I don’t think it’s a secret that I am a fan of the World of Warcraft franchise, and one of the characters I like is Jaina Proudmoore. I particularly like her look in the comic, where there’s no clumsy pauldrons and the colour scheme is more simple than the in-game model.
I wanted to make this costume easy and quick, and it will be something to wear when I need a break from heavy armors. Since I’m not competing in this, I haven’t paid too much attention to craftmanship. Craftmanship is important, but sometimes, it’s nice to just make something quick and in my way. And here’s how I did it:
The bra in this photo will be the base for my top. The purple fabric is going to be used for the details and the skirt I’ve created using a modified dress pattern.
The first thing I did was to add white fabric on top of the bra and a gold border at the top. All this was added using fabric glue. The white fabric is super stretchy, so it sits smoothly.
I added a gold border at the bottom of the bra, and drafted a pattern for the part that goes around my back and covers the area between breasts and belly button. I drafted it using fabric that I draped around me and then drew the pattern on.
I added more gold borders to the lower part of the top.
The sleeve pattern was made with a basic sleeve pattern that I modified to be wider, and using the same pattern, I also made a pattern where the seam is at the front instead of at the armpit-part of the arm. I didn’t stitch it together along the side seam.
Both sets of sleeves got a golden border. In the reference image, there is a sort of runic-looking pattern on the sleeve, so I used some runes from the game to create a similar pattern. I did this by first creating the pattern with hot glue, then glueing gold fabric on top of the hot glue.
The purple/gold part of the skirt is seperate from the white part, and I started out with a belt. It is made of craft foam covered with gold fabric (glued on). The buckle is made the same way, the pattern on it made using the hot glue method also used in the sleeve. The buckle is held in place with push buttons.
I drafted the patterns and fitted them on a mannequin. After I cut out the fabric, I added the golden borders using craft foam, gold fabric and contact glue. I also used contact glue to attach the borders to the fabric.
Once all borders were done, I attached everything to the belt using contact glue.
And thus – Jaina is complete!
But wait! There is more!
I also made a staff for this cosplay.
Started off with two PVC pipes, cut one a bit shorter and added some worbla to hide where the two parts connect
Then I worked on the gems. I used Ikea table protection mat “PRÖJS” and a pepakura (paperfolding) pattern. Here’s a link to the pattern in pdo-format and in pdf-format.
Painted the rough (inside) surface with acrylics, then glued the parts together with hot glue
Same deal with the bottom gem
I added 2 wide-angle and one spotlight green LEDs to the top gem, and 1 wide-angle LED in the bottom gem.
For the “arms” that hold the gem in place, I used EVA foam as a base, and covered it with Worbla.
I used universal primer to prime the PVC pipe and wood glue for the worbla parts.
Last, I painted everything with acrylic paint, added button cell batteries and switches, which are hidden inside the pipe – the pipe can be taken apart in the middle for easy transport.