Claudia Auditore

I'm pretty much basically finished with Claudia, enough to take as test run, there's a few details I need to fix up a bit but I thought I'd show you all the test run I did. So I thought I could break it down a bit more then I did in my previous post where I spoke more about the progress.

I wanted to cosplay Claudia after I saw her in Brotherhood, she was fine in AC2 but she became SO much better in Brotherhood. I was a bit anxious to start on that dress that she wears, I really never made anything like that before. But then I saw her new outfit near the end of the game...and fell in love. She got really bad ass and started fighting alongside her brother at the end sequence. I think I loved her character as soon as she stabbed those guards early one and took on a brothel herself just to help the brotherhood.

What was interesting about this outfit is how it was based off of Maria Thorpe's outfit from Bloodlines and the end of AC2.



Pretty interesting, just a few minor changes, obviously the color, choice of fabrics and the boots are pretty different. But overall the design is still the same and references her outfit.

The first part was her tunic. The tunic was based off of dress pattern I had laying around, the same dress pattern I used for Trucy. The pattern had to be modified a bit, because the top part was separate from the bottom, but it had the same panels I needed for her tunic. The panels go between a brocade and a satin. And in between there's bias made from the satin.

The front was probably supposed to come together with hooks or latches, but I went with ease for myself, not entierly period accurate but I'm wearing a cape so that little detail wouldn't be noticed. I added a zipper in the back and the front is sewn together with a ladder stitch, to give it that look that her tunic had. The inside is lined with a super light lining material. It's pretty near sheer, but the point was to keep the brocade from fraying. The brocade frays SO easily, I sort of wish I had fray check to keep it from being so annoying. I did end up using a zigzag stitch on my machine to help it, but it goes to show that a serger would really help. But you make do with what you have! And a zigzag stitch is a decent substitute if you can't afford a serger.

The shirt part was based of a blouse pattern I had laying around, but it's not a full blouse. I made it enough to where it met the tunic and then sewed them together. I mostly did it to avoid the amount of layers I had to wear, because I knew how hot I'd be in the costume. There's still the cape I had to wear.

The cape itself was drafted from my own patterns. I had a hood pattern laying around that I modified and used, the caplet parts were part drafted on my own and the rest I found something I could modify. I lucked out and had JUST enough fabric to make the actual cape part and line it. That wasn't too difficult, the difficult part was to use the bias around the caplets.

Bias itself is never too bad, it's the corners that can get you. I had never sew corners before.I found this amazing tutorial online on how to do it, and it really helped out a lot. What is missing and what I still haven't done is the design she has painted on the back of her cape. I still really need to get around to doing that.

The rest are bought. I was able to use my own hair for her since she just has it pulled back. The boots, bracers and belt are all bought and thanks to a friend I had a small knife to carry!

Finished





Also thanks to this Ezio for posing with me! He was fantastic.

With the finished photos from the test run I really need to fix up a few minor details. But overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and I'm even more excited to wear it to Otakon!

Claudia Progress

So for a while now I've been saying that I'd be working on Claudia from Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. I finally have all the materials I need and I can finally start working on her. My biggest issue before was that I was waiting on the materials to come in, basically trying to deal with the Holiday shipping nightmare. Which was fine, because it gave more more time to get other things done (like Merryweather). But now I decided that it would be a grand idea to sweat like mad at Otakon with this outfit.



As a reminder that's the outfit I'm doing. Luckily for me there's no real render of it and everything I rely on is by screen-cap. Which was fun hunting for but I managed to get a nice collection.

I really had to fuss with the patter of the "tunic" part she has. I ended up modifying a strapless dress pattern. The way it was shown I had to alternate between the two fabrics. I really lucked out and got this really beautiful brocade. It's so soft, but it frays so badly.



I ended up adding a zipper in the back. I'm pretty sure the way everything is done with clasps but for my own purposes I went with a zipper in the back.



The belt and shoes are stand ins for the photo, but that's the tunic put together. The shirt is sewn in, mostly so I could avoid massive amounts of layers, at least as many as I could. And the last thing I finished off was the cloak. At least the sewing portion.



The shoulder part was pretty difficult. I've really never had to make a caplet or an odd collar thing. The collar part was modified from my Red Hood Miku pattern as the hood. The caplet part was a modified pattern I had. That's about all I have for Claudia now. I still need to get the boots and bracers and fix up a few little details.

Also some bonus progress for a wig and plushy. Working on Kamila from Ghost Trick.

I promised I'd post the nicer photos of Fastener, here they are.

The patterns were a bit more tough to construct. The first set of patterns were way too small. That and he's such an odd shape, so there really isn't anything online where you can get it easily. The zipper clasp parts are made from scuply and painted.

Also working on Claudia from Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. Probably the most intricate that I've had to do in a while. The brocade that I got is really beautiful. I really lucked into it, and got a good amount online to really play with.



The main part was sort of modeled off a dress pattern that I had and modified. And then the shirt part is sewn in together.



For the photo, the boots and belt are a stand in. Now that I have the time to really work on her, I can take my time and find some nice boots, or a decent belt. I still need to make the bracers she wears and the cloak. The cloak isn't to difficult, I've made a hooded cloak before. I've never made bracers, so it'll be interesting to see how they turn out. I can't say they'd be the best, but I've got the time to work it out. I think I'm really sort of avoiding having to make them at this point because I've never worked with the material and I've already messed up when I tried to the first time. So we'll see.

Also we'll see how this will fare during the summer, because with all this brocade and nice fabric I will be sweating like mad.

New Outfit.

So...AC Brotherhood has made me completely change my mind. I need to cosplay Claudia now. Playing through the game, she's become completely amazing, I just adore her. And then she got a brand new outfit, the Assassin's Garb.

This will probably be the most challenging outfit I'll make up till this point. But I always get really excited for big projects like this. I think what makes it look more difficult then it probably is, is the how detailed the material of the fabric looks. But actually breaking it down isn't as bad. Its just about breaking it down into pieces and working a bit at a time. Though I am the most concerned with the design on the back of the cloak, I really need to find something bigger and more highres of it. But for Katsucon it'll be nice for our group.

So it looks like for Katsucon I should have Kay Faraday, Claudia Auditore, Miku (Red Hood) and Flora (from Professor Layton). Flora should be rather easy to whip up so I'm not concerned about that. From here on its get through classes and get this done.