I'm putting together a Lady Sif costume for my girlfriend and am doing some research. What did you use to make it and how did you get the details on the armor? Thanks in advance for any info you can share about your process.
Hello, Anon! Firstly, I must apologise for the incredibly late reply on this. I absolutely refused to answer your question when my own Lady Sif costume was not yet complete, but now that my time with making her has come to a close, I can answer your question properly!
NOTE ON PATTERN AND PATTERN-MAKING
First and foremost, I made all of my patterns from scratch! Therefore, you cannot purchase any part of the patterns anywhere.
To make my patterns I had wrapped with plastic wrap, and then taped with masking tape the section of my body that required a pattern being made from. From there, after having been freed from my bondage, I would (with pencil first) trace out the shape of the pieces I needed to create, outlined with sharpie, cut them out, pinned them to muslin, drew seam allowance (I use 1cm) and then cut out my final muslin pattern.
However, sometimes you will have to wrap a section of your body multiple times if there are pieces of your pattern that overlap each other so that you can create them individually.
*Please note that sometimes this does require the help of a second person. I found that bribing my siblings with Starbucks coffee is a highly successful method in accomplishing this.
The skirt was…quite annoying as I actually made three before I was remotely able to get it to look anything how I wanted!
I started off by drawing out the basic shape of the skirt and the panels, cut it out of muslin and did this until I created the right size, but I did not cut each panel individually! I used upholstery vinyl and backed it with casa satin and cut out the “hemming” and glued everything together. I then cut out individual strips for the raised stitching 0.5cm tall and 1cm wide. I cut a thin slit on each end of the strip for every “stitch” and wrapped embroidery floss around it, tucking it into the slits to hold the fake stitching in place before gluing it down onto the panels as my skirt was way too thick to actually stitch and because it is made from vinyl, even if I did stitch it, it would have been flat and not raised like Sif’s screen costume.
I drew on the shape and seams of the bodice on my tape-form, cut it out, translated it onto muslin adding 1cm seam allowance and then cut it out on a stretch pleather.
*I ended up using different fabric for the bodice, but this is what the front of it looks like! The back has one seam down the middle.
I drew on the on my tape-form, cut it out, translated it onto muslin adding 1cm seam allowance and then cut it out on the upholstery vinyl.
I then glued the two sides together, as there is no stitching on these parts of the costume.
And then I trimmed the edges and coloured them in with a Berry Sharpie marker.
First and foremost, the base shoes I purchased were Cilo-11S Round Toe Wedge Pumps from Discount Women’s Dress Shoes for $24.99! These are the exact same shoes I wore for my Thranduil cosplay. If interested in looking at more detailed/complex boot tutorials (as Sif’s was super simple), please take a look at my Thranduil Cosplay Tutorial!My height, in these boots, is almost 5′ 9″ or about 1m75cm.
Using the same exact pattern making as mentioned earlier, put on the base shoe you will be wearing and wrap that and your leg in plastic wrap and then tape.
From here, I drew on where the seams would be, and for this boot in particular, I had one seam from the top of the middle front, all away around my leg/boot, up to the top of the middle back.
After cutting this off, I traced it onto muslin, adding extra room for seam allowance and also I made the top wider (as her boots are not form fitting).
I also made a pattern for the over-the-knee extension of the boot separately, after adjustments had been made in regards to the width of the boot.
I sewed in interfacing only in the calf area and over-the-knee bit, as well as zipper on the inside.
All armour is made from craft foam, coated in 5 layers of Gesso on the right side and backed with muslin and school glue to help stiffen it. It was painted with Krylon Metallic Silver [Gold for the circles] gloss spray paint and weathered using FolkArt Metallic Gunmetal Grey #667, sealed and then coated in EnviroTex Lite [Pour On] High Gloss Finish resin.
All detailing was carefully drawn first and then traced over with Tulip Mettalics Dimensional Fabric Paint in Silver.
The pauldrons attach to the collar via heavy duty snaps, the chest, mid and back armour attack via side straps (the breastplate and back also have magnets on the inside and their opposites glued to the bodice to help keep it in place and the breastplate has a strap from each side that snaps in the back like a bra to also help prevent it from sliding).
I am pretty sure I cut up an old pair of gloves to help me get the pattern right for the glove portion of the bracer which I sewed in between two layers of vinyl (that go around my forearm). The armour on the bracers is backed with two layers of vinyl as well which is sewn into the forearm piece with the armour glued on top.
Whilst wearing the pumps to be worn with the costume, I wrapped my leg AND shoe using the tape method before drawing out the pattern. The armour is attached via heavy duty snaps.
On the bottom of the shoe, to prevent the fabric from ripping as I walk, using Contact Cement, I glued on soles made from black craft foam and stuck on no-slip grips.
I literally took the entire 2 yards of rectangle green fabric and hemmed the edges. I took one of the short ends, took some thread (knotting one end) and made large stitches for how large I wanted the pleats, pushed the fabric down towards the knot (so that it bunched up) finished off the stitching and top stitched it on a machine so that the pleats stayed in place.
The fur, I took two rectangular pieces, right sides together, sewed along the edges (keeping the middle of a short end open) turned it inside out, sewed the cape to the fur piece and sewed on hooks to clip onto the D-ring’s that I sewed into the collar piece.
[Photography by In2thereview]
I purchased black fishnet and spray painted it silver…because I did not have time to make legit mail. One day I will make actual mail for her.
The base of the shield has poster board in the middle with craft foam on each side and then cardboard on each side of that.
On the inside of the shield, I sewed in a slot to put my sword and straps so I can hold it. I glued it on using Contact Cement before putting the outside vinyl on.
First, I drew the knotting on to poster paper and cut it out with an X-ACTO knife, traced the knotting onto the craft foam, and cut it out with the X-ACTO knife as well.
The shield itself is a few layers…
There are two small V-shaped layers at the bottom. The bottom layer has no knotting and the middle layer does.
Then there is the top section which is also made up of numerous layers. There is the base with the outside knotting on top, the middle section has large, flat pieces of foam with knotting on top of that as well.
Look at the many layers of foam!
And now it is time to paint the shield and then gloss it!
Because I was extremely proud of how well my shield came out, I decided, that for this piece, I would do European 4 in 1 chainmail for the mail on either side of the shield armour.
The final height and with measurements of the shield are (at the tallest and widest points):Height: 51.5cmWidth: 33.5cm
Please view my video tutorial on how I made the shield as it is a LOT easier to understand by watching the video! Beware, it is long!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wndpoVkwjFA
My amazingly beautiful sword was commissioned by a dear friend, Eric, Coregeek Cosplay & Creations and definitely check out his Facebook Page!
[Images are by Eric himself. These are the ones he sent me of my sword before shipping it to me!]
Dany in Natural Black from Arda Wigs, brushed out to get rid of some of the volume and the lace front trimmed.
http://arda-wigs.com/products/dany
Unfortunately, this wig ONLY lasted me two days! It became horribly knotted and matted. Yes, it is salvageable, but all of my wig styling tools are back home in the States, and I had no access to it while in the U.K..
Here are some photos of the wig while it was still lovely:
[Photography by Valentin Offner]
Due to how terrible the wig had become, I had to order a new wig off e-bay for 13 quid from Manchester in the colour 1B or Natural Black. This wig was INCREDIBLY easy to brush through and didn’t knot nearly as much as the Arda wig!!!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/291422513039?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Here is are a couple of photos of the new wig:
[Photography by Mikael Buck from an article in the Daily Mail.]
[Photography by Martin Siggers]
Featuring Loki of London as Loki!
[Photography by Ultimate Cosplay | Roku Hebi]
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