Lockdowns started occurring halfway through my construction process, so finishing this became more difficult and dragged out as a result. I also had to get creative with some of the items I had on hand to avoid going out! So here’s the breakdown. I’ll go head to toe!

 

I had the base wig and medium wefts for Tinkerbell that I got years earlier, but since Tink wasn’t happening soon, I used it for Rikku. I did need a matching ponytail though, so I ordered a Jareth in fairy blonde from Arda as well. I fashioned the wefts into braids, and hand sewed them throughout the wefting of the Derek base. Some of the braids were able to be “double looped” to save me some time, so one loop may actually be the same braid as another! The loop through the wefts of the wig net, and it’s like my head has drawstrings, ahaha. 

 

The beads were used from what I had on hand. I didn’t have quite enough blue beads to finish it, so I painted some wooden ones to match using nail polish. They stay in place by using invisible thread, so they won’t fall, but should I ever need to fix a braid, they’re easy to remove! The Jareth ponytail I back combed and lightly sprayed with hair spray to volumize it, and I defined the spikes by using clear nail polish at the ends, since I could not find my styling gel. I used a jumbo butterfly clip inside to attach it to the back of the Derek base.

 

The headband was made using blue scrap spandex, I believe from my old Supergirl cosplay. And the earrings, I made using feathers ordered from Amazon and earring findings I had in my jewelry making stash. Never made feather earrings before, they came out cute! I clipped yellow and orange feathers (harder than you think to find matching fluffiness and curviness of the feathers!) and a crimp bead and hooked wire rod to attach them to an earring post/

 

The scarf is made of two yellow scarves ordered from Amazon, sewn together to make it extra long! Originally on a time crunch for my aforementioned hike, I used Design Master spray paint to create the effect of an ombre dye, since I wouldn’t have time to trial and error on a vat dye. Luckily, DM paint is the closest thing you can get to air brushing without actually air brushing, so it came out beautifully vivid, and still comfortable enough to wear!

 

The bikini was created using a base yellow bikini from Amazon, since I didn’t want to go to Joann to try and select foam padding and such as voluntary stay at home suggestions started happening. I taped off the center bikini area and painted the rest of the bikini orange using the same Design Master spray paint. I’ve done this on Spandex before with great results! I then used a soldering iron to insert four holes into the front of the bikini to help me install grommets to match Rikku’s. Using scrap Yaya Han matte pleather spandex, I created the black straps for the bikini, which can slide on and off of the bikini string, since fabric like that tends to crock, I don’t want it creating black or purple-y smudges on my bright yellow top when store together.

 

The white sleeves were made using a thin white knit lining, since I wanted a sort of gauze-y sheer look to the fabric. I created my own pattern to finagle these somewhat goofy sleeve-glove things together using a combination of my sewing machine, serger, and hand sewing. The bows have batting in them to give them a little bit of fullness and structure.

 

The fignerless gloves were a pair I had on hand from other cosplays, so simply reused them for Rikku again!

 

Lower Torso: The skirt was a fun one to make! This also started being built during voluntary SAH suggestions, so I used an old long sleeve  t-shirt from Charlotte Russe to create the skirt, and another short sleeve one to create my built-in shorts. The shorts serve of course to keep me modest since I wanted the skirt to be accurately short, but still allow me to do actiony poses, but also, it keeps the skirt exactly in place! No riding up, no sliding down, no rotating! And best of all, no panty lines, since I opted to not hem the leg area. I used my soldering iron again to create 8 holes on the skirt to install grommets, and made my own orange bikini string using scrap spandex and a loop turner to add the orange string between the grommeted holes.

 

The belt and pouches were made from scrap vinyl and spandex I had laying around. I used the same method as above for the orange bikini string details on the pouches. The bouches have a belt loop on the back so they can slide on and off for easy storage in a box, so they don’t get smooshed during travel and storage. When wearing the belt, I simply use fashion tape to keep the belt from riding up or spinning, as it provides enough hold for an hour or two.

 

Shoes and Blades: The shoes were originally knee-high white boots I ordered from Amazon. I wanted something with specifically the same black sole and heel and toe shape as Rikku’s. I cut the top off and shaped the top area to have a fake “tongue” in the front, making sure to top stitch the whole edge so the lining stays in place with the pleather. I used Angelus leather paint to add in the blue, and some white paint to touch up any areas as needed. The yellow bows on the back were made using scrap yellow spandex and a loop turner, and then sewed on at the back seam. That way if they ever get too dirty, easy to replace!

 

The blades were made using some foam I had bought originally for a She-Ra sword. I used two layers of 10mm foam, with a dowel rod sandwiched in between. Good thing I have plenty of wood dowels for some reason! I created the pattern in Illustrator which proved very tricky because of all the clipping of shapes and layers involved, but eventually got the design down, and nailed the scale of it on my first print! I cut it out using a box cutter, shaped it with a dremel, and smoothed it with a power hand sander.

*REST OF BLADE CONSTRUCTION COMING SOON* I just have a lil’ more to finish on the blades but I can’t wait to share the completion with you! <3

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