Cosplay for PAX East - Elizabeth from Bioshock

Hey Everybody,    I hope this finds everyone in good spirits!   We are wrapping up the weekend, one of the few left of summer.  The past couple of nights have been a little chilly - an early harbinger of fall?   It makes me kind of sad that summer is nearing an end.

This post is a bit of a throw back.  My daughter had wanted to cosplay Elizabeth from Bioshock for PAX East this year (this past March) We worked really hard on perfecting her look, but I was dismayed as she didn't get any pictures of herself at the event, and it was so busy getting everyone ready that I forgot to take any when it was completed.     She did say that many people stopped her and took pictures of her in cosplay while she was there which is always a sign that it came out well.

Since then,  we took some photos at home. She took some by herself on time delay with her Ipad, and some my son took with his Blackberry phone. (See below for several of them.)

The way we usually go about creating a cosplay look - first we find some inspirational photos on the web.   The character of Elizabeth has a couple of different costumes - this one that Autumn chose with the long skirt, corset and short jacket, and a simpler one that appears in a different part of the game that looks more like a school uniform. (not pictured here, but it is a simpler skirt, white blouse and ascot type tie/scarf)   

more "inspiration"

Example of an "inspiration photo"

For the next step, I try to find patterns that have similar shapes to the clothing pieces needed.  In this case, I used McCall's M6845 (bolero jacket)  and McCall's M5681  (50's style full skirt) Both the patterns were rated as easy. 

Autumn was pretty specific about the fabric she wanted - a dark blue velveteen/velour type, not heavy weight (it had to 'swirl' easily).   We bought about 5 or 6 yards at Joann's fabric.   ( A couple of side notes here:     I purchased the fabric for this project as well as another couple cosplays I was helping to make for  friends, and used a bunch of coupons.  If you are not signed up for Joann's coupons,  do it before you go shopping!  Also, sign up for email coupons and texts if you can.  I got about $300 worth of fabric and notions for $80 that night.

Another thing to keep in mind, and I think this is true for most sewing projects.   Whatever your regular size is when you buy ready-made clothes - Disregard them!   Take your measurements (usually bust, hip and waist) and go by the chart on the back of the pattern. In my years of making different clothes & costumes,  the size the pattern says you are has never corresponded to the size you normally buy your jeans or tops in. )

 This look was not as hard to achieve as I initially thought it would be.  Autumn bought the wig,  corset & hooped petticoat online.     The corset we added thin strips of dark blue bias tape to the create the stripes and outline.

I modded the jacket from the initial pattern shape which had a really loose sleeve that morphed into the sides/back of the jacket.                     

You can see here,  I measured where the arm would fit, then sewed a seam in and clipped the excess fabric off.        I also added a collar onto the back of the neck area, and edged the whole thing with double fold bias tape. (these steps not shown in pictures)

 The skirt pattern was actually one that was supposed to be a poodle skirt,- a 50's style full skirt with the decorations  (I left the poodle off!)   I made this skirt the shorter length of the two shown on the pattern, as we wanted the petticoat to be able to peek out from underneath it.  Also, I added some extra width to each of the cut pieces (this pattern was basically 4 large triangles with the tops scalloped off. These were sewn together on the sides with a zipper in the back and waistband on top)  By adding a few inches on either side of each of the pieces,  I got a little more flare, and a better fit over the petticoat.

So here is my beautiful Autumn modeling the completed Elizabeth Cosplay:

I think some of these are her recreating poses from the game

good view of the back of the jacket, and the bias tape striping on the corset

Pretty Petticoat

I also made an Victorian inspired bird necklace ('choker style' shown below) as part of the original costume.  You can see it in the inspiration picture on the right above.   The choker it was a bit scratchy on her neck and she ended up finding a little gold cage necklace to go with it instead. (there is a part in the game where you as Elizabeth's character have to choose between a bird or a cage, so her choice of necklace stayed true to the character which is very important to Autumn when doing cosplays)
To make this, I started with about 1/2 yard of 2" wide dark blue ribbon. Then the same amount (1/2 yard), but slightly less wide lace ribbon (go maybe 1 1/2" wide, this is so you can see the blue as a background when the lace ribbon is laid on top of the dark blue).  Both could be found in the ribbon section at Joann's).  The lace ribbon was sewn to the dark blue ribbon.  The bird charm was in the jewelry/craft section also at Joann's fabrics.   I made a cardboard circle, glued some of the excess skirt fabric as backing, and then glued a string of faux seed pearls around it, and affixed the whole thing to the center of the ribbon.  I put a small piece of velcro as the closure (measuring her neck exactly first so that the excess ribbon could be trimmed)

The whole cosplay turned out really nicely.  There are a couple of other Cons coming up she can wear it to as well.

I will post some other pictures of the other cosplays we did for PAX and Anime Boston this year.

Do you enjoy cosplaying?    Do you sew or create your own?  I would love to hear about it in the comments below!

Thanks for reading!
xo Yvonne

Ghosts of Sewing Projects past

 Greetings from a very soggy Cape Cod afternoon...
lately I've been in a kind of sewing funk,  I keep wanting to do some sewing, but never actually getting around to it. Whether it's the time of year, the seemingly relentless cold and snowy weather as of late.  Tasha from By Gum by Golly has a good post about  losing your sewing mojo.  I need my mojo back!  She also does a follow up post with tips to jumpstart your creative process.

Anyway, I thought I would pull up some pictures of previous sewing projects.  (these usually revolve around things for my kids)

Autumn as Fem Hungary

My daughter is into Anime.  For those of you who don't know what it is,  a simple explanation would be "Japanese style Animation" but to those into it, it ranges from a mild addiction to a full blown obsession.   (A popular example of the genre would be Pokemon, but there are literally hundreds of other programs.)   The Graphic Novels are known as Manga. People dress up as their favorite characters (called 'cosplaying') and attend Conventions                
or  sometimes just wander around in groups at the local mall or other places.  Anime Boston is the biggest convention around here, and is like Mecca that thousands of Otaku* make pilgrimages to each year.

*(Japanese for people who are obsessively interested in Anime/Manga) 


Last year, my daughter chose for her cosplaying  Fem Hungary and Fem Denmark.   These characters are derived from an Anime series called "Hetalia" the characters of which are incarnations of different countries  (so you have America, Germany, Canada, Russia, Hungary, England etc.)  and they have personalities that match what the countries would be. (Germany is strict and law abiding, Japan is mysterious and quiet, America is loud and energetic....you get the picture.)  To make it more complicated (and believe me, with Anime it ALWAYS gets more complicated)   there are fan-based characters that are the opposite gender of those in the series  (most of the characters are male, so you have a whole bunch of female versions: Fem England, Fem Hungary etc)  

So Autumn chose her character inspirations and we set to sewing up the cosplay stuff.    Usually with these, there isn't any one pattern I can find that will exactly match the character, so I play around with a few different patterns to get the different elements of the outfit and morph them together.   For Fem Hungary pictured above, we used a Dorothy pattern (Wizard of Oz)  along with a pattern for a prom gown for the skirt and sleeves.  She also had a pinafore apron, but unfortunately it doesn't seem like we got it in any of the pictures.

Autumn as Fem Denmark

Here is her Fem Denmark cosplay.  There was very little sewing involved for this look (sigh).   I made the hat, Autumn made the battle-axe. The rest of the pieces were repurposed from her regular wardrobe.

 This is my son Peter, who cosplayed the year before as Russia from Hetalia.   One of the taglines from the show is "Become one with Russia" (as Russia is good at absorbing many little countries)   This tagline was also an internet meme, inspiring fan-based pictures and posters.

During the convention various and sundry women (and one big burly guy) came up and hugged Peter so they could 'become one with Russia.'  Still not sure if he planned this out.....

For his cosplay we repurposed a knee-length khaki trench coat and added dark brown blanket binding for the edging.  I cut off about an inch of the khaki fabric from the hem to make the cross strips on the chest.  The scarf was a silky poly blend in lavender.   (Peter says we should have made it longer)

One non-Anime related costume I made for Autumn was for Halloween. She planned to be a vampiress and saw a really elegant dress online she wanted to copy. This was difficult because it had these pointed wing like things that came off the bodice that seemed more or less free-floating.     The material we used was a shiny black satin, and the red lining was a silk blend.  I used a regular dress pattern for the bodice and skirt, but added the wing appurtenances by drawing my own pattern pieces and extending the front bodice sections. I used thick plastic from some laundry jugs to give them form.

She got red contacts and white powder make-up to make herself look very pale. 

(lower section of the dress)

This was the dress she found online we based the costume on

So that's my trip down memory lane for today.    I am going to go find my boxes of patterns and play with them a bit to see if I can get over my creative slump.
Thanks for reading!