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The Hero’s Closet

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Published on December 10, 2014 at 512 × 512 in Large Blog Image

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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!

#cosplaydetails is back? Give me an excuse, why do

#cosplaydetails is back? Give me an excuse, why don’t you. Here’s a peek at some of the last-minute additions that I’ve been making for Ciri, with the caveat that most of it still isn’t done and may not actually make it to the show 😬
In addition to the boots, which I’ve been chronicling in my stories, I’ve been tinkering with a Skellige-sauna-inspired bra to wear under the lot of it, a new scabbard with all the tooled detailing, and some little refinements to the finishing on the chaps. Cross your fingers for me that I’ll get through it all in the final week!
#crownchampionshipsofcosplay
#cosplaywip #cosprogress #witchercosplay #cosmaker #ciricosplay

Oh right, I’m supposed to be working on the big

Oh right, I’m supposed to be working on the big thing. So here’s a progress dump for the Empress blouse! Not gonna lie, the white-on-white-on-white thing has been torturous. But then bits of this utterly ridic garment start to come together and I start to think maybe this is going to be worth it.
This is the little inset right below the collar of the blouse, in gauzy silk jacquard partially flatlined with organza to stabilize the embroidered area. The thread is two different weights of silk embroidery thread, a fine one for outlining and a slightly heavier one for the satin stitch. My stitches still aren’t as clean or consistent as I would like, but at this point I desperately need to stop wasting time on redoing things (and shredding the delicate fabric as I rip stitches out over and over)

I haven’t been great about keeping track of how long I’ve spent on this thing, but it’s probably in the neighborhood of 30-40 hours just for the bit shown (though even that would be leaving out a bunch of time on false starts and so forth.) This is the main visible bit of the blouse under all the other layers of this costume though, so I’m going to pretend it’s justified. Need to finish embroidering the ‘wings’ on the front yoke piece before I can go any further with the assembly. #cosplaywip #cosmaker #silkembroidery #handembroidery #monstress
#monstresscosplay #shamanempress

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

Apparently I like making swords now? Baffling. I’ve been working on Utena for AnimeNYC and was worried about getting the Sword of Dios done in time, but then I just sort of went ahead and ground the whole thing out in one ten-hour binge.
I used basically the same method I used for my Ciri sword, but slightly simplified since this one doesn’t have a silly cutout in it. I started with a 1/8” kite rod core, and made the blade with creased oaktag backed in kobracast. I bulked up the hilt by wrapping the core in cotton string, then wrapped it in worbla and sculpted the details on top. The stone in the hilt is crystal worbla pellets colored with liquid watercolor (which was a bit awkward to work with and dyed my hands green) and a little bit of metallic powder pigment. I finished it with a rose-shaped bead for the pommel, held on with a loop of wire and a scrap of kobracast. Just needs priming and painting now!
#cosplayprop #propbuilding #worbla #utena #utenacosplay #swordofdios #animenyc #cosplaywip #cosprogress #cosmaker

Here’s some nice crunchy WIP for a Sunday mornin

Here’s some nice crunchy WIP for a Sunday morning!

Basically none of whatever the Empress wears under her robes is visible in the reference materials we’ve seen so far, so I’m making something up based on the available information. Most importantly, the full-length embroidered panel at center front needs to hang from something that isn’t the floaty gathered blouse - ideally a structured bodice or corset with lots of boning to prevent distortion and sagging from the weight. The curvy panel shapes are strongly influenced by Maika’s armor from the Monstress issue 13 cover, which I built back in early 2018 and still love. The neckline is shaped to match the upper edge of the embroidery panel, and will be refined in mockups to play nicely with the blouse underneath as well.

One of the main reasons I made my own dress form last year was to get an accurate, pinnable shape that would let me delve deeper into draping, and this bodice seemed like an excellent candidate to try. I’ve mostly been a flat patterning partisan thus far, but trying to lay out all these curvy seams while preserving fit was not a fun time and after a frustrating first mockup I needed to try something different. So we’ll see how this goes!

#patternmaking #cosplaywip #cosprogress #draping #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

Recent Posts

How I made Ciri’s Boots
Building Ciri’s Sword and Scabbard
Ciri Chainmail
Embroidery Purgatory
Ciri Build Diary – An Introduction

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