These Boots Were Meant for Killing

Haha, see what I did there with the title? Yeah.

My boots came in the mail! Whee! And they're perfect for this cosplay. Here they are with my tights. :D

And my Ezio in the background, too. I was initially going to do his outfit by myself but then I discovered a group that was doing the whole brotherhood, so how could I resist? Here's the side view.

To be honest... I'm not liking the tights as much as I had hoped. So I'm thinking of maybe buying white pants I can dye black stripes onto, like these: http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/1431-AA.shtml

Gotta ask my friend, she knows about dying fabric more than I do, since I've never done it before, hurr. But there is progress, at least. I also got my chunk of leather for my vambrace today, but I'll be doing a different shape for it. It will be the rectangular version, which I will first make out of paper to get the pattern sorted out. Like this guy's (on the right):

It's going to be fun.

Floppy Knives

Sounds dirtier than it is. Well, maybe not, since my Sculpey is pink and the handle is oval-ish... anyway, I decided to screw it and go ahead with modeling a butcher's knife. This thing:

I finally finished Assassin's Creed II (I kept restarting for the fun bits in the beginning) and got out my knife and eye-balled the size in relation to my hand. Thing is, the hands get stretched in video games... And I got tiny hands, too.

Makes me wonder what horse that butcher was cutting and for how long. In the beginning, I figured I'd print out a large picture of the knife to judge the size, but it was flat and hard to grip properly like you would a knife handle. Then, I thought, I have some clay, I can test out a good grip, so I did that. Then I thought, I have more clay, maybe I could just do the knife and see how big it is and make sure it's all good. So... yeah.

The handle seriously looks too weird.

Finished with print-out to compare. And a ruler.

It's all soft and floppy now and I don't even know if the sharp edge of the blade tapers to one side or the middle. The blade is a little thin and uneven, if I'm going to go through with this, I'll need to bake the parts separately and sand them and then put them together. I'll be talking to my expert friend tomorrow about this.

I need some decent clay. This stuff melts in your hands, which is even more unpleasant than it sounds.

Pants!

My stripy pants arrived today (was expecting them to be in next week), and they could look a bit better, but I'm happy with them. I'm still debating what fabric to use... To linen or not to linen....

I'm planning on starting some weapon work or something in the meantime. Need to get some modeling clay (not Sculpey) and get cracking. School starts in a week and after that, I will barely have any time to myself, let alone sewing.

But I went to PAX this weekend in Seattle (didn't dress up) and saw lots of Assassin's Creed cosplayers, so it makes me feel good about this, even though Revelations will be out by the time I'm done with this. But I'm thinking of making this outfit too, for Revelations:

Or this lady:

We'll see how it all turns out, and these are still concept as far as I know. Once the game is out, I'll start on these to be as accurate as possible.

Just for kicks, here is a friend of mine cosplaying as Altair killing me.

Mock Up

A quick update on what I have so far. I made a mock-up out of whatever fabric I had laying around (so I ended up being colorful) to test out the pattern and to make sure I know how to do all the parts. There are 2 layers: The surcoat which goes underneath; it's long and has the sleeves and tall collar attached. And the doublet, which is shorter and goes on top; the hood attaches to it.

So this is what it looks like now...

Yeah, only one sleeve. I ran out of fabric. I might be making everything a little shorter, depending on what boots I decide on.

And this is what it would look like with the vanbrace (made out of paper, hurr) and gloves. And a "hidden blade" (a letter opener. I'm deadly, I tell you).

I'm going to just say that the hood was a pain in the butt. Two straight days of working on it and I still have my doubts. I had to change the pattern twice. It's going to be held up (or down) by wire.

Now to decide what kind of fabric I'll be making the real one out of... Linen is the top choice at the moment, but I got a nice suiting fabric that might work for this. I just have to find it again... To the store!

-A

Plans

So, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood has the assassin recruits, who have the recruit clothes (and armor that goes on top) and then they "graduate" to full assassins, donning clothes similar to Ezio. I didn't want to use the recruit clothes out of the game, so I'm using concept outfits from the E3 video (which was beautiful).

It's going to be a combination of the hood and tunic collar of the guy on the left with the awesome pants from the guy next to him and topped with the doublet from the 2nd guy from the right.

It's going to be all white with grey sleeves and under-collar. I'll also be wearing a version of Ezio's belt buckle (which they made much fancier for this video). 

This is the plan... sorry for the sketchiness, had to make some changes.

I'm getting some new boots in (had some store credit) that will be perfect with this, but I might have to shorten the garment a little. Got the gloves, and the pants are in the mail. Still... I have my work cut out for me.

I'm hoping to get a mace to go with this (this mace to be exact)

But I'm not making the weapons. I'm part of a group and we have a Weaponsmaster who is casting these. However, I think I might be making my own Butcher's knife.

I am making a positive of Ezio's belt for the recruits (one of three, other people are doing the others), and that's still in progress.

Hopefully, the more I post, the more real-life photos I'll have to post, instead of concept and screenshots.

-A

Starting this Blog

Hey, everyone. I decided to start this blog to document my progress on my cosplay. I've actually made good progress, so I'm not starting from scratch as of this moment. I'm not an expert at sewing, but I have some some experience. I'm getting some help from a good friend of mine who's been doing this for 20-odd years (thank you, D!).

Thanks for reading it, I'll try to update with good progress pictures when I can.

-A