Final Fantasy XIII, Snow Villiers cosplay and Shiva

Costume and bike making, model + colour edit - :iconAmenoKitarou:
Photography + Post processing - :iconbeethy:
Lighting Assistant: :icondjcoldfire:

This costume and prop received 2nd place in Round 1 of the Madman National Cosplay Championships at Brisbane Supanova 2010.

<b>About the Costume:</b>

<b>Trench coat :</b> This was definitely a big challenge for me because in all of costume making, one of my biggest weaknesses and phobias is making normal looking clothing.
To tackle this, I decided to use a pattern for the first time ever in 2 years and altered it to fit and sit.
The material I chose for this was a cream coloured Panama.
It wasn't the best choice material-wise but the colour was spot on.
The jacket is fully lined, then eyelets were hand hammered into the collar straps and the sleeves were frayed by hand, accurate to the CG.

<b>Vest:</b> This was another dreaded piece of clothing with a flip out collar, which means another piece of clothing I needed to fully line.
The colour references for this part of the costume also gave me some dilemmas because some pictures make the vest look brown and white, some look blue and light blue. In the end I decided to go with a baby blue material for the base, and a dark scrappy blue for the edges, because of the in-game colours.
The base of the vest was sewn together first with the light blue, then dark blue stripes were sewn and ironed on to give it a clean and finished look. The double zipper was cheated and made from 2 separate zippers, sewn in very carefully next to each other.

<b>Arm band:</b> metallic detail made from oven dry clay. the band itself is a layer of suede and a layer of suit material.

<b>Pants:</b>These were existing pants that I thoguht were perfect for Snow, but was much too dark, so I washed them then sun dried them for 3 weeks, to wear the colour out. It worked like magic~

<b>Shoes:</b> The base shoe is actually, a snow boot....buwahaha!
Over the snow boots, I sewed a neck together and hammered them with eyelets and laced them. Big circle studs were made from oven dry clay. Fairly simple.


<b>Shiva:</b> The Shiva bike has to be the most insane and ambitious project that I have ever made myself attempt.
The structure is made from 60 gym foam mats, and over 180 sticks of 12mm hot glue.
Silver, Gold, metallic charcoal, and blue paints were used on this prop, all different shades were hand mixed then applied.
The heads are snapped off wig heads...
All the foam structures sit on top of a wooden frame with baby wheels, enabling it to move and DRIFT!

The whole project, costume plus bike, was completed within 12 days.


Hope you like it :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Many Special thanks go out to:

:icontsubaki-chan: and :iconwakaleo: for continuous support and encouragement during the lead up to Madman Nationals.

:iconstormwarden83: for accomodating me for my first night in Brisbane, and allowing me to build the bike together at his amazing house the night before the event.

Hayley, Regan, Bec and everyone at ~StormWarden83's house over the weekdend who helped me with the final touches of this project.

:iconmint-ice-tea: for having me at his house for the weekend~ and yummy bakery foods and epic fun times.

:iconhiyuki: for adopting me as her son and
:iconmiyukiko: and :iconzuzumoo: for the support throughout the weekend~

:iconorganisation-roxas: for driving Shiva to the convention centre, and back to sydney.

:iconemiko-sakura:, :icon13-Zer0:, :iconHonestKallen:, :iconZerebin:, :iconyukigeshou: and :iconreiicharu: for taking care of me back stage when I felt sick.

:iconSlykura:, :iconK-chan009: and :iconcescat: for being such epic judges and giving me constructive comments after the event.