K A I R I

This costume was one of my first really big cosplay projects. The shirts were purchased, and I painted the colored trims.  The bracelets were purchased from Claire's and painted the appropriate colors. The arm bands were made of hand-dyed polar fleece (yellow wristband) and sports knit (purple armband). The skirt was made with no pattern, using a type of sports knit that, when I bought it, was in a tube. I made the shorts out of one piece of tubing, then cut the rest for my needs. I made a scalloped pattern, cut out 4 pieces, and sewed them together by hand to get 2, fully-lined scallop panels, which I attached to the shorts. The waistband is a separate piece that slips on over top. The belt was made from a remnant of black-out fabric, and hand-colored with purple fabric marker.

The first wig was a monster made from a couple of cheap halloween wigs. The second wig started as a auburn dutch-boy from New Look, which I straightened, cut, and dyed with sharpies. They bled on my face, so I washed it out and later re-dyed it with the FW Acrylic Ink method. I cut the second one before I knew how to properly wear a wig, and so it was cut VERY Crooked and had to be WORN crooked to look right. The third, and FINAL wig, started life as a Monica from New Look in Bright Burgundy, and was then meticulously straightened and custom-styled.

The biggest piece of this costume, literally and figuratively, is the shoes. The first time I made them I knew nothing about making shoes, and so they BROKE half-way through the day. The second pair was made using a pair of Croc knock-offs, the toes off of children's plastic clown shoes, old plastic grocery bags for stuffing, caulk, quilt batting, swimsuit lining, and painted with shiny-finish puffy-paint to give it a plastic/rubber look in the right places. The bottom was covered in cut out pieces of craft foam and coated in elmers glue and more caulk. It was a long, hard, time-consuming process.