundy or black but decided on burgundy. 

The white that fills the hole used to be a shirt as well, but I altered it for the costume. It had to be gathered under the bust, sewn inside the orange shirt and the rest of the white shirt cut off. originally I had used to sleeves from that same white shirt but in the end I made sleeves from scratch and attached them.

Success!

The length of the pants was cut to fit my height and hemmed. The extra fabric from the length went into making the "belt loops" for the thigh belts. I made the belts, attached the buckle, sewed them to the pants and attached the loop over top. Another success.

The boots were meant to be a burgundy/red color but these were the best I found. I planned to dye them but couldn't find the right color dye, and honestly, kool aid just didn't work.

To make the main part of staff I used a soft kids baseball bat and painted over the care bear print on it. To make the details on the top and bottom of the staff I used a Crayola modelling material. The shapes had to be made by hand and were really tough. Once they were dry I super glued them together, put wires through them and painted.

                                     

The final step was making the crown and stone necklace. This was particularly tricky. I finally just came up with the idea of making the crown from the same wire I put inside the staff for strength. I bent and twisted and snipped it into a crown(ish) shape. I'm satisfied.

Once I was happy with the shape I painted the "crown with silver nail polish and super glued it to the stone which I got from Michaels.

My character is Garnet, who is also called Dagger. She is from Final Fantasy 9. All-in-all I am very happy with how this costume turned out. 

Here she is.

xoxo