GOTG: Gamora Costume

[Harmonopolis]

Alright, I have a huge post with lots of pictures and updates. I finally got a sewing machine for Christmas so I have been able to make progress this month! I have completed the top of the outfit! YAY! I have also purchased a few more items for use with details.

So last time I updated I was making the stencils, using a white shirt I had drawn on and then cut the stencils out of brown craft paper. After the first round of stencils, I used some scrap fabric I had to create a mock top to try out. After several attempts I finally got something that fit well and needed little adjusting. I then used those stencils and cut out the scrap fabric. Then I cut out the fabric for the actual top. (This was terrifying, because I only got enough fabric for one attempt, and the store I purchased it at went out of business....so it was a scary step and took lots of commitment, but it worked out)



After the pieces were all cut out I began pinning.........and pinning. Many pins and pokes later. I had the top all pinned together and I began sewing.



I sewed everything together, without the mesh so that I could make adjustments. It needed a few tucks to make it tighter at the waist and some adjustments in the breast area to make it lay flatter. I had large gaps by my arm pits that showed significant skin. I was able to do a little "V" shape with pins and sewed it into place making the fit flat and tight to my chest. Perfect!

Next came the mesh.....Similar process, lots of pins and pokes, sewing and then adjustments. I had to make the mesh tighter to pull the top together in the center better, but it was a quick and easy fix.



Next I began to add the cross straps in the center and on the side. I started by pinning them on the outside, (I had lots of material) and then turned the top inside out and pinned the pieces on the inside and sewed them on.
This is a difficult step because of all the pins and having to gently tug/glide the material threw the sewing machine. Worth it, but lots of sticks.



Here is the completed top. It fits very well, no gaps when I bend in the sides near the breasts or the middle, and since I can't wear a bra with this outfit I'm glad it fits so well.



And here is it with the pants I purchased and made small adjustments to, the boots I will be wearing and the belt. I am loving where it is going. The top and bottom are not attached to one another, just simply tucked in. (Excuse my husbands bright computer screen in the background) I will be adding a 16inch zipper to the back of the top to make it easier to get on and off. Currently I just pull it over my head, but once I'm painted green I don't want to smudge it so I'm adding the zipper.



I have extra fabric left from the top, which is a dark blue mesh and since the pants are black I plan on making all of the detail straps in the same fabric as the top to tie the two pieces together. I purchased two types of ribbon and several buckles to use when making the details, like thigh straps and the wrist covers. One ribbon looks like black burlap and the other just normal ribbon, not shiny. I got two different sizes of the buckles too.



I was researching and looking into options for the shiny snake skin detail on the original costume and found some blue glitter glue that I thought I could make work. I tried it on fabric and it looked really good. However once it dried and I stretched the material (like if I was wearing it) the glue flaked right off. I think I'm going to have to make a snake skin stencil and find some metallic blue fabric paint that I can use to add the detail I want to the top and pants.

Here is the paint although. Looked good, wish it would of worked.



Finally, I am beginning the work on the collar. I purchased foam sheeting to use for the collar and will attach it to each other at the back of my neck with velcro or a buckle. I may need to add velcro to the top and buckle to keep it from rotating, that will be something that I may have to try depending on the outcome. I purchased black foam for the collar itself and white foam for the metallic details. I have metallic silver paint that I will be using to paint those, then I will use a sealer on the paint to make sure it doesn't crack. I also made a stencil out of brown craft paper. I put the top on and then traced when I needed the collar to lie. It won't be completely perfect, but I'm not going for a complete replica.



I still need to purchase a wig and some additional eye shadows and body paint accessories to make sure I have everything ready to go for a trial run. I will be doing a trial painting and costume just to make sure of the time frame it will take me and if I need my husbands assistance (He's dressing as Starlord for C2E2 this year).
I am also going to look into creating Gamora's sword. I am saving it for last, because if I don't get it finished or if it turns out badly, she is still recognizable without it.

Can't wait to see how everything will turn out!

 

[Yrien]

If you can't find a metallic blue fabric paint, I've heard that you can mix craft paint with a fabric/textile medium to make the craft paint behave more like fabric paint. I haven't tried this myself yet, but there's a pretty good overview here: https://www.udemy.com/blog/acrylic-paint-on-fabric/

 

[Harmonopolis]

UPDATE:

Today I did the first trial of my body painting and makeup. I did this in 30 minutes and pretty much blind. I wear glasses normally and have contacts ordered, but they haven't come in yet. So the shading is off, but again its my first time. I mainly wanted to see what the color would look like and how easy it was to apply. I used Mehron paint in the color green and various shades of eye shadows.



This is the result. My husband said I looked like the hulk and my brother told me I looked like a ninja turtle.....so I need to tone down the green. I am purchasing Mehron in yellow to help with that. In the movie they mixed greens and yellows, so I'm hoping the yellow will work. I also need to work on the shading and the eyes. The paint kept cracking near my eyes, so I am going to need to make sure I use makeup primer on my entire face and some eye primer around the eyes to avoid cracking.

Here are a few more shots.


I used purple eyes shadow for the eyes and black, greens and grays for shading. Shading is poorly done, but when you have to get 1 in. from the mirror to see, there isn't much room to see the whole picture. I have purchased fake eye lashes to fill in the lashes and will be adding some black eye liner too, to help fill in the areas between the paint and the eye.

I did not include any of the scars in this trial because I am thinking that I will use Rigid Collodion to make them. That way they are indentations on my skin and then I can add a bit of silver shading to give them definition.

So as you can see, I have made progress, but still have a bit more to go. I'm hoping to do a final trial in March when all the additional supplies are here and then I will be ready for C2E2 at the end of April!

The body paint washed off completely with a quick rinse in the shower, so it is easy to remove, which is great. It was pretty easy to apply, but I did have some streaking. I think I need to get a different type of brush to apply the paint. I'll let you all know in the next update!

Next update should be about the sword. Husband is designing it in a computer program and will plot it to print. I will be using foam board, some kind of bondo type mixture and paint to make that. Updates in March!

Thanks for all the additional advice! One last fun photo!

 

[Harmonopolis]

Thanks Yrien.

I was able to find blue glitter fabric paint (not metallic though) and I also bought some black to mix with it in case it doesn't work out to my expectations. (Too glittery, not enough shine?) I just need to make a snake skin stencil and give it a test go on some extra fabric! If that doesn't work then I will try your suggestion. I know I can find metallic acrylic paint, but never knew I could mix it with a fabric medium. Thanks for the tip.

 

[MEOWorksCreative]

Wow great work on the costume, especially all the small details! Can't wait to see it finished.

 

[Harmonopolis]

UPDATE FEB.22

I have started work on the sword. My husband made a stencil in Autodesk Revit and then plotted it out. I used that stencil to cut standard foam board pieces. After that my husband glued all the pieces together and started to add bondo to it. After it is all done and hard I will be doing a lot of sanding to make it smooth, before I paint it. Here are photos of the process.


This is the stencil


I cut all the pieces out of foam. One of the large center piece and two each of the smaller pieces. Then I glued and taped them together to set.



Next we added bondo. We did this is small batches, because we live in a small apartment and storing large portions of bondo and covering large portions at once, just isn't possible.


This has already sat overnight and we are on to adding more to complete one side, then once hard we will flip it and bondo the other side. Then lots of sanding.
Could take another few weeks to completely finish it.

 

[Harmonopolis]

UPDATE: Collar

Started and completed the collar yesterday.


I started by making a stencil using paper and once I had a size that I thought was perfect for me I traced it on foam (I used thin foam, very flexible). I made it in three separate pieces to allow for me to attach it together in the back with velcro. I made the piece on the right slightly longer to allow for an overlap for the velcro. I then cut out all the pieces and attached them together using double stick tape, until I got the exact measurements right on me. After I determined the right areas to attach the foam together, I used hot glue and let it set up on my computer chair, to give it a curve.


Here is how it lies on me. And then the process of shaping and the hot gluing job I did. Husband said it looked messy, he was right, so I fixed that later as you'll see.

Next I used the paper stencil and extra foam to create all of the small pieces that are on the collar for detail. I realized that a lot of other cosplay I have seen make the collar details symmetrical, when they actually are not.
After I cut out all the foam and had a layout I took each piece and traced it onto white foam with a sticky back, for easy application to the collar. I numbered each piece before I painted them so I could make sure the right pieces made it to the right spot on the collar. I then used a metallic paint to paint the pieces and then coated them with a clear sealer.

I used a small dab of hot glue and the sticky backs to attach the pieces to the collar. The hot glue is just extra security to make sure the pieces stay in place. Here is an image of them in place.


In the last 2 pictures you can see my fix on the hot glue mess. I added two additional pieces of painted foam over the hot glue and it looks a lot better. Also now that the sun came out you can really see the silver shine on the painted pieces.

I need to coat the entire collar in a glossy spray to give it a shine. It is very flexible still, but I didn't want it to be solid. I also decided to loose the raised collar piece for comfort and difficulty. So this is my final piece, without the gloss. It is stuck together in the back currently with double sided tape, but I will be adding velcro soon. The wig covers up the entire back of the shirt and collar, so I'm not worried about making it perfect, just making it easy.

 

[Harmonopolis]

UPDATE: Costume snake skin print and updated body paint color

Last week I purchased blue glitter fabric paint and after testing it decided it was the way to go for adding the blue detail to the costume. I did not want it to be super noticable and its not. Its just enough that when the light hits it you can see the pattern and that what I wanted! So in my opinion its perfect!

Here is the paint I used and the fabric swatch I tested it on.


Then I used a square paint brush and hand painted the snake skin (ish) pattern. Again its subtle, but obvious in bright light.


I just need to do this same technique to the pants and the main portion of the costume will be complete. Almost there! Only 60 more days until Chicago C2E2.

During the body paint trial I determined that the green body paint was much too green. Since then I purchased yellow liquid body paint from Mehron to mix with the green to get a better shade. I tested those paints on my arm.

Here are the two paints I will be mixing and using.


And here is what they look like. Far right is just the green by itself. I determined that was TOO dark. The middle is green with only a few drops of yellow. Still too dark. And the far left is the shade I am going to be using. Its a pretty good mixture. Still green, but the yellow tones down the darkness of the paint. Just what I needed.



Only a few pieces of the costume itself to finish and then I can put it all together. Can not wait! This is the first time I have ever gone all out for cosplay and I couldn't be happier.

 

[StarLordGoG]

Your Costume is looking good
Im the same here, this is my first time going all out for cosplay i ever done. I like the level of detail of things.
Im doing my patterns in Autocad myself, but i know Revit too. In fact im doing a 100year old church remodel in Revit from a 3D hi res point cloud scan.
Anyways keep up the great work on your costume

 

[thesualc]

Your Costume is looking good
Im the same here, this is my first time going all out for cosplay i ever done. I like the level of detail of things.
Im doing my patterns in Autocad myself, but i know Revit too. In fact im doing a 100year old church remodel in Revit from a 3D hi res point cloud scan.
Anyways keep up the great work on your costume

And here I thought when she mentioned revit no one would know what it was!

 

[Harmonopolis]

UPDATE: COSTUME DONE (CLOTHING), SWORD ALMOST COMPETE

Finally I can update! My computer went on the fritz and I haven't been able to do much in terms of uploads, but with all the down time I have officially finished the costume! Atleast the clothing portion. I can't believe its done. Its been months in the making and I couldn't be happier. I will post a 100% finished photo, minus the body paint, tonight. Need the husband to take the photo. That being said here is all of the work I have been doing to make this costume complete!

*On a side note, I entered to be in the Crown Championship Cosplay competition for C2E2 (Chicago, comic con) and I didn't get accepted. They definitely missed out. This is a completely hand made costume, except the pants, and I am so proud! It will look fantastic. So......If you happen to be attending C2E2 April 24-26 and you see me, please say hi and pose for a picture! I'll brush up on my poses!



So I decided that I didn't like the belt I purchased and was going to make the movie version and use that. So because of that I had to sew the top and pants together to make a pant suit. Before I would just slip the top over my head and tuck it into the pants. But that wouldn't work with it sewn together. So I added a zipper. It was much easier than I thought it would be and it looks so good! Now the top and bottom are sewn together and I just slip it on like a onesie. (Similar to those animal ones you see everywhere). I just have to have someone zip me up, but otherwise its perfect!



In the movie Gamora has two wrist covers. I looked at some reference photos and decided I wanted these to be different and to have more blue to match the top. So I made two wrist covers out of the blue faux leather and sewed on some of the black mesh I used on the top. I added two small clips to secure them to my wrist. The strap wraps around my wrist three times before buckling and looks amazing. I'll post a close up tonight with the rest of the costume. It was super easy to do and they look great on and really help tie the costume together.



Remember how I mentioned I didn't like the belt I bought? Well here is my take on the movie version. First I made a stencil out of paper, to get the shape I wanted and then I cut out two pieces. On one I cut out four strips so that the sword can slide through. It's actually going to hold the sword, if I get the change to put it away, from all the posing I will be doing.
I sewed the two pieces together and then I attached them to a long strip of blue faux leather that I have cut and measured to match my waist. I sewed a buckle onto the long leather and then attached the looping piece that holds a portion of the silver belt buckle. You can see that below.



I made the two belt buckle pieces out of foam (forgot to take a pic). And then we coated them in glue a few times to make them harder and painted them silver.



I then used velcro to attach the pieces to the belt. The piece on the left I attached to the buckle, so the buckle is hidden and the piece on the right is attached by velcro to the belt and sewn to the loop strap as well.



I am extremely pleased with how it looks and the fit.

Here are a few pics of the body suit, belt and neckpiece together. I'll put up a full body pic and multiple close ups tonight.



Looks so GOOD! Ahh....I can not wait for April 24th! I hope to meet Stan Lee all dressed up and hopefully even he will be impressed!

Now onto the sword. In a previous post I showed how we made it out of foam and used (bondo), It's actually resin*.....oops, to cover it. Here is a picture of it being mixed and applied for the first time. My husband did the messy work and I did most of the sanding. (Also there is the pic of the resin we used, we just ordered it from amazon)



Here is what it looked like after a first sand with a hand held sander.



As you can see it has a long way to go. Next was over an hour of hand sanding and then another round of resin to fill in the low spots.



After the second round of resin and hand sanding this is what I have. It is very smooth and level and has a good weight to it. Not heavy, but heavier than foam board, so I won't get tired of carrying it around all day. It measures right between 31" and 32" and for me and my small stature, that perfect. We applied another round of resin to the four low spots and I'll be sanding and paining this weekend! Hopefully it will be finished by Sunday evening.

I used 40 grit, 60 grit, 100 grit and 220 grit sand paper as well as a nail file to do the sanding, and my husband helped a lot with sanding the details. I would of given up a long time ago, saying the nicks gave it character, but he wanted it smooth and perfect....so that were we are headed with it. I will post updates this weekend on the sword and then hopefully the entire costume is finished. C2E2 is 20 days away and I can not wait to show it off.

Thats all for now. Will post more this weekend.

Now I can complete the Groot sculpture I was making out of sculpey clay to go along with the costume, will post later!

- - - Updated - - -

Additional attached three images are from my husbands costume.....oops.

 

[Sni9er]

shameless plug haha your costume looks great you are more than welcome to get a set of my gamora buckles printed

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:662395

 

[Harmonopolis]

Alrighty here is every portion of the costume together, except for body paint and the rings for the fingers. Hope you all enjoy. Feel free to ask questions and I will try to answer. Every things it either faux blue leather, buckles, foam and paint or mesh. Sword is being worked on.......and Groot!



Sorry the images are sideways. I don't know how to fix that. :/

Here is a close up of the wrist straps.....



A close up of the belt.....



And finally a close up of the details I added to the pants....



So thats it.
Again sorry all the images are sideways. The husband took them and for some reason they all came out sideways. Just lean your head a bit to view them......

Thanks again to all. Good luck on your own builds!

I'll post photos of the sword when its complete and I'll add photos to my original Groot thread, when he is complete!

 

[Harmonopolis]

The sword has been painted silver. I'm not sure if I want to leave it as is and clear coat it, before I wrap the handle in blue leather.....OR......If I want to hand paint in some of the details, such as the engravings, before I seal it? I'm going to look at some images and see what I can do, but for now it is silver and is soooo close to being done! Which is wonderful because C2E2 is in less than 2 weeks!


First we primed the sword using gray primer....


Then we used a gun metal silver model spray to spray it silver. It was pretty cool spraying it. There were shiny flakes floating in the air.



Here it is sprayed with the gun metal silver. Now I have to decide if I want to add the engraving details, by hand painting or not. Then I will wrap the handle using the same blue leather I made the top out of. Can't wait for C2E2!

 

[Harmonopolis]

Every piece of my costume is now complete. C2E2 runs Friday-Sunday this week and I plan on dressing up at least Friday and Saturday. Depending on crowd and time I may also dress up on Sunday.

Here is the sword now complete.


We drew on some light lines, to try to match the etching on the sword blade, clear coated it and then I wrapped the handle with blue leather and black mesh, both which I used on the costume top. I think it looks great. Its not heavy, although it has weight to it and it is easy to swing around. It would definitely hurt it I wacked someone with it! Can't wait to have every piece of the costume together! I'll post pics after this weekend with everything on from top to bottom and the body painting! This was an amazing experience and I can not wait until I make another cosplay costume.

I'm disappointed I did not get accepted into the cosplay competition, but as its my first time doing this, I'm sure that played into it. Seems to be a bunch of people who do this often who got accepted.

 

[Gamora67]

What did you wind up using for the body paint? I am trying to do a Gamora for DragonCon and do not want the body paint 'smearing off' on the leather outfit. How did your outfit wind up looking?

 

[DonnaFerentes]

Hello,

Just wanted to say this is a really useful thread, thanks! I wish I'd seen it when I was making my Gamora (for Nine Worlds Geekfest 2015) , but also wanted to add my two pennies to the body paint discussion.

I did a first shot at Gamora last year, and used Mehron Liquid paint, and the trouble I had with it was that it rubbed off pretty easily around the shoulders and collar, and also that it would dry and flake off. Maybe I had just put on too much! This year I tried Snazaroo just the water-cake stuff, and it was just as good, although I couldn't get an even finish. I had some advice from another cosplayer which sounded useful - to use makeup primer on the face and mix the paint with a bit of foundation - which I'm going to try next time.

 

[jocana]

Hello, Love your gamora, I did Gamora last year. I struggled with the makeup...I had a makeup artist do it the first time but then did it myself. I use the mehron body paint and found it very challenging to get it on evenly. Took me a solid 2 hours probably to do it. for the facial scars i used a silver liner, with black liner on the edges to give depth.

I don't know anything about sewing so I enlisted the aid of a seamstress for the costume itself. I think yours looks awesome. I'd love to see it all together with the green makeup! I used some pieces from a store bought costume (namely the neck and the green mesh for abdominal panel (so i wouldn't have to paint there too). The big challenge for me then was the sword. This was about a year ago and there were only a few pics available online. I tried several approaches and ended up making it out of MDF. It was my first attempt at making anything out of MDF. When I started all i owned was a hand saw. I bought a cheap Jigsaw and a dremel as well as a hand sander (was great for sanding it down to an edge). Overall pretty happy with how it turned out.




I also bought a cheap walkman off eBay and orange foam earphones. I made an audio tape from my soundtrack of Guardians of the galaxy and printed a pic of the tape label and attached it (I know its Starlord's but he does let Gamora listen to it...). Its put away right now but if anyone wants to see I can post a pic of that too .

Here is are a couple of the full outfit.

I'd love to hear suggestions on the makeup. The mehron is a lot of work and needs a lot of touching up during the day. I'd also love to 3d print off the belt buckles.

Looking forward to hearing more hopefully and looking forward to GOTG 2!

Jo

 

[Damndrew]

What are the dimensions for the sword? It looked like you have a length of about 2'8". Did you find that somewhere or just eyeball it?

 

[jocana]

I eyeballed it, based on how long it looked in the few pics available at the time. I am tall so I made it proportional to my height. Full length of the sword is 41 inches. The Hilt is 10 inches. I tried to copy as much of the detail as I could from pics. The hardest part was the designs in the part of the sword just above the hilt. I still could do some work on that.