^this is Bowser. For those not in the know. (I had to break it down for more than one person, whom I feel tragically sorry for the missed pieces of their childhood... No childhood is complete without epic battles with the king of koopas.)
This is unlike anything I've ever done before; taking a cartoon creature and making it humanized while still keeping enough of the original characters features that it's instantly recognizable was a challenge here. I knew without a doubt that the koopa shell had to stay a big part of this. I also decided that the arm spikes needed to stay, and that the signature colouring would be what instantly identifies this as a Bowser inspired ensemble.
I started with what I thought would be the hardest part, the koopa shell backpack. I made it from a variety of thermal plastics, resins and some foams. This being what I thought would be the hardest part, it's t pretty smoothly, and I was tickled pink about that. Below is the backpack in the works.
Next I patterned and built custom leggings in Veda's size- not a problem given my sewing background. Then I moved on to the corset. I should preface this by saying I am fortunate to have a ten year long sewing career with most of that career spent building corsets. I thought this one would be no problem and I thought I'd make bowsers horizontal tummy lines by using piping on the centre two panels. I thought wrong on the easy going part. Getting piping and a busk closure to cooperate in any kind of a reasonable fashion is downright difficult. I'm talking the kind of difficult that requires you to sit on a horseshoe while praying to the sewing goddess for benevolence and acknowledging your stupidity while possibly sacrificing a unicorn. Things have to line up juuuusst right.
I re-did those venter panels 7 times to find out what juuuusst right looks like. In those seven iterations I am certain this corset heard every curse I know. But hey, they don't call me screamstress for nothing I guess.
Below is what I settled on for piping across the central panels of the corset. The remainder of the corset came out about as smoothly as one could hope, perhaps out of sheer fear that I would indeed "kill it with fire" as I threatened so many times during the piping process.
With the koopa shell backpack, leggings and corset out of the way I moved on to finish the red bob wig with horns, the arm spikes, pauldrons and thigh armour. The spikes for the entire costume are cast in foam so they are expo safe, they squish and pop back of anyone bumps them. There shall be no injuries here!!
Most of the armour I made from varying types of foam both because I rarely get to work with this fun material and practice in its function is also a rare treat.
Things I've learned in working with foams: priming and sealing are important. More important than the paint job itself because of you don't prime the differences of foams can be seen since they each handle paint differently, it also smoothed everything out... And sealer because foam remains flexible after paint and a good coat of flexible sealer will save your piece from cracking and looking like junk over time.
Above is most of the finished ensemble. What I could get on a mannequin anyways. Veda cosplay is awesome and
has allowed me to display it at this years Edmonton expo, so look out for it there and at expos across Canada as she continues to rock the king of koopas for years to come!
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