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MIPHA//ZORA CHAMPION
NOTE: STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION, MORE WILL BE ADDED SOON
PHOTOS BY NANCY NAPALM
As promised, here are all photos and patterns I can give to you from my Mipha Cosplay. Its not a complete tutorial sinceI did not captured everything step by step explained. But I think its good enough to see how I worked on this costume. When you use them or this WIP page for your own Mipha or Zora Cosplay, make sure to tag me! The costume in total took me 4-5 weeks. I started working in April and did big breaks between crafting sessions. It is still not 100% finished but none of my Cosplays is finished.
Why do I choosed Mipha as a Cosplay?
Mipha is for sure not my favorite Character. But she is a Zora and I love to transform into Zora. Its always a challenge to transform into a non human race. I’m also doing again one of the normal Zora Guards with the same suit. Two in One! ?? I really love the Zoras Design and backstorys and also Miphas Design.
Big Thanks again to everyone who supported me with the crowdfunding for this project! Otherwise I dont know if I could have finished it in time.
Heres again the list with all material costs! I did not include everthing. (like glue and colors)
COSPLAY BREAKDOWN (Mipha, Zora Champion)
-2,5 Meters of red 4-way stretch Jersey 25€
-1,5 Meters of white 4-way stretch Jersey 15€
-0.3 Meters of green-blue 4-way stretch Jersey 8€
-L role of Cosplayflex 40€
-a soft foam matress 15€
-white cotton scraps 3€
-a lot of thin foam 20€
-eveything else ~20€
THE BODYSUIT//BEAUTYFULL FISH SKIN
I took some photos of my freehand patterns but sadly I cant find them at the moment! They will be added as soon as I found them! I created a pattern for legs and upper body using countless tutorials on sewing a catsuit. I just traced it on my red fabric and somehow it worked. Just try and error and you will get results for sure! For the white parts I pinned the fabric to the suit while wearing the bodysuit. I drew on the shape and sewed it on. The arms are just simple tubes made with the white and red fabric. The Zipper is in the back of the suit. I recommend to think of something to go on the toilet. I can never go to the toilet ?? Socks and Gloves are not sewn to the bodysuit. Makes it more comfortable.
Edit: As you can see, I added the pattern I used for the bodysuit. I created it by using many catsuit tutorials from the world wide web. I really dont know how this works exactly so I can only give you the few photos I took.
For the gloves I simply used my own hands as a pattern. After sewing the together, I bought some fake nails and glued them on with contact glue while wearing the gloves. You dont need to shade them. It fits to the artstyle without doing this. But I prefer a shaded version. It looks much more realistic and I like realistic looking costumes. The shading is done with a brush, red and brown acrylic colors and water. Just take a really small amount of colors and dip it in the water until its almost washed out. Then do the shading!
For the socks I wrapped my foot with tape and drew on a pattern. I cutted out the toes for Mipha from Soft Foam and used them for the pattern as well. Somehow I sewed them together and it worked. As you see: I dont make patterns, I try and error everytime! Then I simply stuffed the soft foam in the socks. I molded some toenails with Cosplayflec and glued them on. I seperated the smaller toes with some needle stitches. On the left photo you can see the nails and foot without shading and on the right side with shading!
THE FINS//BECOMING A FISH
The fins are a bit tricky. They need to be the exact right size so they dont look too big or too small. I reworked them 3 times until I was satisfied. For the fins you need the red stretch-jersey, some white fabric ( I used old cheap curtains in creme ), wire, soft foam, a piece of thicker but flexible foam and glue! I started here with doing a sketch of the fin. I cutted it out and tested it on my arm until I was satisfied. After that I transfered it to the soft foam and put some wire in it. It gives the soft foam more stability. Then I glued the foam piece to the outter fin. Now glue the red fabric around it until you get a result similary to the last image. Sadly I forgot to take photos of the last step. The last step was cutting out stripes from the white fabric and glueing them on in a specific pattern. Finally, paint them in the right shaes and colors!
THE HEAD//LIMBS
This part is just added for a complete Making Of. You can find a detailed tutorial of building a Zora head here on my page under tutorials. I simply copied the text from there. The first step is to draw the shape you want. Try it on your own head and the mannequin head. When its done, trace it out and cut it out of soft foam. Pin it to the head and start layering more soft foam. On this head I did it sidewards and not from bottom to top. But I recommend the method I showed in the tutorial.
After this is finished, you can start with the smoothing and cutting. I used old scratches of white Jersey here and as always some thin fleece. Mipha has a free forehead, so I figured out a form out of foam and cosplayflex to fit over my eyebrows. You can see it on the right picture! Now pin and sew the fabric and glue it over the cosplayflex part. After that I applied the top fins (made out of foam and fabric) and added some details! In the next pictures you can see the beofre and after shading parts and how the head jewelry fits on the fin.
ARMOR PARTS// NICE JEWELRY
I can’t tell you much about the armor parts. They are completely modeled freehand and so I just took some detailes shots of them! Material here is Cosplayflex and ProFoam in the core. Before covering the foam with the Cosplayflex, I dremeled some parts in the right shape. To prevent the thin parts from breaking, I added wires behind the parts.
For the bracelets I wrapped my wrist with foil and tape and drew on the pattern. The base was them made with foam and Cosplayflex. Details are rolls of Cosplayflex. All ‘stones’ in this cosplay are also made with Cosplayflex because I was too lazy to make some gemstones. The pendant around the neck was made the same way. I used my puppet here and its all connected with thin wire. The belt is closed with a magnetic clip on the back. The belt and the pendant can be made as a comission. Just message me! The part around the neck can be made tighter to fit better with some straps in the back.
THE SCARF//ONLY FOR CHAMPIONS
The champions scarf is made from a green-blue cotton fabric. I want it too look heavy and cotton is perfect for this. It is also not that expensive. The lighter blue applications are made with a 4 way stretch jersey. Its the same as the one I used for the bodysuit. I pinned the lighter color on the cotton and drew on the pattern. After that I sewed along the drawn line and then I stitched everything with my sewing machine. It worked somehow :D! I added shading with water and acrylic colors. Its a lot of work to shade this whole thing but it was worth it!
If you need a pattern for this, just take something to measure how long the scarf need to be to fit around your body. I recomend to sew a drop shape. The hanging front and the back parts are just squares glued in form. On the bottom pictures you can how much difference the shading does. I think this is a pretty good example.
MAKE UP//TURN YOURSELF INTO A FISH
The Make-Up is the difficult part here. Miphas face is fully seen and the seams between the fin and my forehead needed to be very clean. My first Make-Up test was horrible, but it showed that my method worked. Here are the pictures I took from the first Make-Up test. You can see that the contact lenses are wrong. I orderded them right but they got delivered wrong and I still dont have the perfect ones for her. I tried to glue on the head with latex layers. On the left you can see how it looked and the right one is how it should look. The Eye Make-Up was too edgy and too dark and the dark red part is normally also under the eye.