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The Hero’s Closet

09pauldron09

Published on December 19, 2020 at 900 × 1200 in 09pauldron09

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pauldron strap mock-up tried on

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Hey there!

I’m Gillian, a cosplayer, writer, editor, and occasional illustrator with an unruly fabric habit. I love patternmaking, fabric manipulation, embellishment, and big, ambitious projects.

My book The Hero’s Closet is available now!

I’ve seen the Cosplay Details format going aroun

I’ve seen the Cosplay Details format going around a bit again, so here’s my pandemic build edition! Intense crafting has been a bit of a lifeline for me the last year and change, and while Tifa and the Warlord are on opposite ends of many scales, I adore both characters and the process of building them brought me a lot of joy in these calamitous times.

Both projects drew on a combination of worbla and leatherwork techniques, and although mostly on the lighter end sewing-wise they both managed to sneak in some little bits of hand embroidery and interesting patternmaking. I even reused part of Tifa’s vambrace pattern for the Warlord, since I’d already worked out the proportions for the elbow pivot that keeps the pieces aligned correctly and gives it a nice amount of mobility.

Tifa was built as a commission for my sister, and black worbla for the warlord was provided by @worblana in exchange for crafting tutorials that you can find on their website, so both costumes also represent the community that has helped keep me motivated and stocked with craft supplies during a decidedly tricky time for expensive hobbies. So I’m very grateful for that as well.

#cosplaydetails #monstresscosplay #ff7cosplay #ff7remakecosplay #tifacosplay #leatherarmor #worblasblackart #handembroidery

Fancy abs! Officially checking off the lower torso

Fancy abs! Officially checking off the lower torso armor for this costume. The leather plates were wet-shaped, tooled, dyed, and highlighted with gold paint, then sewn by hand to the steel-boned vest. The worbla breastplate will attach on top with a combination of hooks and magnets, and I wanted to finish the base before starting that piece so that everything would match up perfectly. So that’ll be the next step now!

I also finished the undersuit, which has been sitting around half done for about a month now. The fabric is a coated doubleknit I’ve had stashed for a couple years - I think it actually came from the much-missed Paron Fabrics - and I added gold leather piping on the collar to help tie it into the armor. The pattern is my own, based on the jumpsuit from the book but modified to remove the side seams for a slightly cleaner line. All the seams are pinked and topstitched as well, to keep everything as flat and smooth as possible, and it closes up the front with a heavy-duty invisible zipper.

#cosplayarmormaking #leatherarmor #cosplaywip #cosprogress #cosmaker

It’s not that this project exactly demanded nast

It’s not that this project exactly demanded nasty sharp pointy teeth,but I wanted to make them and so here we are. Loosely based on opossum teeth, i.e. I did several hours of hilarious image research but then sat down and sculpted from memory because it’s a fantasy creature and I don’t need exact accuracy.

I started with a wire frame and wrapped it in muslin strips, which solved the problem I’ve encountered previously where the wire retains heat and cuts through the hot worbla as you shape it. Then I laid down a strip of mesh worbla because I knew it would grip the muslin well, and black worbla on top for the sculptability. Finally I hand shaped the teeth and set them into the jaw one by one, working from front to back and making sure the jaw still closed well each time I added a new pair.

The head these go into isn’t quite ready for prime time yet, but she’s looking less cursed every day so she’ll be along soon enough!

#cosprogress #cosplaywip #worblasblackart #worbla #handsculpting #monstermaking #cosmaker

So I nearly forgot to talk about this at all in pr

So I nearly forgot to talk about this at all in prejudging (thanks @pitchforkcosplay for the timely reminder) but I’m actually really happy with how the new scabbard turned out and I don’t want it to get overshadowed entirely by the boots. This was my first real attempt at tooled leather, using a medium-weight veg tan leather from Tandy (don’t remember the exact thickness.) I created the pattern by wrapping the sword in tinfoil and tape, drew out the design by hand, and transferred it to the leather by rubbing a soft pencil on the back of the pattern. Then I etched the whole thing with a swivel knife and opened up the lines a bit with a modeling tool to make them more pronounced. I actually carved the whole thing twice because I wasn’t thrilled with how it came out the first time.
I cut a plastic template for the finished scabbard shape and stitched the center back seam closed over it, then slid in a dowel that I’d shaved into a point to force it into the oval shape while it dried. I also added some scraps of cardboard to ensure the finished shape would be open enough to fit the sword.
Once the scabbard was dry I re-wet it lightly and dyed it with water-based leather dye ordered from @sorrellcustomboots , then finished it off a light wax coating. I adore how this dye worked out - there’s no separate antiquing or painted weathering going on here, just the dye itself and how it settled into the tooling.
The end caps are worbla painted with metallic acrylics, and the straps are just scrap leather lightly painted with the same stuff. The upper clasp hooks into my armor strapping, and the lower strap attaches to my belt to keep the scabbard from swinging. I’ll probably do a blog post a bit later with all the wip photos, but the folks who’ve been following my stories have seen most of it already.
#leathercrafting #cosplayprop #propmaking #witchercosplay #ciricosplay #thewitcher3wildhunt #zireael

It's the shoemaking wrap-up post! Making Ciri's bo

It's the shoemaking wrap-up post! Making Ciri's boots was a goal from pretty early in the project, and I made the pattern and my first attempt at sewing the uppers way back in fall of 2018. Then I sat on them for a good 10 months while working on other things, and only came back to the project briefly and unsuccessfully in July of last year. Finally at the beginning of February I decided to go for it for real, and this is the result.
The entire process of building the boots is documented in my story highlights, and I'm planning a build diary post as well, so I'll just do a quick summary here. I used a lightweight but fairly stiff buffalo leather for the uppers, pig suede for the linings, and super thick veg tan insole and sole leather. The uppers are assembled with lapped seams, glued and then hand sewn in topstitching thread with a saddle stitch. The lining is the same, but sewn by machine because it's mostly not visible.
For safety reasons I don't use solvent-based glues at home, and standard cemented shoemaking uses a lot of them. Instead I decided to attempt a traditional hand-welted construction for the soles. In this method the insole is carved out and pre-punched with stitching holes, then hand sewn with the uppers to a welt, which is a strip of leather that's then stitched down to the sole. The technique is pretty much only used for very high-end and custom work today, but might be pretty normal in the kind of fantasy-medieval villages Ciri traipses through. It also probably added 40-50 hours of physically demanding labor to the project, so that tells you roughly how deep my hatred of barge goes.
The heels are stacked leather, assembled with nails and water-based glue, except for the rubber end cap which I glued in the fume hood at work. I wore these to C2E2 with the natural soles because I ran out of time, but now they've been finished off with the sole dye and polish as well. The whole thing is probably a little rustic looking for any fine shoemakers who might come across this, but this is the Witcher after all.
#cosplayshoes #cosplaycobbler #witchercosplay #ciricosplay #cosplaycraft
#cosmaker #leathercrafting

Spent the weekend building Tifa’s heavy-duty sus

Spent the weekend building Tifa’s heavy-duty suspenders and I’m pretty pleased with how they came out! The straps are veg tan leather, dyed with water-based dye so I could do it at midnight in my living room. The wider tabs are a thin goatskin garment leather, with light buckram glued between the layers for stability and wool felt shoulder padding. There’s also a hidden bit of elastic in the shoulder so the rigid leather straps have some give to them; hoping this makes them a little more comfortable to wear and also helps them stay put with movement.
Still have to work out attaching them to the waistband/belt; I want them to be fully removable for convenience/washability but still accurate to the art. I think I’m going to make the belt next so I’ll have it for testing when I come back to these.
#cosplaycraft #tifalockhartcosplay #tifacosplay #cosmaker #cosplaywip #leathercrafting

Recent Posts

The Problem of Categorizing Cosplay
How I made Ciri’s Boots
Building Ciri’s Sword and Scabbard
Ciri’s Armor (Pauldron and Poleyns)
Ciri Chainmail

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