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Ysolda from Skyrim: Progress

ysolda I made this costume for Dragon Con 2015. If you’ve looked around my site, you’ve probably noticed my love of Skyrim. I knew when I first saw her in the game I’d end up making her… mainly because I really liked her adorable horribly sewn dress and leather corset! For this Dragon Con I had too much on my plate to make a new armor set, so I made this very simple outfit. Well it wasn’t that simple, I just made it really really fast, in less than a week I think.
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Savior’s Hide from Skyrim: Progress

Savior's HideThe Savior’s Hide is a really cool special armor you get in Skyrim from completing a certain quest a certain way. I love the sculptural elements to it and all the different materials involved. It also only involves the cuirass, so I had to figure out what boots, gloves, and helmet to make with it. This meant I got to play dress up doll with my character! I ended up choosing the Armor of the Old Gods (Forsworn) boots and gloves, and the female Dragonscale helmet. For my weapon I chose the Ebony battle axe because its huge and awesome.

To start I made a leotard out of faux suede to wear under the armor and attach everything to. I found some super awesome very realistic fur on super duper clearance. I made a sort of shawl like thing out of cotton and stuffed it. Then I made a casing with fur on the outside and suede on the inside. The idea was to make the shoulder/upper back fur look much fuller than it was, plus add warmth since I’d be doing a shoot in the cold. The ends have straps to tie onto the armor. then I made a sort of skirt/loincloth thing of of the fur and lined with the suede. This is attached to the leotard.

Ebony Battle AxeFor the cuirass I started making the general shape out of craft foam. I used Worbla pieces to surround the various pieces and stick them all together. The whole thing is layers of designs to build a 3D look. I suppose I could have made it all out of craft foam then formed Worbla over it, but the layering method really allowed it to be 3D, plus its sturdier. I used thumbtacks for the grommets and openable key rings to attach the top of the armor to the pelvis armor. a 4-ish inch gap is in the back, since its just Worbla and foam, it can bend a bit so I can get into it. Then I made a separate back piece that hangs down from the fur cape thing. The back piece is secured by faux leather belts around the waist, which just happened to be conveniently in the design.
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Sheogorath from Oblivion: Progress Part 2

Finishing the embroidery on this was such an amazing and relieving feeling. *_* Now I could finally start putting it together and seeing progress! I carefully sewed the embroidered pieces together, making sure to check how the seams were done in the source. Some had satin stitching along the seam to hide it (shoulders, sleeves, etc) and the sides actually had gold satin covering them. I added thicker interfacing for the collar pieces.

I chose baroque gold Casa satin as my gold secondary fabric. I really REALLY hate satin, but in the end I felt this was the right choice. Story time! Back in high school when I discovered how to manipulate HTML and CSS, I used to make terrible websites. I would go to background swatch sites and use those everywhere. I remember that the satin swatches had the same odd ripple to them as Sheogorath’s gold parts. So yeah, that’s how I made the connection. :P Turns out satin was a bad idea because it already started snagging during Dragon Con. Oh well. x_x
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Sheogorath from Oblivion: Progress Part 1

SheogorathI have been wanting to make Sheogorath’s regalia ever since I first played the Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion (Elder Scrolls IV). It is obviously very complicated and a huge undertaking, so I could never really give myself an excuse to do it. However last year when trying to figure out what my big costume would be for Dragon Con and the Friday Night Costume Contest, I remembered this awesome outfit.

I wasn’t sure at first since he is an old dude, and I’m not old, or a dude. But then I envisioned myself wearing a long flowing silver wig and fancy makeup, and I finally decided to do it! This costume is technically “genderbent.” However it is also kind of canon to the Elder Scrolls lore. I’m not super into genderbending characters (I really enjoy when other people do it, but I feel kinda odd doing it myself), so it was important for me to tie it in with the lore. Every now and then in the games it is mentioned that the daedric princes choose which gender form to take on, and sometimes switch between them [source]. I thought who better to try being a lady than Sheogorath? If you know him it TOTALLY fits his character xD. I did want to create the outfit accurately so the only thing I really changed was my face and hair, the rest of the outfit is exactly the same as his.
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Aela the Huntress from Skyrim: Updates

I was finally able to have an awesome photoshoot for my Aela the Huntress costume! It was at Horse Pens 40 in Alabama, which is probably the most accessible Skyrim-like place in the south east. I’ll post the pics in a gallery when they are ready.

I first wore this costume to Momocon 2013 (and won Best Master in the craftsmanship contest, woo!). I made several updates to it for the photoshoot, so here is what I did! Pics below.
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