Making Korra's season 4 outfit

29 May 2017 - cosplay

This marked the beginning of my descent ascent into cosplay. San Francisco Comic Con was coming to town, and I thought it would be a nice excuse to start a new craft hobby, one where I explicitly decided I was going to make mistakes, not worry about having the "right" sewing technique (or whatever) and kick perfectionism out the door.

It wasn't my first cosplay (in that I'd had friends who thankfully introduced me to the sport back in high school, and I'd put together an outfit for Kaylee Frye for Halloween the previous year), but this certainly was the gateway for me entering the cosplay realm. There was no going back.

So ...

Why Korra?

Well, first of all, Janet Varney, Korra's voice actor, was going to San Francisco Comic Con, and I thought it would be really awesome to rep Korra where Korra's voice actor was. I got something signed by her (which con-newbie that I was, I didn't realize you needed to bring something to get signed, but luckily they had prints ready for people like me) and I spontaneously also decided, yeah, I did want a photo with her.

Oh, and I was trying to convince my roommate to watch the Avatar/Korra series for the first time.

And Korra's badass.

So, naturally, I picked the Korra they hadn't seen yet: Season 4 Korra. Why Season 4? Mostly because her hair and arm warmers looked possible. Plus, her new boots are sleeker.

The series has been out for a while, so I figured there wouldn't be that many Korras running around, but she probably still had high recognizability.

And ... there were ...

A lot of tutorials

Lots of people have put together Korra costumes, and there are so many resources for how to put together this costume. Here's my callout list.

• Korra (Book 4) Cosplay Construction Notes
  • In which I found out the pants were ... greyish? I subsequently spent a lot of time trying slate blue sweats fabric.
  • But this has SO MUCH INFO and SO MANY PICTURES. It also starts with "So this cosplay was pretty easy to construct." Win.
  • I didn't understand the shirt part at all. Now that I'm putting together this list, I'm realizing it's suggesting to actually make the front flap a ... guess what ... front flap. *FACEPALM* Well, next time ...
  • I was sad that the boots called out were not available by the time I came across the post, but in the end, I was quite happy with my footwear situation!
• Video Tutorial Series
  • SUCH respect for youtubers.
  • I ended up making the shirt myself, but using the tricks here for sewing the white trim / ribbon on.
  • Pants were explained in a way I pretty much understood.
  • Found out here that the Season 4 skirt was different. Welp! Cool.
• Boot tops
• Slipper Tutorial

Three ways making Korra's outfit broke my mind

(Or things I learned.)

If you copy your pants pattern from existing pants ... Be warned! Pants shouldn't have two butt sides. The front and backs of pants are different. Maybe I wasn't paying attention to the tutorials, but I copied the same side twice. So, net result, the pants I made can't be worn backwards (even though my roommate who wore it to Fanime claims they could tell which side was the butt-side). I decided this wasn't a problem because it'll be covered by an APRON.

Hiding pockets is the most amazing. I didn't have to carry around a bag. My phone, keys, wallet were all on me! I got the idea from Stashbusting Korra from the Fabric Alchemist. Turns out "stashbusting" doesn't actually mean sewing in hidden pockets to stash things to prevent others from seeing they exist and then you can bust it out later. Yeah, okay. That sentence didn't make sense to you? Writing it down, I realize it makes no sense to me either. And if I ever looked at Amon's costume, I would've realized how ridiculous it is to hide a pocket in a BELT. What are you going to put there? A microwhip? But, nonetheless, because of this article, I got the idea to make the apron a kangaroo pouch, so thank you!

You can cut fuzzy fabric reasonably if you cut at the base of the fabric instead of trying to cut over the fuzz (after combing it down so that the fabric is "flat"). Thanks Wendy!

Some other discoveries I made

• Stretch material is amazing to wear.
• Arm warmers are amazing to wear (and keep you warm)
• Bias tape is amazing for finishing edges. (But stretch fabric less so.)
• Irons are amazing (especially for making bias tape).
• Colored contact lenses are fun, but the ones I got were the sort that sort of blended into your existing eyes, so no one would've known I had blue contacts unless they got close enough to stare into my soul. (Doesn't matter! I know)
• Going to sleep at 3am between day 1 and 2 because you stayed up making SHOES because you disliked the fact your black boots didn't really fit Korra's costume and saw really awesome outfits whose shoes really complimented them and hated the fact yours didn't... (That's not really a discovery. Maybe it's that -- shoes really make an outfit?)

Specific construction notes

Specific construction notes can be found here instead, but I will call out even though it looks like it's all fabric, there is one 3D printed part hidden in it all! It's the pentagon belt piece! I just needed a rigid shape, and what I had access to was a 3D printer.

Turns out, my 3D print actually failed, but this made it even better! I'd printed it with a crosshatch interior to keep it light on printing material, and this ended up being exposed. This gave the shape some grip on the fabric loop I shoved it into so it doesn't shimmy out of place and the fabric details don't shift off-center.

All told, SO WORTH IT

I got to meet Janet Varney. Heard her talk on a panel. She is hilarious. I got to meet awesome people. I got to throw punches at so many cameras.

And the outfit got used AGAIN. My roommate borrowed it for their first con (awwww). It was a good thing I made the pants infinitely long (they're taller). And I got to borrow their shirt for Minami (but I guess that's a different blog post that will take me another four years to finalize).