Rikku Cosplay
Bikini Top
To make the bikini top, I cut out four triangle shaped pieces of fabric with one point a few
inches longer than the other and wrapped two around a bra-cup and pinned them in place.
Very carefully, and with great difficulty, I sewed the yellow on to the bra-cup. I then cut
out 2” strips of orange stretch-fabric, folded the fabric in half, pinned them along the edges
of the bra cup and since I couldn’t sew it on due to the thickness of the bra-cup (which I
found while sewing on the yellow) I glued the orange on with fabric glue. I cut out two
more 2” strips of fabric, folded them in half to make the strap in and sewed clips in.
For the tie in the middle, I cut out two long orange strips, folded them and hand sewed
them. Cutting off what extra I didn’t need, I formed the “x” in the middle, gluing it onto the
inside of the bra-cup and then I glued in the tie and then tied it into a bow.
I pre-measured the black halter strap to make sure the buckles were aligned with the top of
the bikini bra-cup and glued in place with fabric glue.
Total Time: About 3 hours
Skirt
I folded 1/4 yard of fabric long-ways and wrapped it around my waist where the skirt would
start, marked on the left and right side of my body to create the front and back of the skirt
(though I made the back piece slightly larger). Using the folded side for the bottom, I
hemmed the top of the front (and back) of the skirt and then I made four pleats in the front
(two on the left and two on the right side center) and then added four eyelets around each
of them. I sewed the front and back piece together on the one side and added an invisible
zipper to the other.
I cut out, folded in half and hand sewed two strips of orange fabric and fed them through
the eyelets to make the “x” shapes.
I cut out, folded in half and hand sewed two 15” strips of orange pinned, stretched and
sewed them accordingly to give the effect of the bikini bottoms since there actually are
none.
Total Time: About 2 hours
Pouches
I first created a pattern for the pouches and instead of sewing the edges and turning them
inside out, I simply sewed the edges so that the seam is outward, making it look a bit
messy and worn. I then cut out a small strip and glued it to the back of each of the
pouches for the belt to slip through. I put in two eyelets in each pouch to feed the ribbon
through, keeping the pouch closed.
I cut out two 1.5” wide 42” long strips of yellow vinyl, sewed them together and sewed on
the buckle. I put the pouches on and tried on the belt to mark where it was to be cut to
add the studded part in the front that is slightly raised. The studs were taken from a
BeDazzler and glued in place.
Total Time: About 2 hours
Sleeves
For the arm warmers, I measured my arm from my wrist up until how high i wanted them
to go and then I measured the thickest part of my arm (the upper arm) and added an inch
for the width.
Once I cut out two rectangular strips, I measured my wrist, below my elbow, my elbow and
the highest point that the arm warmers reached. I folded the rectangular strips of fabric in
half with the right sides touching, and using the measurements of my wrist, elbow, and
upper arm, I was able to draw a curved like to the contour of my arm. I sewed them
together, but on the outside of the contour line (closer to the ends of the fabric) so that I
would have room to slip my arms through. I also did this because I was not using a stretch
fabric.
To make the bows on the sleeves, I cut out sixteen rectangular pieces of fabric 7” x 8”.
Sewing two together, I left a space open at the top to turn the rectangle inside out and used
a basting stitch straight down the middle and pulled the string to bunch it up.
I cut out sixteen 3” x 5” strips sewed them together (leaving the ends open) and turned
them inside out. I wrapped each one around their assigned bow and glued it in the back.
For the tails, I cut out sixteen 2.5” x 6.5” strips, sewed the sides and one end together,
turned inside out and sewed two of them together at the opened end and glued each pair to
their assigned bow.
On the back of each bow I glued on a pin and pinned them to the arm warmers.
Total Time: About 4 hours
Gloves
I cut the fingers off an existing pair of gloves since the ones I tried to make failed horribly.
Scarf
I crocheted the scarf myself and it took me over 27 hours. Three rows took about 15
minutes each. It took me a total of 9 days to crochet, 3+ hours amounted to 1 foot and the
scarf, minus the fringe, comes to 9 feet. With the fringe, the scarf is 9’ 10”.
I used 1 package of Rit Golden Yellow Dye and let the scarf sit in there for 25 minutes.
After rinsing thoroughly, I used 1 package of Rit Tangerine dye but poured in only 1/3 of the
presolution at a time for the gradient effect and I followed the same procedure for the red
which was done using Rit Scarlet dye.
Total Time: 27+ hours to crochet and 2 days to dye
Shoes
I cut a pair of gardening boots according to the style of Rikku and hand-painted them with
white gloss acrylic paint.
After the boots were completely dry, I poked holes alongside the white in the back and
weaved the ribbon through and tied it at the top.
Total Time: About two days (due to having to wait for layers to dry) and 30 minutes for the
rest
Wig
I bought a short wig with two ponytails that were originally curly and I straightened them
which took two hours. I trimmed the short wig in the back and took one ponytail off one
clip and used it to make the braids. For the little ponytail on the top, I pulled up a few
wefts and tied them with a small rubberband.
Total Time: About 5 hours
Earrings
I bought a package of yellow feathers and a package of mixed feathers (since you can’t buy
orange by itself at Michaels/A.C.Moore) and I chose the best feathers out of the bags. After
gluing on the orange feathers, I wrapped silver jewelry wire around the top and into the
hole for the earrings.
Total Time: Around 15 minutes
Bandanna
This is actually the bandanna for my Sheryl Nome cosplay which
was made by sewing the ends of a rectangular piece of stretch
fabric, turned inside out and sewed together in the back.
Total Time: Around 10 minutes
Thief Blades
I used this online tutorial to help with my blades but I did things
a bit differently.
http://www.amethystangel.com/cb/thiefdaggers_rikku.html
I created a pattern for the large circles, small circles and blades
and cut them out on chopping mats. I had my dad cut a ½” wide
PVC pipe into two 15” rods to use as the handles and support.
I braided the handles using brown pleather and spray painted the
large circles and blades red and the small circles gold.
Once everything was dry, I glued the handles in place and sealed
the sides of the large red circles shut and then glued on the
blades. Once that was complete, I stuffed the inside with craft
foam to give it volume and then glued on the gold circles.
As soon as the gold circles dried, I placed a dab of glue in between each half-circle and
placed on it a gold bell cap.
Once the entire blade was dry, I painted the edges metallic silver to look worn and used.
Total Time: 9 hours
*~*~*~*~*~*
Total time for entire costume: Over 52 with 4 days total dedicated to painting the boots
and dying the scarf.
Reference Picture