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The Hero’s Closet

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Published on February 27, 2017 at 360 × 210 in banner_gray

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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

Wowza what a trip. It feels a little wild that all

Wowza what a trip. It feels a little wild that all this was for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it trip across the Crown Championships stage, but actually the point was all the other competitors I got to meet and the truly top-tier fabulous costumes I got to ogle. All of these were people I’d previously only met online if at all, and builds I’d admired from afar, but there’s honestly no comparison to seeing all that hard work in person and getting my nosy eyeballs right up in the fabric textures and sculpting work. I was absolutely geeking out all day and it was just the best thing.
I crunched four separate times to get the various incarnations of Ciri built over the last two years, but I’m happy to say that I actually accomplished-or-near-enough my entire upgrade list this time around. I finished the BOOTS, which was a wild project that’ll get its own wrap-up post, and I’m very happy with how the tooled leather scabbard came out as well. I need to finally plan a photoshoot now that all the elements are actually where I want them - was hoping to get a wintery Skellige one with snow but I guess that’s not going to happen this year, freaking thanks climate change 😠. Very well deserved congrats to all the winners (including armor category winner @paisleyandglue and third overall @leelookris in these photos). Also, thanks to the fabulously talented and extremely nice guy @sameertikkamasala for sending over the second picture, and super extra thanks to travel buddy and heroic handler @pitchforkcosplay for coming along on this little adventure and taking all the others. #crownchampionshipsofcosplay #c2e2 #cosplayarmor #witchercosplay

So Tifa is nearly there except for a bit more leat

So Tifa is nearly there except for a bit more leatherwork and the gloves, and the Empress is still simmering along (currently waiting for a mildly obscene quantity of embroidery thread to ship.) But in the meantime I have NEWS my friends because my Monstress obsession cannot be stopped

A few months back when I turned THAT page in issue 28 and frightened the neighbors with my shrieks, I reluctantly tucked the Warlord’s battle gear away in the’ someday’ file because I am but a small underemployed costumer in these perilous times and a colossal armor build was RIGHT OUT.

But then along came the fine folks at @worblana with their sponsored build program, and now I’m delighted to announce that heavy armor Warlord is a GO. As soon as I got the news I started sketching, so here's a whole mess of me trying to plan out specific shapes and construction details so I can start making the patterns.

I ended up not going for the sci-fi-flavored on-page version, but for one of the concept sketches included as bonus material in the trade collection, as I think this one will lend itself a little better to being sculpted by hand. Definitely making the sword though; it’s basically the ultimate in over-the-top fantasy sword nonsense and I haven’t done any props in this style yet.

The Cosplay Supplies lovelies are providing Worbla’s Black Art that I’ll be using to build the sword, armor, and helmet. Since this is a sponsored build I’ll be doing a couple of detailed tutorials for the Worbla site in addition to my more informal documentation here, so this is your chance if you’ve been wanting a closer look at how I work with the stuff. I haven’t done a full armor build since Maika, and I’m hyped to apply some of the more detailed sculpting methods I acquired making Ciri’s bits and pieces. Plus, you know, keeping busy does a brain good. Hope you’ll follow along with me!

#worblasblackart #worbla #cosplayarmor #monstresscosplay #cosplans #cosplaywip

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

“Auntie. I heard you’ve been looking for me.”

Call this my little group portrait tribute to the family reunion from hell in issue 32. I love both of these hazardous-to-know ladies but get them in the same room and 😬💥😬

The Maika issue 13 armor was my first big worbla armor, and I made her in about two months after being blown away by the cover reveal in late 2017/early 2018. Bit of a learning experience! The armor was pretty heavy and not very mobile, and the soft sculpture monster arm that went with it was both large and unbalanced so it ended up being awful to wear. I haven’t really worked myself up to bringing her out again since her debut at Katsucon that year.

Warlord was similarly an impulse project. Very shortly after I spotted the concept art in the back of volume 5, the opportunity for this build popped up so I tossed aside my other wips and dove in. The three additional years of experience that went into this project do show up a bit visually, but much more so in the underlying structure and logic of the build. The armor is all supported by a canvas vest that I can step into, and I can put everything on myself up to the point of buckling vambraces over gloves (and I’m pretty sure I could do that myself too, it’s just annoying and fiddly.) The worbla is mostly a single layer over a canvas base, so it’s much lighter and more flexible. The back and lower part of the torso armor are molded leather stitched to canvas, so they’re light, sturdy, and breathable. She’s much closer fitting, but the difference in mobility is incredible and she’s comfortable enough to wear for at least a couple hours.

I do still love the issue 13 design, and if I didn’t already have the Empress in the works and lots of other monstress costumes I’d love to take a crack at someday, I’d be tempted to have another go at it with the updated skillset. But there’s never enough time to build all the things I want to build!

Maika and the Warlord are from Monstress by the brilliant @marjorie_liu and @sanatakeda_art @worblana provided Worbla’s Black Art for the Warlord build.

#monstresscosplay #cosmaker #cosplayarmor #worbla #worblaarmor #leatherarmor #fabtasyarmor #cosplayglowup

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

Recent Posts

How I made Ciri’s Boots
Building Ciri’s Sword and Scabbard
Ciri’s Armor (Pauldron and Poleyns)
Ciri Chainmail
Embroidery Purgatory

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