Fem Thorin Cosplay Part 2

Part 2, I guess

This picture here was the inspiration for a lot of the hair/makeup in this cosplay (all credit to the artist, this was lifted from Pinterest). I do not, however, look good at all in facial hair to the best of my knowledge, so I went beardless for Con. I will be putting up a tutorial on how to do facial hair for you beardless ladies and germs out there later. 

   So far we've done the chainmail, dress, and wig. Now all that's really left to do is the coat. For this you'll need a dozen or so toilet paper rolls, standard size or larger depending on how thick you want the fur to be. I would recommend getting a coat that you can easily handsew, because this process is not going to be easy. For this the stitches don't need to be at all even: Padfoot sewed this for me with no sewing experience whatsoever at 4 in the morning, so if your stitches look like shite and still hold strong, don't worry.

First step is to cut your fur. Decide how thick you want yours to be- I went for two inches across- and then measure vertically at about 10x what you decided for thickness. Do NOT cut yet! Measure 30 times, cut once with this, trust me. However thick you want your fur to be, add about 1/2 inch on either side. This is for you to fold over and sew, but we'll get to that in a moment. Don't worry so much about doing that for the length, you won't be sewing that down. You're going to end up with 3 pieces: two panels on the side, and a large square piece (no hole cut out yet) for the top bit. The square piece should reach from the top of the panels to a few inches behind the collar of the coat. 

    Cutting the Fur: 

   Part your fur like a hairline, using a small comb for precision. The middle of the part is where you're going to cut, so try and make it as clean as possible. I would have a vacuum hose on hand for this, it gets hella messy very quickly. Once you've cut your pieces, use the vacuum hose to get any of the stray hairs off, or else just shake it out somewhere where you won't get slaughtered for getting weird synthetic fur everywhere. 

    Sewing the Fur: 

  This bit is where it gets a little annoying. What you'll do is take one of your panels and lay whichever side you're sewing first hair-down on whichever side you want it. I would recommend starting this on the inside edge, near the opening, just to keep mistakes from happening. You'll want to be sure that the edge you're sewing is the only one on the coat, and when sewing the inside edge, make sure your stitches are very close to the edge of the coat itself. Now here's where that ridiculous amount of toilet paper rolls comes in handy. Take the rolls and line them up next to the ridge you have sewed on, and then fold the fur over so that it covers the rolls hair-up. Tuck the unsewn edge fur-down against the rolls, creating a sort of super long pocket. Sew this edge down (it's going to be difficult, I promise, but stick it out) and then shake out the toilet paper rolls. Unless you want them slipping out over the course of the day, that it. This will create the illusion that you have a big long puff of fur on your coat, rather than just a flat plain of fuzz. 

             Take your top piece and line it up where you want it to be. Part it ON your jacket to ensure that you're getting as close as possible to where you need to be. Your hole will be the curve of the jacket opening at the top. Cut the curve of the jacket top in, and then sew the curved edge on. There will be a little gap between the top of your fur panels and your big bit on top: no worries! Cut two identical pieces out in the fur of any size you like and fill in that space. KEEP IN MIND: the two panels on either side should start at the bottom half of the split-lapel. When you cut these filler pieces, make sure there's enough to go inside the jacket a little-- just enough that if you leave the jacket open, there's the illusion of an inner fur lining.

ACCESSORIES: 

Not pictured: a freaking sword

        For my accessory, I forwent Throin's sword (purely for economical reasons; I will eventually put up a tutorial on making it and even better, making it look real) and instead went with a Hobbit. Hobbits are wonderful accessories, though through poor planning, my Hobbit and I ended up at about the same height. [Thanks to the beautiful and talented Padfoot for being my Hobbit.] 

     Do be careful when selecting your Hobbit, as some are quite a bit mouthier than others. 

    Also, as an added precaution, I brought an axe lent to me by Padfoot's little brother, the absurdly tall Witch King from the previous post. 

      Just a reminder, this cosplay is hot as hell, in a temperature sort of way. If you're doing makeup or facial hair (TBA on that tutorial), be sure to make it water/sweat/smudge proof.