Consist of an altered catsuit, a shiny detachable top, legwarmers (with soles since cons here are mostly outdoors), gloves, bracelets, a necklace and a staff.
Building the horror:
It was about 3 weeks before Hanami that Eva and I decided it was time to visit another con after we had already missed Leipzig bookfair because of examns. She decided to go as Cat princess and as we only get to so few cons together she asked me to join her as cat. I admit, Katt is not your stereotypical catgirl (thankfully!) but I do think I'm more convincing as a though strongwilled gladiator than as a cute and naive typical catgirl...
The construction itself was a horror, and the result is not very much what I wanted to have... I will just quickly sum up a few of the worst episodes that happened while constructing and building this costume:
1) The fabric:
I decided pretty quick on what fabric and methods to use, but alas, in germany they don't sell purple stretch vinyl at all D: Not only, not in stores. I then decided to try covering fabric in liquid latex, as it should look quite similar to stretch vinyl - or that's what I thought.
2)Latex-ing
About 2 weeks before the con my latex (and pretty much everything else I had to order for this costume) arrived. Learning how to use liquid latex was not easy, but it was manageable. I had to discover, that brushing works less good than just pouring it down the fabric, but pouring too much onto the fabric results in ugly bumps - oh well...
3)Latex-ing part 2
Of course, after I had latexed the top and one leg, I ran out of latex D: Well, no problem, I just ordered the same day again - or so I thought. When my latex arrived 6 days later I wondered a little why it looked lighter than before but didn't think much about it - I had ordered the same product and latex of course darkesn when drying - only not that much! The seller had shipped me light purple latex, ruining my time shedule and one leg D:
4)Latex-ing part 3
Left with no other option I ordered again latex which arrived 2 days before the con. Definately purple, not light purple this time, hooray :D Unfortunately I didn't know yet that their latex was colored by hand and not always exactly the same shade. I decided to fix a little bump on my top before working on the second leg - just to produce a darker purple spot at the same area! Wonderful. So I covered basically the whole costume again in latex (although I just needed a thin layer, luckily, otherwise I would have had enough latex, again!) Unfortunately the top was already hemmed and I didn't dare to get to close to the border in fear of making a mess (of course I still messed up a little...) so I now have a small small border of slightly lower and lighter latex than at the other parts <_<
5)The molten staff:
I made the green disc on my staff with some plastic granula that you just melt in the oven. Of course I thought bending it in shape with a heat gun should work then too, and it did work very well while not yet fixed on my plastic globe. D: Fortunately it is not too much visible that I made small dent into my globe like this...
6)Fabric paint of non-survivability
I used spray paint to color my altered catsuit - onyl that the spraypaint isn't very durable. So my legs constantly lose color and I have yellow dust in my flat where I put the costume on or off (I think it isn't durable because the suit is stretchy...). Fortunately I painted the stomach by hand and the paint is more durable. I'll have to research some better methods of painting fabric...
I don't know what horrible things will happen in the last 10% (decoration on the leg-warmer-like thingys...) but I'm sure something will happen :D
So, for the v2 I have already ordered stretch vinyl from the U.S. I hope I will mess up less next time... I will probably leave out the zipper and just not go to toilet seeing as to what amount of drama a small zipper has led already. And I learned that I'm just not the person who can finish a costume in a satisfying manner in a few days. <_<
Germany