Sheik Cosplay

Man, grad school is kicking my butt. But not for the reasons you might believe. No, what's happening is I'm maintaining a really nice work-life balance...and the BART to SF takes 40 minutes. BUT despite all this, I decided to do a cosplay for Animation on Display (AOD) in Santa Clara, due in some part to habit of the season because of the typical PAX East timing (/cry). 

Tuh! Tuh-tuh! /vague spitting noises as I dash around

I made a costume for Sheik based on both Ocarina of Time and Super Smash Bros. Melee, since I main Sheik in Melee. I didn't take a lot of photos, but the cosplay was very straightforward; I purchased a blue jumpsuit from Amazon, a wig from Arda Wigs (my first wig, and I highly recommend the seller), colored contacts from Pinky Paradise, and fabric. 

I was in the middle stages of bleaching my hair pre-dying to blue at the time. 

 I'm pretty sure my neighbors thought I was crazy, watching that strange half-bleached-blonde girl standing outside in a blue jumpsuit, spray painting it...a different color of blue, using masking tape and paper as stencils...

For the arm bandages, because I don't ever trust things to stay put, I actually double-sided-taped strips of cloth onto a sleeve that closed with a strip of adhesive velcro. This gave me a lot of control over the distribution of strips, and made the weathering easier as well. After I spray painted the periwinkle blue parts, I put on the suit and painted thick white lines using acrylic, so that the paint wouldn't crack when I put it on because the suit was already in a pre-stretched state when the paint set.

Such a nice bandage. Such a dirty mirror.

Downsides of painting while wearing the suit: really strange conversations with my date later in the evening about why bits of me were still blue after I'd showered. It turns out spray paint is not the easiest thing to get out of pores. Upsides: looks like sick armor tatts. Yeah.

This spray tatt proves I'm down to get dirty...but still not as dirty as this mirror.

 And...then I got too wrapped up in trying to finish this cosplay in a month and didn't take any more photos. I shaped the wig by following the nice tutorial on Arda about making HUGE anime bangs, since Sheik has the silly tuft that defies gravity in front. It involves backcombing, hairspray, and lots of holding until dry (or using a hairdryer!). But I'm grateful that the bangs meant that I could at least see out of one eye.
I sewed the general shape of the cap to the wig using spirals of cloth, and then I used double sided tape and hot glue to finish solidifying the curvature, and made a few tack stitches to hold it all down securely. The cowl contains an inner layer of interfacing, and I had to use doublestick tape to stick it to the bridge of my nose anyways, just for security. I left enough material on the inside to allow for this to be done without making a tent occur.
The colored contacts are prescription, but not my prescription. I have astigmatism (funny football shaped eyes that are not curved the same amount both ways), as well as nearsightedness, and that means that colored contact options are very limited and also very expensive. I took a risk and decided to just go with normal, spherical prescription lenses, so while they were the strength I needed, they weren't the right curvature. Luckily, my toric curvature was on the smaller side of the threshold, and the only problem with my vision is that everything looked vaguely fishbowled if I thought about it. Otherwise, I was able to function quite normally. Word of warning: the contacts take a while to ship, so order early!

I was impressed at how red they turned out even over my dark brown eyes. I've used these contacts for several events since; they're a lot of subtle fun. 

And here's me at the convention, next to my alter ego! I made the finger bandages out of self-adhering sports tape strips, and the chest bandages, much like the forearm bandages, are actually strips attached to a camisole, because security in cosplay positioning is definitely worth the time. The edges of the bib were weathered by cutting jagged edges, placing it over the edge of a cardboard box, and then mercilessly attacking them with a drywall rasp. Underneath this all, I wore a binder to keep my chest flat, and ballet slippers to give a better shape to the feet and to not have to walk around oddly barefoot in January.

A very rewarding cosplay for the amount of effort that went into it; many people recognized and appreciated the character, and I had a lot of fun connecting with people over Smash and either love or hatred of other Sheik mains.