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The Hero’s Closet

G_owl

Published on October 23, 2014 at 280 × 427 in G_owl

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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

Been going easy on progress shots for this one, si

Been going easy on progress shots for this one, since you’ll be getting the full tutorial later, but I've hit a good construction milestone and scored a weekend of decent weather for courtyard photos. So, an update on the Warlord sword! She’s a foam-free build, made from cardboard and Kobracast with a kite rod core, with Worbla’s Black Art for the hilt provided by @worblana

I haven’t done a really silly fantasy sword prop like this before, but there’s a clear line from my previous prop builds to this one. I've been using the creased-paper-and-Kobracast method since Ciri, so all I had to do for the larger blade is increase the paper weight to a light cardboard/book board. (I also used a much heftier kite rod for the core, but mostly just because the thick sturdy ones happened to be on sale. It does add more weight this way.) The gem is a clear glass cabochon with metallic paint on the back, which I’ve also talked about before.

The other major difference is the Worbla’s Black Art for the hilt and sculpted details, which I haven’t had in supply since I did Maika. I've found it complements the Kobracast (also a Worbla product) very well, because it’s less sticky and highly sculptable where the Kobracast is extremely sticky and tear-resistant but also floppier and more textured. Being able to switch back and forth as appropriate (and sometimes do a sandwiched piece with some of each) feels like a nice refinement to my technique that ‘ll continue using.

For this hilt I did a lot of both directly sculpting surfaces (to get the crisp bevels and edges on the various prongs as well as the gem setting) and individual embellishments that I shaped and then pressed in place. Time-consuming in both cases, but nothing fancy. I used the same basic oiled wood sculpting tool for a good 3/4 of the work, so it’s all pretty straightforward but will be explained in more detail with some extra tips and tricks when the full tutorial comes out.

I’ll probably keep tinkering with the sculpting a little longer, but then it’s on to the prime and paint (and the rest of the costume.)

#cosplaywip #worblasblackart #cosplaypropmaking #worbla #swordprop #cosmaker #propmakers

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

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

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

The women of Monstress fascinate me because they’re unabashedly terrible most of the time (well, except maybe Kippa.) The Warlord is exactly what you would expect from her title: brutal, remorseless, secure in her power and willing to use it. The series resists easy hero/villain categorizations, and it’s not even clear to me that she and her niece are necessarily enemies, but they’re not likely to get along either. As of last issue they’re finally in the same room and the tension is off the charts so if you’re looking for a reason to binge through five volumes this is your gentle nudge to hop to it.

I like how this picture shows off the sculpted detailing on the armor, and I’m hugely relieved at how well the worbla and leather components blend. The gloves I actually made a couple years ago for something completely different, but I felt like they fit the theme and was happy to have a reason to dig them out again.

Worbla’s Black Art for the armor was provided by @worblana , and the build tutorial is coming soon to their site. The Warlord is a concept art variant of the character from Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s Monstress.

#cosplayarmor #armorbuild #worblaarmor #worbla #worblasblackart #leatherarmor #monstress #monstresscosplay #imagecomics #cosmaker #cosplaycraft

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)

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