My Xena Costume (built by me)

[Eris Delphi]

Hello! First post here on the RPF, though I've been poking around for quite a while.

I made this Xena costume a few years ago and thought I would share it. I'll start with the good pictures of the final product, then I'll post my progress pics and share some things I learned along the way. Maybe it will help someone else working on their own Xena.

For me, the fun part of costumes (besides wearing them) is making them, so I didn't want to purchase any of the available replica Xena armor or props. At the time I also didn't know about all the amazing things you can do with eva foam and thermoplastics, so my armor is basically a beefy version of papier maché. I'd definitely do this differently now, but I think it turned out pretty well for what it is. I made the chakram out of foam and apoxy sculpt. I patterned and made everything from scratch except the boots which I purchased and then sewed leather tops onto. The leather dress is not accurate in the boob area but I didn't really worry about it since it's covered by the chest armor. I was feeling modest at the time and made the skirt a bit long. Also I live in Seattle, where there is no such thing as a tan

 

[GoblinCityCosplay]

That's papier mache?!?! Your armor is absolutely amazing. It looks detailed but strong. I can't believe how well sewn the dress is, too. You look absolutely fantastic.

 

[Ninka]

The details on your costume are lovely. Nicely done!

 

[springsteel]

Everything about this is beautiful. Is it genuine leather or vinyl?

And you're obviously quite skilled at sewing -- do you have any favorite techniques for working faux leather through a machine? I have problems when the vinyl layer touches any portion of the foot or the feed dogs; it becomes too sticky to feed through.

 

[Eris Delphi]

That's papier mache?!?! Your armor is absolutely amazing. It looks detailed but strong. I can't believe how well sewn the dress is, too. You look absolutely fantastic.

Thanks so much! Well, it is sort of like papier maché but instead of paper, I used Pellon Tru-grid, which is similar to very lightweight interfacing used in sewing. For the adhesive, I used a product called Aqua Resin, which is a non-toxic resin: http://www.aquaresin.com I think it's most often used with fiberglass. I didn't want to use fiberglass because my cat likes to hang out with me while I work, and luckily the Pellon ended up working fine. I'm digging up some progress pics to explain that part of my process better...

Everything about this is beautiful. Is it genuine leather or vinyl?

And you're obviously quite skilled at sewing -- do you have any favorite techniques for working faux leather through a machine? I have problems when the vinyl layer touches any portion of the foot or the feed dogs; it becomes too sticky to feed through.

Thank you It is all real leather. This was my first time working with leather, and one of the reasons I wanted to take on this project was to figure leather out. For sticky faux leather, you could try using a teflon presser foot, those are specifically made for sewing sticky materials. Or you could put some matte scotch tape on the bottom of your regular presser foot (leave a little hole for your needle to go through) and on the throat plate (on either side of the feed dogs, don't cover that opening). That is a trick that works on vinyl, it may work on your faux leather too!

 

[gothic]

looks great, nice job on both lots of armour

 

[springsteel]

Thanks for the great tips! The fact that this is all leather is even more impressive.

 

[Eris Delphi]

I used three different weights of leather in this piece: a very thin calf skin for covering edges and seams, a thicker motorcycle weight for the corset and skirt, and a thick (maybe 3 mm) weight for the shoulder armor, arm bands, and bracers. I drew up a pattern based on my measurements, and test fit it with scrap fabric. I didn't worry about getting the cup shapes accurate, since they would be covered by the breastplate. However, I did make sure to get those long, angled seam lines right, as they are prominent, iconic lines on Xena's costume. I checked the sizing on the skirt pieces by taping them to the corset mockup and trying it on. Once I was satisfied, I cut the corset out of the leather and sewed it together using a leather needle and a long stitch on my sewing machine. I lined the corset with brown cotton poplin.

You can see in the third picture that after sewing the pieces together the seams look very puffy and terrible. One of the most important things you can do to make your sewing look more professional is to always press your seams flat. For fabric, I'd press them with an iron. Since this was leather, I opened out the seam allowances and pounded the seams flat with a mallet from the wrong side of the leather. I glued the seam allowances down with contact cement, then I added my lining layer. Finally, I sewed the seam allowances down with topstitching thread and a long stitch. Presto: nice seams! This also made channels in the lining that I slipped strips of boning into. I sewed those channels closed at the top and bottom edges.

Finally, I covered the top and bottom edges with strips of the thinnest leather, and punched holes in the back panels for eyelets. I popped the eyelets on with eyelet pliers (although now I have an eyelet die for my hand press machine, can't wait to use that) and threaded leather lacing into the eyelet holes.

 

[Kabeiroi]

Very cool! Go, Xena!