Monika Lee

Series: Final Fantasy X-2

Debuted: Victoria Comic Con 2016

Notes:

If you couldn't tell by now, I really love cosplaying Yuna. I always have Yuna's dress spheres on my to-cosplay list and the Festivalist was just a quick, easy and cute cosplay to knock off. Plus, I could reuse my accessories and just focus on the garment portion.

To start, I selected fabrics that mimicked the textures and look of the in-game model. I also chose these based off of what I knew about festivals and yukata in Japan. I made my own patterns for the yukata and obi. After all the fabric patterns were cut out, I constructed and finished as much as possible so I could gradient dye the material. I ended up doing this almost 5 times over because the fabric wasn't taking the color as much as I wanted it to. After this was completed, I began the painting process. This took about a month on and off. For the patterns, I made 5 variant sizes of shapes (hearts, triangles, circles plus the moogle) in illustrator and then I laser cut these onto some chipboard. These pieces then acted as my stencils. I drew the shapes with a water-soluable pencil. Using jacquard textile paint, I used 2 different colors for the shapes to create a little gradient. After all the shapes and moogles were filled in, I went back and added outlines to all these pieces. After the paint was done on the yukata and obi, I sewed all the pieces up and and finished them.

The obi went through a few iterations and I ultimately constructed it the same way I wear my Summoner Yuna obi. It's essentially a zip-up tube with the bow portion on a tube that slides through. I used a ton of quilting interfacing to keep it as sturdy as possible. The shoes were some rubber geta that I got online and painted/dyed. I created the pattern on the uchiwa fan by tracing the image on illustrator and printing it out and tracing it. The temari balls were created by someone on etsy and I constructed the hand straps (and made them detachable so I could sign at booths, yay practicality!). 

Photos: Ngo Photography, Mineralblu Photography

Series: Final Fantasy X-2

Debuted: Dragon Con 2015

Notes:

I've been dying to make one of Yuna's dress spheres from X-2 ever since I started cosplaying and I've actually had this costume in progress for about a year or so in preparation for it! After getting slammed with work and school, I put it off for a bit until I finally found a break where I could make something. 

The wig is the same cut/color as my Summoner Yuna wig for consistency. I trimmed and styled it to reflect her hairstyle. The contacts, earrings and necklace were the same ones that I had created previously. The hair tail was made using a similar technique from my Fairy Yuna costume in which I wove cotton strapping around a cotton tubing found in the upholstery section. I attached extensions of matching color and then adhered the gradient dyed fabric tube around it with a sharpie dyed knot and beads. The actual hair tail attaches with an elastic through my wig and around my head and I clip it in place so it doesn't detach.

I drafted the pattern for the top, arm cuffs and skirt myself. I dyed/gradient dyed the hood, top lace trip and skirt portions before finishing and assembling everything. The Zanarkand symbol is made out of craft foam/worbla, primed, sanded, painted and finished. I crafted loops into the design of the symbol so I could stitch it into the top. I opted for a higher cut V for the top so I could wear it with a U-plunge bra to secure the ladies. This way I don't have to worry about constantly adjusting it and overall, it's way more comfortable for me to wear.

The skirt is essentially made from multiple tiers of ruffled material that just ties around my waist. Over it is the belt/pouch which I made from sheepskin. I wasn't happy with the color so I ended up painting over it with some Angelus and then sewed it with multiple layers of heavy interface and leftover lining. The pouch is functional and closes with earth magnets. The hardware consists of found bits I got from etsy, etc. that I painted and finished. 

The boots were similar in that I painted them dark blue with Nu Life and relaced with white lace. The black cuffs is a leftover tooled hide that I painted and fit with wire and snaps. The yellow upper cuffs are heavily interfaced and fit with black grommets. I fit them with topstick so I don't have to worry about excessive chub in order to secure them tightly.

The guns were sculpted and cast by my buddy Li (Pikmin Link) who finished them and sent them over to me to finish and paint. I sanded them down a bit more and fixed some imperfections before priming, painting and finishing.

Photos: Joseph Chi Lin, JwaiDesign Photography, Mineralblu Photography, Ngo Photography, Alexandra Lee Studios

Series: Skyrim

Debuted: New York Comic Con 2014

Notes:

I've owned Skyrim for a couple of years playing it on and off, but something happened this summer where I became creepily addicted. Like won't eat, won't shower, only play Skyrim addicted. This, of course, resulted in a Skyrim costume! I originally planned on doing one of the armor sets and I was looking at the Nightingale set, the Daedric armor, etc. but I was pretty short on time so I figured I'd set those aside for another time. So I explored some of the NPC female options in game and besides Lydia (WHO I HATE), Aela is probably the most recognized and not butt-ugly looking (IMO) character. After looking through the game and some reference pictures, I figured I could finish it before NYCC which gave me an 8 day timeline to complete it.

I had some issues acquiring fabric as my typical haunt was in a moving transition. This resulted in my having to shop at a more expensive store with a much more limited qty (which is why my base fabric was $40/yd DDDDD:). That being said, I didn't need too much fabric b/c the costume was mostly armored bits. To start, I used my Poison Ivy gloves to mock up Aela's glove/sleeves. For the dress/outfit/thing, I started with the top part by altering a vest pattern. I pretty much just changed the front part to fit a deep plunge bra I had from my Wildstar costume and I planned on figuring out the crazy back strapping afterwards. I then made patterns for the top and weird skirt loin cloth pieces and made 2 mock ups to figure out strap fastening placement and length. For the final piece, I used a variety of old belts and leather straps to rig it together.

For the arm cuffs and bodice "armor" I cast some slightly blue epoxy resin gems and painted the backs with acrylic to mimic the turquoise pattern (my ghetto way of not actually buying turquoise jewels). I made the belt and back strap rings out of EVA foam, dremeling them to look like old, cast metal and covered them in worbla to be more sturdy. For the side chainmail pieces, I researched chainmail materials and methods at the RingLord.net. I got something like 3 lbs of mild steel maille (which I ended up using maybe half of) and used a 4-1 weave. It was really difficult to start out b/c I didn't really understand what I was doing, but the more I played around with it and built rows, it became really easy and I was able to finish both in maybe 2 days.

For the armor, I made a few patterns to make the cod piece, thigh armor and bodice pieces. The cuffs were just made from a pattern I got from my arm. After I got the sizing, I used layered pieces of craftfoam for thickness as well as pieces that were cut using a foam cutter to get Aela's intricate patterns (big thanks to Riki for helping me use her foam cutter). I made these in Illustrator from various reference shots. After lots of foam sandwiching, I covered everything in worbla (only using 1 layer of worbla for the thigh/cod piece so it'd be lightweight). The thigh pieces attach with elastic around my hips, the bodice pieces with earth magnets and the shoulders the same way I did my DH and Wildstar shoulders. The bracers were the hardest part because I had to conceal the way they attach and lace up with the big "metal" bar. For most of my armor build, I referenced Volpin Props' Aela build (which is where I got the idea for magnets, furniture tacks and the bracers). What I did was lace the bracers up top and embedded magnets into the bracer and the metal bar up top. I heat formed the bar to make it pliable enough to fit to the shape of the bracer so you wouldn't see that they're separate pieces. It took like 2 days BUT IT HAPPENED.

As for the wig, I already look terrible enough in a middle part, I decided to opt for a longer, more wavy style of wig opposed to Aela's short, straight style. I used Mehron/Ben Nye makeups for the paint and yellow contacts (because she's a werewolf, duhhh). I didn't have time to make my own props so I got a PVC bow from the awesome guys at PVC Armory and Mehrune's Razor, a dagger, from my buddy Bill Doran/Punished Props. I made my own iron arrow to hold with the bow, cutting a piece of dowel, making the feathers and tip from worbla. Surprisingly, this costume was pretty comfy (yay flat boots!) and really awesome and badass to wear. I'm also still freaking out that I made it in such a short period of time, but I really enjoyed it!

Photos: Jwaidesign, Joseph Chi Lin, David Ngo

Series: Assassin's Creed: Unity

Debuted: San Diego Comic Con 2014

Notes:

I've always been such a huge fan of Assassin's Creed and as much as I loved cosplaying Blackbeard from Black Flag last year, I really wanted to cosplay as an actual assassin, especially one as dapper and charming as Arno. After the initial launch trailers, I knew I had to cosplay him and already started amassing materials. My good friend Riddle also joined me as one of the co-op assassin's, affectionately named Ice Cream.

I started off by grabbing my wig from Arda Wigs, my revolutionary gun/sword from GunsandSwords.com and I began brainstorming the creation. I wanted to make his garments fit to a female body without oversexualizing it for no reason. I shopped for my fabrics in the LA Fashion District and grabbed my leathers from Saderma leather. To begin, I started off with some generic patterns and heavily altered them to get the look of Arno's clothes.

First was Arno's vests. I tracked down some red corduroy for his first vest. I made the collar pattern and fixed a jacket pattern to fit. After that, I made the cream/white colored vest. I altered the same jacket pattern and made the collar pattern. The white lining is a bright white cotton weave to contrast the creamy colored pig skin leather. I pseudo applique'd the button holes, made them functional and hand sewed the buttons (all the hardware I also acquired in the fashion district).

Next was the jacket, one of the harder things I've had to pattern and sew. I heavily altered a men's pirate pattern and cut out all the pieces out of a sturdy navy cotton weave. I heavily top stitched all the pieces for texture and contrast. I used the hood pattern from my demon hunter costume and drafted my own collar/cuff patterns. The collar/cuffs were made from deer skin leather and I made the button holes by hand. Overall, the jacket took about a week with the vests taking 2 days.

Lastly, Riki helped me handsew the buttons on the boots and do some handsewing for the belts which were made out of either cow/deer hides. I had actually made spats out of the same collar/cuff material from the jacket, but I didn't have time to make them work the way I wanted. I definitely would love to get the spats to work next time and get a phantom blade (the licensed one doesn't come out till October!). There were a few details of the costume itself I omitted, so while it's not entirely accurate, wtf Arno is a guy and I'm a girl, haha.

Thanks so much to Gabe and Stone at Ubisoft for showing us such a great time at SDCC '14! We loved hanging at the AC: Unity parkour course and hanging at the panel. You guys rock!

Photos: Carlos G Photography, Long Thai, David Ngo

Series: Wildstar

Debuted: PAX East 2014

Notes:

So I got this gig with an awesome MMORPG called Wildstar by the guys over at Carbine Studios! The game has such a badass feel and the characters/world look so awesome. I made the costume to wear for the Wildstar people at their booth at PAX East 2014.

I really wanted to have elements of my costume glow to convey the alien/space-like world of Nexus and also because I knew the convention floor would be dark. So to do that, I bought glow in the dark powder to embed in my resin gems. Because I'm kind of retarded, I ended up trying two types of resin, casting them at least 3 times (powder kept setting wrong, resin cured too quickly) but eventually I got them where I embedded green LEDs in the gems (9 of 13 gems). These LED gems were then hooked up in 4 different series with the help of asian electrical engineering father.

The gems were incorporated into the armor bits of my costumes which I patterned from hand and made out of worbla. I primed the armor, hit it with some metal-looking spray paint and shaded/highlighted with acrylics before finishing with a satin finish.

The corset was altered from an existing corset pattern I found online and it has 3 layers: the outer black lambskin, inner canvas for thickness, and the soft blue lining. It features some grommets that were really annoying to install and spiral steel boning. The collar is made out of the same black lambskin and soft blue lining. The bolero and skirt tabards were made out of different upholstery fabrics with pink lambskin applique, lined with casa satin and finished with bias tape. These attach to the inside of the corset. The bolero was altered from a pattern and the skirt tabards were patterned from scratch. The belt piece is just an interfaced piece of green fabric with a strip of green EL tape running through. The black pouch attached to it holds the battery packs from my waist cincher gems, tabard gems and EL tape.

The boots were hit with a light coat of black Master's paint (they were a little too grey for me). I made the bunny ears from bunny ear tutorial online, though I think the wire I used was a little too weak because they kept falling too far forward. I used the same fur to make the tail which was constructed out of a foam tube with 14 gauge wire inside.

As for the weapon I  have, my lovely friend Bill Doran (Punished Props) offered to make my Psyblade in such a short amount of time. He made them light up and it matched my costume super well! So thanks so much to Bill and the awesome guys over at Wildstar--it was a blast working with you!

Photos: Martin Wong, Jwai Design

Series: Diablo 3

Debuted: Blizzcon 2013

Notes:

Ever since making my wizard costume, I had been dying to make another Diablo 3 costume. And this time around, I really wanted to challenge myself by making armor. And what is more armor-y than a demon hunter? I actually had the reference for this costume in my folder for years until I decided to suck it up and finally do it. Though mostly the need to impress my coworkers at Blizzcon motivated me, haha.

For my armor, I decided to use Worbla since I obviously cannot sculpt or cast and it seemed the easiest and most cost efficient route. Luckily, I had all my Worbla sponsored by the awesome Dani at Cosplay Supplies. Overall, I used maybe 3 or so rolls of XL worbla. With that out of the way, I ordered several lambskin hides from hidehouse in order to make the fabric bits. And then I just ordered tons of buckles and rings.

I began with the fabric components since that’s what I’m most comfortable with. I had a full length black body suit that I got from a dancewear company. I sewed in these lace up thigh details and moved onto the hood. I made a mockup for the hood to get the right shape and doubled it up with interfacing to get it niiice and stiff. I then added a long chunk of distressed material to act as my scarf. For the corset, I heavily altered an underbust pattern and sewed the corset with lambskin, boat upholstery piping and the usual boning and grommets. Patterning the odd shape was such a huge headache and I went back over it a zillion times. With that out of the way, I began on the armor.

Most of the armor pieces started with me saran wrapping a body part, wrapping it in masking tape and drawing on the pattern. I did this for all the armor, cutting out 2 pieces of Worbla with craft foam to sandwich in the middle. I also added craft foam cutouts and trim to make the raised details. This process was surprisingly easy once I had actually drawn out the pattern. I added rings and straps so that I could wear the armor and then primed all the Worbla with wood glue. Afterwards, I primed it again with sandable filler, then coated it with a layer of black. After that, I coated the pieces in either gold/bronze or silver and then put in shadows and distressed it for that extra layer of dimension. I also dremeled some cuts into the armor.

Small tidbit that I’m randomly proud of: the leg armor and one of the bracers features lines of rune/script. I recently befriended the art director of Diablo 3 and he awesomely drew me out a basic pattern to use. So I painstakingly drew the pattern with a fine tip marker and then went back in with a silver leafing pen. No one will ever know…

Wearing this costume for the first time was pretty mind blowing for me. I remember actually telling my mom, ‘whoooa I made dis’. And wearing it at Blizzcon was awesome! Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t too uncomfortable except for the crazy 5” heels. Gotta have dem heels.

Photos: Mike Rollerson, Martin Wong, Jwai Design

Series: Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea

Debuted: Dragon*Con 2013

Notes:

MORE BIOSHOCK COSTUMES. When I saw Elizabeth’s look for the Infinite DLC, I had a super cosplay boner. Yeah, that’s vulgar but hnnng dat 40s look made me have to insta-cosplay her. I actually started planning this costume and ordering parts for it while I was still in California for my internship and then finished it with the one weekend I had left before Dragon*Con.

I bought the base shirt and added the black collar and cuffs with the bias tape and buttons. I used the same material for the skirt and mutilated a belt to attach. I also bought the same brooch I used in my Columbia version of Elizabeth for this costume because I loved it so much.

This costume was pretty simple to make and isn’t super striking, but after playing the DLC, I feel like the most badass character ever.

Photos: Anna Fischer, Cory Diaz—makeup by Lindze Merritt

Series: Assassin’s Creed 4: Blackflag

Debuted: Amazing Las Vegas Comic Con 2013

Notes:

I’ve never done a genderbent costume so HERE IT IS. I’m really pumped for the new Assassin’s Creed to come out ever since seeing the demo at E3 2013. The game looks amazing and the design is so cool. Not only did I get to make some liberties design wise, but I get to be a frickin pirate. So I love this costume. 

I altered patterns to make both the jacket and vest. The pants and boots were bought and distressed, so nothing crazy special there. I made the jacket and vest from leather hides (that were crazy expensive, yo!) I found fabric and trim from the LA fashion district to compliment it. The jacket sleeves were a crazy amount of work and hand-sewing because of beads, trim, etc. I ended up being really happy with it and felt pretty badass. I left many hems undone so I could distress them even more and to look very pirate-y and organic. I used a combination of spray paints and diluted acrylic paints to distress the costume.

Photos: Anna Fischer, Jwai Design, Martin Wong

Series: Bioshock Infinite

Debuted: Amazing Las Vegas Comic Con 2013

Notes:

I’ve always been a crazy long time fan of Bioshock and I was so pumped for the new game to come out (since like…2011 I think?!). I actually had no intentions to cosplay Elizabeth simply because Irrational Games had hired their own official model to be Elizabeth and she was perfect for the role. After playing half of the game, though, I realized that she wore a completely different outfit for a good majority of the game and WHAT THE HELL. I’d be a fool to not cosplay from Bioshock Infinite!

I altered a pattern for the blouse, drafting my own patterns for the collar, sleeves and cuffs. I was very particular about the fabric, going all the way to this awesome fabric store in Charlotte, NC called Mary Jo’s for fabric. The gold trim on the collar ended up being $25/yd fabric, but since I had bought so little, it wasn’t that exorbitant. The skirt was pretty difficult to draft because of the way it flares out, has those pleats but doesn’t unfold like a pleated skirt normally would. I ended up tacking a ton of the skirt down to not move, but it still had real knife pleats to it. I made sure to use coordinating fabric for the whole outfit, so the skirt, collar, hair bow, choker and cuffs are made from the same material. The skirt accents and tie are the same material. My bird pendant came from the wonderful James who was so kind to buy me one which also helped persuade me into cosplaying Elizabeth!

Photos: EBK, Jason Chau, Tim Vo

Series: American McGee’s Alice

Debuted: Planet Comic Con 2013

Won: Best in Show

Notes:

My friends chose to do a group from this game with familiar source material for people to understand and difficult designs to make costumes from. I had the challenge of transforming/interpreting a creature into a human. I used steampunk, victorian designs as my inspiration and used some of my distressing magic to be a nice, dirty kitty.

Because I was in school, I was extremely short on time so I purchased a few parts of my costume to later alter and distress. I made a feather hair piece with a resin cast bird skull I bought on etsy for the hat. I used a design for the mask from a leather cat mask I found online. I traced a template for it and made it out of Worbla, forming it to a wig head. I used a template for the Cat’s grin and incorporated LEDs into it (to read from stage). The idea was to have a masquerade mask that would be frightening and cat like and when I would move it away, it’s deceiving because I have cat eyes and the Cat’s tribal tattoos. I sewed the “leggings” with wet look spandex, made the ears out of Worbla/fur, the tail out of wire and cotton batting. I distressed the costume with spray paint, diluted acrylic paint, sharpie dye and Ben Nye dirts.

Photos: Pixelette Photography

Series: Portal 2

Debuted: Amazing Arizona Comic Con 2013

Notes:

I got a Portal gun from one of my awesome fans (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE HENRY) so I figured it wouldn’t take much else to make a Chell costume! Portal always drove me bananas and I spent hours freshman years playing the game. I went ahead and bought the licensed NECA Portal jumpsuit to complete the costume.

I had my shirt custom screenprinted so I could get the right fit. I dyed the tanktop underneath to get the right color. I made the boots with Worbla, flat steel boning and elastic. And yay for no wig!

Photos: Benny Lee

Series: Diablo 3

Debuted: Dragon*Con 2012

Won: Best in Show: Construction, Representative of Arda Wigs—Winter 2012

Notes:

I originally stumbled upon this design for the Wizard (by Victor Lee) about a year before the game even came out. I thought it was crazy gorgeous, but I had never played Diablo 1 or 2 and overall, it just seemed too ambitious for me. May 2012 rolled around and Diablo 3 came out. I played it for weeks straight until the buttcrack of dawn and I realized that I had to cosplay from this game. I decided to do Victor’s wizard design because, though it’s concept art and not representative of the wizard’s designs in-game, I loved its look and the colors. Something about the way he drew her was really compelling to me so I found myself trying to take one piece at a time to make this costume.

I gathered the materials as soon I could, buying several leather hides (which I ended up needing to buy another cowhide for because I didn’t have enough), and other organic fabrics that I felt the wizard would wear. I bought 20  yards of gold boat upholstery vinyl trim off eBay because I couldn’t find a high quality enough gold trim that didn’t look tacky. The vinyl trim ended up looking great but was an absolute nightmare to sew. I bought a glass fountain orb off of etsy and asked the seller to keep the opening of the orb open so I could feed LEDs into it. I used elastic pieces and fed the wires up into a battery pack in my sleeve so the orb could act as my “source”.

The wig had grape colored extensions sewn in to have some color contrast and then was teased to get volume. I crafted the tiara from 14-gauge wire and scraps of old fabric and formed apoxie sculpt around it. I wasn’t too worried about it being finely sculpted/refined since the costume had a very organic form to it so I kinda clumped most of it on and smoothed the front.  The shoulder pauldron and belt buckle were formed with Wonderflex as were the accents on the sleeves and red skirt.

I made boot covers out of the hides for the boots and made leather covered Wonderflex pieces for the boot “armor”. I heavily altered patterns for the jacket and mini-skirt while the rest I just drafted up my own patterns. The jacket is fulled lined, the collar laces up and the top is draped and hand sewn into place with steel boning and lacing in the back. I altered some parts of the design like the top and boots to better fit my body type and abilities as well. There was a ton more put into this costume, but I’ve already typed like 3 paragraphs. That’s how much I love this costume and design! Haha

Photos: Joseph Chi Lin, Anna Fischer, Leonard Lee, Martin Wong

Series: Injustice: Gods Among Us

Debuted: San Diego Comic Con 2012

Notes:

When I first made this costume, there was little reference available at the time (since the game only came out recently) so many parts are fairly inaccurate, yay!

I sewed the top, underpants and pants with metallic spandex. I made the bracers and belt out of Wonderflex. The boots were painstakingly painted with Wonderflex accents. I sculpted the white wings on a piece of Wonderflex out of apoxie sculpt. The “boob armor” was patterned from an thruway bra and my mannequin. I made Wonderflex pieces and covered it in Bondo. It was a really long, enduring process that involved shittons of sanding and lots of cuss words. I ended up covering some of it in more Wonderflex pieces and apoxie sculpt. The shape got somewhat warped during the bondo process and didn’t fit as amazingly as I would’ve liked it to, but it was all a learning process for me.

Photos: Brian Boling, Leonard Lee

Series: Tomb Raider: Legend

Debuted: San Diego Comic Con 2012

Notes:

I had wanted to cosplay Lara Croft ever since I was little and watched my sister play the first games on her PC. When the games came out for PS2, even though they weren’t well-received, I loved playing them and thought she was so cool and looked beautiful. It took me a couple of years to be like, what the hell, I should just cosplay her.

I hunted down airsoft replicas of her H&K USP Matches (which were black, so I had to paint them the iconic silver).  I altered patterns to sew the shorts/top. I used little containers for airsoft bebes to make her grenades (one of which I lost at a photoshoot, so bummed!). The belt holster I made out of leather which was crazy hard to sew. I formed old mailing cardboard over the guns to make the holsters and then wrapped them in Wonderflex.

Photos: Benny Lee

Series: Final Fantasy X

Debuted: Katsucon 2012

Won: Judge’s Award

Notes:

Final Fantasy X was the game that made me log like 60+ hours, it was insane. I loved it so much to the point of listening to the soundtrack on the bus from field trips (NERD!). I made one in 2007 that was mostly bought and thrown together, so I wanted to do justice to Yuna and make her right.

I drafted my own patterns for the whole costume. The obi and sleeves were dyed and fabric dyed respectively. I pleated the skirt and embroidered and fabric painted it so that when you unfold and fold the pleats, the patterns are continuous and accurate to the design. The obi has tons of wool interfacing and is also pleated and embroidered. I used cross-stitching plastic to make the shape of the obi bow. A lot of my ideas to make the obi came from Hiyoko-chan’s awesome YouTube tutorials.

The hibiscus is made from leather pieces, all the beads (including the earring) made from wooden dowels and wooden beads I made myself. The staff is pretty much made entirely by Chris Donio with him telling me what to do and me going, “OKAY COS DAD ;_;”. It was my first venture into HEY I CAN MAKE A PROP THAT DOESN’T LOOK LIKE POOP. He is a jesus costume maker.

Photos: Lionel Lum, Leonard Lee, Benny Lee

Series: Bioshock

Debuted: Otakon 2011

Won: Best in Show: Journeyman

Notes:

It’s known that I am a huge Bioshock fan, but that being said, I never thought it’d be possible for me to do this costume. Not only am I 5’9, but at the time, I was 18 and not a toddler. However, I kinda said, fuck it, and did the costume anyway! I do believe in cosplaying to your physical strengths, but if you’re really passionate enough, you can cosplay whatever the hell you want.

I started by altering a little girl’s dress pattern for the bodice and collar. I made a circle skirt and drafted a pattern for my sleeves and sewed all the pieces together. I was really particular about the look of the white apron so I made sure to tack it all down so it flowed together. I was also really particular about the look of the dress and skirt and making sure it had volume. I added 2 petticoats to get it the proper shape. I ended up dying the purple fabric for the costume at least 3 times with rit dye, iPoly dye and sharpie dye because I thought it’d be a great idea to try and dye 100% polyester fabric.

After sewing the costume, I had distress the poop out of it with sand paper, diluted acrylic paint, old sharpie dye, Ben Nye dirts and costume blood.  The one thing that really peeves me about Little Sister cosplayers is the overwhelming amount of blood on their costumes. Her dress should be more moldy and crusty if anything (lots of browns and greens), she would rarely ever get bloody save for a little bit of ADAM and scrapes and bruises.

I heavily referenced Volpin Props’ blog to make my syringe so if you have any questions, definitely check his out! My dad helped me a lot in wiring the LEDs into the bottle and forming the dowel into a point. Plus, y’know, not cutting my hand off. In fact, he helps me make anything LED-related, yay Asian daddies!

Photos: Joseph Chi Lin, Leonard Lee, Nate Buchman, Benny Lee

Series: Soul Calibur IV

Debuted: Momocon 2010

Won: Best Group

Notes:

I played lots of Soul Calibur IV and though Seung Mina is my favorite character to play, I ended up doing Xiang Hua for my friend Christy. All of the fabric pieces were dyed and there was tons of applique pieces. I actually really hate this costume because I was extremely constrained by time, so it didn’t fit or come out the way I would’ve liked it do. I made all my patterns from scratch and was really particular about the fabric, but it just didn’t end up the way I wanted it to.

Series: Resident Evil 4

Debuted: Otakon 2010

Notes:

I loved Resident Evil 4 so much (even though it always scared the bejesus out of me) and given Ada’s Asian-American descent, it was only natural that I cosplay her! She’s so badass and sexy, I jumped at the opportunity.

I altered a pattern for the dress and sewed it out of casa satin. I drew my own stencils from the reference pictures I could decipher on her dress and fabric painted the designs. I originally molded a leather holster (with leather learning help from God Save the Queen Fashions) for my gun, but I had a hard time keeping it from falling down my leg as I walked.

Photos: Benny Lee

Series: Resident Evil 1

Debuted: Anime Weekend Atlanta 2009

Notes:

I had plans of doing another Jill and I always thought her STARS outfit was really badass and not overly sexualized like many video game female designs, nowadays. I was already doing it on my own, but I convinced my friend to do Rebecca with me in exchange for me doing Soul Calibur with her.

I bought and altered the hat and pants to fit myself. The top was dyed and I attached the STARS applique patch. I made the shoulder pads out of craft foam and covered them in stretch vinyl with nylon strapping, rectangular rings, buckles, etc.

Photos: Lionel Lum

Series: Final Fantasy IV

Debuted: Anime Weekend Atlanta 2009

Won: Judge’s Award, 2nd Place

Notes:

I played Final Fantasy IV on my DS, but I really loved Amano’s Final Fantasy designs and was dying to make a crazy elaborate costume. Also green is my favorite color. So giant crazy green design, me like.

The entirety of the fabric on this costume was dyed so I could achieve the perfect greens. The wig was sharpie dyed with various pieces of wefts sewn in that I dyed different shades of green. I sewed in a cotton plush to give it volume. I arranged the feathers for the headpiece and sharpie dyed several of them accurate to the artwork. The bodice has steel boning and laces up in the back and attaches to the cape pieces with clear straps and a resin cast gem. Two of the capes have green applique stripes with sequin trim. I did crazy amounts of beading with seed beads, sequins and more—to the point where I was going to friends’ houses and lawn concerts with my bodice, hand sewing. The sequins were sharpie dyed so they would be an iridescent green. I patterened the skirt, sleeves and leggings from scratch.

I was crazy proud of this costume and I had so much fun making it. I gathered materials for months, gold and green, just to make this costume and it really taught me a lot.

Photo: Jamie Munoz, Leonard Lee

Series: Battlefield 2142

Debuted: Dragon*Con 2008

Won:  Best in Show: Novice

Notes:

My friend made some awesome costumes from the game for his family and friends and asked me to wear one of them for a skit. It was really fun, but crazy sweaty!

Series: Final Fantasy X

Debuted: Anime Weekend Atlanta 2008

Won: Honorable Mention

Notes:

This was a huge undertaking, costume-wise, for me because I had never done anything with feathers or wings or sewn something quite on the scale that this costume was. However, I loved Yuna in that scene of the story and watched the CG probably a billion times.

I ordered a wig that came a couple of shades to light for my taste so I ended up sharpie dying the wig and styling it in the updo, using spare hair to hide my hair line. I altered a wedding dress pattern for the dress itself, lining it and using casa satin. It was incredibly difficult for me to engineer with the strapless-ness and low v-neck. I ended up using rigilene boning for the top portion and lacing up the back around my wings to make it work. The wings attach with my mom’s old bra (hurrhurr) and were made with 12 gauge wire and chicken wire, covered in fabric and hot glued. I used 2 or so lbs of turkey feathers and cut and trimmed all of them by hand. I made both bouquets with floral foam and trimmed flowers.

Photos: Benny Lee, Lionel Lum, Jamie Munoz

Series: Kingdom Hearts 2

Debuted: Momocon 2008

Won: Best Group

Notes:

I was definitely going through a phase of cosplaying every Yuna possible (after doing Summoner and Wedding Yuna) so I figured I’d do the easier version of Gunner Yuna before doing…actual Gunner Yuna, which I’ve still yet to do. I was also bananas for Kingdom Hearts so my friends indulged me for a fairy YuRiPa group!

I remade the top and skirts twice because I wasn’t happy with fabric choice and the way I made it. It ended up being a ton of trouble drafting my own pattern for the top and skirt, but for my 2nd year of cosplaying, I think I did pretty okay! I made the earring (a dumbed down version of her FFX earring) out of sculpey. 

Series: Kingdom Hearts 2

Debuted: Dragon*Con 2007

Notes:

Ah, young Monika loved Kingdom Hearts so much. I remember thinking how hard it would be to sew Namine’s dress, hahaha. My friend Christy was a huge KH2 fan like me and wanted me to do Namine with her Kairi! Which is how this happened.

Photos: EBK

Series: Street Fighter

Debuted: ---

Notes:

I DID NOT MAKE THIS COSTUME. My awesome friend Lindze made this amazing costume and lent it to me to wear! I think she looks WAY sexier in it, but it felt really badass to wear this costume and be like C. Viper!

Photos: David Ngo, Joseph Lin