Thank goodness Halloween is done for another year

[locker_monster]

It was a dash to the finish, but I made it! I finished my Halloween costume on time for Halloween. With a day to spare! Whew. Now I can take a break and catch up on my video games and TV shows.

So for those playing at home, that's two costumes in 39 days. A humongous thanks to my mom for helping out with the sewing. I never would have finished on time if it hadn't been for her.

And a pic of the finished product:


You can't tell, but I have a short sword strapped to my back. I also made throwing knives but I ran out of time to make sheaths for them. Oh well, I can add things for the comic book expo in April.

So everything you see is homemade except for the gloves, which I bought. The "leather" bits are just fabric. I was fortunate to find some fabric that was suede like on one side and smooth on the other so it was like buying two kinds of fabric for the price of one.


A better look at the hood. You can kind of see the handle of the short sword. That and the silver triangle bit were just foam board spray painted silver.

Materials:
 - Fabric (white, brown, and red)
 - Cardboard (free from work!)
 - Spray painted foam board
 - Bronze buckles
 - Paper fasteners
 - Key rings
 - Glue (tacky, fabric, and Krazy)
 - Tape (duct and two-sided)
 - Velcro

I also used a black marker and a silver Shaprie to do the detailing on the left vambrace.

The hidden blade:

It's not perfect, but it works. I can jerk my arm and most time the blade catches on the stopping mechanism. The string tied to the ring on my finger is what allows me to retract the blade. I pull down on the string, which pulls down on the stopping mechanism and the blade slides back. The blade is oddly shaped due to the paint stirrer I used. It had the dips already so I had to work with it.

I bought springs, thinking they would work, but they were much too stiff and they didn't allow the blade to slide. Hence the elastic band you see. It's a bit too long so the blade slides out a little when I have my arms down, but oh well. Something else to work on for April.

Materials:
 - Keyboard tray slide
 - Wooden paint stirrer
 - Nuts
 - Bolts
 - Washer
 - Elastic band
 - Silver buckles
 - Misc. components from a two hole punch
 - String
 - Ring

So the only things that I bought to make the hidden blade were the silver buckles and the nuts and bolts (and the useless springs). I can thank work for the keyboard tray slide, the elastic band, and the parts from the two hole punch. It's kind of hard to explain the parts from the two hole punch. There's the ruler slide bit that determines the size of the paper and then there's a metal piece underneath that. The slide I used to make the bracket at the end and the metal piece I used to make the stopping mechanism. Thankfully the slide was a soft metal that bent easily and the metal piece already had holes in it so that made attaching it much easier. All I had to do to it was bend up one end so it caught on the locking mechanism which was just a bolt with half of the head ground down. Thanks to this guy on YouTube for the tutorial. The video was super helpful (despite the lack of concrete measurements).

A few people at the party recognized my costume but only because they were fellow gamers or their kids play the game. There was one guy on the casino staff where the party was held who also recognized the costume and as I was leaving for the night I heard a guy or girl in the parking lot mention Assassin's Creed so they must have recognized the costume, too. Mostly people thought I was a ninja, Robin Hood, a warrior of some type, or an Arab. Um, some of those guesses are close, but I still shook my head.

There was a costume contest at the party but, sadly, I didn't win. Some guy dressed up like a zombie Michael Jackson won, which I thought was kind of lame. I saw way better costumes than his. I guess being something recognizable helps. :-P

Anyway, for a costume that I made from scratch, I think it turned out pretty good. But next time I want to do some cosplay, I'm sticking to clothing based costumes.

Comments

[tardis-stowaway.livejournal.com]

I know nothing about Assassin's Creed, but your costume looks amazing! You've clearly put a bunch of effort into it, and it has all sorts of neat stuff going on.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

Thank you! This is the first time I've made something from scratch that didn't exclusively involve cardboard and duct tape. I don't know how people do it, sewing everything. I can barely sew straight lines.

But it was good fun and I plan to add to it, probably starting in the new year. And I will start well in advance this time.

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

Looks great! And that knife-thingie is way more complicated than I'd imagined, what with the elastic bands and the string tied to a finger.

Excellent work.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, this design was the simplest one I could find. I mean, there are even simpler ones where you just use gravity to get the blade in and out, but I didn't want to keep my arms up the entire time to keep the blade in. Other designs had spring triggers but usually that involved making custom pieces that I didn't want to make and even then there was no way to get the blade back. So yeah, once you break it down, this design was the best, especially for someone like me who has little experience working with power tools.

I still want to install a spring to replace the elastic. I swiped some abandoned staplers from work and I hope to take out the springs in there. Hopefully they are floppy enough to allow the blade to slide.