Hold on tight everyone, this is a big one.
This cosplay took me probably 3 months straight of work to put together, between the pattern drafting, construction, small hand sewing, and finishing details. But I thoroughly enjoyed the process.
I’m beginning to enjoy making these costumes and cosplays more than traditional garment sewing. It might have something to do with the creative freedom and ability to forgive myself for the small mistakes. Because lets be honest, when it’s this close to screen accurate people won’t see the small sewing mistakes.
Skirt
The shape was based off of the skirt from Simplicty 2154. I altered the skirt to add width to the middle, corresponding with the number of tiny pintucks visible on the Hub Lass’s model. These were done internally, so only the seam is visible from the outside.
The shape was based off of the skirt from Simplicty 2154. I altered the skirt to add width to the middle, corresponding with the number of tiny pintucks visible on the Hub Lass’s model. These were done internally, so only the seam is visible from the outside.
Chest
The chest piece was drafted from an unknown princess seamed dress in my stash, made into a muslin, and altered from there. The leather trim was cut into the shape of the side seam, fused onto the edges, and machine stitched down. I then went back and hand sewed the back of the strips to the inside of the chest piece, to hide all the raw edges. Rivets were then added along the sides for the leather lacing. I wish I had interfaced the chest pieces, as they started to unattractively pull once fastened with the leather belt pieces.
I also whipped together a “dicky” of sorts, with some scrap cream colored fabric and a self-drafted mandarin collar to wear under the chest piece.
Mantle and Cape
My pride and joy of this cosplay however, is the mantle piece. I’ve never attempted such a structured cape like this with a distinct shape on the shoulder, but I found so much joy in finding a creative solution to it. In order to give it structure, I used WonderUnder fusible interfacing to fuse my twill to buckram. Similar to hat making, I then steamed the buckram/twill and shaped it onto my mannequin. When it cooled, it kept it’s shape! This, as well as the chest piece was finished with hand sewing leather binding along the edges.
The last part of the costume, but certainly not the least, was adding the leather design to the hem of the cape. Holy moly, I struggled with designing a way to efficiently and accurately execute this. I had a breakthrough idea though when I was letting my mind wander (because my mind wanders to sewing when I’m bored!) to sew the leather onto the cape as one big piece, and THEN remove the leather in between.
So I drafted the square pattern, transferred it to the inside of the cape, fused the leather to the twill to prevent it from stretching, and went to town sewing my squares.
It worked like a charm.
The leather didn’t stretch out, the squares were even and sharp. And best of all, I didn’t have to pin basically anything! I was over the moon when I finished this part. And I’m still extremely proud of how it turned out.
Accessories
As far as accessories go, the leather panels on the belt are simply some full grain leather with rivets and belt loops. And the little bag, book, and bracers were quickly made from leftover leather from a prior project.
The hat was a different beast. It is so much more difficult to sew things when they are tiny! I feel like I killed my hands sewing this bugger.
The shape was initially made with leftover buckram, to which I sewed the tan leather. I stitched the pink around the outside, riveted on the extra details, and added a strip of bias tape across the middle to bobby pin it into my hair.
And of course, my little helper through it all was Rosie. Keeping me company and giving me cuddles, even when it’s inconvenient. 🙂