G A R N E T " D A G G E R " T I L . A L E X A N D R O S
Final Fantasy IX
M I K A S A . A C K E R M A N
Attack on Titan
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The Inspiration
This one is All Rynn's Fault. When Rynn and I cosplay together, it's usually either as part of a larger group, or often it involves me babbling about 4 or 5 ideas at her and letting her pick which one we ultimately end up doing. This was different. One day she came to me, raving about her new favorite series, and directly said to me "I want to cosplay Eren, and I think you'd make an AMAZING Mikasa". Since she almost NEVER asks me to do anything specifically for her, I knew then and there, that I would make this costume, even if I hated the series. Luckily, when I finally got around to watching it, I DID enjoy it, and ended up really taking to Mikasa, and being excited for our group.
The Build
The wig is a Always Sexy in #1B from Amphigory. It was a bit spendy, but I knew it was exactly the base I wanted. It only took a bit of trimming to style it for Mikasa. The scarf was one I obtained after much hunting online, and is a knit acrylic I purchased on Ebay. The materials for this costume were chosen in conjunction with the rest of my group, to be sure that our uniforms matched at least enough that we looked like we belonged together. The jacket is Tobacco colored twill from JoAnn, and was made using a Kwik Sew pattern with only a few modifications (the length, and adjusting the lapels). Patches were purchased from Seraphita on Etsy. My shirt was made from a white matte spandex, to achieve the most flattering look (since this costume is not remotely flattering in most cases). The pants were purchased from Aeropostale and are grey-wash skinny jeans. I replaced all of the belt loops with brown elastic, to help my belt blend in more. The brown hip-wrap piece is made from a stretch microsuede from JoAnn's, and is permanently sewn together with slits for my belt loops to come through -- this helps hold the wrap, and other pieces of my harness in place by anchoring it to the pants. The boots were purchased from GoJane.com and modified to more closely resemble the uniform.
Now, the biggest part of this costume -- the harness. All of the straps were made by hand, folding JoAnn signature vinyl around strips of duck cloth, and top-stitching them. Buckles are from tandy leather and ebay. The grey and black pieces are made from craft foam, covered in vinyl, and secure to the harness straps either through loops on the back, or slits in the craft foam. The only piece of the harness I did not make, was the main belt around the waist -- this was purchased on eBay. If you want a good idea of how this harness functions and what it's like to put it on, Rynn has done an awesome video showing exactly that, and you can check it out on her YouTube Channel.
I made the green cloaks for myself, as well as Rynn, BAT and DiZ, as Christmas gifts. They were made of hunter green executive suiting and lined in hunter green cotton, both from JoAnn. For the patches, I just ordered them on eBay, since I was looking to keep them cheap and did not care if they matched our jackets since you would never see both at once.
