Costume 1 (underwear): My second cosplay, this one
happened by accident. I was walking through New Look (excellent place for cheap
clothes that you can cut up into pieces and dye the life out of for costumes,
if you don’t have the luxury of living near a Primark) and saw a pair of green
cotton shorts that immediately made me think of Lucy. They were cheap, so I
bought them. I later went and bought a cheap vest shirt from the same place. I
made sure to buy the top three sizes larger than usual, as Lucy is supposed to
be borrowing a man’s underwear at this stage, and the clothes are noticeably
baggy. In colder weather, flesh coloured tights may be used. The shorts are
excellent because they have pockets (perfect place for keeping seashells).
Costume 2 (black dress): My fifth cosplay and the one
where I learned that you cannot sew jersey. You just can’t. I’m sure there’s
probably a way to do it without having your sewing machine chew it up and spit
it back out, but you have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. Once I
have become a rocket scientist, I will be completely redoing the top of the
dress.
Essentially, I bought a lot of grey jersey fabric and
used another dress I owned as a template. This went badly wrong for many
reasons – one the design was totally different, and two the fabric was totally
different. I ended up just wrapping it around me like a towel and pinning it
where I thought it went best. And it still has a huge bulge in the side that I
need to take in when I have time.
I realised that I was going to have to do the black trim
in jersey too, in order for it to stretch with the dress. Unfortunately I did
not have enough time to order any in (this was another last minute cosplay) so
I bought a cotton t-shirt from Marks and Spencer (size 22 so that I got the
most fabric for my money) and cut off the hems, which were the neatest part of
the shirt. I then sewed them to the top of the dress as the trim and the
straps. As the fabric is jersey, and the design is meant to be tight, the dress
actually holds itself up – which is good, because thanks to the aforementioned
sewing difficulty in the first paragraph, the straps are useless.
I bought a long sleeved pink top from New Look. Luckily,
pastel colours were in that year, and it was not too hard to find the right
shade. The long socks were ordered from ebay, due to the difficulty of finding
grey and black stripes.
Make up: I keep Lucy natural and light, though with a
little bit of definition on the eyes, as she is supposed to be an anime
character. Due to my wimpy nature and a bad first experience with broken
contact lenses, I am unable to turn my eyes red for this cosplay.
Hair: My wig was a cheap one off ebay, but experience has
taught me that it is almost impossible to find a wig that perfectly matches
Lucy’s hair colour, due to the vibrancy. I am still looking for a higher
quality replacement. Her horns I made by buying a pink hairband, making a pair
of cardboard horns, and papier macheing them half to death. It took several
weeks, applying a new layer each day, to build up the appropriate thickness,
and to mould them into the correct shape. I then painted the interior a very
very light grey in order to get the contrast. I have a backup pair just in case
the first ones snap.
Amecon 2010 (I'm on the left - and I don't mind telling you that it was bloody freezing!)
Cosplay Picnic 2011
Amecon 2012 (I didn't realise till after the con that I'd picked up the wrong ribbon for this cosplay >.<)
