Feralheart Druid

This is one of my all-time favourite cosplays! In a way, it’s simple, because it has no lights or special effects like my previous druid sets, but I feel that all the colours and shades make it come to life anyways. Here’s how I made it.

I was actually stuck in a creative slump when I started this project. Initially, I just wanted to make the shoulders, because I liked the birds and I wanted to try to make them, so that’s where I started.

I cut the body of the birds from XPS (isolation) foam. The bellies are white, because my foam wasn’t quite thick enough, and I used foam clay rather than glueing on another layer of XPS foam. The wings are made from 3mm EVA foam and there’s a steel wire at the top of each wing to help keep the shape, covered with foam clay to give it some body.

I covered both of the birds in cosplayflex, which I sanded and then primed with Flexbond

Next I primed the birds with black and gold – the gold only on areas where it’s needed.

I used painter’s tape to cover the areas I wanted to keep gold while airbrushing the rest

As you can see, the base for the shoulders turned out quite huge. I returned to them later during my work and redid them.

The new shoulders were quite a lot smaller. Made of foam and cosplayflex.

The birds are detatchable with small “sticks” that stick ouf of the base and go into the bird. I also added magnets to help keep them in place.

Next I started working on the top. I used a bright blue pleather. The pattern was made with the ceran wrap and duct tape technique.

I made the “eyes” from gold and white pleather, the white one I airbrushed to make them look like glowy eyes.

I added gold borders as well and stitched everything in place. The back of this piece is just elastic straps to hold it tight while maintaining flexibility. The back is covered by the vest and isn’t visible.

Next I started on the vest.

I took a loose-fit jacket pattern, made a fast draft and pinned and cut until I had something that looked like I wanted. Then I made a new pattern from that, which I used for the vest-thingy.

In the reference, the fabric looks quilted, so that’s what I did. I use one layer of shiny fabric (it’s similar to satin, but it has a bit of texture) and one layer of batting. For the lining, which I will add after quilting, I’m using regular cotton.

All the quilted pieces. The lining is added towards the end, before I add the pleather edges.

I stitched together the 3 back pieces and added the gold applieque on top that also hides the seam. I also added another “gem” of white pleather airbrushed blue around the edges, so it looks like it’s glowing. The armor has these very eye catching yellow/green tendrils that are quite contrasty with the other parts, but I like them a lot. I took a green pleather and airbrushed it a gradient yellow before adding them to the back.

After I stitched it together, I worked on the sleeves and the feathers. The sleeves were made with the same technique as the rest of the jacket, the feathers were made from pleather like the video here.

And here is the finished result with the sleeves and the feathers. I’ve also added a gold edge at the neckline.

To keep the jacket sitting exactly where I want it and prevent it from flapping around, I have 4 magnet clasps (2 on each side) that snap onto the top.

Next up was the skirts. These are also multiple parts, to make it easier to hide closures. The first skirt is the blue with feathers and the triangular front panel.

The blue skirt is made of a cheap stretchy fabric. It has a nice flow to it and is comfortable against the skin. To keep it in place, there’s a cotton waistband with a clasp at the back. This will be hidden by the upper skirt.

I made the panel pattern first with some cheap cotton fabric.

The panel is a dark grey pleather with cotton as backing. I airbrushed some light grey on it to give it some depth. Then I glued the green and white “V”-shapes on top – these were also airbrused at the edges to give them depth.

Last, I glued on the gold “V”‘s and stitched down everything. I’m using contact glue (pattex original) for all the glue steps.

I started on the upper skirt before finishing this one, because I needed to know how far up all the feathers on the lower skirt will need to go. I once again draped some cheap fabric to make the pattern.

Then I quilted all the pieces, just like I did with the jacket.

There is a seam at the back, because the reference had it, but I made sure to align the quilting as much as I could with it, because I didn’t want it to look too asymetric.

The edge on the skirt is again pleather that has been airbrushed. I traced the edge of the skirt so far to make the pattern.

I stitched it onto the skirt. At this point I also made the hip decorations, with the same airbrush and pleather layer technique.

Then I got started on the claw mark stripe-things on the sides of the skirt, first patterning with paper.

I once again airbrushed green pleather and glued them in place – and afterwards stitched them

By draping pattern paper around me while the skirt was pinned how I wanted it to sit, I made the belt-like upper edge that holds skirt together. It is made to have a bit of overlap on the side, so it can close with velcro.

All remaining skirt edges were folded down and stitched in place and velcro added – almost done with upper skirt, except for one tiny detail

The last bit missing was the little “donuts” on the back that I assume are supposed to look like laces that hold the skirt together (game dress logic…).
I took a piece of foam and a round piece of gold pleather and cut a lot of tiny triangles in the fabric to be able to fold it in around the foam and glue it down. I tested with both the blue skirt fabric and blue pleather and decided to use the fabric as the “lace”. The donuts were then just glued in place.

Next I made the lower gold edge on the lower skirt. I used the same gold pleather from the rest of the costume, but for the lighter gold diamonds, I used a stencil and rub’n’buff. I wasn’t sure it would hold, but so far I’ve worn it a few times, and it still looks good.

I made a LOT of feathers for the skirt – probably around 100 or more – using the same technique as the sleeve feathers, except I didn’t draw on the yellow everywhere. All of them were hand-stitched on at the top only, so they still have a lot of movement when I walk.

Last on this skirt, I made the yellow/green stripes. These were simply glued in place, since the feathers are kind of “loose”. It works pretty good!

The last remaining part missing was the bracers and gloves. The gloves are just simple jersey finger gloves. The bracers consist of a quilted base, pleather details and triangular foam bevels. They close with velcro.

The finished bracers

The finished cosplay:

View gallery