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📚The Hero’s Closet + Handwear Handbook Writer-editor-artist-craftsperson-cosplayer, not necessarily in that order. It’s all about the process. NYC.
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#clairobscurexpedition33#expedition33cosplay#expedition33#lune#lunecosplay#clairobscurcosplay#cosmaker#leathercrafting#cosplayarmor#clairobscur
Recent posts
Eagle eyes among you may have spotted this up for preorder already, but for everybody else: I have a new book coming in April from FanPowered Press @ctpublishing ! Let's talk about GLOVES, my friends.
The market for cosplay books has changed a huge amount since the Hero's Closet came out five years ago, and I'm in great company these days, so I leapt at the chance to go deep on one of my favorite topics instead of feeling like I had to cover everything all by myself. Gloves are one of those notoriously fiddly and time-consuming pieces that can hold up a whole build if you let them, but it's also ridiculously satisfying to get them right. They're relevant to almost every genre and type of costume, and can express a whole range of moods from purely adorable to sexy and mysterious to stone cold badass.
So now there's a full 96 pages of my glovemaking obsession on its way to you, including full patterns for stretch and non-stretch gloves plus variations and some cuffs, bracers, and arm wraps for good measure. Plus gorgeous moody @maison_hikari photos of all the projects to make them extra inspiring. And yep, that full armored gauntlet on the cover is in there too. I also covered hand and machine sewing methods with tips for tiny seam allowances, adjusting patterns to fit, glovemaking materials including leather and leather-like fabrics, detail and embellishment ideas, straps and hardware, and how to integrate gloves into a bodysuit without making it harder than it needs to be to wash your hands. You can dive right into the full gusseted leather glove experience, or dip a finger in with a fun lacy wrist cuff. Armwear for everybody! April 25! Let's go!
#glovemaking #cosmaker #cosplaybook #cosplaysewing #cosplaygloves #leathercrafting #cosplayarmor #cosplayaccessories #handwearhandbook
01 Jan 1970
“I’ve missed the smell of witch blood.”
The Warlord has arrived! One gets the sense that she doesn’t care about liberating Ravenna so much as the opportunity to splatter some fools. Also that her personal life has gone a little haywire and she’s got some frustration to get out.
This was a four month build, using a combination of leather and worbla over a canvas base for the armor, and a cardboard base for the sword and wings. Tutorial for the breastplate and pauldrons is coming soon, so I won’t go too far into the construction details now, but I’m excited to show how I mashed sewing together with worbla sculpting to come up with my lightest, most flexible armor pieces yet.
I didn’t get to quite everything on my list, so there’ll be some updates when cons exist again and I have somewhere to wear her, but I’m stoked that the silhouette came out so close to the concept art inspiration and I feel like I made a decent stab at bringing out the highly ornamented Monstress aesthetic. Feels good to be back in this (grisly) universe!
The Warlord is from Monstress by @marjorie_liu and @sanatakeda_art - this is a concept art version that was included at the end of volume 5.
@worblana provided Worbla’s Black Art for this build in exchange for the forthcoming tutorial
#monstresscosplay #monstress #warlordofthedawncourt #cosplayarmor #worbla #worblasblackart #worblaarmor
14 Mar 2021
Holy molskins, Katsucon. This shot by the magnificent, multi-talented, and rainbowy @jacquistuffnthings is my photographic prize for the con, but equally treasured are all the conversations I had with amazing cosplayers and creators, and the spectacular, inventive, and meticulously crafted costumes I got to ogle all weekend. I freaking love you all.
Ciri is not quite 100% done, but is now measurably closer with fully finished embroidery and incomplete but wearable furry collar. (Thanks in part to a delayed and ponderous amtrak journey, plus a couple early mornings stitching in the hotel room.) I’m also pretty dang pleased with my first real prop, which ended up lightweight and a little flexible but still pretty smooth and swordlike.
On to the next thing! Possibly after a nap.
#katsucon #katsucon2019 #witchercosplay #ciricosplay #cirillafionaelenriannon
17 Feb 2019
This is me wishing the magnificent artists at @sandfallgames a billion game awards wins this evening. In addition to making a beautiful game that rewired my brain and fueled up my own creative batteries, they gave us a story of passion and teamwork and unified creative purpose that proved it is still possible to create something spectacular and new in the year 2025 and for that art to find an audience of people who love and appreciate it. I don't know about anyone else, but as a creative professional looking around the noisy, cynical, slop-drenched trenches of our current cultural landscape I desperately needed that story and I hope that it empowers even more games that are distinctive and passionate and challenging and have a strong point of view. You all were a breath of fresh air in the middle of a trashfire year, and the several hundred hours I spent building this costume are the best tribute I can offer.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 'Flowers' costume built in tandem with @heyhailo 's build of the 'Gommage' suit, and we've both also posted a ton of wip for the curious. Cosplay photos by Mark Baker.
#clairobscurexpedition33 #lune #expedition33cosplay #expedition33 #lunecosplay
11 Dec 2025
I waffled a bit about what satellite prop to build for Lune, but even though Choralim is my endgame favorite I kept coming back to Lunerim for the aesthetic. It also lent itself well to my preferred construction method, using bristol paper and basswood to keep the weight down as much as possible.
I started with a sketch of the shapes in Illustrator, and built up the papercraft pattern manually by adding on all the additional faces and angles to give each component the appropriate depth. I did several prototypes to work out the overlaps and corners which edges worked better as creases and which could be glued together with tabs. At this scale, it was also important to account for the thickness of the paper to make sure that all the pieces fit together as they should.
The spindly crossbars are basswood strips slotted through the paper components for stability. I also added an x-shaped understructure in .051" spring steel wire that I had left over from another project, which slotted into channels on the underside of the spokes. I used scraps of worbla to reinforce and stabilize the intersection point at the base, and to create an attachment point for a wire mount, I set a grommet into a piece of chipboard and passed a Chicago screw through it before using the worbla to secure it to the base of the prop.

I primed with black acrylic gesso, then added Liquitex ceramic stucco medium to some of the planes for a bit of texture variation. Paint was mostly Jacqurd Lumiere paints in the colors true gold, old brass, pewter, and Jupiter plus a bit of matte black and white liquid acrylic to dull the shine in certain areas. I also mixed some of the texture medium with black to add a bit of grit to the crevices at the end.
I mounted the prop on a 10" stand of .075" spring steel wire, which was strong enough to make it look like it was hovering just above my hand, but I'll probably go up a few gauges when I get around to building a backpack mount so it floats over my shoulder.
#clairobscurexpedition33 #lune #expedition33cosplay #lunecosplay #expedition33 #lunerim #cosplayprop
04 Dec 2025
Pals, I am just so freaking pleased that all the updates and props and scheduling came together so that we could get pictures of my favorite Expedition 33 duo with a rusty antique train on a November afternoon. The sun sets so early now that we were worried about getting in while the light was still good, but the timing turned out to be just right so the lights came on while we were there and we got those beautiful ominous stone waves cliffs vibes.
@heyhailo made her Sciel gommage outfit and cards, I made Lune's flowers outfit and lunerim prop, and Mark Baker did heroic work with the photos. Thanks also to @cornettocosplay for photoshoot company and assistance!
#clairobscurexpedition33 #expedition33 #expedition33cosplay #lune #sciel #lunecosplay #scielcosplay
02 Dec 2025
Fresh off a first outing at NYCC, the Expedition 33 Flowers/Gommage outifts that @heyhailo and I have been feverishly building for the last 4-ish months are finally complete. Surprise, this was a teamup event! We made our way through the game at the same time, screeching about the same plot developments, then jumped seamlessly into picking out materials, planning construction methods, and making patterns separately in our own apartments that somehow turned out to nearly identical. It was a joy to be co-building with someone who was so completely on the same wavelength, and it was definitely a huge reason why we were able to blaze through this massive project as fast as we did.
We're already scheming upgrades, props, and a full photoshoot, but in the meantime here are some more closeups and progress shots. Definitely check out Carly's post as well for more tasty details in the other colorway!
I've already talked about the fabric painting and the first part of the construction, so I want to point out how we handled some of the decorative elements in case it makes it easier for those who come after. The square leather embellishments on the jacket front are stitched to a separate interfaced piece of the jacket fabric, which made it way easier to keep the topstitching neat. The excess fabric can just be trimmed away since all the edges are on the bias, and then the individual pieces appliquéd to the jacket front.
The vest closes with hooks and eyes, and the cord details across the opening attach with magnetic bracelet clasps that are sewn behind the buttons. Carly had noticed that the the vest cords looked flatter than a standard twisted cord, so I made them by wrapping a narrow braid trim around a 1/8" grosgrain ribbon and stitching it down by hand. For the blouse ribbon, I wanted grosgrain for the texture against my taffeta fabric, but hand stitched it to a satin ribbon backing to give the bow and tails a little more body.
Heartfelt thanks to the artists at @sandfallgames who inspired this labor of love, and if you haven't played Clair Obscur yet you SHOULD and then you should come wail about it with us.
#clairobscurexpedition33 #expedition33 #clairobscur
13 Oct 2025
One more piece for my Expedition 33 'Flowers' costume! Let's talk about the paint process for a minute since the gloves have examples of everything.
For the geometric print that shows up all over this costume, I tested different sizes and line weights to figure out what looked proportionate and wouldn't be too nightmarish to weed. I settled on two versions, one with about a 1" repeat and one about 5/8". Then I cut them out in vinyl stencil film on my Silhouette and used transfer tape to apply them to the fabric.
The silver paint is angelus pearlescent sterling silver, and the red is a custom blend that I settled on after several dozen swatches that were all too light or too dark or too blurry or too pink. The winning combo was jacquard lumiere in metallic russet plus jacquard neopaque fire red, with a little bit of lumiere true gold to warm up the sparkle. Once all is dry, I peel off the stencil stickers and heat set the paint with an iron or press. Evrntually I'll finish with a little drybrushed pearlescent white to help blend the colors.
For the bronze design on the back of the hand, I used a similar process to my expeditioner capelet. I did a mockup with some scrap fabric and a marker to check the design, then cut and applied the stencil to white 4-way stretch ponte. I did a coat of lumiere metallic rust with a little gold to brighten it up and allowed it to dry completely. Then I applied the icraft decofoil liquid glue, immediately peeled the stencil, and applied bronze foil over the top of the paint. (the package straight up lies about how long to let the glue dry; I found that it works best if you proceed as soon as the glue goes clear and it's fully dead by the time the recommended hour has passed.) The foil needs to be aggressively burnished with a point presser or sculpting tool to make sure it releases from the backing, and then I heat set the whole thing before removing the sheet.
Assembling the gloves was pretty standard after that, although using a woven for the underside to match the rest of the costume meant I needed to be careful about finishing the tiny seams.
24 Sep 2025
So hey Rose City Comic Con is upon us and I'll be one of the judges for the cosplay contest tomorrow evening! It's promising to be absolutely stacked with incredible work and I'm so excited to see what everybody has been working on. If you're around, please come out and watch!
Meanwhile, you ever spend like 200+ hours on a new build and mostly forget to tell the internet about it? I've been absolutely in the zone on Lune's 'flowers' outfit from expedition 33 and this is where we're at about 20 feet of stencil film later. She's still missing a few details and accessories that I should have sorted out before her finished debut at NYCC, but meanwhile my hometown con gets the sneak preview of everything that's wearable so far.
#clairobscurexpedition33 #clairobscurcosplay #expedition33cosplay #lune #rosecitycomiccon #cosplaywip
05 Sep 2025
Making the Expedition 33 cape: Stencil workflow!
This process uses stencil vinyl, low tack transfer tape, and @angelusdirect leather paint. Low tack is Very Important for this, as normal tack will just peel everything off the fabric.
Not pictured: the hours I spent hackily learning just enough of Illustrator to refine the scaling of the pattern to my body.
I cut the templates out on my @silhouette.inc Cameo Plus.
Pattern by @gillianconahan
.
#expedition33 #expedition33cosplay #clairobscurcosplay #maellecosplay #cosmaker #cosplaywip #cosplaytutorial
13 Aug 2025
This one's for my fellow emotionally wrecked expeditioners - I've been tinkering with my Clair Obscur capelet pattern for a month and a half and here it is at last. This is eventually going to turn into a full Lune build for me, but since the capelet is good for all four starting characters I've shared the pattern in my story highlight for anyone else who feels the need.
After testing several different techniques for the gold design, my favorite method was to paint it using stencil film and angelus leather paint in the color 18k gold, with decofoil applied (imperfectly) over the top to give it high shine but also some weathered texture. I drew out my main pattern piece on the face side of the fabric, cut the stencils on my silhouette and placed them a section at a time. After brushing on the angelus and allowing it to fully dry, I applied the decofoil gel glue over the top, removed the stencil, and applied the foil with a 300° iron and wooden burnishing tool. This process took some experimentation, but I really like the final effect and it should respond well to additional weathering with paint and sandpaper.
After that it was just assembling the cape, which I've detailed in my stories in addition to a good amount of the pattern development process. At the last minute I opened the game one more time and decided I hated the piping color, so I dry brushed on some metallic paint (jacquard lumiere in 'jupiter') and I think the result is a better match visually in addition to being extremely thematically appropriate.
I know lots of people who are much faster than me have taken a crack at this pattern already, but I'm still very pleased with my results and I hope that my pattern and cutting files are useful to somebody. For those who come after, yeah?
#clairobscur #clairobscurexpedition33 #expedition33 #expedition33cosplay #clairobscurcosplay
01 Jul 2025
It's been long enough since my last real post that in addition to the various irl stuff that's been keeping me from building things for myself, I've stubbornly bashed my way through the entirety of Bloodborne. So here we are now neck deep in a Lady Maria build (in honor of Cat Lady Maria, see last slide). I started with the hat because everything else has to be built in order from foundations out, and I was at the point where I just needed to make something already.
The hat is mostly built from two layers of 2-3 oz veg tan, dyed with water-based dyes and with the decorative saddle stitching done by hand in waxed linen thread. I developed the pattern by making a paper mock-up and then hacking it up and taping it back together until it looked correct. I do plan to share it at some point, but I'm still working on cleanup and writing instructions so it might be a bit. The fun thing about it is it's very easy to scale it up and down, so I was able to do a feline version as a test run before cutting into the real materials. (Thanks for the 30 seconds of modeling, bb)
The feathers were plucked from some feather trim I found in the garment district, and I sculpted the little badge from pearly worbla scraps I've had in a bag since like 2017.
Idk if hashtags do jack at this point but #cosplaybuild #leathercrafting #cosmaking #bloodbornecosplay #ladymaria #ladymariacosplay
04 Jan 2025
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