KK - Kekkai Sensen - Cosplay Worklog

photo and post-processing by Mike Sabido

Costume breakdown of the very first cosplay I finished this year. Biggest outfit I made to date and despite a handful of mistakes, I'm happy how good they turned out. No decent photos yet but might schedule a photoshoot sometime this year as soon as i find the time to do revisions on some parts of this costume.
[UPDATE 08/10/16]: Wore the outfit for the second time and finally had some nice shots.

WIG

I wasn't really happy with how the wig turned out. First of all, they turned out several shades lighter than in the photos of the shop I ordered this from. Like leftmost side to rightmost side difference of the photo below.

I didn't want to go through all the trouble of returning since it was pre-ordered and I already waited six weeks for it. I decided to just go ahead and dye the entire thing.

I was a complete noob so I had to experiment but I couldn't afford to make any mistakes so the entire process consumed a lot of time leaving me no time to style the wig. I couldn't even find the right shade for dyeing. I wanted to use the sharpie method but it looked too bright so in the end I had to use poster paint mixed with water which is really messy and turns you fingers into a dirty yellow-brown every time you comb through it.

I thought it was the perfect shade but it looked different once I started using it. At least the wig wasn't so pale anymore. Once I wash my wig clean, I'm redyeing the entire thing with sharpie. Better it looked closer to yellow than brown.

[UPDATE 08/10/16]

I redid the dye job using the sharpie method and they turned out better than I expected. I also did some styling on the bangs and was really happy with how they turned out.

EYEPATCH

I made my eyepatch from rubbersheet and spandex. You can check my tutorial here.

COAT

It was my first time making a coat and I couldn't find an online tutorial anywhere that would fit with my resources on hand so I just sort of wing the entire thing.

I used a simple bodice pattern with a rectangle (length: from end of bodice to calf; width: 1/4 end of bodice circumference) and put them together just like in my messy sketch.

draft

longest piece of shit I had to work so far

While I'm really happy I finally got the collar right, I'm such a noodlehead for completely forgetting to insert an interfacing to make it stiff and stand up ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). I had to take the entire thing apart if I wanted to correct that mistake but I just couldn't bother myself anymore and will prolly find a workaround for it some time in the future.

I also had a few mismeasurements on the sleeves so it ended up looking baggy but it looks good overall so I stopped caring. Might redo them if I feel like it. I used a separating zipper on the coat front. The front and the bottom flaps are lined(...? is that how you call it?) to hide the seams since their back parts are easily visible.

sleeve details

Her inner tank top and shorts are closet raids.

GLOVES

The gloves were made of spandex with silver satin bias tape lining. Pattern traced using my actual hands.

PROPS

I couldn't really get a clear picture of her weapons so I just bought a simple pellet gun. I know her gun's supposed to be all silver in color but I couldn't find anything like that anywhere so I'll just settle with this at the moment.

I'm not exactly sure how her gun holsters looked like but I know she had them around her hips/legs so I just made a general design after much google search.

I traced the gun's outline first before drawing the main holster pattern around it to make sure it's the right size. I then transfer the pattern on rubber sheet.

I then covered each peace with spandex and sealed it with hot glue. Since they stretch, it makes for a cleaner curved edge. I used two pieces back-to-back per holster to hide the dirty back parts and also to keep the straps sandwiched securely between them.

I hand-sew the pieces together using back stitch. I could use hot glue or super glue but I feel like sewing makes a cleaner finish albeit it requires more work.

I also placed a strap on top of the holsters as well as on the bottom and sew in snaps so that they can easily be attached/detached with the other costume pieces. It also helps keep my boot cover up.

BOOTCOVER

Boot cover is made of spandex. The details are detachable so that I can still recycle it for other similar cosplays. I also made a tutorial on how I made it here.

photo by JM See