I’m still fairly new to cosplay and the two costumes that I have made so far have only involved modifying off-the-shelf clothing rather than making the costume from scratch. I want to try something more challenging for my next costume so have decided to attempt the Harlequin costume from Assassins Creed Brotherhood. However I am not quite sure where to start and I am hoping one of the many talented people on this site can give me some advice.

This is what the character looks like:



First of all I was wondering what type of fabric to use. I have seen one example where it looks like the cosplayer used a shiny satin like material but I would have thought that this would be too thin by itself . I have also seen one that looks like it is made from velvet like material but I think that would make the costume too warm, especially in May when I am planning to wear the costume.

I was also wondering whether I should make the costume out of alternating stripes of fabric sewn together or if I should just make a single coloured costume and then sew the other colour stripes on top.

Finally any advice on making the pattern for the trousers, jacket and hat would be appreciated. I already have a suitable mask and will worry about the knives and other details once the main clothing is done.

Fabric wise, go into the fabric store and look at them - look for fabrics that match. Also find one that is not gonna be a nightmare to work with and will take lots of sewing - ideally, you want a type of cotton.

Also remember; whilst you can't make a fabric lighter, you CAN make it heavier by backing and interfacing.

And backing would make it easier for the stripes. You could sew the stripes straight to the backing, then after they're sewing on hide the joins between them either by using binding or by using an embroidery stitch (really tight zig zag stitch on the machine - you want the length set to one or two) in white.

Pattern piece - Simplicity 4059 is your friend (here's what included in the pattern - also DO NOT BUY FROM THIS WEBSITE!)

You want to shorten the jacket so it doesn't have that extra material in the bottom, and shorten the shorts (it's just about measuring how long you want it on yourself, roughly in half of the size from looking at both images.

For the jacket collar, you can just use the collar of the shirt pattern (b) and exaggerate it - once it's on, you can cut and hem it to the desired shape.

The lower part is gonna be a bit harder to find for - I'd recommend making your own pattern piece by wearing an old pair of trousers, duck taping your legs then cutting them off to get your size. One you have your size, cut the fabric to fit around that - you need to have it big enough so you can move about in it! Unless you get stretch material but that will add a lot more difficulties all round.

Thanks for responding so quickly. I will go and search for some suitable cotton material to make the backing and then sew the stripes to it as you suggest. I'm planning on using silver ribbon to hide the joins between the stripes.

I expect I will be back here asking for more advice as I progress through the project.

I am in the process of making this costume myself!
I used thick taffeta type fabric and cut each pattern piece into strips then re-sewed back into each pattern piece again. The hat had 22 bits of fabric.... -_- I then sewed ribbon over the joins. I have used around 50 yards of ribbon so order plenty! I bought 3 meters each of the blue and green and still have plenty left.
The trousers were quite challenging as I couldn't find a pattern for them so I had to improvise. I hope they will be OK.
Have fun and a lot of patience and it will work!!

I am making progress on the costume but I am having a bit of trouble working out what to do for the jacket fastenings. The image below shows what I am trying to achieve:



As you can see, the two halves of the jacket don’t overlap and the fasteners look like small metal rectangles that pull the two halves together. I am not quite sure what these fastenings are called though so it is difficult to search for somewhere that sells them. Maybe they are just buttons, although they look like they are attached to both sides of the jacket and might be a sort of snap together clip. Does anyone know what these fastenings would be called or where I could purchase something similar?