In this blog-post I wanna tell you some stuff about my journey to my first cosplay. This might be a kinda long one but be my guest if you want.

There is a lot I can talk about here, so I will do that. The post might be kinda all over the place, but maybe you still like reading it.

Why did I want to do a Cosplay anyway?

It's kinda hard recalling on why I even made that hat. It's kinda hard to remember since the first I wore that hat was in 2023, to Dokomi. Though the hat was made I think in 2022 or something.

What I know is that the Anime to Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online had me hooked when I watched shortly after the first season fully aired. I bought some Novels of the series and read them. I liked it very much. And LLENN was just the right mixture of cute and cool to adore her. And you gotta love her hat.

So I then just made it some time after watching the anime, and wanted to have a P90-mock-up for decorative purposes and wore to 2 cons so far. Animagic 2024 and Dokomi 2023. You will find some pics in the next section.

I then came to terms with what I am, a crossdresser over the summer of my last semester at college (2024). Thinking back about the Hat from LLENN from Gun Gale Online I did two years prior, I wanted to explore some crossplay of some of my favorite characters.

Cosplaying like really female characters was out of the question. Well I am built quite male. But I could certainly get away with some more flat and less female-y pronounced characters. Or maybe some maid-dress. (Which I might end up sewing some day as well, sounds kinda fun… until it isn't)

I was deciding between either doing LLENN or High-Elf Archer from Goblin Slayer both are characters I think are really cool, and I would love to give it a shot. I did choose to do LLENN since I had a hat on hand and tried my hand at building a P90 model out of Legos…

LLENN is just my favorite. Cute and badass. Also fun fact I am the same height as Karen, LLENNs real-life counterpart. So my sights were set,

I will now tell you some stuff on the different parts of the cosplay and how stuff came together, what challenges I faced and what I learned I guess. Stuff may be out of order.

The Hat 1

From going through my chat-logs on discord with some friends I did start making the hat in the beginning of 2022. I had just started my college-degree. I was there on all weekends and needed something to do. You know lockdowns and stuff were a thing. So I started making the hat. Just so I had something to do on the weekends during being in the dorm. I managed to find some cheap used sewing machine on kleinanzeigen and bought it in Stuttgart. 20 € for a not really well maintained and quite rattly machine, but it worked and was still better and cheaper than This Thing I once bought on amazon and quickly returned. Do yourself a favor and get yourself a more proper machine than this one.

I can tell also you what the pattern of the hat is based around. I found this lovely Tutorial by MukuruSweet on YouTube SAO Alternative Gun Gale Online Llenn's Hat Tutorial, where she goes through her pattern and how to sew it together. Without this lovely tutorial I could not have made that lovely hat.

So I bought myself some cheap packing paper (it's a bit thicker than normal paper, and you get roll of it, so drafting is nicer on it) and got to work measuring and thinking how to put stuff together with the help of the vid. Tbh it really helped me to have someone explain stuff to me, as I did have some sewing lessons in school but still…

The finished pattern pieces looked like this:

Most of the hat luckily could be sewn via the sewing machine, though it struggles a lot with the final seam since there were so many layers of fabric in it lol. Though the ears had the sewn on by hand. And my hand-sewing skills suck too hard, but I managed to secure them in place with thread first and since ears would flop too much some safety pins would keep the ears in place and make for a good look.

I even managed to find some older pics of the prototype in my chat-logs. So enjoy some pics of that at least. Also it is kinda funny how the same color can look so different in fabric. Both Hat 1 and Hat 2 have the color called “Fuchsia”. Though Hat #1 has a real red tone to it, while #2 is more the pink I expected. I still love both of them dearly though. Time for some images:

First up I have some really shoddy photos of the test-piece I did on the hat to test out my pattern. I did not have v1 of that test so you will have to live with v2 only I did in January 2022:

I was a good proof I could actually do it. So I went online and bought some fabric which was supposed to be fuchsia but ended up being really red, but Oh well I did not wanna return it. So I just used it. Good that LLENN is usually seen in pink but also in many different colors. Fractured Daydream as a green costume for and a lovely parka…. Which is kinda besides the point lol

So I made it out of the real fabric and sewn it together. The result was quite nice and fit pretty well. Maybe the headband was kinda tight but at least the hat would not fall off. Here is the first photo I made with it on.

The ears flopping about like that looked cute but also was kinda impractical. So I fixed the ears in place with some safety pins for a nice clean look. The ears themselves had some chicken wire to keep their shape better Like you can see here:

The v1 hat features a lot of stuffing to give it volume and was the one I wore to Dokomi 2023 and Animagic 2024

Here is a shot from Dokomi that rick made. He said it was easy to make me out in the crowd with that hat lol.

For Animagic I went with a bit more of a different outfit since it was my first con with the hat after coming to terms that I like wearing womens clothing every now and then. The hat still was the star, but the rest of the outfit was lovely as well. Though I did not wear breast forms that day (man that would have been sweaty to say the least…) So consider this and “Artists rendition”. The rest of the fit was the same. Though I did also wear nude tights that day…

The Fabric

Let's talk some fabric.

Hat v1 used to things basically, both of them I bought at Modal Tissues since they have a store in Stuttgart. “Pink” Rayon, also called Viscose, some ecru-colered flannel, some actually pink lining and some stuffing.

Looking back at the listings now I should have seen that the rayon is more red than pink but oh well.

Hat v2 used the same ecru-colered flannel for the white stripes as Hat v1 since I had some of it left. I did order some new lining together with the new fabric. I also still have more than enough stuffing left.

The rest of Hat v2, pants and jacket are all made from a lightweight fuchsia chambray. So basically a lightweight denim-like fabric, which I even had to import from Great Britain. Even had to pay VAT and Tariffs on it lol. (Thanks Brexit!). But as you may imagine it was quite hard to find such a pink fabric which is made of such material.

Though I have, I really like how the fabric feels when wearing it and as conventions generally favor summer and can be quite stuffy anyway lightweight fabric will be good. If needed I still can put something under it as the fit is not super tight.

Here is a bonus picture. Do you know how hard it is to put up 6m of fabric for drying after putting it through a wash cycle? I sure do. This is double layered still.

The Hat 2

So Hat v2 then. I made it pretty recently, though I can't remember if I used the old or new machine already. There were some key learnings from Hat v1 I wanted to improve:

• make the headband larger so it was easier to fit
• have the ears more perky

I did achieve both things. Though I did add way too much to the headband, and It's kinda big lol, but that might come in handy if I ever want to wear a wig with the hat which adds volume to the head. For now, I just use some small clamp to keep the radius tighter if needed. The ears do also perk up very well by now. It makes for a bit of a not super layering of fabric on the top-side. See this photo. But as you won't see the hat from the top side too often I am generally fine with that. The perking ears were way more important to me.

The hat turned out really nice overall. There are certainly some areas I might have needed to take more time (like that final seam around the headband), since some areas look kinda messy… but tbh most of the time people will not look super closely at it. I really love how it turned out. Though I do have my gripes with that brim of the hat. I never really got that right. The one on v1 is very stiff. This one is very flexible but maybe not attached a 100% right, though I can just fold it up if needed. I could even tuck it fully to the inside if I wanted…

I have also way more pictures for this one. So let's have a look at them.

Here is all the pieces of the hat cut out from fabric layered atop each other:

The most critical parts of the hat sewn together already, consisting of the two ears, the headband with brim, the top of the hat and the lining on the right. The top part and one ear are made with a white stripe in them.

Here is a closer look at the headband:

I quickly finished it so here are a few pics of the final thing. Though I did just now attach them a tad better so they perk really well.

View from the front:

View from the back (I liked that photo so much it's my new profile pic xD)

Another Bonus-pic as a treat for you. Wearing a hat with perky ears on it makes for a super cute shadow as well. I was so happy.

P-chan (FN Hestal P90)

Obviously I would need a “P-chan” to complete the look. P-chan is a real weapon even. The author of Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Keiichi Sigsawa is a true and utter gun-nut so all the guns in the book actually exist.

P-chan is the famous FN Hestal P90, you may know it from CS:GO or other games. She is from Belgium origin and is primarily used as a personal defense weapon. Btw so much of the details of this weapon made it in the books it's actually really cool. You sure get the memo the author loves weapons…

I considered a few options when it comes to her. There is a special P90 pink air-soft gun even. And there was some raffle in Japan where you could win some P90-prop. Those airsofts do be expensive and look way too much like the real deal lol.

There is also another really real problem to consider. In Germany, it is illegal to carry arms around you openly as a citizen. For obvious reasons. You may transport them in enclosed cases only. The same is also true for props, which might be mistaken for a real gun. And the P90 looks way too toylike already. But I am not gonna risk it for the biscuit on this one.

I still bought me a P-chan off of AliExpress. I am not super happy with her but for a plastic model that cost me around 77 €. If you are curious it is this one. Though tbh on the website it looked a tad better especially around the handle area. Its I guess still fine for what I paid shipped to my door.

Have a look for yourself:

I considered doing the sanding myself but refrained from doing so, since I would to paint the areas I sanded. I might still end doing that some day so I can show P-chan off as a nice display piece.

Pretty certainly I won't take her with me to Dokomi 2025, the risk of getting her confused with a real weapon and getting into trouble ain't my cup of tea. I will still take her outside for one nice photoshoot when the cosplay is done final, final since some bits and ends kinda are missing still. Also, the edges frayed my gloves, when posing for some photos. At least those were cheap.

The Gloves

You would think that the Gloves would be a simple affair? They kinda are and kinda aren't. I first wanted to make me some gloves out of PU-Leather and later than found out of actually difficult it would be to make gloves out of a non-stretchy fabric like PU-leather is.

You cannot go the easy route like with a stretchy fabric, where you can basically sketch your hand onto the fabric and then sew along that. See here (YouTube Video).

You have to go with a different approach entirely, which is way more involved and time-consuming. Also, lots of smaller pieces for between the fingers. That pattern would look like this:

Source

I was kinda overwhelmed at making the pattern and the sewing together of them would take some time and require some finer work. The pattern making I am kinda not ready for yet, and I did not want to hunt down a pattern right now. So I sidelined the gloves for a potential future project. Sometimes you gotta pick your fights lol.

For now, I bought some cheap gloves out of the carnival stuff from amazon. They do look nice actually, but color-matching is a whole different story:

It does look nice enough when all is together, see further into the post in the Pants and jacket section. I will need to add some white fluff trim at least to match LLENNs gloves though. Should be easy enough though.

The Boots

You know the boots were one of the first things I bought for that cosplay. Maybe I am too much of a shoe lover :D. But yeah even here I had to do some trial and error to find something nice maybe and hopefully.

I do like me all kinds of different shoes. Sneakers, high heels, boots (thigh or just ankle boots whatever) I do like them light and somewhat comfy (heels can be difficult here especially high and fashionable ones…). I am getting sidetracked again lol.

I am usually not a guy for rugged, stiff boots. I just don't like the stiffness and weight to them. But for the look you obviously need some rugged looking boots to match. Though I did learn through some research that I also had to lookout for boots that had no steel toecap. First those make the boots way too heavy, also I did not want to risk getting in trouble with security or anything.

My first thought was: Doc Martens might be nice. They at least looked the part generally. I was looking for about mid-calf height boots and found some nice looking ones in the 1914 smooth from Doc Martens:

The looked nice but I have long and rather narrow feet for a guy I guess (makes heels fit quite nice though) so they kinda fit but the ones I bought used were quite new and not really “broken in”. The smooth leather also is generally quite hard, and no padding applied on the inside at all. They did look the part, but I could not see myself wear those a whole day to a con:

Looking further I came across one of pleasers sub-brands where they sell like more alternative style fit for goths and the like. DemoniaCult it is called. Their Bolt-300 shoes fit my bill. So I got those. What is nice against the Docs is they feature a zipper on the inside so that makes putting on and off so much easier than the docs, which you had to lace like halfway to get a good fit.

They look just as well for a costume.

Here is that very useful zipper on the inside

They also did add some fabric lining to the inside making them slightly more comfortable when wearing with thin clothing. Though I do expect it to wear pretty easily still. Well they are costume boot for me soooo… It might be fine.

I just to not get too many blisters from them… I will surely wear some (thicker socks with them) At least I do slide around less in them compared to the docs (both in socks) since the zipper allows me to generally pull them tighter, while not taking a million years to put on.

The Pants & Jacket

For the pants' jacket I went for something slightly easier. Both of these things are rather “normal” garments, so of course there are quite a plethora of sewing patterns for them. You may have heard of burda, they are a really major maker and distributor exactly that. Browse through their store and you will certainly find something you like. They do also sell stuff from other brands as well.

I generally tend towards their already printed patterns, since they are easier to work with. I just don't have a printer on hand.

Though the PDF patterns are obviously cheaper, you will have to absolutely make sure your printer is calibrated properly (they have test-pages for that). And if you don't have an A0-printer get ready to glue and tape stuff together.

So looking around online I decided to buy 4 patterns.

For the pants: McCall's #M8458 and burda style #5814

For the jacket: Simplicity 9191.A and burda easy #5941

Here is photo of them. I guess I must have thrown out McCall's M8458 though so its only three on that photo:

Tbh there are so many great patterns to choose from. I decided on these more or less on a whim. McCall's M8458 looked great on the pics was sorta what I had wanted to the pants. Some cool cargo pants with nice pockets making it look a bit like “tactical” pants. Burda #5814 goes into same veign but is more fitted. The McCall's pattern also gave me the idea to use chambray for the fabric of the cosplay, since its one of the fabrics they recommend.

In the jackets department I choose something really and landed on something which either had pockets already (burda #5941) or where you could add them easily (simplicity). I did not care that burda #5941 is a women's garments if anything that might just add to the cosplay.

As with the hat I did start with doing mockups of the different designs first with some cheaper off-white cotton fabric I bought for that purpose. Sadly I don't have any images on the McCall's M8458 for you. Just can tell you this much while I kinda liked the finished thing the legs of the pants were waaaay to wide for my intended use-case of stuffing the end into the boots so out that one went.

Next I did burda #5814 for the pants. I did have my struggles with it a bit with zipper of the pants and later with the button-hole and button (you will see later what I meant). But generally I liked the fit, look and assembly of that one. The pockets on the side really add to it. Have a look at the mock first:

I did learn with the process that I kind of did not have any clue on how to put a zipper or to do a center seam on pants. But for a first fit check it was fine. I later cut out some pieces to practice on the zippers. I should have practiced buttons holes as well to avoid a little disaster later, but lessons were learned.

I did go on to make the simplicity jacket some time afterwards, but the patterns didn't really click with me, I did not like how it assembled and also used a full-length separated zipper. So I have thrown out that pattern Idea as well. It was just too wide for my liking. Kinda a pattern I noticed with these American made patterns. Sizing is kinda more difficult to get right for me.

Doing burda #5941 was easier for me the instructions with the burda patterns were genuinely better for as they were native german and some sort of translation. They also come as a small full color booklet instead of the leaflet style instructions of the American ones:

I dunno why but I had an easier time following burdas instructions most of the time. Back to the topic… burda #5941 assembled quite nicely for me so have some shots of the assembly:

I put on a vest just to see the fit, and I think it did fit quite maybe a tad too big?

Both of the mock-pieces looked good together with the other bits and ends I will talk about shortly here:

I did notice though that the sleeve length was kinda not long enough for me. So I did need to fix that for the real thing.

So lets talk about the real thing. I would have loved to tell that everything was fine and putting it together was smooth sailing all around. But nah. I did learn the hard that if you are doing mocks you better do all the steps including doing buttonholes and other stuff just to learn how to do them properly. Also, I did learn just how important it was for me to somehow mark which side is the right side and which is the left side of the fabric after cutting stuff. Otherwise, you will put stuff together wrong.

When you buy any fabric in the store it will come double-folded. So if you cut stuff out as two pieces when folded you have Right – Left – Left – Right. When doing my mock-pants I did not think about that and accidentally sew two left legs at first. Lessons learned as I said.

But let's begin with some nice stuff. Though during the whole process I did learn that I kinda am not the biggest fan of marking and cutting out the fabric, its just so long and tedious… Sewing is fine but man I do hate marking and cutting somewhat. But I decided to dedicate a whole weekend to putting together jacket and pants after having cut all the parts out:

Pants:

Jacket:

Let begin with the pants. They put together very well actually I think. It was fun doing and I have sewn them down in a day from morning to evening with small break for some ready-made lunch. Here is a photo of the finished pants I took a bit later (Yeah I know the lighting is kinda overblown but was kinda too lazy to shoot more)

Except maybe for the underlay of the zipper which I have sewn on to the wrong side at first and the button was made so wrong it hurts lol. I should have looked at a simple tutorial like this one or this one which are both specifically for my machine. I thought you first make the hole and then stitch around it will. That was wrong you first do the stitching and then rip open the center. Well I ended up making my hole waay to big and had to do some repairs, so I kinda ended up with a bit of a rats nest:

It generally holds up, but I might end up to doing a coverup and at least try to make it look better. Generally it is not really noticeable as the jacket is long enough to cover the button so it will not be seen on photos. So all is well that ends well.

(a few days later) It did actually bother me way too much. So I actually fixed that buttonhole up and made it proper like in those tutorial. For that I did cut out the rats nest I made earlier (basically making the hole bigger), then put some pieces of fabric inside that tunnel where the elastic band sits to cover the hole with and give some structure back. After that I laid down a piece of pink fabric over the stitches and sewn that on. After that made the actual buttonhole. Which ended up looking super neat. I mean you can see where it was “repaired” but it looks better for sure:

The jacket was fine at first as well. I used the same pockets as with the pants I might need to put them a tad higher, but it's fine. I did make a minor and a major mistake I could just fix without redoing the whole jacket….

The minor mistake is that some of the decorating top-stitch is kinda wonky and not all that straight sometimes. But It's something you only notice up really close. So I ended up leaving it.

The major mistake almost led to me having to redo the whole jacket. I did kinda wanted to get done on that weekend, so I was working more sloppily I guess. I did not mark my sewing lines with the correct seam allowance with a fabric marker for the jacket but just raw-dogged the thing using the seam-guides on the machines needle plate (it has markings for different seam allowances you can follow your fabric along in mm in fractional inches farther back):

It seemed like I made bigger error somewhere when putting the jacket together and one side was somehow longer than the other after hemming the jacket. I was panicking real hard. I did not want to redo the whole jacket. After thinking, showering and more thinking I decided to shorten the jacket. I cut off the hem I made and then did my best to get cut to size.

Instead of just laying the front and back together and cutting straight, again, kinda eyeballed it. It turned out okay after hemming again. It is only slightly not straight after all of this:

Straight Hem of the Mock-Jacket:

The hem of the actual Jacket now has the slightest curve to it

In the end the parts turned out well still, but I surely did learn some lessons that weekend:

1. always take your time when doing the sewing. Measure twice and sew once. Seam-Ripping is doable but not fun.
2. Make sure to know what you are doing to avoid things like the buttonhole. Take your time to practice and research if needed.
3. Practice the things you might think of as “trivial” as well. Putting in those buttons was kinda a pain since I never did that.
4. Try to space out things more and relax. I was cramming way too hard which lead to errors and cut corners. It's not like I was super pressured into getting it done now, since Dokomi is in the beginning of June, Plenty of time still. Take Breaks if needed.

My mishap with the jacket also had its good I guess. The shorter jacket does look better. As they say “All is well that ends well”. And I think even with the errors along the way I still think the cosplay itself turned out great overall. And I can proudly say: “I made this myself!” There is some white fluff trim missing on the jacket hem and the gloves still, but it looks great already.

Even though I am taking some liberties from the original, like having less straps and no protectors. I will add the fluff eventually and make a scarf and bags as well. Though the bags certainly don't come with me to the con as they add unneeded bulk.

Accessory and small bits

There is not much left for me to consider the cosplay wholly finished on my end. Add some white fluffy trim to jacket and gloves.

Some other bits and pieces I bought you can see above is some suspenders (the kinds you would use for pants) and a belt I use as a waist-belt to create some sorta harness thingie you see LLENN wear. I did opt out of the belts around her down-region though. My manly bits certainly won't like that rubbing those might create.

I will also not use any like elbow or knee pads, which LLENN always wears. They seem kinda impractical for a con tbh. (Also I did not really wanna buy any)

I will make her scarf though. It's a really simple thing. Just get some square piece of the same fabric. Hem it all around. Done. Very easy and also good as a first sewing project for teaching hems.

I will end up making some pouches since they are kinda required for the look at least for some photos on my private collection I would love to have one with P-chan and all those bags attached on that waist-belt. At least those should be not that difficult to make since they are basically just rectangular boxes at the end of the day. Here is a quick image of some P90 magazine pouches found on amazon:

Tools used (Sewing Machine, etc.)

In this section I just wanted to talk a bit about the tools and stuff used. It's pretty simple to get started with sewing. You need some fabric, a ready to use sewing machine and some thread. Sewing are a nice thing to have as well.

Other things that are very useful include:

1. dress pins (get a lot of them)
2. good scissors (tbh don't skimp on these I noticed actual sewing scissors cut so much nicer and are better to handle because of their form, 30 € well worth investing for me)
3. some stuff for marking (like tailor chalk, or fabric markers). fabric should either dissolve in water or just evaporate (alcoholic ones) DO NOT use stuff like pencils, or roller-ball pens on fabric, that stuff will leave stains when washed.
4. some different ruler and tape measures
5. Hand sewing needles (any will do, but an assortment is also nice)
6. I like having a threading aid on hand. These help with threading needles. Lifesavers for people like me.

Here is most of my stuff:

There is one thing I did not tell you more about. My (new) sewing machine. As I said in the beginning first I had that used 20 € sewing machine, which was totally fine to get me started, I mean I made that whole Hat v1 with it. But as it started to show its longer state of abandonment. It rattled and moved a lot. So I bought a new one. Like proper new in a store.

Googling around and watching some stuff I found the bernette b33. It's a common machine for beginners with lots of tutorials and service available near me. bernette is the (cheaper) sub-brand of Bernina a Swiss brand of sewing machines. It was 279 € but I really came to like that machine.

Though to get started get something nice from the used marked not too old though (in like not vintage) but you also do not like 3 million stitches. Mostly you will be using straight stitches for seams and zigzag for serging that's actually all you will need. There are some niceties which the b33 has like a 4-step manual button-hole setting, but you can to that with a very tight (as in short) zigzag as well.

Just have a look at that beauty:

I think the machine deserves some love (headpat) for all its hard work:

I might need to buy some needles soon though since I managed to break two needles lol. One broke off and the other got bent. Both likely happened since I was to lazy to pull the dress pins as I was sewing any given seam. They are at least cheap and easy to get.

Would I do it again? Couldn't I just have bought it?

Generally: Yes! Sewing is so much and such a nice and relaxing hobby (until it isn't because you messed something up lol). Making Cosplay yourself really allows you to make it yours, and you can do some little extras here and there which you would never see in a store-bought cosplay (I am specifically not talking about stuff someone else specifically made for you, that's… expensive)

You can choose your own fabrics, do some cute little details and the like. Though some cosplays can be so much work that you not only get into sewing stuff but also working with foam and other stuff @.@ That's too much for me as well.

Well I did have some luck that I could buy a prop of LLENNs P90, otherwise I would not have one.

I do really like the fabric of my cosplay it feels nice and is all cotton, which makes it nice for summer (though I do have some reservations of sweat being visible).

Making stuff myself allowed me to make a one-of-a-kind hat which only I have slightly stuffed and with super cute perky ears.

Maybe I will do some other next (somewhen). As I said I had my Eyes on High-Elf Archer from Goblin Slayer as well. (Perfect excuse to wear some Hot Pants lol) There would be a lot to learn for that one though, especially about wigs and stuff. And her Outfit is generally more detailed. So maybe I will do it maybe not. Some maid dress might be fun as well.

As for if you can buy one… Obviously you can. AliExpress has everything under the sun. There are quite a lot of options for not much money to choose from, though you will always take a gamble on material and there also always that risk that you receive something different from the pictures:

1. Number 1 is pretty completed for 84 € (down from 124 €) and just misses maybe the boots, a wig and P-Chan. Even has a hat and all the accessories even some I skipped. Color matching is pretty bad though. Hat is not stuffed but at least there. Might be nice.
2. Number 2 looks actually quite nice from the photos and is about 100 €. It also misses Wig, P-Chan and Boots but the colors match better than number one. And ngl I kinda dig the design of that hat lol. With some work you could stuff those ears maybe? Looks neat though.
3. Number 3 is also about a hundred Euros (down from 124 €). Also comes with everything except wig, boots and P-Chan. Looks okay tbh. Though it uses non-fluffy fabric all-round. Which is fine. I also did that other than the white trim pieces. From the Novels hear Hat is fully fluff. It lists being made of polyester which might hinder breathability a bit. But it does at least not seem to be super thick fabric. Might be fine.
4. Number 4 is quite interesting, as it has 3 Options: Wig Only, Cosplay Only or Wig+Cosplay. Also about 100 € (down from 189 €) for Wig and Cosplay. But it misses: Hat, Boots and P-chan. Material is also listed as Polyester. Generally it looks fine, but the missing Hat is such a bummer.
5. Number 5 is interesting. It's the cheapest at 66 € (down from 80 €) and includes almost all you except again: Wig, P-Chan and Boots. It has quite a long delivery time. But you can have it tailor made. It is made out of whatever function fabric is.

For most these you would need a Wig, 15 €, Boots, about 50 € and P-Chan, 95 €

That would tally up to anywhere between 226 € to 260 € for everything assuming every sale price applies.

Now let's do some fun math on how much I spend on the actual cosplay (I will ignore cost for sewing machine and practice fabrics. The fabric for the practice pieces was certainly like 80 € alone since I did so many pieces.) I will also tally up all the pink fabrics I bought, although I have some leftover for sure still even after finishing. All my other tools I bought surely tally around 50 € will also be left out.

• P-Chan: 76,99 € (I got an even better deal on her)
• Boots: 101,15 € (eBay, new) these were kinda hard to find. But Pleaser/Demonia is always a little on the more expensive side, since they are kinda specialty focused. Could have maybe found similar-ish boots on AliExpress. Some used boots might have also been an option,
• Gloves: 5,98 € (amazon)
• Belt and Suspenders: 11,99 € + 9,89 € = 21,97 € (amazon)
• Patterns: 61,20 € (burda), for the ones I ended up making would be 28,70 €
• Laces: 6,99 € (amazon)
• Fabric:
  • PU-Leather: 29,89 € (amazon) I ordered likely too much of it for sure since I will only really make the bags out of it. I will have to see how much is left.
  • Hat-Fabric: 1m fabric, 1m lining and thread 27,71 GBP (or 34,80 € due to PayPal exchange) plus some amount for VAT and tariff, like 15 €? Dunno. Total: 50 €
  • Fabric for Jacket and Pants and Scarf: 72,69 GBP (= 88,16 from my Credit Card) + VAT and Tariffs of 23,25 €, for a total of 111,41 € I ordered a bit too much with 6m I still have about 1m left but need to make a scarf still. I am also not the best with cutting, so I might have wasted a bit. Also importing that fabric made it way more expensive, but I wanted that specific one since I came to like it.
  • some other stuff like Vliseline. Make that 20 € since I dunno how much it was anymore.

So all of that (with the caveats above what I did not count) tally up to: 485,58 € if you are nice and only include the patterns I ended up using its 453,08 €. I likely and surely could have gone cheaper with some different fabric and boots as well. Might have shaved of a good 100 € that way.

No one ever said self-made costumes are cheap. sweats

In the end though I think it was a journey worth taking. Sewing is a nice hobby I had fun doing it and hopefully will have debuting this passion project at Dokomi 2025. Also thanks who read this. Like I may have written too much. See you in the next one.