Here is Part 2 of my Yona’s Sword Dance cosplay WIP.As I worked on Yona’s dress I used a

Here is Part 2 of my Yona’s Sword Dance cosplay WIP.

As I worked on Yona’s dress I used a light weight navy denim for the collar, cuffs, and hem of the dress. I left the sleeves unattached because I paid a friend do all the embroidery work. My hand embroidery skills are very limited and I knew I that a machine would do better work than I would. Once I recieved the dress back, I was able to sew on the trim that is between the denim and purple embroidery. After that I sewed the side seam of the sleeves and attached them. For the hem, collar, and cuffs I hand stitched them closed on the underside. I did not want a top stitch to be used for any of these areas. I wanted to make it look flawless. The lengthy part was hand stitching the hem. It took me about 2.5 hours.

For the sash, I finished adding the fringe. I would later add some gold foil to the denim fabric, which you will see in a future post when I do final photos.

For Yona’s shoes, I bought some simple black flats that I spiced up with some gold foil techniques. I had to go back to fill in some spots I missed with the foil glue.

This cosplay had a LOT of jewelry that I had to make. This was my first time working with beads and gemstones. It was very exhausting to find what I wanted to use. I picked gemstones that might be found in Asia.

First necklace: This necklace was the first one I finished and would be wrapped around the sword. It is made of three gemstones: 6mm amethyst round beads, 8mm blue dyed jade round beads, and large teal green apatite nugget beads. At the center of the necklace is a large Tibetan styled pendant.

Second Necklace: This is actually 2-4 necklaces in one, depending on your view. It sits around my neck and is the main focal point. It deals with a 3 tiered necklace that features  over 200 gold hematite beads and two lapis lazuli oval connectors. The other necklaces consist of 10 gold round pendants with 30 gold bar pendants and 6mm gold rondelle beads. For the gold pendants I had to file off two of the five hoop connectors to fit the style more. The necklace that consist of the pendants is actually attached to the last tier of the first necklace. this lessons the use of necklace clips and made it so that the pendants laid nicely across my chest.

Earrings: I have to say this was the easiest part to make of this cosplay. I used two large lapis lazuli barrel beads, two butterfly spacer beads, and two gold tassels.

The sword was also lengthy process to make, mostly because I am not much of a prop maker. I used a 24 inch long by 3 inch wide basswood, along with a smaller length for the handle, and thin balsa wood. The store was out of the normal 36 inch basswood that I would have used instead. I also used foam to add the layering effect on the handle. One of the major tools for the sword was a good burner. After I engraved the design onto the sword, I went over it with the wood burner. The wood burner also goes through foam with ease and made the designs go smoothly. Once the paint job was done I put two holes into the base of the handle and used some heavy duty white thread to tie the necklace into place.

I look forward to doing final photos this weekend.