Lady Loki Halloween 2012

Read more for directions and more pictures!

I decided to take a stab at a Lady Loki costume this year after falling in love with some cosplay done by http://souji-yarou.deviantart.com/. I also wanted to make this on a budget, so it is not the most detailed or best possible materials out there, so keep that in mind. I ended up putting the whole costume together for under $100. I am going to show some pictures of my progress as I went along, and some details of how I made each item.

Here are the materials, prices are approximate because, well because I don't remember them all! Haha. (The wood medallions and gold button pictured below were not used in the finished project.)

Dark Green Thread & Needle

Pins

Hot Glue and Gun

Thin cardboard

Aluminum foil

Stretchy headbands

2 inch screws, washers, and screw driver

Sanding block

Serated knife

Scotch masking tape

Modge Podge and/or acrylic paint

Rustoleum Metallic Gold Spray Paint- $5

Green Queen sized sheet- $2.50 Thrift Store

Gold vinyl ribbon-  2 yards @$7/yard Jo Ann Fabrics

Faux Fur- 3 yards @$9/yard Jo Ann Fabrics

Gold medallions- $1.50 each Walmart

Gold chain- $3 Walmart

Styrofoam craft block- $9 Walmart

Tan Faux Leather Purse- $2 Thrift Store

Other Accessories:

Black corset- $30 Charlotte Russe

Black boots and leggings- already had from last year- Target

Green lipstick or eyeliner for lips- CVS

Okay where shall I start..I would say the costume took about 2 weeks to make, working on it in the evenings here and there. Probably could of got it done a lot faster if there wasn't a lot of trial and error.

The first part I worked on was the cape. I wanted it to drag a bit so I left about a foot and a half extra from the top of my shoulders. I cut the fur and the green sheet, folded in the edges about 2 inches under and pinned all the way around. I do not trust my sewing machine skills and I thought the fur might be too think for it, so I hand sewed the whole thing.

This picture shows one error, the first time around I forgot to fold fur under 2 inches before I pinned the whole thing. Folding it under gives it a stronger seam and much cleaner edge. Pain in the butt to go around and unpin it all and start over!! : /

After I sewed all around the cape, I rolled the top corners in a few times to make the shoulders a little more bulkier and give it the right shape. I used hot glue and also sewed the shoulder area as well to make sure that it would stay in place and be able to take some tugging. I then sewed on the gold chain in the front.

The next part I worked on was the front drape/skirt. I used another portion of the green sheet and cut that into the desired shape. I cut the gold vinyl ribbon to outline the edge of the drape and hot glued that on. I did not continue the drape into the back since I would be wearing leggings and a cape. (I would recommend making it a full drape though, I got really hot under the fur and wanted to ditch the cape, but was too self conscious to have my bum showing. Haha.)

I cut strips out of the purse and sewed those together into a long belt. I attached the belt onto the drape using hot glue, so it would tie around my waist and be pinned in the back. I also attached the gold medallions randomly onto the belt in the front with hot glue.

Alright, now for the hardest most frustrating part! The helm! This is probably what took an extra week of head banging on the counter to figure out. I started out by taking a marker and drawing onto the styrofoam the general shape of the horn I wanted. It's better to mark it out larger than you actually want it. I then took a serrated knife and cut out the first horn. I used that horn to trace onto the styrofoam block to make the second horn. Cut that one out. I then did fine trimming with the knife and used a sanding block to round it out. Might want to do it out in the garage, it looked like I murdered a snowman when I was done. 

Next I wanted to coat the horns to make them smoother. This was probably the most time consuming and annoying, and could of achieved an even smoother look if I had more time. I made a modge podge type coating out of fabric glue, white glue, and water. You can Google on how to mix and apply that, or even skip this step if you don't feel the need to have them super smooth. You would still need to put some kind of protective coating on there, otherwise the spray paint eats at the styrofoam. I'd recommend acrylic craft paint. Since acrylic craft paint dries fast, I only did one coat homemade Modge Podge, and about 3 coats of acrylic craft paint. I still did not get the smooth look I wanted, but I think more coats of the Modge Podge stuff would of worked. (Each coat of that needs to dry overnight, that is why I didn't do more of them.)

This is before the coating.

For the crown part, I needed thin cardboard so I used a notebook cover and back. I sketched out and cut it into the desired shape. Traced it onto another thin piece, cut that out and taped them together. I then covered the cardboard with aluminum foil to create more thickness, while also being flexible still.  Make sure to trim off excess. Make sure to have a good amount of thickness in the center of the crown where the horns will be attached. I wrapped the entire thing in masking tape as I went along as well, no particular order. When I felt it had the right stability, I neatly put long strips of masking tape over the top to create a smooth surface. I also smoothed the back some with the tape just so it wouldn't be so rough on my forehead.

Next I took the stretchy headband, and hot glued that onto the back. The head band I got actually has split sections so I was able to glue one part towards the top of the crown and one towards the bottom. I found this type of headband in the sewing/ribbon section of Walmart) If you can't find one of these, you could just use two separate thin stretchy headbands. Once that was done, I put the crown part on my head and decided the placement of the horns. I just traced the outline of the horn base onto the crown while I was holding it up there. For a little extra support I hot glued the horns onto the crown first. After that I used two 2 inch screws and a small washers to secure the horns. This was a two person job, I had my husband hold the horns still while I slowly drilled them in. I put more masking tape over the screw heads so it would be smoother for my forehead. Took it outside and painted that sh*t GOLD! But really, a few thin coats of the gold spray paint was plenty. I avoided getting paint on the inside of the crown since I didn't want it touching my skin.

After all that, it was just finishing touches. I bought a simple black corset to wear, and some black leggings. I didn't have time to make or find a green jumpsuit so I went with black. I also couldn't find green lipstick so I used green eyeliner on my lips and it stayed on all night! I added some extra tan strips to some black boots I had.

Hope this helped you out if you are looking to make a Lady Loki costume! I think I spent around $90, having a some of the items already around kept it cheap. If you have any questions or if I missed something please let me know in the comments! I can always take more pictures of the items if needed too.

                                                                                                             Love, Lindsey

I also apologize for the crappy cell phone pics, hopefully soon I'll get dressed back up and take some more better quality pictures!