mostflogged cosplay

Character | Karai Oroku
Series | TMNT 2012

Construction Notes // Wig is two wigs sewn together, my old Kanaya wig (hah) and an undercut wig from arda. Translating her hair from that weird-ass helmet head she has was a bit of a struggle but I tried to do something flattering while still looking like the character. Body suit was altered from a costume someone else made - matte wet look spandex, with wet look sewn on the legs since her body suit has different areas of texture. Made bootcovers out of the same material over wedge shoes from payless. Swords were purchased in chinatown, no altering done by me. The sash is satin folded over with a velcro closure in the back, the symbol is made out of craft foam and scrapbooking paper from Michael's. I made the armor using craft foam, hot glue, spandex and velcro - for the parts on my legs/arms I wrapped that part of my body in cellophane, marked it with sharpie, cut it apart and transferred that pattern to paper, made any last minute adjustments that needed to be made, then cut out a craft foam version of it. Once all the pieces were cut out, I covered them in metallic silver spandex, then laid them flat and glued them to a piece of black spandex, which I then sewed a velcro strip onto so I could easily take the arm/leg bands on and off. I used the same method, but patterned it a little differently (basically just guessing and adjusting using piece of paper until the fit was about right), glued velcro to the back of the finished piece (shoulder, hip) and then attached velcro in the corresponding location on my body suit. The top piece of armor is actually patterned using, and glued to, a fabric top which has a separating zipper up the back. Even though I'm not where I'd like to be with armor making this project taught me a lot, and overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! Not too bad for not using a single drop of paint! 

Personal Notes // If this show had come out when I was younger I would have found myself a lot sooner. Shoutout to my gf for doing my eye make up bc I botched my eyeliner so bad I thought it was going to be unrecoverable - I do not recommend doing your make up with only one contact in if your vision is horrible.