29th September 2011: pattern for 'coat' part I dug through my pattern collection and found the perfect base pattern for the 'coat' part of the costume. Its an old New Look pattern 6673. Its a dress pattern, which means it will be tight fitting on the body,especially across the back on the shoulders like the 'coat' is on Liara.
I'll be re cutting it to remove most of the front section and because of the weird way the 'coat' pulls back below the waist, i'll be cutting away more near the skirt part.

28th September 2011: Liara's eyes Got my Contacts for Liara. They are the Doll Eye lenses in blue. They match her new shade which is darker than as they appeared in first game. Liara's pupils are also slightly bigger than normal human pupils so these match very well.

21st September 2011: armour ponderings Looking at how the torso armour sits on Liara, its very flat to her body, like the thorax parts are attached directly to the suit underneath, Unlike say Shep's armour which sits onto on the bodysuit underneath and held on my straps.

Im wondering wether to attach them permanently to the bodysuit, so that if i bend forward or sit the armour plates wont buckle outwards. The bust armour is slightly thicker, but this wont have the problem of buckling as it will sit over my own bust and bra.

Course the other thing i'm thinking about is the fact the jacket part isnt loose over the body, its tight close to it. Looking at how i'd get in and out of the costume whilst maintaining the look of the costume. May figure in magnets or strong velcro to hold all parts of costume down flat.

21st September 2011: Leggings stripes take one - fail! Lucky i bought 2 pairs of these grey leggings as my first attempt didnt work as i planned. I found some very thin masking tape (the white papery kind) and stuck it onto my leggings whilst they were on my duct tape dummy.
Used some fabric stencil spray in black to then spray the stripes on.The reason i'm doing it this way is because the stripes spiral around the legs, which with the right fabric isn't really possible to do, as you'd have to cut on the bias and then the stretch might be too much and cause sagging. This way the leggings are cut on normal and should stay nice and tight all the time. Plus i get the stripes exactly where i want them.

problem i found was the masking tape didnt always stick as well as i thought it had and the paint bled underneath some areas. Typically those areas are not hidden by the armour!
So...now have some automotive plastic masking tape which says it sticks well to stop any bleeding of paint.

I do like the effect the stencil spray paint gives - a shiny raised texture to the matt flat jersey lycra of the leggings material.

The photos show the first attempt, just to show how the stripes sit.

21st September 2011: Back to original version Since there has only been 1 ref pic of the alt costume i thought id stick to the original version for now as i have WAY more reference and it has a completed rendering.

I now have AWESOME fabric for the costume. A white fake neoprene for the jacket part, plus some insanely gorgeous blue shimmery neoprene for the straps and detailing. They were both fabrics a shop in London had bought in from a warehouse sale and i got them for a steal compared to the big mainstream fabric shops in London down Berwick Street.
The textured fabric, not sure what to do there...if i can find a right type of fabric with the texture then ill use it for sure, but the texture is almost like the carbon fibre texture of Shepard's armour and i dont think i'll find that texture. So as back up found a cool video that showed how car art painters fake the carbon fibre look using spray stencils. Have fabric spray in grey and may try it out.

Found the perfect pair of footwear too. Zip front wedge platform hightop shoes in black. I can put the foot armour over the zip to conceal it and then the boot has the exact shape of Liara's footwear.

30th July 2011: coat details Since i am now doing the alt version, Liara coat is a shiny black fabric..like PVC. I already have a suitable pvc coat that will work quite well, once recut to shape.

29th March 2011: makeup is go Bought myself a 'baby' compressor and airbrush kit for just under £70 Bargain!Also bought a Kett hydro proof aibrush ink tester kit which includes red,blue,yellow, white and black which will allow me to get many blue tones to Liara, and if i get on well with it, i can buy a standard size blue ink and still have plenty of the other colours to blend other tones. I also got myself a Grimas water activated palette and ben Nye Liquidset in case i do an event where i cant bring my compressor with me.

8th March 2011: starting First part got. The dark grey leggings for the stripy leg parts. Next will be sticking strips of low tack masking tape down the leggings, so i can spray the stripes on with spray fabric dye. I have bought two pairs as there is also a section on her arms that have the stripy fabric too.