DBS/DBFZ Tenshinhan cosplay I made!!💖
This was my first time trying cosplay and I learned a bunch! I was in a rush and got it done within 2 weeks (mostly made by modifying existing pieces of clothing)...I loved Ten's DBS fit ever since I first saw it, and thought for a while that it would be cool to try cosplaying it. The perfect opportunity came when I had some crazy good luck at the grocery store, just a few weeks before I was planning to head to Combo Breaker (fighting game tournament near Chicago) with my sister. Unfortunately I did not get too many photos because I'm not very photogenic, but sharing what I have!
Detailed process below!
One day in late April I decided to take a quick look at the rack of random clothes that's in my local grocery store. I usually pass it by, but that day checked it out on a whim...and found this oddly perfect DBS Ten-esque top:
It was like $4 and I thought, I guess this is as good a time as ever to finally try making that cosplay. It actually sat in my room for a little over a week before I finally decided to go through with it and give it my best shot!! I had a week and a half until we were leaving for our trip, so I figured I'd try to get it done before then.
In his outfit, the top is the most iconic part of the look; it's always been fun for me to draw, so I was most excited to see that part come together. It's like...a cropped qipao/cheongsam top?
I cut off the sleeves, seam ripped the red trim off of the ends, and re-attached the trim to the arm holes by hand. (I was ripping one stitch at a time at first, then thought, there must be a better way to do this ... a wonderful video from BlueprintDIY on youtube taught me that the little nook in the seam ripped is also sharp and you can just slip that into the seam and rip it much faster!!)
I did the left arm first just to get it started, but held off on the right since I wanted to make some sort of adjustment to the shirt so that the button knots would be a little more out of the way to make room for the 天 kanji applique on the front. As someone with zero experience sewing clothes, I googled things about tailoring clothes, "taking in" areas... After much deliberation I decided to tuck in some of the fabric underneath the diagonal collar and sew that down in order to move it up and out of the way a bit. That way I wouldn't have to make any cuts, in case I made a mistake and wanted to rip the seams and try again. Also had to rip some of the stitching from one of the buttons so I could sew it back down in its new spot.
The difference is maybe not super apparent, but this was after the adjustment. There's a liittle bit more space on the front for the 天 symbol!
I was working on this during the work week so my process was a bit disorganized. As long as I was making progress, I would pick anything to chip away at on a given day. After the adjustment to the top I checked ebay, Poshmark, TJ Maxx, and Goodwill to try and find the other parts I needed: pale yellow/cream colored pants and a loose fitting, light long sleeved top to match; and a maroon colored maxi skirt (or dress).
^Tried to draw a manifestation doodle because I did not have a ton of time to continue searching online for yellow karate gi / pajama sets that would ship in time. Guess it worked!!
I ended up finding some pale yellow wide leg trousers in my size(!), a matching 2XL long sleeved top that was Huge on me, and some flowy deep red pants that I figured had enough fabric to potentially be converted into a skirt! I didn't take very many progress pictures, but here is what the pants looked like (inside out) before I ripped the inseams so that I could stitch it back into a skirt.
The fabric for the pants was stretchy and floppy and hard to cut and work with (it did Not want to have creases ironed into it), but on the bright side it didn't fray easily when cut so I was able to skip hemming the slit part of the skirt. The slit was actually one of the parts I would have stitched closed to make a regular skirt, but laziness + following his FighterZ design meant I could skip that and just leave it open. There were also these vertical lines running along the fabric that I didn't like at first since it didn't match the original oufit inspiration, but they ended up being kind of like guide lines and helping when I had to cut and stitch things!
Also pictured above is the belt! I made it from a bedsheet I got at the dollar store once I realized the white scrap fabric I bought wouldn't be enough for both the sleeve cuffs and the belt. That belt had to be loong in order to wrap around my waist several times and still hang down to around my knee once tied. I also learned how hard it is to turn a very long narrow tube like that inside out. (Later at the con a fellow cosplayer informed me there are tools and methods for this specific task, which is called "turning"!)
The skirt and the belt were my reasons to relearn how to use a sewing machine (last used one ... 13 years ago in middle school where I first learned how!!). I was lucky enough to have access to one and was able to pick up/recall the basics of how to operate it without too much trouble. These pieces needed a lot of straight stitching, so the sewing machine definitely saved a lot of time and hassle compared to the trickier shapes which I did by hand.
The only other things I sewed with the machine were the cuffs for the sleeves. I used the machine to sew the hems after cutting the fabric to size. These cuffs (and the sleeves in general) were probably the hardest part of the project. The fabric was veerry floppy (was labeled as "poly faille" if anyone knows what that is) and trying to attach it to the sleeve without any sort of tube to put it around and keep it in place was so tough!!
I wanted to cuffs to be biig like how I imagine them/tend to draw them. (Upon looking again at the references afterwards, I realized they aren't actually supposed to be *that* big.) The diameter of the cuffs ended up being greater than that of the original sleeve opening. I figured I could maybe cut open the sleeve some more and then use the cut-off yellow fabric I got from hemming the top to patch that new gap.
This was...Really hard. 😭 After one sleeve (which didn't even look good after patching) I didn't bother with patching the 2nd one, and just left the gap there. Thankfully you can't even really tell with all the draping going on!
Also around the time I got the yellow pants and top, I got a small amount of red fabric for the 天 applique. Regrettably I did not bring some of the red fabric from the original top with me to the store for reference, so it turned out that the fabric I got was a bit too yellowish in hue compared to the more purpley hue of the red trim on the shirt. Then I got the idea to dye the fabric with beets which lends a pinky/purpley color to things. So I went to get some canned beets!
The canned veggies section at the store was fully stocked...except for the big gap where the beets were supposed to be. 😭😭 Thankfully there were also jars available! 🥹
No photos of this part but I looked up some tutorials and ended up soaking the fabric in the beet juice with some salt and vinegar overnight & all through the next day til I got home from work to check on it. Frankly I don't think the hue changed all that much but I do think it made a slight shift in the direction I wanted, so it was good enough for me!
I applied some fusible web to the back of the fabric under the impression that it would prevent it from fraying so I wouldn't have to hem it or do any stitching on the unfinished edges. Turns out that's not quite what it's for, but it was still pretty useful.
I drew out the 天 symbol using vectors, then printed it out at the size I had measured out earlier, cut it out, traced it onto the paper fusible backing on the fabric, and cut the shape out. (I always thought of the shape as having thicker lines, but when I look at the DBFZ model it's actually on the thinner side. Oh well. I still like it ❤️)
I followed a tutorial for hemming a shirt while keeping the original hem in order to shorten the top to get the cropped look. The hem was curved in a way I didn't feel confident working with though, so I deliberated a lot trying to figure out how to approach it. Eventually just kind of...went for it! And it turned out alright I think. Here was a photo from when I got the initial work done on the hem but just needed to finish the sides. I had pinned the applique into place here too.
Around here I realized if I could knock out the biggest parts of the cosplay at home, I could just bring my hand sewing supplies and finish up the final details after getting to the hotel. So I packed it up carefully along with my supplies and did just that!
After getting to the hotel I ironed on the 天 applique and spent the rest of my free time that day hand stitching the finishing stitches for the edges. It took longer than expected and I didn't actually finish it since I recognized I had to work on more important parts instead, but it seemed sufficient to keep it mostly in place and secure.
The biggest issue I ran into from there was realizing I forgot to bring the trim from the 2nd sleeve that I needed for the last arm hole. I was disappointed and a bit worried since the extra red fabric I had from the 天 applique didn't quite match...but then!! I remembered that there was actually red trim running all along the diagonal seam on the inside portion of the shirt which isn't visible from the outside. I ripped off as much as I could and used clothespins to pin it in place and see if there was enough material.
It wasn't quite long enough but it covered most of it! I did end up having to make a small amount of bias tape/trim from that other red fabric to cover the remaining gap, but surprisingly it blended in pretty well and didn't even stand out much.
From there it was just a matter of using all my free time to finish the hem, finish up shortening the skirt, finish attaching the cuffs to the sleeves, make the boot ties from the remaining red fabric (the fusible made this easier!), and any other finishing touches. There was a cosplay contest that Saturday so that's when I was aiming to get it all done. Thankfully I did end up with a mostly presentable cosplay by then! My sister convinced me to stick on a paper 3rd eye to my forehead (I was worried it would look silly, but she reminded me it's for fun and it would help sell the cosplay. Ended up 100% being the right decision!!)
I wore it to the con that Saturday and was really pleasantly surprpised by how many people liked it!! :'D I truly did not think that many people would care, to the point where I actually brought some Ten stickers I made to pass out to fellow Ten fans. There were more than I expected so I got shy and didn't hand out as many as I would have liked.
I took a lot of pics with random people and got to talk with other ppl about how this was one of his best fits, how he's such a cool character...it was awesome 🥹💖 next time I will hopefully try to be more prepared to play the part/pose better since I was so preoccupied with just finishing the outfit this time lol!!
So there is the story of my dream DBS tenshinhan cosplay brought to life...Thank you<3