Driselle Sharil cosplay - Tales of Xillia

Driselle Sharil cosplay

Of all the cosplays I have made, I am most proud of this one.  This is the first cosplay where where I made both the patterns and the outfit completely on my own.  Driselle is a NPC in the game Tales of Xillia.  I love her design and she's as sweet as can be. I wore this cosplay at ACen 2015 and hope to wear it again soon.

If you like my cosplay please like my facebook page and follow me on twitter @forstericosplay 

For the wig I bought a light ash blonde Jeannie from Arda Wigs.  Its a great wig because it comes with a pony tale clip that can be moved around to match Driselle's side loop style.  I made the hair clip using some lace appliques, embroidery floss, and wire.

Aside from the whole make the patterns thing, the part I found the most challenging was painting these silly designs on the front and back of Driselle's dress.  I used a combination of acrylic paint, spray paint, and contact paper. It was a long process but in the end I really like how it turned out.

I really got into using the spray paint, so I also used it to add the maroon to all the trim.  Due to poor weather conditions I did most of the painting in my room.  The only casualties were my rotary blade and an extension cord which are now both a nice shade of burgundy. 

For Driselle's shoes I bought some cheap mesh slippers off of ebay and covered them with felt and ribbon.  Sadly I'm pretty sure I left them in the hotel room at ACen so I will need to make another pair soon.

I was really worried about making the jacket, but I was able to knock it out in about two days.  The green design is spray paint and the rest is homemade bias tape and ribbon.


And now for the finished product...

Driselle wouldn't be Driselle without a cup of tea in hand.  I found the cup and saucer at a local resale shop.  Sadly it wasn't Efreet fired, but its still pretty. 

All of these pictures were taken around ACen and at the tales shoot. 

Arietta the Wild cosplay - Tales of the Abyss

Better late than never...  The cosplay I made for ACen 2014 was Arietta the Wild from Tales of the Abyss.  She is a member of the God Generals which are a the main antagonists in the game.  I made the entire outfit myself including the Frankenstein-ish construction of the boots.  I can't wait to wear it at another convention.

If you like my cosplay please like my facebook page and follow me on twitter @forstericosplay 

Aside from the boots, this cosplay was really fun to make.  The doll was by far my favorite part.  It's made out of fleece and felt and is very soft.  The outfit also allowed me to try my hand at making my own bias tape as well as working with leather.  Overall I'm quite pleased with how Arietta turned out.  The only thing that I will probably change is the styling of the wig.

Kratos Aurion cosplay - Tales of Symphonia

For Acen this year, not only did I make myself a cosplay, but I also put one together for my friend Jake.  He was Kratos Aurion from Tales of Symphonia.  The costume (shirt, cape pants, belts) was purchased online, but I made some modifications to it as well as making all of the accessories and styling the wig.

I modified all the yellow accents by adding gold fabric paint and red rhinestones to look more like the artwork.

The wig was first dyed with ink to give it a darker red color.  Then I cut and styled the wig with hairspray and fabric glue.

I made both the sword and shield using EVA foam, a dremel, and spray paint.  This was my first time crafting any sort of weapon so I'm pretty pleased with how it came out.

Celsius Cosplay - Tales of Symphonia

Last weekend I traveled to my 2nd ever Anime convention.  This time it was Youmacon in Detroit, Michigan.  For this convention I decided I wanted to cosplay a character by the name of Celsius.  She is the summon spirit of ice in the game Tales of Symphonia.   The outfit itself is relatively easy but her skin is gray, so I had to paint myself from head to toe which was a bit complicated.

If you like my cosplay please like my facebook page and follow me on twitter @forstericosplay 

This a picture of Celsius from the game

This was the start of the cuffs.  I made them with old padded bras covered in gold fabric.  Yeah...I'm pretty resourceful. 

Here was my body paint test  the top right section is Kryolan aqua color.  The other two are different shades of pax body paint.

I have a lot so say about the body paint.  It was a very interesting process.  The paint I used is called pax and it is made by combining equal parts of prosaid adhesive and acrylic paint.  When it dries its like a weird 2nd skin and does some weird wrinkly stuff, but over all its very good for all day wear and it won't rub off on your clothes or anything you touch.  After going through this process I have some tips for anyone trying to apply this type of body paint.

Pax Tips

• paint your hands last
• make sure you have someone help you
• do one body part at a time and make sure to powder it as soon as it dries, if not you will stick to yourself
• only use pax on your face if you don't plan on making many facial expressions
• allow at least 2 hours to paint head to toe
• removing this stuff sucks, I'm not sure there's any avoiding that. 

The tape grid I made for coloring the ribbon.

Finished ribbon.

The finished product.  

I'm so proud of how my Celsius cosplay turned out! I can't wait to wear it again at Acen.  Be sure to keep an eye out for me if you attend.

Tales of Xillia

Never in my life have I pre-ordered a video game or felt the need to buy a Collectors Edition...until the US release of Tales of Xillia.  I pre-ordered my collectors edition of the game back in May and anxiously awaited its August 6th release.  I have played through a number of the Tales series games, but this is only the 2nd one that I own.  I didn't get the package until yesterday, since I refused to pay extra to get it on release day, but it made for a very exciting Monday evening.

Here is the box it came in.  It was much bigger than I expected.

Top of the box with the very pretty logo

The front of the box has a flap that reveals the contents of the box on one side and a few pictures of the figure on the other.

The back of the box

When you open the cover of the box the inner flaps show the 2 heroes of the game

Now for the good stuff, what in the box.

Obviously the game is included...BUT WAIT!! THERE'S MORE...

A CD of music from the game

It also came with a super cool art book which will certainly come in handy if I decide to cosplay anyone from the game.

And last but not least it came with this awesome figure of the female hero in the game

If you haven't checked out any of the Tales games I highly suggest it.  They have great characters, story, and music.  What more could you want?