Cheshire Cat cosplay shoes

Hello my friends!

You've probably by now seen that I reviewed my Cheshire Cat cosplay costume from a game called 100 Sleeping Princes and The Kingdom of Dreams, also known as Yume Oukoku to Nemureru 100 nin no Ouji-sama in Japanese. Yeah, long name is long. Thing is that I didn't get any shoes with the costume and so I decided to make some myself... or well, modify from existing shoes.

The hard part was to find suitable shoes that I could use as a base. I had to plow through all second-hand stores in both Tornio and Kemi on several occasions (under a half year period) before I had a lucky strike at a second-hand store in Kemi called Viikkotori. I found a pair of suede boots in a lilac-tinted brown color and, although they were a size smaller than what I'd normally wear, they were still wearable (much to my surprise) and not as uncomfortable as I would have expected! I have quite small feet to begin with, for being a guy at least (EU size 40), but luckily that works to my advantage in this kind of cosplays when I have to look for women's shoes because men's shoes just don't have the kind of heel that the costume requires, lol.

Here's the shoes before any modifications.

I think they cost 5 € and were in surprisingly good shape – no obvious signs of wear and tear. I especially wanted suede boots because suede looks softer than leather and that's how I imagine Cheshire Cat's shoes. It was so hard to find fitting shoes and I'm still surprised that I even found these boots because they are as close to perfect as I could possibly have gotten. Thanks luck.

Cheshire Cat reference.

My original idea was to use worbla to cover the heel to make it have a more "metallic" look to it but yeah, the more I started thinking the less it felt like a good idea and the more it felt like me just wanting to avoid painting suede because I had no idea if one could even paint it successfully. I'm not sure if said boots are made of fake or real suede (there were no labels/tags to help) but before I started painting them I did a fabric check on an inconspicuous spot to see if the fabric paint I had would work or not. I've heard that if it's real suede it would soak right in and barely tint the material, but if it sticks then it's faux suede. So yeah, I did a paint test on the upper part of the heel's inside and the paint seemed to stick just fine – I was relieved!

Painting time ~

I started to paint all the golden parts. Fun fact: I had lost my main set of paint brushes so I only, of course, found the smallest detail brush ever and had to make do with it; it took forever and was tedious af. I did two layers to get better coverage and avoid the "brush stroke" effect that a single coating did. On some parts I took artistic liberties because, as far as I know, there's not any other official image of Cheshire Cat that would show his shoes from a different angle and thus I can't know how those swirls look on the other side.
The paint I'm using is a water-based universal paint with a metallic effect, for your information. It's hobby paint in a small plastic bottle, by a German brand called Efco.

After I was done with all the painting I needed to make those little cute silver cat head decorations that he has on his shoes. Good thing I had some leftover polymer clay lying around since the days I made Ibuki's little amulet thingy – now I finally got some use for it!
One little problem though that showed up was that I have no own oven and the only one there is in this building is the one in the common kitchen. The problem is that said oven hasn't been working properly (or at all) for a long time now and I certainly don't trust it after a few previous bad experiences. So yeah, I asked my good friend Sacchan if I could come over during a weekend and borrow their oven – green lights!

Polymer clay cat decorations in the making.

I was a bit worried that the polymer clay might have hardened over the years but luckily it was still workable after some kneading. I made two flat cat faces, a couple centimeters long each. It took me a while to get them as identical as possible but I didn't strive for perfection this time because that would have taken way longer than I had patience for, lol.

I used that little tool to punch the eye holes. Efficient!
This is taken after I had baked the clay, btw.

We had some ridiculous issues with baking them because the description says about 30 minutes in 110 °C but that didn't do jackshit to our creations (Sacchan also made an accessory for one of her cosplays). Then again, the oven doesn't close completely so that might have played a part too. We had to keep them in the oven a lot longer but luckily, at some point, they actually hardened and changed color.

When I got home I went ahead and painted them with silver spray paint and hung them to dry in the shower. It didn't occur to me then but I noticed afterwards that even long after the paint should have been completely dry the cat heads felt... sticky. Not sticky in a non-dry way but sticky in a more greasy way. At first I was confused but then I did some research (should have done it before, oops) and came to the conclusion that one should avoid painting/sealing polymer clays with petroleum-based paints. Pretty much all spray paints I've ever used are alkyd-based and not water-based so, yeah. :| I read something that it might over time damage/dissolve/soften/whatnot the clay (depending on brand) but oh well, it's done already and it's not like it would be much work to replace these cat charms afterwards, if needed. I'll see how long they hold and remake them if necessary.

Spray painted and hung to dry.

After some time the charms had, surprisingly, dried enough to not feel greasy anymore. I didn't think they would but seems like at least Cernit brand polymer clay does...

Now the only thing left was to attach the kitty charms to the shoes. Hot glue might have been an option but I much rather wanted to sew them on, especially since the eye holes allowed for it. I dug out my old leftover fishing line and used it as sewing thread – it's amazing because it's super strong and transparent, which means that the "thread" is close to invisible!

Finished Cheshire Cat cosplay boots!

That's all for this post! ^_^

Shiro Samurai out.

[Sponsored] Cosall review: 100 Sleeping Princes & The Kingdom of Dreams Cheshire Cat cosplay costume!

Hello to you all beautiful people! ヾ(^∇^)ノ

Today I'll tell you all about an online costume store called Cosall! They contacted me a while ago and asked if I was interested in reviewing a cosplay costume for them – of course I said yes! I genuinely love reviewing products/stores and thus helping out the ever-growing cosplay community. ♥ Most of you probably haven't heard of them before (honestly, I hadn't either until they contacted me) but they are actually a sister store to the more well-known CosplaySky, which I've also reviewed earlier here. This means that the quality, packaging etc will be similar to CosplaySky because it's basically the same store . ^^ This also means that Cosall aren't stealing photos or anything and the contact person even told me straight out that they're related – thus I had no trusting issues with this collaboration.

Okay, so with that cleared up I want to say that Cosall, at least based on my experience, is easier to deal with (in terms of customer service) and tends to have better discounts/sales. I actually should tell you guys that this review is really late because I underwent surgery earlier this year and, even though I had numerous hospital visits and delays with being able to do the review (because of recovery and limited bodily movement), yet all through this mess Cosall was extremely patient, always friendly and human. I honestly can't thank them enough for being so understanding, despite my lateness, and I definitely think they deserve a gold star for how much they care and how professional they were from beginning to end – not even once did I feel like they were disappointed or annoyed with me for being incapable of holding the original time frame.

What I really like with Cosall is that they promote the idea that cosplay is for everyone – it's so important! This also shows in their sizing options because on a majority of their costumes there's a custom size option and, in those cases it's not available, the sizes tend to run from XS to XXXL. I'm positive though that even if the custom size option is not available you can contact them and ask to have it custom made by sending in your measures!

Cosall mainly sells cosplay costumes but also shoes, wigs, props and even mascot costumes for affordable prices. They sport a rather large (and constantly increasing) collection – ranging from TV-series, celebrities and movies to anime, Vocaloids, video games and super heroes. There's also costumes for kids and even some geek-inspired hoodies!

Photo by Sacchan. The cat belongs to Sacchan's family
and his name is Tirppa.

My reviews are always 100% my genuine opinion, no matter if the items were sponsored or bought with my own money. I never compromise my honesty and true thoughts to my readers. 

With all of that cleared up I want to welcome you to a detailed, full and honest review of Cosall! I hope you will find this post helpful and feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions after you're done reading. Let's go! ^.^ Psst, there's also a discount code at the end of this post!

~ "Forewords" ~ 

It should be mentioned that I am very picky when I browse online cosplay costume shops – I do have a habit of always scrutinizing even the smallest details (I'm a perfectionist) and comparing them with official reference photos to see how accurate they really are. I do often try to find the most accurately made costume possible but I also keep realistic expectations in mind – you can't get something that's 100% accurate, well-made and with high-end quality fabrics for cheap. The simple and often true saying of "you get what you pay for" is something that I always keep in mind. :)

Most cosplayers do agree on that quality goes before price, meaning that they are willing to pay more for a nicer costume and yes, I am one of those too. I do believe though that Cosall has a fair price versus quality standard, meaning that considering the price you pay you do get some surprisingly solid and good-looking costumes. There might be a few flaws (example: size, missing small details) but it's often really easy to fix, even for a beginner.

~ Contact, packaging and shipping ~

Cosall contacted me for the first time around April this year. I'm really sorry but because it's been so long I don't remember when exactly I received the costume. What I do remember though is that once the order was submitted I received the costume in two weeks. Two weeks. That's really fast and I even had my cosplay custom sized! Both thumbs up.
Oh and yeah, I had a hard time deciding on what costume to pick but after some thinking I ended up being too tempted by wanting to try something new and so I picked Cheshire Cat from the Japanese mobile game 100 Sleeping Princes & The Kingdom of Dreams, also known as Yume Oukoku to Nemureru 100 nin no Ouji-sama.

The costume arrived in one of those ordinary postal plastic bags. Once I opened it the cosplay itself was inside a nice-looking costume bag (one side clear plastic and other side some kind of rough fabric with small holes) with a plastic zipper to open it. The costume and all its parts (incl. ears and tail) were neatly folded inside the bag. The leather neck straps, arm straps, the key and the arm beads were inside their own ziplock bag. With the costume also came an costume information paper sheet that had a stock photo of the chosen costume, my included custom measurements with their modification scribbles added on top (very convenient!) as well as identification barcodes, along with my country and other information in Chinese that I can't make out. I can't read Chinese, okay?

~ Costume thoughts, fabrics and sewing quality ~

My first thought when I pulled out the costume was that the fabric wasn't half bad – and this comes from someone who has basically been living with fabrics because my mom used to have her own fabric store so yeah, I'm pretty damn picky with fabric quality. I don't mean to say that the fabrics are legit good either but it's basically what you'd expect from an online costume store, aka it might feel cheap to some people but it does its job. On the store the main fabric is listed as "uniform cloth" (which is a very common term used in costume online shops) but it feels like a medium to lightweight synthetic fabric, most likely a polycotton blend. The fabric is smooth and matte but it seems to be of the kind on which wrinkles will be hard to get rid off and on which sharp objects will snag. There is no stretch nor elasticity to the fabric so yeah, if you order a standard sized costume and happen to fall between two sizes then it's probably safer to order the bigger one and then take it in, if needed.
The exception to the otherwise non-elastic polycotton costume parts are the striped sleeves/gloves, which are made of what I assume to be tricot. Of course the leather parts are faux leather, a thinner type, but even though it's thin and a bit flimsy it doesn't feel like it would break too easily.

Regarding the sewing it seems to be moderately sturdy – pretty much what you'd expect from decent online cosplay stores. I don't feel like the fabric will tear or that a seam will rip when I wear the costume. The stitching is straight, generally neat and doesn't do any weird jumps or other mishaps. The threads used are always of a matching color too! There were some loose threads poking out of some seams etc but those were super easy to just cut off and I expected some anyway since it's really common.

What is included:

• Jacket/hoodie

• Shirt

• Tie

• Pants
• Detached striped sleeves
• Small accessories (leather straps, bead arm bands, key)

• Ears

• Tail

What is NOT included:

• Wig

• Shoes

~ Detailed description of costume parts ~

Jacket: The jacket (or hoodie, if you'd rather call it that) is fully lined in violet, just like the original character's. On the jacket's sleeves there's a heart image printed on in black on the upper part. The hood area and the bottom of the jacket have a wide golden trim running along the edges with two straight stitches running along it, to separate it into three golden lines. A bead decoration (beads are plastic) is attached to the hood at the golden trim on the hood's front half; it runs from one side to the opposite side. There's also some diagonal golden decorations on each side, kinda like pocket trims except that it's no pockets. The zipper is an usual plastic white one with a metallic slider and works as it should, no problems. At the end of the zipper there's a small cat head decoration hanging – it feels like it could be made out of thin silver faux leather, although I must admit that I wish it was made out of metal. The cat head has some stuffing inside it and it's two-sided, except that there's no eyes on the side facing you.

Shirt: It's definitely a costume shirt and not an ordinary dress shirt. The color is a pale gray and there's brown vertical stripes on it. The collars are hard and crisp, like they should be. The shirt is a bit shorter than your average shirt though and some of the buttons were stitched on a little loose (aka unraveling thread) but that's common even on store-bought buttoned shirts so I did expect it. The very top of the shirt lacks buttons (like a normal shirt) and instead has small ironed "front flaps" to give the opened look. The buttons are really basic semi-transparent white buttons. Short sleeves, like a t-shirt.

Tie: Bright pink with blue stars on it. The stars are printed on. The tie is a bit wider and shorter than usual and it's not pre-tied, meaning that you have to tie it like you would a normal tie. The fabric is thicker than on the jacket but approximately the same as the shirt (except a bit less smooth in touch), it might actually be cotton and not a polycotton blend, although I'm not sure.

Pants: Your typical costume pants with elastics in the bottom. Dark brown, same thickness as the jacket so yeah, not gonna keep you warm if it's even slightly cold outside. The pants reach just below my knees. The pants have a zipper and a button for keeping them on and a little bit of elastic on top to allow for a bit of stretch, which I really appreciate because it's comfortable and noticeably lessens the potential "oh shit the pants might not fit" problem that I tend to have. The pants do have belt loops (usable for putting on the tail) but no pockets.

Detached striped sleeves: These are made of a thin (not see-through thin) and slightly stretchy tricot, seemingly. Striped in a magenta and a brownish red color. They are kept on with elastics at the top. The sleeve mouths flare out into a trumpet-like shape.

Small accessories: The accessories included are one bead arm bracelet, two black faux leather straps for the neck and one for the right arm. On the leather strap for the right arm there's also a bead bracelet attached to it from which a key decoration hangs. The key is detailed and pretty, approximately 8 cm long and made of metal. Each of the leather straps have several punch holes so they should fit most people. The string the bead bracelets are is elastic.

Ears: The ears are a lot nicer than I expected! It's a soft and pleasant brown fur fabric, doesn't look cheap or anything. No annoying long fake fur hairs that stick everywhere. The inside of the ears are backed with some soft light pink fabric; I recognize the fabric type but I can't remember what it's called, it's soft, fluffy and the weave is easily visible – it's the kind that uneven nails get stuck on, lol.

The ears have a really convenient and easy to use closure system, it's those usual hair snap clips; check the separate photo to see it. :)

Tail: The tail is made of a soft fluffy textured fabric, most likely fleece. It has dark gray and white parts that are sewn together into a long tail. It's fully posable (there is a thick steel wire inside) and to attach it there's one of those small metallic hooks that you commonly see on necklaces – again, check the separate photo to see it. It's approximately 75 cm long when straightened.

Detail photos ahead!
All photos taken by Sacchan.

Front close-up. Shows the tie and shirt collars especially.

Sleeve details and hood bead decoration.

Golden edge trim and cat head decoration.

Detached sleeve's mouth and arm decorations.

Tail close-up.

Ear close-up.

Ear closure system.

Tail closure system.

This particular costume is 100% accurate to the stock photos on the site, which is amazing and rare for online costume stores!! You can buy with confidence from Cosall – what you see is most likely really close to what you will get, at least based on my experiences! ♥

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Full cosplay photos below!

Photos taken by Sacchan.
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Front view.

Side view.

Back view.

Are you interested in getting your own Cheshire Cat cosplay? ♥

Link to Cosall main page: Cosall Online Cosplay Store

Costume link: Cosall Cheshire Cat Cosplay Costume

Cosall store & Cheshire Cat costume rundown – Pros and cons:

+ Decent fabric choices
+ Completely accurate to store's stock photos
+ Sewing quality is good
+ Costume fits perfectly
+ Really quick processing & making time
+ Fast shipping (faster than promised, to be honest)
+ Safe and good packaging
+ Amazing customer service (good English too)
+ Affordable prices
+ Good fur quality on the ears
+ Posable tail

- Left arm's heart decoration is missing

~ Sizing ~

Seeing how I got my costume custom sized I can't speak for the standard sizes but yeah, as far as custom sizing go I want to mention that it's important that you don't add additional centimeters to your real measures because Cosall does that for you; you can even see how much they've added if you check the costume paper sheet that came with the order. With this Cheshire Cat cosplay I had no issues whatsoever with anything being too big or too small though – everything fit perfectly and I'm actually really positively surprised because yeah, it's common knowledge that bought costumes tend to have the sizes being off, even with custom sizes.

Cheshire Cat reference image.

~ Conclusion and final thoughts ~

I honestly have nothing but praise to say about Cosall. Their customer service is one of the best I've ever had with a costume shop, if not the best. Super kind, prompt, really good English and just genuinely caring about your satisfaction. I can't find anything negative to say and even though that one arm heart(?) decoration was missing it wasn't shown on the stock photo either so yeah, no false advertisement on their side and I thus didn't expect to get it. Of course I would have been even more pleased if the cat head decoration had been metal instead of fabric and if the tail was a bit nicer (gradient color, short fur fabric, cream & brown instead of gray & white) but, once again, seeing how all those things were 100% accurately portrayed on the site I can't complain about that and hey, it works like this too! So yeah, what I'm trying to say is that I experienced no disappointments because, even though some parts differ slightly from the original character, what I received matches the stock photos perfectly and thus I got exactly what I expected.

I would warmly recommend Cosall to anyone looking for a better-than-average online costume store on which you can be sure that what you see is what you get! They also, of course, have decent quality costumes (many can be used as bases if you don't want to sew from scratch) and, on top of that, they have fast and free shipping to anywhere in the world. The free shipping (cheapest/slowest option) really sets them apart from other costume stores because that's a lot of money saved right there! For me, personally, expensive shipping is a huuuuuge dealbreaker and I think I'm not the only one thinking that, heh.
My experience with Cosall has been a positive one and I'd definitely say that their shop is trustable and worth a visit!

If you want to buy something from Cosall you can use the discount code CACASS to get 15% off on any order! o/

Final Grade (from A-F): B+
Recommend to others: Yes

That's all for today. Thank you for reading! I hope this was helpful ~
Also, don't forget to check out Cosall if you want to buy a costume or know someone else who does! ^_-

  Big thanks to Cosall for making this review possible! ♡
~ Shiro Samurai says bye bye.