Dota 2 Invoker cosplay WIP part.2

Hello hello!

I was checking through my unpublished drafts and found this progress post buried between the rest of the lot of forget-me-nots and well, last time I touched this draft was in... wait for it... January 2017. Jesus Christ, who ate up all that time? It feels like it wasn't that long ago I swear. ;_;

Nobody probably remembers but in the first part I said I had no deadline for this cosplay but was aiming for a summer 2017 debut? Well, as everyone now can see that totally happened. /sarcasm

Well, I still intend to finish this costume at some point although I have no idea if that group cosplay idea which spurred this creation in the first place still stands, lol. Anyways, I figured I might as well publish what I have made since the last progress post from... umm.. *counts*... almost 8 years ago. Yikes. Honestly I barely remember what I was doing the last time I worked on this project but I'll just publish this post as-it-was and then do a "current sitation" note at the end.

___________

I had previously finished serging the jacket's top and the skirt part (to prevent edges from fraying), which I had planned to later sew together to make things easier for me. The "skirt" consists of three fabric widths and I started out pleating it in big, wide pleats, of which every single one was to be 10 cm. It was quite a task to pleat all that fabric evenly...

Skirt pleating done.

It's sewn together and held up here just to show length.

I then sewed the skirt onto the main body of the jacket, aka the top half. I ended up with a miscalculation, because I got the numbers mixed up, but it was nothing that wasn't easily fixed by taking out the seam ripper and deepening one of the skirt pleats before reattaching it to the body. I also hemmed the edges.

Before sewing together the bottom half of the jacket (the "tails") or attaching the sleeves I wanted to make and sew on all those golden swirly details on them. For this I remembered that mom has this whole roll of some nifty golden fabric that doesn't fray and thus should be perfect for this kind of work.

Soon after I had done the progress I mentioned above I quit the sewing class in the school I was at back then, mainly because the only good teacher quit her job and she was the only one I came to terms with. The other two were not proper teachers and, honestly, most of the time it felt like I knew more about sewing than them, which is a kinda awkward spot to be in as a student. Not to mention but they didn't treat me all that well either so I ended up jumping off the class for more than one reason. So yeah, once the only talented and friendly teacher was gone my progress on Invoker was put on hold. Another problem was that the apartment I had back when I worked on this cosplay was ridiculously small and crammed; I had no space to lay out and cut the golden fabric roll into the shapes I needed. Not having a sewing machine easily available made it really hard to get motivated to continue on the project and yeah, it's been literal years since I last touched Invoker. Don't read that in a dirty way thanks ololol.

The current situation is that I have since then moved to a better apartment (space is still an issue though but for wholly different reasons rip) but some of my belongings and especially my cosplay stuff are still scattered in all kinds of different bags and places and, truth be told, I have no idea where my bits and pieces of Invoker currently lay hidden! I remember having them in a saggy white plastic bag at some point but I can't recall where I've last seen it. Yes, I'm not a terribly organized person. But I know I haven't disposed of any of the cosplay parts and once I find them I'm going to go through them and pick this project up again. I still won't put a deadline but I hope it won't take another 8 years before we see any news on Invoker again, that would be epic fail.

Yeah I know, it's not much for an update but now you all at least know that this costume isn't dead and buried. Not yet at least. It's kinda buried though, among unknown stuff. Now, wish me luck in finding the remains of my forgotten wizard...
~ Shiro Samurai says bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!

Dota 2 Invoker cosplay WIP part.1

What's up geeks? :D

I've decided to start on my next big cosplay project! *badum tsssh*

I don't have a set deadline yet for when I want to be finished with this costume but I'm currently aiming for summer 2017. I'm not making any promises regarding the debut con etc but I can say for sure that this cosplay is part of a cosplay group with friends!

The character I will be doing is Invoker from Dota 2.

*drum roll*

I'm pretty sure no one saw this coming and, honestly, if someone had asked me about Invoker half a year ago I'd been like "who's that?". xD I decided to do him on a whim after Närcon Vinter when me, Hitsu and Sacchan were talking about Dota 2 at Hitsu's place. I actually haven't even played the game myself but because Hitsu is a big fan of it I've seen her play and talk about it. I've always had an interest in this kind of games anyway, but because my internet is shit (and my computer is dying) I can't play it comfortably. :/ So yeah, Hitsu mentioned that she had planned to cosplay from Dota 2 and asked if I was interested; I had been wanting to do a pair cosplay with her for years since we're really close friends since school times and we have supported each other a lot during tough times etc. I thought that because she loves Dota 2 then I could join her in the fun and hey, why the hell not? :D I had no clue about the characters though, so I ended up asking Hitsu for suggestions. She first suggested Juggernaut (because of the samurai inspiration) but I didn't really like the design. :/ She then told me that she knew a character that I might like and so she showed me the Invoker and, well, I was game on! 

I don't say no to a fancy badass magician who gives me a reason to do an awesome cape and gain a fair amount of new learning experiences! Besides, his color scheme speaks to me and I get more use for my elf ears. I've always wanted to do at least one wizard cosplay – now I got one! o/

I started working on Invoker on 18th February 2016. I have sewing class in school and one of my teachers is awesome; she can draw patterns by free hand if I just show her what I want to make. So yeah, I had totally saved some reference photos on my cellphone and showed them to her and then I spent some time sketching the different clothing pieces on paper, to give her an idea of what they looked like when separated.

My sketch paper with the measures scribbled
on it by le teacher. (psst, I know that the vest is inaccurate)

 

My teacher started taking some measures and I gave my opinions on how long this and that piece should be, the shape of the sleeves and so on. Some of the body measures are inaccurate because she took them over my clothes and yeah, because it's winter I am wearing multiple layers and so suddenly my ass is 10+ cm wider than it actually is, lol. *coughsomanypantscough*
We got almost all the patterns drawn and cut out on the first day, here it starts!

I went to fetch some fabric from mom's attic on the following weekend and I ended up picking out a fabric I thought I'd never touch for cosplay purposes, even if I had a 10-feet pole and rubber gloves – are you prepared to hear it? *silence intensifies* .............................................. SATIN.

Yes, that shiny fabric that all cringeworthy cheap online costumes are made out of! :'D But before you decide to mentally roast me, fork me and throw my remains into a fucking sharknado I want to justify myself – not all satins look horrendous to the point you want to gouge your eyes out. You see, mom had a roll of this beautiful plumish violet quality satin fabric that actually looks good. Yeah, say it with me – satin that looks good. Can you believe it??

I decided to use the satin fabric for the jacket or undercoat or whatever you want to call it, of which basically the sleeves and the "tails" are visible. I honestly didn't want to go buy 4 meters of fabric when I could get 4 meters of satin fabric for free and hey, I've seen another Invoker cosplayer online who used shiny fabric for the jacket thingy too and guess what? It looked amazeballs!
So yeah, I thought why not and besides, I don't think it's that off because Invoker is a badass magician and I often imagine magicians with shiny precious-looking robes...

Some of the fabrics etc needed for Invoker.

 

Next time I had sewing class was on 1st March and I brought with me the satin fabric to school because we had prepared all the patterns for it. It turned out that our original idea wouldn't work because we had planned to do the jacket in two parts and thus of two different fabrics and it required that the top would stretch and/or have a zipper. We scratched that idea altogether and decided on a different approach, just so that we wouldn't have to redo most of the patterns. So yeah, what we did was that we decided on splitting the jacket so that the top part of the jacket would stay the same (with the sleeves), except that we would widen it enough so that I could fit it over my head, but the lower part would be the skirt thingy instead of the jacket "tails". This means that the jacket bottom, aka "tails", together with the white front flap thing and the triangular back cape would be a separate piece that attaches directly to the waist. I'm sorry if my explanations make no sense. XD

To check the fit of the widened top part of the jacket pattern, that was the now-to-be-jacket-with-skirt hybrid, I did a quick prototype of a test fabric. It fit well and so I used the prototype as a pattern when I started cutting out all the parts that were to be made of the satin fabric. Hhhhhh.

Cellphone photo of fabric cutting (yellow is the prototype).
The colors are raped, lol.

 

The prototype jacket top was really short and it was originally made short so that the "tails" would split very high up on my waist to give the right look when worn. But yeah, because the top was now to be attached with the skirt and not the "tails" I could afford to lengthen the top. No need to be croptop!Invoker. xD

During that class we cut out all the pieces needed out of the satin fabric. For next class on 3rd March I brought with me the whole bolt (yay mom's fabrics!) of a really dark purple fabric that I had planned to use for Invoker's skirt thingy. I ended up needing to take the fabric width 3 times to get enough fabric for the deep folds of the skirt – that's a lot of fabric!

School's serger. Always hella convenient!

 

I had time to go through all the cut out pieces so far with the serger and OH LORD I'VE FOUND MY NEW NEMESIS WHEN IT COMES TO SERGING – IT'S CALLED DOING CURVES!! ( >д<) It's 99% impossible to do some curves and sharp angles and having the serger actually catching and sealing the edges without the automatic cutter (that moves when you sew, in case someone is not familiar with sergers) taking a big bite from places where you really don't want it to cut. Even my teacher (who's a sewing artisan) said it's impossible to do some curves so yeah, there seemingly is no magic trick that I simply have not been told about...

I sewed the shoulder seams and the side seams closed on the top and later on I went to fetch some white cotton twill from Eurokangas for the bolero, aka the sleeveless vest thingy. I know that at mom's there is a perfect golden fabric that I could make the golden details out of (it doesn't even fray!) and I plan to go fetch it this coming weekend. At mom's there should also be a big roll of white fake leather which I'm planning to use for the cape, since I most likely will want it to be rigid and actually not fold like a normal cape. The reason for this is that in the game his cape stands up on its own and the full design of it is always visible. It should look like some really extravaganza fancy cape with its own will, lol. Fuck gravity!

Invoker reference.

 

I'm not yet sure what I'll make those shoulder armors out of but it's either gonna be the same leather as for the cape (assuming it's suitable, I haven't seen it in person yet) or worbla. I'm honestly a bit intimidated by making it out of worbla because I'm still really new and inexperienced with it and yeah, Invoker's armor would need quite some thinking and skills to get to look nice...

I have most of the fabrics ready or at least planned out. I only need to find something for the gloves (the black parts), the front flap and the white-ish waist & butt skirt thingy. I honestly have no idea what to call it. xD I also need to fetch buttons for the vest but that shouldn't be a problem seeing what a shitload mom has in a box, lol. I might need some fabric for the boots though, if I decide on making them crazy long, as they seem to be on the very first Invoker picture I posted.

Invoker reference without cape, shoulder armor and arm bracers. (and hair, lol)

 

I'm thinking about doing the golden chest armor out of worbla, golden leather (if I can find any) or polystyrene sheets, I haven't decided yet. Those decorations on the front flap I'm not sure about since I have no idea whatsoever if worbla sticks to fabric. Anyone know?
I'm planning on making the arm bracers out of worbla or gold-colored leather as well.

So yeah, I have many things planned out for Invoker but luckily this isn't a cosplay project that needs to be finished anytime soon; it's a more long-term one so I'll have plenty of time to take it slowly and think along the way. It feels good to not have a definite deadline that is all or nothing, hah.

That's all for this time. Stay tuned for the second part!

Shiro Samurai out.