A project from 2014/2015. This cosplay took me a long time, mostly because I redid many parts, because I wasn’t satisfied. On the left is my main reference, which I made myself. In the middle is the original reference for the daggers and to the right, one of the reference photos I used to piece together my main reference. My Valeera cosplay is based on the Valeera from the World of Warcraft comic books – unfortunately, the details are drawn differently on every page, so I pieced together a cosplay that looked nice to me and was possible to craft.

The first part I worked on were the arm- and legwraps. It was a simple yet time consuming place to start. I sewed individual straps and then stitched each of them onto a base piece of fabric, which was made to fit my arms and legs.

Each wrap took me around 8 hours of sewing.

The next part I worked on was the top/corsage. I originally tried to make it from Worbla, but it was too bulky and uncomfortable, so I decided instead to sew it from red pleather – afterall, Valeera is a rogue, so it makes sense for her armor to be made of leather. I made a pattern by wrapping myself in duct tape, drawing the edges and the seamlines on and then cutting it out.

This photo shows the lining, which is made of a thick, stiff cotton fabric. This both helps keep the shape and also makes the pleather corsage more comfortable to wear, because pleather straight on skin is VERY uncomfortable! I made an exact copy of this in pleather as well.

I used metal boning to help keep the shape of the corsage. I added bias tape on the inside of the corsage along the seams and added the boning inside the bias tape. Afterwards, I sewed the lining and the front fabrics together.

For the breast cups, I took apart a cheap bra and used craft foam to get the edgy shape at the top. I attached it with hot glue and added gesso to smooth out the edge

 

Once I was happy with this, I added worbla on top, then around 15 layers of gesso, sanding, gesso, sanding – until it was super smooth. I then sprayed a layer of grey priming paint:

I didn’t find a spray paint in the right colour, so I airbrushed a thinned out acrylic paint onto the cups. It took around 8-10 layers to get the right deep shade of red:

I glued them onto the corsage

In this photo, you also see the front panel attached. There is a zipper in the front middle of the corsage, which I hid under a panel of EVA foam. The foam is attached with neodymium magnets – red bias tape is attached on the foam part and on the corsage and the magnets are sewed inside

I added pleather to the panel as well, and then cut out borders of EVA foam and covered the foam with car vinyl wrap (I made a video tutorial about that which you can see right here).

The next parts I made were the armor parts – arms and legs. I used sintra as a base and contact glue to glue the parts together. The swirls are made from Worbla.

I used acrylics to paint the armor parts (wrist armor not fully painted yet in this photo)

These also got gold borders of EVA foam + car vinyl. For the swirls, I added some wood glue to make the worbla surface smooth, then car vinyl on top of that.

I made an armor-part to go over the hand as well and attached it by glueing a piece of pleather between the main armor part and the hand, allowing for some bending of my wrist. An elastic string that goes around a finger keeps the armor from flipping up.

For the hair, I bought two cheap, blonde wigs and took all the wefts off from one of them

I then glued a LOT of these wefts onto a piece of EVA foam to get a high ponytail

I wanted light in it, so I glued an LED onto the foam and run a wire down to the base, where I soldered on battery holder and switch. I used a screwdrive to attach the whole thing to a rounded piece of worbla, which was shaped to my head where the ponytail sits. I covered it all with pleather to make it look nice and added a glass cabochon painted green with nail polish on top of the LED.

 

I cut a small hole in the second wig and pulled the ponytail through. Then sewed a few wefts around the hole to hide it

Next, I made the hood and cloak. The hood was a question of trial and error, I used scrap fabric to get the right shape. The cloak is tied with strings that go under the arm and around the back – it also has hidden pockets. The gold border is made with car vinyl again, but without EVA foam this time – it sticks to fabric as well.

I used this pattern to make the gloves and added conductive thread so I could use my phone while wearing the gloves.

The “underpants” were made by first making a pattern – I used household wrap and duct tape that I wrapped around my buttocks, then drew on the cut and seamlines and cut them off me – sorry, no photos! I just sewed them together after cutting them from the pleather. I glued pleather on a round button to get the right colour button, then made strips of pleather that I wrapped around EVA foam and hand-stitched onto the panties for the “flaps” at the sides.

All of the gems (except the one in the wig) was cast with resin using plastic molds.

I added a thin layer of foam below the resin and then an LED. All of it was wrapped with a thin strip of worbla to hold it together, and that strip was covered with car vinyl to get the gold border effect.

All LEDs in the armor parts are powered with 3V button cell batteries (CR2032) and the switch and batteries are just hidden below a flap of pleather on the underside of the armor.

The last remaining thing was the glowing daggers. They were also the most challenging part of the costume. I first made a pattern from paper which consisted of flat parts. These parts were then cut from Ikea PRÖJS table mats

I used hot glue to stick them together, and painted them with several thin layers of spray paint (it’s important to use thin layers, as it will otherwise run and give an uneven layer of paint)

I glued a strip of green LED wire inside the daggers to make them light up.

The upper handle was made from two layers of craft foam on each side – one flat with only a whole for the gem, one with the pattern of the surface cut out. I glued the layers together and added worbla to them

I measured out cable lengths and soldered everything together. The circuit consists of two parallels, one is the LED strip and the other is 3 LEDs in serial connection. That means that everything can be powered with a 9V battery, which fits exactly into the PVC pip used as base for the handle.

I wrapped the handle with leather strips.

The “end” of the dagger is made with a base of EVA foam wrapped in Worbla and detailed with worbla. The gem was made by casting two flat gems and gluing them together. There is an LED inside the end of the handle that shines into a hole in the dagger-end, which can be removed to replace the battery.

Finished, but unpainted:

 

I first painted a base layer of brown colour on the worbla parts. This was then covered with plain gold. Last, I added details (shadows/highlights) with bronze and silver paints

Finished cosplay (First photo without dagger paint detailing, though):