Costume completed - July 6, 2003
Costume worn at Ushicon 3 (2004) - Saturday
Version 2 completed - July 13, 2008

Rinoa Heartilly was my first "real" and official cosplay experience. I had absolutely no sewing experience at all when I started this. My mom taught me how to hand sew and how to use the sewing machine. After that everything had to be done on my own because that was all that my mother could teach me. It was a great challenge for me.

I had decided to choose Rinoa as my first cosplay for two reasons. It looked like a more simple costume to do than others I had in mind and Rinoa was the character in which my alias and this domain name was heavily influenced by. I was also totally in love with Squall's character at the time.

Duster/Armwarmers - For my first duster, I found the material on e-bay after months of searching online. I used the Mc Calls 3938 pattern for this and altered the pattern to match Rinoa's as close as I could. I had no idea what mostly all the lines on the pattern meant except for the size. I acquired my second duster's fabric by purchasing it by the yard from Dream-Angels.net I was able to use the same pattern from my old duster and make the new one.

T-shirt - The V-neck shirt was bought on E-bay.

Skirt/shorts - I bought the biker shorts from E-bay. I cut a slit in the middle front and sewed the zippers. I had a problem with the zippers bunching up, but I learned a couple of years later that a zigzag stitch with a wide and looser stitch will help reduce it. I made the skirt using Simplicity 5915. This skirt pattern confused me so much that I just tried my best to make my own pattern. It didn't turn out that well, but at the time I was satisfied with it. For my new skirt, I used this same pattern more appropriately.

Footwear - I bought the shoes on E-bay. I got a piece of thin metal from my dad and painted it with silver acrylics. I attached it by just gluing the black straps at the sole of the shoes with super glue. The socks were plain black.

Accessories - I already had bought the Rinoa necklace even before I knew about cosplay. The ribbon I bought was black and was simply tied to my arm in a bow.

Hair/wig - I used a wig for my second version. This was bought off Cosworx. It is the Alicia Wig in 2 - Expresso color. I had to trim and straighted in a little using the hot water method. I used temporary spray dye in a gold dust color for the highlights.

Total spent - $164.42. I know that sounds too much for such a simple costume, but I was very inexperienced and this was my first costume and a lot of stuff I bought didn't work out.

Progress photos

Completed photos

8-3-03

8-15-03

2-6-04

4-4-04

9-3-04

7-17-08

1-17-09

 

Photo Credits - Ninja_Kurai, Angelwing and Mom