#strive cosplay

[anathematosof]

Proggressss on elphelt cosplay !!!!! Im almost done with the accessories!!!!

Im finishing the garter belts (again bc i remade them) i finished the bracelets and im making the chocker, which is so exciting bc it's gonna be bigger like her xrd design and rahhhhh it will be so cool :3

Also i dont think i can walk the heels i got (they're perfect except they're way too tall) and im thinking a platformed sneaker or platform off brand crocks painted to match 😭😭

[alexander-the-dead]

✨Starship idling near by, is it my time?✨

[yamadeus]

"I hear a voice in the back of my head

Screaming "this is suicide! Did you hear what I said?"

But then it fades into nothing with the rest of the light and sound

I'm on my way out!"

I love this shot by https://www.facebook.com/MangaGirlPhotography

[littlequinnular]

We are the great Starlight Brigade

Photographer: @abicandi on Instagram

My Instagram: @littlequinnualr

[alexander-the-dead]

I cosplayed Strive from Starlight Brigade and boyhowdy was it fun!!

[stelera]

i love your strive ears! i was really curious on how you made them movable/positionable, im looking to do the same thing and it would be so helpful thank you!!

Yo! I've talked about this on a couple other posts. I don't have good close ups on the joints, but the ears are actually made poseable with Lego joint pieces.

Check out these posts for a little more in depth talk about the process!

https://stelera.tumblr.com/post/185638762898/samanthaauburn-stelera-at-cosplacon-this

https://stelera.tumblr.com/post/185691304893/i-saw-ur-strive-cosplay-and-swore-those-ears-were

[stelera]

Hey! I'm planning out my Strive cosplay too and you're the only other person I've seen do one! I'm kind of a sewing n00b so if you have any pattern recommendations that would be awesome (for the shawl/poncho, shirt, and boots especially). I was also wondering how you did the chest gem? I would think something like resin + LEDs sort of the way Nigri does her Syndragosa but I'm not 100% sure if that's the best way to go. Any tips and tricks would be totally appreciated!!

This reply turned into a dash-stretcher, so I’m putting the answer below a cut!!

I wish I could help more with the patterns, but the ones I used were made custom for this project. If I could just give you a McCall’s pattern number I would do that in a heartbeat. I’ll do my best to describe how they’re put together and maybe that will help you, but I’m a sewing newbie too and got a lot of help from a seamstress friend breathing down the back of my neck.

I can give you the gist though, the tunic is two pieces, no sleeves, flared more at the bottom and tighter to the chest at the top. There’s some funky stuff going on on the chest but I’ll get to that when I talk about the gem core.

The capelet is five pieces counting the lining, but the outer layer and the lining are the same shape (I recommend cutting them separately though). There is a front piece and a back piece and the seams are along the shoulders, and the collar is kind of like a turtleneck, one piece sewn together into a ring, then folded over on itself once, then the whole thing, inner and outer layers sewn together at the neck hole. I wanted the collar especially to fit to the skin, so I used stretch fabrics. If you’re going that route, then for the neck hole and the tunic you will want to use stretch stitches (I used a serger for a lot of the inside seams, but I don’t recommend this unless you have experienced supervision because sergers eat projects if you’re not extra careful, and even with supervision I still cut a pin in half with the dang thing). If you’re using a less stretchy fabric (like a woven fabric) you will need to include an access if you want the collar to be fitted, so a button or a zipper in the back of the cape. I used a rayon for the outer maroon color, and a swimsuit fabric for the lining. I recommend a slippy fabric for the lining, whatever you pick, because you want the capelet to slide rather than stretch, so you can have a nice clean line around the outside seam. (I used a straight stitch, inverted the fabric, steam pressed to get the line very crisp, then a straight top stitch.)

The boots were probably the simplest part? I probably overdesigned them when making them, but it’s all good. I got some cheap comfortable boots on Amazon (you can do like slouchy fake leather boots as long as they’re cheap, that’s how I do most of my cosplay boots, just wreck some cheap boots off Amazon) you might look at some knock-off Uggs for the right boot shape? I didn’t think of that at the time, but I should have. The spats on the boots I made kinda just by tracing around the outside of the boot and giving myself lots of extra room. The star shape I made by coating one of the boots in masking tape, drawing the shape I wanted on it, then peeling the tape off, laying it on some plastic wrap, and cutting out the shape I drew. The stars are also made of a fleece material so they’re very stretchy and just kinda conform to the shape of the boot very readily.

The belt and the boot straps are just some elastic I got at JoAnn’s with some hooks.

Okay so then the gem core.

My first thought was to resin cast the gem core, like you said, but with the weight of the LEDs and the battery pack I got concerned about the integrity of the tunic holding it all up (because I used a knit, it stretches even vertically). So rather than going the resin cast route, I had a friend of mine who has a home 3D printer print out the shape in a transparent blue plastic. It’s super lightweight.

The inside circuit is four LEDs, two sets of two in series, in parallel with one another.

I used a 6V coin cell battery pack using two 2032s. In theory it should run for about 6 hours of continuous use.

And the whole thing mounts onto the tunic using velcro. The front of the tunic is reinforced with iron-on interfacing and the white star behind the gem is made with ultrasuede which gives it a lot more support, and behind the gem is a pocket for the battery pack.

Hope this gives you some ideas! But this is definitely not the only way to do things and I totally encourage you to try things out and see what else works for your cosplay!

[stelera]

i saw ur strive cosplay and SWORE those ears were sculpted like. professionally. on a nekomimi headset. are. are u sure they're nOT-- (they look absolutely amazing--)

I’ve kind of talked about the ears a little in this post

You could call them sculpted if you’re using the term loosely, but I didn’t use like air clay. They were carved from closed-cell foam using a dremel tool. It’s a rotary tool that can have a sand paper drum or cutting wheel or etching attachment on it, and is great for foam work!

Dremels are tricky around corners, and there’s a way you gotta move it so it won’t dig into the foam. And your hand will absolutely go numb from the vibration of the dremel. Closed cell foam is fuzzy and tricky and hard to work with and you gotta go slow, but it’s very flexible and light weight when you’re done, and not fragile like air clay. In order to reduce the fuzziness I tried to use a high grit sand paper (like a 300 I think?) but so much of the fuzziness is persistent that it was virtually impossible to get rid of it all. So to really reduce the fuzziness and smooth it out, I gave the ears about 3 coats of Mod Podge before sanding again and painting them with acrylics.

They are mounted on a headband, but they don’t move independently like those fancy headsets with the wiggly ears, but they can be posed up and down by hand.

There are probably cheaper, faster, less resource and patience intensive ways to do this, but I really liked the way these turned out!