Sumia Cosplay Build Log!
Project duration: Dec. 22nd, 2025 to Jan. 6th, 2026 (my shortest full costume build ever) Photos above taken by lunabrillantephotography <3
Okay so first I need to start with a bit of a ramble because Sumia is a costume that I have legit been wanting to make for over a decade at this point. I bought the wig when I was in middle school in 2014.
(foolish girl.. if only she knew that it would take her another 12 years to finally make the rest of the costume...)
I then slowly started collecting more things in 2023-2024 like the Dangerous Ladies pegasus knight belt kit, the Indigo Jinjo sewing pattern for Sumia, and the spray paint that I wanted to use for her armor (Rust-Oleum Pearl Metallic Champagne Pink).
Finally, in 2025, a friend was 3D printing a sword for me wouldn't be ready in time for the con, so I made the impulsive decision to finally pull the trigger and make Sumia 2.5 weeks before the con since I had nothing else to do for Integra and I had heard there were going to be a few Awakening cosplayers at the Fire Emblem meetup at ALA.
First I bought some purple stretch cotton, light purple Kona cotton, and purple ribbed knit fabric from a local fabric store I had never been to before because I was a diehard Joann stan and bought anything else I needed online. (Both of which were obviously not options because RIP and also there was zero time to wait for swatches.)
First I sewed her dress using Indigo Jinjo's pattern, which was super great to work with and made my life extremely easy. I have used so many of her patterns atp she is a lifesaver
I used the appliqué method that she outlines in her instructions because I was not about to sit there fiddling with a curved seam when I needed to get the simple sewing stuff done quickly to move on to the hell that is patterning armor pieces. I actually really like how the appliqué came out and I think if I had tried to sew the curved seam it would have just turned out really awful and pucker-y and frustrated me.
(pic of the almost finished dress! just needed to hem here)
Then I moved on to the belt which was pretty simple. Just interfacing on the purple fabric and then the edges were bound with pink bias tape. I glued gray felt with magnetic snaps onto the back of the accessories so that I could get them to sit how I wanted on the dress instead of risking them flopping around. (This was probably unnecessary but I like to secure things when I can)
Also pro tip if you’re using the Dangerous Ladies belt kit: you need to slide the buckle onto the belt before you attach the hearts onto the ends bc the hearts will not slide through the buckle… Don’t ask me how I realized this…
I made a goofy hand turkey glove pattern and made the gloves out of the purple rib knit fabric. (I was not about to attempt to make gusseted gloves with 1.5 weeks to go and the hand turkey gloves did the job just fine LOL)
The last thing I did for the dress was hem it with a bias tape facing. I really liked this method and will def be using on future projects!
Okay onto armor hell. I used KamuiCosplay's Sci-Fi Breastplate pattern as a base and modified it. I also took inspiration from rosebluecos's Sumia build highlight as well as this old Deviantart post I've had bookmarked for years by Calssara.
I sketched out the shoulder armor to scale (alas I didn't actually have time to add those cute swirly details...) and then used this to help pattern the pauldron. Patterning pauldrons is genuinely my least favorite part of any armor build because of how you have to think in 3D shapes and it pains me when I can't find a pattern online close enough to what I need. I worked it out after a couple nights though.
I glued the armor together and primed it with Flexbond and spray paint primer, but for some reason it got all weird and cracked :( I've never used these two products so I'm still not 100% sure what happened, but my theory is that the Flexbond worked as a flexible enough primer but then the random cheap spray primer I used was too hard and couldn't handle the curves? I probably won't use this combo again and was not happy when it dried like this lmao. You can also still totally see the permanent marker I used on the foam even though I did multiple coats of primer?? The color bled right through which was a bad sign because that meant it would show in the final paint job because it was a sheer metallic color.
Then I made a really dumb mistake and thought it would be a good idea to slather it in acrylic gesso to try to smooth it out and also hide the permanent marker bleeding, but this looked soooo nasty and crusty and the parts I didn't use it on still had cracks from the stupid primer... Legit almost cried when I looked at it in the light after painting it and realized how dry and textured it looked.. I only had like 3 or 4 days left before the meetup at the con on Friday too.
(I thought you couldn't sand acrylic gesso because it's so plastic-y and sticky-feeling but apparently after googling it later I guess you can?? idk man.)
Anyways after a brief crash out I decided to treat it like a 3d print and slather it in Bondo glazing putty and then sand that down for a smoother finish. I'm so glad I took the time to do this because it was a huge improvement afterwards. (Still not perfect and you can still see some uneven texture but I was way happier with it + I was able to fill in the cracks from the primer at least)
Next I painted some thrifted leather boots with Angelus leather paint. (I was so happy I found these shoes because I have had awful luck finding plain boots in my size at the thrift store for like the past year)
Then when I was out with a friend at the mall I bought some pink leg warmers to give myself one less thing to sew. (The garter belt was also something I bought online.) I used the purple ribbed knit fabric and some remaining light purple cotton and made the half chaps/boot covers/whatever those are. I used the duct tape pattern method and then tried them on inside out and took them in to make them conform closer to my leg. On the day of the con, I ended up securing the half chaps to the leg warmers using safety pins tucked under the top flaps which worked perfectly.
Also I ran out of purple fabric during this and didn't have time to go back to the fabric store, so I ended up doing something janky that I've never had to do before because I usually buy extra fabric: I pieced together some rectangular scraps of fabric to fill in gaps in the pattern. Honestly I think it turned out pretty unnoticeable since I did it on the back. Here you can see I've outlined it in red.
Okay here is where I legit ran out of WIP pictures to add because I had to lock in to finish it and did not have time to take photos of every step.
I want to emphasize though that I did not pull any all-nighters because I will never do that again after what it used to do to my body in college and my personal opinion is that nobody should be doing that to their health for cosplay. (Plus lack of sleep increases your chances of getting sick right before the con which would mean you couldn't attend at all!) My philosophy is that if I can't finish my costume in time without destroying my body then I'll just have to accept that I'll need to re-wear something I already have or sacrifice smaller details to finish in time. Here I chose to sacrifice small details like the decorative swirls on the armor, but I'm honestly okay with that and can always add them later if I decide to upgrade her!
Anyways, the rest of the things I did were:
Patterned, cut, primed, and painted the gauntlets and finger/hand armor and attach to the gloves I made
Primed and painted the elbow armor (a slightly modified version of KamuiCosplay's Knight Elbow Armor pattern)
Rigged the breastplate with velcro at the neck closure + pink webbing straps and d-rings and a pink parachute buckle as a closure for the back (don't have a picture of the wip but here's what it ended up looking like on the back of the costume. Not really canon because Sumia has that cute lace up harness going on in the official art but this was a quick solution that worked and was comfortable.)
Rigged the rest of the armor with d-rings, pink webbing straps, velcro, and elastic straps
Made the hairclip wings out of EVA foam and hot glued to a claw clip I had
Strung pearl beads on a piece of thread and hot glued to 2 barettes (I procrastinated doing this until the night before and I don't know why aksdfh but I'm really glad it worked out)
Anyways here are some pictures I got at the meetup with other Awakening cosplayers! It was so much fun to walk around in a costume I'd legit been dreaming about making for over a decade at this point.
(first photo taken by arius_cosplay)
ty 4 reading <3 if anyone is also making this costume and has any questions feel free to message me on IG :3