Do-It-Yourself: Merida Wig (from Brave)
Merida is the high-spirited new princess from Disney/Pixar's new movie, Brave. One of her defining features is her amazing curly red hair. It took Pixar artists over three years to perfect the program that created Merida's trademark locks. It's the single most identifiable part of any Merida costume, and a huge challenge to create.
The biggest challenges for the wig were the specific shape and size, color and highlights, varied textures, and movement. After doing lots of internet shopping I decided that a single, store-bought wig would never achieve the look I wanted. As always, cost was a factor and I was not willing to buy a custom wig for my Merida cosplay, so I started researching and figuring out how to make one of my own.
I decided that combining multiple wigs would be the best course of action. I specifically bought three different wigs so that the hair wouldn't match perfectly. Normal hair has different texture and coloration throughout, and I hoped to mimic this look. In the end this was very successful and the final product ended up looking much more lifelike (other than it's crazy size) due to the variety in it. One was a very high quality wig (they will usually cost between $40 and $60 depending on where you shop) and the other two were cheaper costume wigs (usually around $20). Look for sales, used wigs, or outlet stores to save more money. You want the colors to match very closely, but if there is a shade or two difference between them it will still appear natural.
Step 1: Take the cheaper wigs apart. This is a mind-numbingly repetitive and slow process. Basically you use a seam ripper to carefully detach the strands of hair from the headpiece. As you can see in the picture to the right, the hair in most wigs is attached in rows. Clip most of the wig up on top of the foam head and start removing these rows from the back neckline. Be careful to keep these rows as intact as possible so it is easier to restitch them back onto the main wig. You just want to remove the stitches that attach the rows to the elastic/skull cap, not the stitches that keep the row of hair together.
PRO TIP: Start at the bottom back and stack the rows of hair neatly as you go. Then you will be able to sew them onto the same area on the new wig and the will be about the right size row and length.
Step 2: Sew the hair, by hand, onto the higher quality wig. It's important to use a higher quality wig for the base so it is comfortable and fits well. It will stay on your head more easily and look more realistic. The cheaper hair will look better if it is mixed in with high quality hair. Sewing hair to a wig is very similar to removing it. Use a hair clip to pile most of the hair on top of the foam head, and start reattaching hair at the back neckline. As you can see in the picture to the right, the higher quality wigs have more elastic in them so they can adjust more precisely. You want the hair to be straight between each strip of elastic, but don't pull it tight. If it's too tight, the wig will not stretch properly to fit on your head. Just stitch it where it lays naturally on the foam head. You will stitch the hair to the elastic strands in the wig, NOT TO THE OTHER HAIR!
When you are done stitching, try it on to make sure that it still fits. If it doesn't, you will have to remove the hair you added and try again. Seriously, don't sew it on too tight.
Step 3: Styling the huge wig. This is the most stressful part because you can really mess up wigs if you aren't careful. NEVER STRAIGHT BRUSH A CURLY WIG. You can really mess it up. Carefully shake it or bounce it up and down to give it life or use your fingers to remove tangles carefully. Wig spray can be very helpful to keep tangles down since it reproduces the natural oils that we make for our hair. It also makes the hair look more shiny and real.
To get the volume and shape of Merida's hair, I had to do a lot of teasing around the sides of the head. Teasing hair is very counter-intuitive, because you are basically creating strategic tangles in the hair to make it stand farther from the scalp. Again, clip the hair at the very crown of the wig up and out of the way, you only want to tease hair that will be hidden by it later. Take a small section of the remaining and pull it straight up from the wig, then brush BACKWARDS from the about half way up the strand towards the roots. Use a round bristle brush and lots of hairspray to make it easier. Short, quick strokes are best. This obnoxious YouTube video can show you much better than I can describe it, but just watch the first 30-40 seconds of it to get the idea. With a curly wig, the most important thing is to make sure you put the teased areas UNDER non-teased hair, so plan well! You don't want it to show and you can't just brush the hair smooth like you can with real hair. You might want to practice on a cheap wig or your own hair before you try on your main wig.
Curling wigs is a pain. If possible, always buy wigs already curled the proper amount. You cannot use curling irons or any heated hair styling tools on most wigs. The wigs I purchased were pretty curly, but there were a few strands that were sticking out oddly when I finished teasing. To amend this, I used old-fashioned plastic curlers (the ones that have foam and then clip shut) to wrap these strands and then CAREFULLY dipped them in boiling water for about thirty seconds. Be very careful to not dip non-curler hair in the water because it will straighten it, and don't burn yourself! After dipping them, carefully run just the curler hair under cold water. Having a second person to hold the wig head and extra hair is very helpful if you try this method of curling. Once the curlers have been dipped in cold water, carefully unwind them from the curlers and let them dry. Once they are dry, hairspray the heck out of them! I chose to use a few different sizes of curlers to give the same variety of curl size that Merida's hair has, and you may want to use the same trick if you are trying to recreate natural curls.
Step 4: Wear it! I was very happy with the final product, but I may add even more hair to it before next time! I saw a LOT of Merida cosplayers at San Diego Comic-Con and the wigs were what really set the good ones apart. In cosplay, size does matter.
Do-It-Yourself: Wonder Woman Boots
When I first designed my Wonder Woman cosplay, I wanted to make something that would be a believable real-world interpretation of Diana. That did not include the white and red go-go boots that are part of Wonder Woman's trademark costume, so I chose to go for the more Amazonian look of greek sandals and lace-up steel greaves. Since then, I have wanted the more traditional boots so I can be more easily recognized at cosplay events... because people seem to think I'm a patriotic Xena. Go fig.
There are a lot of affordable Wonder Woman boots for sale, however, my unique costume made things difficult because the shiny, bright red boots available online wouldn't match my muted, matte leather look. This limited me to two options, have them custom made or make them myself. My teacher salary and common sense made me choose the latter.
Step one, find boots. This step was very difficult for me, but I had an incredibly specific set of requirements and I was not willing to compromise... or pay over $50. I did weekly searches of Ebay, Etsy, and my local used clothing stores to find the perfect pair. Ebay eventually resulted in the perfect pair of tall leather burgundy boots in my size, for a price that I was willing to pay. With shipping, they put me back about $30. I had leftover white leather from my Sif cosplay, so it worked out perfectly.
The next step is to make the pattern. I highly suggest that you get a friend to help you with this because you have to be wearing the boots to get an accurate measurement. I used white interfacing that I cut in strips and taped in place with scotch tape to create my pattern. The interfacing has similar properties to the leather, and was already laying around my workshop. I started with the stripe at the top of the boot, being careful to cut it in a triangle based shape that would peak in the front and then meet behind my calf. I then measured a long strip to run down the front of the boot.
When I got the mock-up fitting exactly right, I carefully pulled these pieces off the boot (careful to keep them together as one piece) and traced them onto the back of the white leather. I used a pencil to insure that it wouldn't show later and CAREFULLY cut them out. Make sure that you cut one for the right and one for the left, they should be mirror images of each other. If you get two identical pieces, you did it wrong. After I cut them out I stitched white thread along the edges of the white to give it texture. It will also make it look like the stripes are sewn on, when they will (mostly) just be glued on.
PRO TIP: Cut slowly and don't use the full length of the scissor blades. This will insure you get smooth lines without those annoying jagged spots.
Once the pieces are cut, you should TAPE the stripes in place on the boot using masking or painters tape. Pins will leave little puncture marks in the leather, so avoid them. You should be wearing the boots for this step because the intended center of the boot and where the center of the boot is on your calf may be two different things. Trust me, I learned that the hard way. Double and triple check that you like the way the boots look and that they match each other. Pay special attention to the high point at the top of the boot and if the front stripe lands in the same place on both boots. Once they match you are ready to start attaching them!
I wanted to make sure my boots were super strong, so I sewed the top stripe to the top of the boot. (The yellow dotted lines in the picture to the left show exactly where I did the sewing.) You can usually use a normal sewing machine for this unless the boots aren't made of dress leather. Once this part is sewn together you should stuff your boots (with newspaper, extra cloth, etc) until they hold their shape themselves. You will then use Barge cement to glue down the stripe in the front and to finish attaching the stripe at the very top of the boot. Follow the application directions on the can to get the best hold. This glue needs 24 hours minimum of undisturbed drying time to get it's full hold, so don't wear the boots for this step.
Wait at least 24 hours before messing with the boots. Seriously. This is the hardest part for me, but learn from my mistakes and don't move the boots around until they have dried for at least 24 hours. Once the boots are completely dry, you should remove the tape and try them on and see if everything turned out the way you wanted! If there are any small spots that aren't glued down around the edges you can add tiny drops of Barge with a toothpick or small paintbrush.
Congratulations! You can now make your own unique pair of custom Wonder Woman boots on a budget!
Bringing Lara to Life
Lara Croft has always be an idol of mine. I was just entering adolescence when the first Tomb Raider game was released, and had just started to play video games. There was controversy over her sexy clothing and the rumors of a "Tomb Raider Nude Code" for every Tomb Raider release. People claimed that she was just a way to market to geek boys, but she was my gateway into loving video games as well. Lara was empowered and could kick some serious ass, but was always a lady at the same time. Classic Lara had used her considerable talents and wealth to chase her (very dangerous) dreams. It was her desire that drove her, and the love and respect she had for her father. She was one of the only female fighters who became a hero by choice, not because of a traumatic experience where they were victimized. (They have since changed this for the new Tomb Raider game, and it makes me very sad.) Also, she had major curves, was 5'9", and had really long dark hair. Talk about a girl I could relate to!
I was invited to participate in a cosplay event for E3, but I needed to wear a video game costume. At first I refused, due to my complete lack of video game cosplays. Then it dawned on me... LARA! I did a rough Lara costume a few years ago, but had a lot of work to do (in about a week and a half) to bring it up to the standards of my other cosplays. Now, LOTS of people do Lara cosplays. They are easily recognizable, even with small mistakes and inconsistencies. Wonder Woman without armor looks odd, but people don't really notice if Lara is missing her backpack, or if her boots are the wrong color. If you wear a aqua colored shirt, shorts, gun holsters, and braid your hair, you're set! However, I thought it would be a disservice to my favorite archeologist (sorry Indy!) if I didn't pay attention to the small details in classic Lara's outfit.
Boots
Lara's classic boots are brown. This is one of the details that most often gets overlooked because it is so easy to find black boots that approximate the design of Lara's. I don't make boots, so these were the first step in this cosplay process because I needed them to arrive in less than a week. They had to look rugged and utilitarian enough to be useful climbing through tombs. After extensive searching, I ended up getting these boots from Amazon.com.
Shorts
Reference pics differ slightly on the color of Lara's shorts, but most are either a dark Khaki color or a variation chocolate brown. Since I had some Khaki shorts that fit well already, I decided to customize them to fit Lara's style. The first step was getting them the right color. The shorts were dyed them with a combination of brown dyes to get the balance that looked the most like the reference pic to the left. I present the before and after pictures:
The dye actually wasn't absorbed into some of the thread of the shorts, which gave them some great (unplanned) texture and detail. After dying them, I shortened and hemmed them within an inch of their lives!
Shirt
Getting Lara's shirt to look right is all about tailoring. No shirt fits that well over a pair of large breasts without a few nips and tucks. I started with a Bella women's short sleeve shirt in seafoam blue, and basically remade it. I removed the sleeves and opened the neck more to imitate Lara's tank top. This gave it a pretty good fit, but it was still too loose around the waist and the arm holes had gaps due to the super-bra I was wearing (don't judge). I ended up adding darts to the front of the shirt to make sure it fit around the breasts well, and took in about a half inch around the waist area on each side. This gave it a much more fitted look that matched Lara's. I will have to be very careful with this shirt because any stretching will undo the work I put into fitting it perfectly.
Other Accessories
If you're still reading this, you must be planning your own Lara cosplay... or are hoping for some sexy finished cosplay pics. The rest of the pieces of the outfit I bought, mostly on Amazon and Ebay. I highly suggest looking in military surplus for brass belt buckles for a more realistic, but still classic Lara look. I found mine, and the leather backpack on Ebay. The backpack was actually a purse which required some alteration of the straps and a removal of a loop handle. The guns were the most difficult thing to find. I pieced them together off of Amazon finds, but have since found a great deal for Lara guns and holsters. These are almost exactly like what I ended up with, but actually are cheaper! I had to remove the upper leg strap on my holsters (just like with the pair I linked to above) in order to match Lara's classic look.
PRO TIP: Make sure your holsters have clips/ties/straps/etc that keep the guns in the holsters. There is nothing less Lara-like than sitting down and having your guns crash to the floor.
Styling
Last but not least, the famous Lara braid. I am very lucky to have incredibly long, dark hair. However, mine is layered and does not have the thick full look that Lara's does when braided. My solution was to buy a bag of weave hair at my local wig store. They usually run about $3, but you have to be careful that it matches your hair color well enough to look natural. It's not good quality hair, so it's not good for styling, but it worked well to braid in with my natural hair. I just attached it to some banana clips by folding it over and using tiny elastic bands. On the night of the event, I french braided my own hair and slowly clipped in the home-made extensions in with my own. It worked very well and matched perfectly.
I'm just starting to learn about makeup, and so (like all my cosplays) I did a youtube search for the type of look I wanted. I wanted her eyes to stand out a lot, just like in the games. I used the eye styling from this youtube video, but didn't use any of the other tips. Yes, it says it's styled after Kim Kardashian. Just ignore that, because the eyes look cool when they are finished.
And... you've got Lara Croft!