Female Corsair from Final Fantasy XI

This character was chosen by my research partner as she is to be completing the costume for Anime Boston 2014. We both decided to make our own versions of the costume and completed a journal depicting our progress from the design stage to the completed product. My partner provided the reference image to me. I only used a single reference image for the design of my costume because it shows the front and the back of the costume fairly well.

I agreed to make this costume alongside my partner because overall I liked the design. I thought that the jacket would be a fun challenge and had a lot of room for interpretation. The designs on the jacket are not very clear so I had fun with interpreting and designing my own embellishments. Parts of the costume are also obscured by other pieces so those needed to be interpreted as well. 

Construction

Hat

The first piece I made for this costume was the hat. I purchased a large brimmed wool hat from Ebay, sewed brown trim along the outer edge, and free motion embroidered the grey designs with my straight stitch machine.

Skirt

The skirt was originally a black velvet wrap skirt I obtained at a fabric swap. I sewed up a back seam, inserted a new zipper and chopped about ten inches off of the length. The lacing panels on the sides of the skirts are made from hot glue that I dispensed onto wax paper, and spray painted. The lacing is made with brown twill tape and purse feet from JoAnns. The finished pieces were then handsewn onto the skirt.

Waist cincher

Under the jacket there a waist cincher I made out of embossed vinyl with a twill lining, cable tie boning, and a back separating zipper.  

Sword

The sword was something I purchased on Ebay and originally was silver with a black sheath. I repainted and aged the sword, adding strands of beads and tea dyed cotton piping to the handle. I made a new sheath out of raw cowhide that I burned with a wood burning tool. The sheath has a small belt loop that the waist sash pulls through.

Boots

The boots were originally a pair of floppy ankle boots that I purchased from Goodwill. I cut off the tops and constructed boot covered with back zippers, embroidered flaps, and decorative buttons. The boot covers are glued very carefully to the sides of the shoe.

Jacket

The jacket pattern was altered from a commercial pattern and has hot glue embellishments on the sleeves, cotton voile ruffles, free motion embroidery on the jacket panels, twill tape laced eyelet trim, and is fully lined. The jacket has rows of beads along the opening edge and ties in the front.

Accessories

The necklace was made out of a piece of balsa wood with hot glue details and hand sewn beads. The gloves were made from a pattern I found on Google and were handsewn out of brown sateen. The sash came from my local thrift store, the bandanna was made from some scraps in my stash, and the garters were made from extra white twill and burned to look old.