This was basically my first costume. After spending time with the rest of the Dark Kingdom group (save Jadeite) at Anime Expo, the idea crept into my head and wouldn't leave. So, despite my VERY limited sewing experience, I decided to try my hand at Zoisite.
I used a basic civil war-era soldier pattern, modifying it only to not include the buttons and to add piping. The collar designs are done in puffy paint.
The belt and the sash are made from a brocade (thank the gods for a moving-sale JoAnne Fabric & Crafts <3) and are attatched in the back with velcro. These were made from scratch, the belt was made by eyeing it, but I got smarter with the sash and used a piece of cardboard cut to shape to make it straight.
The ...loopy thing... on the sash is made from soldering wire and soldered together. It's sewn onto the sash with fishing line, and hotglued near the top. Also, the iridescent fabric is hot glued on. There is a shoulder pad under the loopy thing that goes over the shoulder, made from scratch and the design is of puffy paint.
The chain is sewn to the sash and a snap is hot glued to the end of it, the other part of the snap hot glued to the cape. The cape is a piece of fabric folded over MANY times and ironed to be that "wrinkly" and handsewed under the shoulder pad and along the back.
The beads are all handsewn over a pattern drawn on by a washable blue pen.... it took about 12 hours, and I did it in about one sitting.
The boots are PVC glued to the boot itself and then covers that are zipperless and pulled over the boot. I ended up hotgluing them to the boots to walk around, as they're slightly not long enough.
The earring is a faux pearl stud glued to a longer dangling earring. And the gloves are band gloves.
United States