#cosplacon

Making the Destiny's Embrace Keyblade turned out to be a lot of fun, and it was a big level-up for my propmaking abilities. The hilt is a piece of 1" PVC pipe. It extends a few inches into the shaft, which is a 1.5" PVC pipe. The crown at the end of the hilt is a curtain rod cap. I made the remaining parts of the Keyblade from various thicknesses of EVA foam. The foam of the bulb is wrapped around a cut-up ping pong ball for curvature. I arduously hand-painted the whole thing, then wrapped the hilt with grip tape.

With the Keyblade finished, I moved on to making the dress. I was really excited to make this dress because it has so many cute elements to it. The main pink fabric is neoprene. I hadn't worked with neoprene before, but I found it to be a really easy material to work with despite not using the recommended sewing techniques with it. The black parts are a mix of satin and faux leather, and the lining is nylon tricot, all of which were left over from earlier projects. The patterned fabrics of the armholes and the ruffled skirt are Spoonflower satin. The zipper is a #10, which is pretty large, but I wish that I had found one even a little larger. This was also my first time making a hood. The little ears on the hood are one of my favorite details.

I spray-painted the silver parts of the bangle, but the belt, the necklace and the other two bracelets were bought as-is. The boots I modified only by removing a pull tab. The camisole was one that I already owned, but I made and attached the pink ruffle at the top. The wig is an Arda Vivien in Maroon that I trimmed and styled. I styled the bangs centered because that's how they looked in the promotional renders that I referenced, but I think in hindsight that it would have been more accurate to have them swept to one side.