same_difference

Costume :	Yuri Volte Hyuga
Variant :	Shadow Hearts 1
Source :	Shadow Hearts
Progress :	Complete
Worn At :	AmeCon 2008

Photos
Information
Comments (6)

Costume Photos

Pendant

Costume Front

Costume Back

Yuri and Alice

Yuri, Alice and the cover

Costume Information

General
Cost :	Something in the region of £60
Time Taken :	About a month to six weeks

Description
Paired costume with perfectly_purple's Alice. The jacket was easily the most complicated part of the costume, and also marked my first attempt at piping. It's made primarily of suedette lined to cover some of my uneven sewing and for comfort as some of the suedette edges can be a bit rough. I based it off the yellow jacket for my Dragon Quest 8 costume to get the right overall size. The bottom half of the coat below the piping is five individual panels, and the shoulder and chest part just two. This made fitting the top and bottom together a little tricky. Additionally, I had to hand sew the main body and chest/shoulder panel together, as with the line of piping lying in between (one piece all along that circumference of the coat) I wasn't able to put them through the machine while being as close to the chord in the piping as I needed to be. I made the piping by sewing the bias together first, before with a bit of thread and using a knitting needle and some help pulling the cord through. The edge piping is one single piece and around 4-5 metres long! As such I needed someone's help (thanks perfectly_purple!) to pull the sewed bias tape taught over the chord as the chord was pulled through. The completed piping was pinned to the entire edge of the coat all in one go, then sewn on thankfully this time was using a machine. After making, lining and piping the sleeves (Which was easy enough) they were attached using the machine, except the arm pit joins which I had to finish by hand, I added the lining to the main body of the coat, and a ~3 inch strip of suedette along the both side from the collar to the base. As said the lining is there to hide the uneven stitching around the seems and to make the coat more comfortable. The inside length of suedette was just to get the look need to make the coat correct, but by doing it as a panel it made the coat more comfortable, more flexible, lighter and less warm. I'm very pleased with how that turned out. The rest of the lining for the top panel of the coat was finished at the accommodation room at Amecon (along with the trouser buttons), and as such isn't as well done as the rest, though still well enough to hold. Lastly a single length of suedette was used with a buckle to make the collar belt, which was then sewn to the collar The red top was taking a cheap long sleeved red top and then significantly widening the collar (and removing the elasticated band in the process), before adding a black strip around the edge. For the two silver button like silver details on the top I had difficulty finding the flat shiney backed poppers you sometimes get on coats. So instead I sewed on upside down two standard popper bases with a curved shape to them I had located, used a little unbaked fymo to make a smooth surface and the carefully wrapped the whole thing with a little kitchen foil. There are probably better ways of doing it, but it was quick. The trousers I cheated a little and avoided wearing leather ones, just getting a pair of as shiney as I could find work trousers with the right front catch arrangement to which I added the trio of buttons. The boots were just a normal pair of boots of mine which I cleaned up and polished for the convention. The wrist belts were hand made using bits of leather, belt buckles, studs and a leather hole punch borrowed from a friend, who I also borrowed the two waist belts from (I had three but one of the brown ones was too small). As the black belt had the right buckle but the wrong design I put together a quick cover for it (Which it slides into) out of left over material I used to make the Dragon Quest 8 Hero's boots. The amulet was moulded out of fymo, by first making a sphere and then carefully wrapping a wide strp around it which I had approximately shaped to match the surrounding. While this was tricky at times to avoid distorting the ball, it worked well to make the 'gem' part look inset into the surround. I then painted using acrylic paints. A metallic blue for the gem and a series of different mixtures of ash grey and gold, using several coats to get roughly the right variance of colour. After I'd finished I realised the actual amulet has a more pointy end, but it seems to have worked well enough in photos anyway. This costume was also the first I made using my late Nan's sewing machine, an industrial machine she'd acquired in the 70's that while not being used in the last 10 years worked really well. I finished the costume at about 2:45am on the Thursday of Amecon, making it my first (and hopefully last) bit of cosplay con last minute frantic sewing. The only problem I've had with the costume is having used cheap red hair spray to colour my hair, it has rubbed off on the piping on the back of my collar. The collar isn't in fact quite right, while it is even all the way around it shouldn't quite line up with the front edge of the coat, and were I to modify it I'd fix that and attempt to adjust the collar so it didn't rub up against the back of my head as much. Overall I'm happy with the finished look of the costume, and I'm really pleased I've made such a comfortable jacket overall, as it really is nice to wear. Finally got around to uploading photos, only 7.5 months after the con...

Description

Paired costume with perfectly_purple's Alice.

The jacket was easily the most complicated part of the costume, and also marked my first attempt at piping. It's made primarily of suedette lined to cover some of my uneven sewing and for comfort as some of the suedette edges can be a bit rough. I based it off the yellow jacket for my Dragon Quest 8 costume to get the right overall size. The bottom half of the coat below the piping is five individual panels, and the shoulder and chest part just two. This made fitting the top and bottom together a little tricky. Additionally, I had to hand sew the main body and chest/shoulder panel together, as with the line of piping lying in between (one piece all along that circumference of the coat) I wasn't able to put them through the machine while being as close to the chord in the piping as I needed to be. I made the piping by sewing the bias together first, before with a bit of thread and using a knitting needle and some help pulling the cord through. The edge piping is one single piece and around 4-5 metres long! As such I needed someone's help (thanks perfectly_purple!) to pull the sewed bias tape taught over the chord as the chord was pulled through. The completed piping was pinned to the entire edge of the coat all in one go, then sewn on thankfully this time was using a machine. After making, lining and piping the sleeves (Which was easy enough) they were attached using the machine, except the arm pit joins which I had to finish by hand, I added the lining to the main body of the coat, and a ~3 inch strip of suedette along the both side from the collar to the base. As said the lining is there to hide the uneven stitching around the seems and to make the coat more comfortable. The inside length of suedette was just to get the look need to make the coat correct, but by doing it as a panel it made the coat more comfortable, more flexible, lighter and less warm. I'm very pleased with how that turned out. The rest of the lining for the top panel of the coat was finished at the accommodation room at Amecon (along with the trouser buttons), and as such isn't as well done as the rest, though still well enough to hold. Lastly a single length of suedette was used with a buckle to make the collar belt, which was then sewn to the collar

The red top was taking a cheap long sleeved red top and then significantly widening the collar (and removing the elasticated band in the process), before adding a black strip around the edge. For the two silver button like silver details on the top I had difficulty finding the flat shiney backed poppers you sometimes get on coats. So instead I sewed on upside down two standard popper bases with a curved shape to them I had located, used a little unbaked fymo to make a smooth surface and the carefully wrapped the whole thing with a little kitchen foil. There are probably better ways of doing it, but it was quick.

The trousers I cheated a little and avoided wearing leather ones, just getting a pair of as shiney as I could find work trousers with the right front catch arrangement to which I added the trio of buttons.

The boots were just a normal pair of boots of mine which I cleaned up and polished for the convention.

The wrist belts were hand made using bits of leather, belt buckles, studs and a leather hole punch borrowed from a friend, who I also borrowed the two waist belts from (I had three but one of the brown ones was too small). As the black belt had the right buckle but the wrong design I put together a quick cover for it (Which it slides into) out of left over material I used to make the Dragon Quest 8 Hero's boots.

The amulet was moulded out of fymo, by first making a sphere and then carefully wrapping a wide strp around it which I had approximately shaped to match the surrounding. While this was tricky at times to avoid distorting the ball, it worked well to make the 'gem' part look inset into the surround. I then painted using acrylic paints. A metallic blue for the gem and a series of different mixtures of ash grey and gold, using several coats to get roughly the right variance of colour. After I'd finished I realised the actual amulet has a more pointy end, but it seems to have worked well enough in photos anyway.

This costume was also the first I made using my late Nan's sewing machine, an industrial machine she'd acquired in the 70's that while not being used in the last 10 years worked really well.

I finished the costume at about 2:45am on the Thursday of Amecon, making it my first (and hopefully last) bit of cosplay con last minute frantic sewing.

The only problem I've had with the costume is having used cheap red hair spray to colour my hair, it has rubbed off on the piping on the back of my collar. The collar isn't in fact quite right, while it is even all the way around it shouldn't quite line up with the front edge of the coat, and were I to modify it I'd fix that and attempt to adjust the collar so it didn't rub up against the back of my head as much. Overall I'm happy with the finished look of the costume, and I'm really pleased I've made such a comfortable jacket overall, as it really is nice to wear.

Finally got around to uploading photos, only 7.5 months after the con...

Comments

Great job on the costume, you both look amazing =]
Much love for this game it's epic. ^__^

by KamikazePenguin on Wednesday, 1 April, 2009 - 19:18

very well done, both cosplays look awsome

by nanahara on Wednesday, 1 April, 2009 - 20:26

amazing game! so cool to see cosplay from it x3
you guys have done an awesome job!

by kitty on Wednesday, 1 April, 2009 - 20:27

AMAZing Costume!!!

This was your 2nd/3rd cosplay? and your already using pipeing and semi lining a very heavy very thick and very difficult fabric to work with

I have to say youve aced it :D

by MangaChild on Thursday, 2 April, 2009 - 00:40

You guys both look really good and you did these costumes proud =^_^=

by Lunar_Kitten on Thursday, 2 April, 2009 - 07:47

Thanks everyone for the comments, I should have got around to uploading the photos sooner.

Yeah, 3rd costume if the umbrella counts enough as one to be the second.

by same_difference on Thursday, 2 April, 2009 - 12:44