Edit - Found a couple more images that I thought I'd lost of the making of the base clothes so I've added those in :)
Finally have some time to sit down and attempt to write about my Alpha cosplay. I did this cosplay with a friend and worked on making two costumes so we'd match exactly with her making bits here and there (never ending weathering....ughhhhhhhhhhhh)
This 'tutorial' is kinda gonna be how all my others are....less of a how-to and more of a 'idk but this is what I did' haha! Also sadly though I did take progress photos all the way through making this I lost a lot when I broke my phone so it may be kind of hard to understand, sorry! This is going to be A LOT of writing and probably not too many pictures as a result D:
To start with was the base clothes. I knew I'd have to make the top at the very least but I searched high and low for the trousers to save me making them but alas found none that were suitable (or ran the risk of the colours not matching correctly/ fabric type being too weak/see-through etc) So I got a pattern to make those too.
These are the two patterns I used, I didn't really need anything for the top since I roughly knew how to make it but when it came to the sleeves I had no idea since they have to be kinda poofy. I used this pirate one and combined it with a collared jacket pattern I had. I cut two of the 'back' pieces of the jacket pattern and sewed them together then I cut out the collar pieces and sewed it backwards to the join is at the back. Then I attached the sleeves which I made slightly shorter and gave long cuffs so the arm starts to poof out at the elbow.
I'd recommend to add interfacing to the top as you make it and not when its completed (like I did since it was all trial and error) I used the iron on kind on the back and front pieces of the top. Originally I had wadding in it (above) to pad it out but interfacing is what really made it stick out in the correct shape. I also machine sewed the false panel bit on the front so it looks like the actual Alpha top.
With interfacing in it can actually stand up on its own! aha
For the pants I just followed all the instructions on how to make these flared ones, this pattern is good as the darts down the front match the Alphas too. The 'Easy' on the front mocks me...I did not find making these easy :(
I can't quite remember the material I used, I think it was cotton sheeting? It's very thin but the interfacing gives it shape and stops it being too see through. I used this since it was cheap and there were large quantities of it in my fabric store. It's light enough to keep the arms and legs billowy but I'd probably recommended doubling up the fabric or using a thicker cotton if you can.
On to ALL the silver pieces.
I used a PU coated leather fabric in silver. I'd of liked to make everything with worbla but its just too expensive (especially when making two!) I chose this as a cheaper alternative but even this ended up really pricey. I almost don't want to add up how many meters of this we used when it was just over £8 a meter :S It was by far the most expensive bit of our costume.
To begin with I basically made a template for everything you see on the costume. All those numbers are me trying to work out if I can reuse a template for other parts of the costume and also to note I had to make two of everything I did! Since the silver has lines all over it I decided to create the pieces in layers so make it look more 3D in real life, this is why I ended up using so many meters. I'd recommend not layering the silver and just drawing the lines on to save yourself time and money, it was only half way through that I realized my mistake!
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Since I'm missing almost all my photos heres a shot of just some of the templates I made. They're all done freehand (no measuring is done round here!!) so I can't help with that I'm afraid. You can see in this shot that I make a template and then cut out the insides for the layered pieces. When I was finished I'd masking tape them back together so I didn't lose them for the second Alpha costume. I kept every template I made until the end as I did end up reusing some of them since the design is very similar all over.
These are the elbow bits for the top, the bottom for the pants is made in exactly the same way. For the inside I used foam and then cut silver fabric slightly larger than the foam to make a pocket to put the foam in. They are then glued in this formation and hand sewn to a band to go around the sleeve cuff. The tops of these pieces are then sewn to the sleeves keeping it poofed out as much as possible to help it hold its wide shape.
It's important to note that these semi circle pieces don't go all the way around the sleeve as shown in the photo below. The inside is left blank
The leg straps are made pretty much in the same way - with foam in the center. I had to cut the foam for the straps from several pieces of A4 foam since I had lots in that size but ideally you will need A3 sized foam (or larger) The above image shows marking out the leg strap pieces and the inner layers that go on top.
This shows the straps without layers or weathering, I left a small gap when machine sewing the silver together (fronts facing) to stuff the foam in later when I turned it the way round. Then I glued up the gap
Always keep trying everything on to check if its working or not! In this image below I had sewn the top straps on and realized they were way too long (cue cutting them open, cutting the foam and then sewing it back up)
This shows everything positioned with the bottom pieces sewn on. The straps are half weathered.
I actually weathered the entire two costumes with just two black fabric pens. Anywhere the fabric is layered I drew around it so make it look more pronounced and realistic. This is the most time consuming part of the whole costume but I think its a really important step - you can see difference between the right leg below with weathering and the left without. I'd suggest planning out all your templates and fabric as best you can before cutting or doing anything but then working on bits at a time to alternate between what you do since having to weather everything at the end is exhausting. I found myself doing this on the bus, train, at work - anywhere I had a bit of free time to do it!
The last bit on the costume I worked on other than shoes were the arm cuffs that are suspended from the costume. These are made the same as before (foam in silver) and then I glued thick wire in them that was long enough to wrap around my wrist. I also reinforced the neck pieces so they would curve and stay in place (hah! funny since I lost mine in London)
On to the shoes...
I used the same shoes I used for Noiz since the shop still had some on 2 for £5 yus!!
First of I cut out the tongue and then cut the shape more similar to the alpha shoe (this piece then worked as a template to copy to the other shoes) Then I spray painted them, the insides cannot be painted so I had to cover them with the PU silver material. The outside is then layered with the silver and weathered. The button bits are just silver covered foam.
I don't have a finished picture with the back piece so I cropped a photo from london to show it. Again this is just a template and then cut from foam and spray painted silver.
We glued these on on the day since they're quite fragile, amazingly they stayed put all day! I used Wilkos all purpose glue to glue absolutely all of this costume...I think we went through about 7 tubes in the end???
The last bits to cover are the wigs and lenses. The lenses we wore are the EOS Candy Pink
The wigs were a catastrophe in themselves wow. I ordered one wig but it was too short, ordered another and it was slightly off white grey and much better. I told my friend to order the same wig but it arrived pure white, she ordered another two which also came as pure white. In the end our friend lent us his clear wig which matched the colour of mine and saved our lives. Ty Jet!!! As he said 'at least we can all cosplay kaneki now!' enough white wigs to last a life time D:
Since my friend and I ordered the 'same' wig and they arrived different I won't link it as I have no idea which one you would get!
I think that just about covers everything? Hope this helps any future Alpha cosplayers out there :)
Apologies that it isn't a lot more indepth but without photos its a little complicated to explain. If you have any specific questions I'd be more than happy to answer them ;)
Roo
Updates with more photoshoot images to follow ~
Top Photo by - Mini Bullie Cosplay
α2 (right) - The Lost Girl Cosplay
α2 wig is cut and styled by Jet
To start with was the base clothes. I knew I'd have to make the top at the very least but I searched high and low for the trousers to save me making them but alas found none that were suitable (or ran the risk of the colours not matching correctly/ fabric type being too weak/see-through etc) So I got a pattern to make those too.
These are the two patterns I used, I didn't really need anything for the top since I roughly knew how to make it but when it came to the sleeves I had no idea since they have to be kinda poofy. I used this pirate one and combined it with a collared jacket pattern I had. I cut two of the 'back' pieces of the jacket pattern and sewed them together then I cut out the collar pieces and sewed it backwards to the join is at the back. Then I attached the sleeves which I made slightly shorter and gave long cuffs so the arm starts to poof out at the elbow.
With interfacing in it can actually stand up on its own! aha
(Top when it had wadding in)
I used a PU coated leather fabric in silver. I'd of liked to make everything with worbla but its just too expensive (especially when making two!) I chose this as a cheaper alternative but even this ended up really pricey. I almost don't want to add up how many meters of this we used when it was just over £8 a meter :S It was by far the most expensive bit of our costume.
To begin with I basically made a template for everything you see on the costume. All those numbers are me trying to work out if I can reuse a template for other parts of the costume and also to note I had to make two of everything I did! Since the silver has lines all over it I decided to create the pieces in layers so make it look more 3D in real life, this is why I ended up using so many meters. I'd recommend not layering the silver and just drawing the lines on to save yourself time and money, it was only half way through that I realized my mistake!
Since I'm missing almost all my photos heres a shot of just some of the templates I made. They're all done freehand (no measuring is done round here!!) so I can't help with that I'm afraid. You can see in this shot that I make a template and then cut out the insides for the layered pieces. When I was finished I'd masking tape them back together so I didn't lose them for the second Alpha costume. I kept every template I made until the end as I did end up reusing some of them since the design is very similar all over.
It's important to note that these semi circle pieces don't go all the way around the sleeve as shown in the photo below. The inside is left blank
The leg straps are made pretty much in the same way - with foam in the center. I had to cut the foam for the straps from several pieces of A4 foam since I had lots in that size but ideally you will need A3 sized foam (or larger) The above image shows marking out the leg strap pieces and the inner layers that go on top.
Since I did the straps after the top was complete I was running out of silver so I had to back some of the foam with white fabric (which also in turn meant painting the foam white since mine was multicolored - hence why larger pieces of white foam is more ideal OR just using more silver to back them) Since the straps are free standing from the pants the colour on the inside will show. You can completely avoid this step if you plan better than I did! haha
This shows the straps without layers or weathering, I left a small gap when machine sewing the silver together (fronts facing) to stuff the foam in later when I turned it the way round. Then I glued up the gap
This shows them with layers but no weathering yet.
This is some of the pieces including cuffs, neck pieces, belts and elbow pieces.
The neck pieces are also made in the same way as the straps. The belts are made from elasticated belts from primark then covered in the silver fabric in layers. The shoulder straps just have some interfacing in them to give them more shape. The arm and leg cuffs are just single layers of silver fabric with zips down the middle. Any buckles (top and belt) are made from foam.
Before sewing to top and without buckle
with false foam buckle.
These are single layered arm cuffs, They will be covered by the next set of arm cuffs (suspended with wire) The zip is on the reverse side. The bottom leg cuffs are the same.
Next is assembling everything to the clothes. The shoulder straps, the buckled front straps and semi circle pieces are all hand sewn on. The elbow and bottom leg pieces are also hand sewn on but left open at the bottom so they can be pulled up and down easier. This is kind of hard to explain and also hard to get right, I had to re-sew these several times so that the trousers still 'poofed out' correctly and weren't weighed down too much.
To plot out the straps was definitely a challenge. For this I used masking tape to mark out where I wanted them to go and then sewed pieces of fabric to the trousers (above left) and then sewed the straps to that (this was to protect the fabric from weakening since its so thin) ultimately I did have to re-sew these several times and found it very difficult to get the position right. On the second costume I fixed this entirely by sewing velcro to the pants and inner straps so that they can be positioned anywhere you'd like. I used 5cm thick velcro so it would hold properly which worked very well.
Always keep trying everything on to check if its working or not! In this image below I had sewn the top straps on and realized they were way too long (cue cutting them open, cutting the foam and then sewing it back up)
I actually weathered the entire two costumes with just two black fabric pens. Anywhere the fabric is layered I drew around it so make it look more pronounced and realistic. This is the most time consuming part of the whole costume but I think its a really important step - you can see difference between the right leg below with weathering and the left without. I'd suggest planning out all your templates and fabric as best you can before cutting or doing anything but then working on bits at a time to alternate between what you do since having to weather everything at the end is exhausting. I found myself doing this on the bus, train, at work - anywhere I had a bit of free time to do it!
The last bit on the costume I worked on other than shoes were the arm cuffs that are suspended from the costume. These are made the same as before (foam in silver) and then I glued thick wire in them that was long enough to wrap around my wrist. I also reinforced the neck pieces so they would curve and stay in place (hah! funny since I lost mine in London)
On to the shoes...
I used the same shoes I used for Noiz since the shop still had some on 2 for £5 yus!!
First of I cut out the tongue and then cut the shape more similar to the alpha shoe (this piece then worked as a template to copy to the other shoes) Then I spray painted them, the insides cannot be painted so I had to cover them with the PU silver material. The outside is then layered with the silver and weathered. The button bits are just silver covered foam.
I don't have a finished picture with the back piece so I cropped a photo from london to show it. Again this is just a template and then cut from foam and spray painted silver.
We glued these on on the day since they're quite fragile, amazingly they stayed put all day! I used Wilkos all purpose glue to glue absolutely all of this costume...I think we went through about 7 tubes in the end???
The last bits to cover are the wigs and lenses. The lenses we wore are the EOS Candy Pink
The wigs were a catastrophe in themselves wow. I ordered one wig but it was too short, ordered another and it was slightly off white grey and much better. I told my friend to order the same wig but it arrived pure white, she ordered another two which also came as pure white. In the end our friend lent us his clear wig which matched the colour of mine and saved our lives. Ty Jet!!! As he said 'at least we can all cosplay kaneki now!' enough white wigs to last a life time D:
Since my friend and I ordered the 'same' wig and they arrived different I won't link it as I have no idea which one you would get!
I think that just about covers everything? Hope this helps any future Alpha cosplayers out there :)
Apologies that it isn't a lot more indepth but without photos its a little complicated to explain. If you have any specific questions I'd be more than happy to answer them ;)
Roo
Updates with more photoshoot images to follow ~
Top Photo by - Mini Bullie Cosplay
α2 (right) - The Lost Girl Cosplay
α2 wig is cut and styled by Jet
Haga-san!!
