About
Costumes
The Hero’s Closet

09pauldron10

Published on December 19, 2020 at 900 × 900 in 09pauldron10

Next → ← Previous

finished pauldron on dress form with mail vest

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

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!

SheProp Challenge day 12: favorite character. This

SheProp Challenge day 12: favorite character. This one deserves a real post, yes? Maika is my favorite character I’ve cosplayed for a lot of reasons - her toughness, her resilience, her gradual process of making peace with an internal demon that periodically sneaks out and eats people.

I based this armor on the cover of Monstress issue 13, which I adored so much that I completed most of the build in the two months between when the cover was revealed and the issue actually came out. It was my first big go at worbla armor, and you could call it my first attempt at monster building as well. (I want to remake Zinn at some point, but it’ll probably be a new version for Empress rather than a revisit of this one.)

I wish I could bring Maika out more often but she’s also by far my most difficult costume to wear, between the ridiculous amount of worbla and the floppy unbalanced demon arm. I can manage maybe two hours before I have to go lie down, so she’ll probably never make it to NYCC, for example.

I’m perpetually astonished that Monstress doesn’t get more cosplayers; it’s a glorious fantasy epic with the kind of detail-rich visuals that most of my friends salivate over. I’m about to dive back into my Shaman Empress build, so there’ll be lots more monstress content around here pretty soon, but more people should join @pitchforkcosplay and me in yelling about this series.

#shepropchallenge #monstress #monstresscosplay #worblaarmor #worblasfinestart #cosplayarmor

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

Tifa’s sonic strikers done! I wanted to do somet

Tifa’s sonic strikers done! I wanted to do something different from her default glove set, and I happened to have bits and pieces of all four leather colors in my stash already. I also love the weird lines and padded details on this pair, which made for a nice little patternmaking challenge and construction puzzle.

These were started back when I did @kathleenconahan’s Tifa costume about a year ago, and when I finally dragged them back out last week it turned out there was only about a long weekend of work left in them. The entire pair is assembled by hand with lapped seams and bitty little backstitches, because hand sewing is relaxing and wrestling tiny little pieces of soft leather through my machine is not. I still have to give my spiffy new wheel-style roller foot a try, but that’ll have to be the next weird little project.

#finalfantasy7cosplay #ff7remake #tifacosplay #cosplaywip #cosplaybuild #glovemaking

Armor update! I’m doing the back and lower torso

Armor update! I’m doing the back and lower torso in leather, hoping to strike a better balance of weight and flexibility than my last full armor costume. I’m building it around a little canvas vest that I made with steel bones for a smooth foundation, and I prepunched all the leather plates before dyeing so it should only take an evening or two to stitch everything on. Hoping to get to that this week, once everything is dry and has been buffed and polished a bit!

The detailing on this part of the armor is a little vague in the art, but the visual style of Monstress is all about elaborate ornamentation so I took the opportunity to play with tooling a little more. Although the nice natural shading is lost since I had to dye the whole thing black, I hit the designs with a leftover bit of the paint I mixed for the sword hilt, and I really like the way the faded gray-gold picks out the detail without highlighting the irregularities too much.

#cosplaywip #cosplayarmormaking #leatherarmor #cosplaycraft #cosprogress #cosplayarmor

Stealing my own thunder a bit but holy heck dudes

Stealing my own thunder a bit but holy heck dudes check it out. My sister @kathleenconahan commissioned me to make a Tifa for her as well, and while mine’s still in progress hers got shipped out at the beginning of this month. She just sent these photos of the whole thing (which are way radder than anything I can get while holed up in my brooklyn cave, lbr) and I’m beside myself with glee.

Kathleen made her own earrings, materia wristband, and gloves, with hand-etched aluminum plates. I made the skort, tops, leather vambrace, belt/suspenders, socks, and arm warmers. 📸 by @jeremysilvertongue

#tifacosplay #tifalockhartcosplay #ff7cosplay #ffviicosplay #finalfantasycosplay #leatherarmor #cosplayarmor #cosplaycommission

Vambrace complete! This is my first real armor pie

Vambrace complete! This is my first real armor piece in leather, except for the elbow bit which is sculpted in worbla. I used a medium (6oz?) veg tan for the base layer and decorative red plates, and odds and ends of other things for everything else, including some leftovers from the boots. You can’t see much except on the top binding, but there’s quite a bit of hand sewing in there to hold things together because I don’t fully trust rivets or glue.

My favorite bit is probably the pivot at the elbow, which I worked out through a long series of paper mock-ups because I wanted to preserve as much mobility as possible. What’s the point of cosplaying the pull-ups champ if you can’t move in her costume?

#cosplaywip #cosmaker #cosplayarmor #leatherarmor #ff7cosplay #tifacosplay #peeressofpullups

Recent Posts

Why I Draft my Own Patterns
The Problem of Categorizing Cosplay
How I made Ciri’s Boots
Building Ciri’s Sword and Scabbard
Ciri’s Armor (Pauldron and Poleyns)

Categories

backstory
basics
books
build diary
cosplay
day job
essay
introspection
rants
tutorials
updates
vintage
wardrobe

© by All Tomorrow’s Patterns, 2022 // proudly powered by WordPress // Theme: ilisa by pixxels.at

Top