Hello!
This Build Log will be about my Millennia (from Grandia 2) cosplay that I made in 2016. It's not one of my favourite costumes, but it was requested as one of the upcoming logs so here goes!
Given that this is a costume from a few years ago, the images will be a bit more sparse/of lesser quality than more recent ones.
I made this cosplay with the intention of having it at the SCC qualifier at ComicCon Stockholm 2016 but I didn't manage to finish it in time.
To start with I gathered all the materials I needed. Three wigs of the exact same model and colour, a pair of high heel shoes with small platform in front, red velvet, red "crushed velvet" stretch, purple faux suede, white bra with extra push up and removable straps, white cotton stretch fabric, white satin fabric, floral lace applications, yellow chiffon, gold vinyl stretch and a whole bunch of beads.
As usual my work was not done piece by piece but rather some sort of organized chaos of working on everything at once. But if memory serves, my absolutely first step was to tape up my wigstand on a stool and trashcan so I could work with the full length of the wig properly. I then put one wig onto the head, and put a placeholder foam piece that I placed a second wig onto to see how I was going to work with the shape and silhouette of the hair.
Then I started with the bodysuit...bathing suit... call it whatever you want. I added the bra directly into the suit so it all stays up properly. I didn't really pattern any of this, I just took two pieces of fabric (one for front and one for back) and used pins and marked it out and cut it until I was happy with the fit and shape.
I handstitched all the edges on the bodysuit to get them as small as I wanted them to be. I also added the floral lace applications along the top of the bra and the sideflaps of the bottom.
Paper pattern on top of the bottom flaps, handstitched and later on decorated with floral lace applications.
Placing the floral applications around the bra-part
Going back to the wig a bit, I added the proper foam puff onto the base wig. I pulled all the hair from the base wig out through a hole in the middle.
Next step on the wig was to make the "hair horns". I made the horns out of soft foam, the same type as I used for the puff.
Taking out the base horn shape and adding a grove to glue the foam together for the proper shape.
Before adding all the foam pieces I also stitched in a comb into the front of the base wig to hopefully make this monstrosity remain on my head.
Then I stitched all foam pieces onto the wig using a curved needle so it could remain on my wigstand while I worked down the basting stitches. When the foam was all stitched on I removed it from the wigstand and made neater less visible stitches.
After I was happy with the placement of all the foam, I added the remaining two wigs. One wig was split right down the middle and used to cover the horns, and the second one was used as is to cover the back puff.
I used hot glue to add the additional wigs onto the foam.
I used got2b glued hairspray on the horn-hair parts and rolled them up around the horns. Since the tips will be covered with fabric I didn't need to roll it all the way. I used pins to keep the spacing of the hair proper and covering all the foam while the hairspray dried. I also added the third wig onto the puff, glued with hotglue.
Back view
Now the wig was ready to get decorated. I used the white satin fabric and gold vinyl to create the horn tip decorations and the headbands. The back headband also had tiny beads stitched into the vinyl edge. For the middle part I used the purple suede along with more gold vinyl and red velvet.
Gluing the gold vinyl applications down on the white satin, and then stitching all the parts together
Pinning the gold vinyl edges onto the satin bands and then sewing it on machine.
Making the patterns for the purple part and then gluing down the velvet and gold vinyl applications
All of the hair applications were then glued onto the wig
I styled the fringe later on with got2b glued hairspray and a flat iron.
Back to the clothes! For the shoes I decided to add more height using dense foam and worbla. I then made shoe covers using the purple suede and a purple satin liner fabric.
Adding the extra height
A very strange photo of the shoe covers being pinned together
The final details on the shoe was to add black velvet to the bottom parts and gold vinyl applications on the heels. Also beads onto the tips of the shoe covers, laces and tiny gold beads.
The finished shoes
The jacket and front flap are made out of the red velvet with gold vinyl applications and black velvet on the edges of the sleeves. Decorated with beads and buttons.
Taking out the base of the jacket and patterning the applications on the front flap.
Patterning the applications on the bottom of the sleeve
Adding the gold vinyl to the puff shoulders and the front flap.
Sadly that's all the photos I have of the progress so the rest will have to be in text.
I made the socks with red "crushed velvet" stretch fabric, and had black applications also from "crushed velvet" stretch fabric. They stay up using double sided tape on my legs and then smushing them slick on my legs.
The corset is made with purple faux suede and the boning is made out of Worbla in order to make the bottom edges stand out in the proper shape. The front flap, white satin and yellow chiffon is glued into the corset which is laced in the back.
The jacket opens and closes using pressure buttons in the front by the collar where the buttons are placed. The shoulder poofs are stuffed with a soft plushie-filling. It's also lined with a black velvet fabric.
My choice of lenses are EOS Dolly Eye Green.
Millennia is a very intricate and detailed character that I wish I had given myself more time to work on to really represent her in the best way possible. It's a character that I do consider remaking or retouching in the future but I have no set plans at the time being.
I had a small shoot during ComicCon Stockholm 2016 with Robert Johannesson, you can see all of them under the "Other cosplays" category.
As usual if you have any questions or would like to know more, don't hesitate to write to me!
Photo by Robert Johannesson Photography