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Description
"I'm an elite warrior who's trained for many years in the art of stealth. ...I think I could get you backstage."

With our endless gratitude to the amazing talent of photographer Marcus Lim [link] -- Thank you so much for being so amazing and allowing us to drag you out for an impromptu photo shoot!!

We'd also like to say a big THANK YOU to for inspiration and advice.

=================
Character: Suki =
Universe: Avatar the Last Airbender
Debut: Supanova Sydney 2011
Location: Olympic Park
Photographer: Marcus Lim [link]
Awards: "Best group" Sunday Madman Cosplay Competition

Makeup: ~little-match-girl
Outfit made and worn by ~little-match-girl and ~ubercaledor
=========================
Construction notes
This was my first major costume. I made a lot of things more difficult than they really needed to be, so don't make the same mistakes that I did

Pants:
I made this way to complicated and don't recommend anyone use this method!
I used a light stretch Satin based fabric, but inside out so it wasn't too shiny. The pants were made in 4 sections - two standard wideleg pant pattern and the second two were pleated, folded and sew into the folds the way I wanted them to sit. They were all attached. Originally I was going to leave it as just pants, but found that when I stretched out, that rather than stretching the pleats, you could see the gap in the pant legs, so instead I then sewed the inner leg seams together. This stopped the gap showing and meant that the pleats stretched. Essentially I changed it back to being a skirt...

Jacket:
Also made way too complicated. I used material from the habadashery section of the fabric store. (I'm wearing a sofa!) To avoid visable seams on the front I folded and iron the seams into place first then hand stitched at certain points to hem the jacket. Also sewing the bias tape to the arms BEFORE attaching them to the main body is an excellent idea...
The collar took 3 days to work out how to do it properly (largely due to poor planning in the design stage). Eventually i found that hand sewing on the mannequin was the only way I could get it to sit properly.

Armour:
I used two layers of craft foam. Cut it to shape. mod podged. spray painted. mod podged. Hot glued the two layers together. Added eyelets. Glued the armour to a strip of material in the order that I wanted it to sit. Tied together with leather thonging.
Problem areas:
1. Bulging in the top slat of armour. I think this required a more sturdy material as a backing to keep it still - maybe cardboard?
2. All the pieces ended up sitting longer than intended due to slipping of the leather tying it together.
3. I ran out of brown/black foam and had to use a different colour. When hot glueing together they were slightly different sizes and required the edges to be trimmed and hence you could see the red, green and orange foam underneath... Moral - just use brown foam!

Detailling:
Head piece was 3 layers of craft foam. I sewed the ties of the headdress onto the backing piece before hot gluing it to the main piece. I then hot glued on the fan spokes, foam rectangle and circular button.
The medalions were made by ~ubercaledor using a button with hot glue to add the details. We threaded cotton through the buttons before adding the hot glue so that they could be sewn into place as well as hot glued in for added strength.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask - sorry if its a little long winded...

==========================
Related photos:
Best Warrior: [link]
Best Warrior, huh?: [link]

Description
"I'm an elite warrior who's trained for many years in the art of stealth. ...I think I could get you backstage."

With our endless gratitude to the amazing talent of photographer Marcus Lim [link] -- Thank you so much for being so amazing and allowing us to drag you out for an impromptu photo shoot!!

We'd also like to say a big THANK YOU to for inspiration and advice.

=================
Character: Suki =
Universe: Avatar the Last Airbender
Debut: Supanova Sydney 2011
Location: Olympic Park
Photographer: Marcus Lim [link]
Awards: "Best group" Sunday Madman Cosplay Competition

Makeup: ~little-match-girl
Outfit made and worn by ~little-match-girl and ~ubercaledor
=========================
Construction notes
This was my first major costume. I made a lot of things more difficult than they really needed to be, so don't make the same mistakes that I did

Pants:
I made this way to complicated and don't recommend anyone use this method!
I used a light stretch Satin based fabric, but inside out so it wasn't too shiny. The pants were made in 4 sections - two standard wideleg pant pattern and the second two were pleated, folded and sew into the folds the way I wanted them to sit. They were all attached. Originally I was going to leave it as just pants, but found that when I stretched out, that rather than stretching the pleats, you could see the gap in the pant legs, so instead I then sewed the inner leg seams together. This stopped the gap showing and meant that the pleats stretched. Essentially I changed it back to being a skirt...

Jacket:
Also made way too complicated. I used material from the habadashery section of the fabric store. (I'm wearing a sofa!) To avoid visable seams on the front I folded and iron the seams into place first then hand stitched at certain points to hem the jacket. Also sewing the bias tape to the arms BEFORE attaching them to the main body is an excellent idea...
The collar took 3 days to work out how to do it properly (largely due to poor planning in the design stage). Eventually i found that hand sewing on the mannequin was the only way I could get it to sit properly.

Armour:
I used two layers of craft foam. Cut it to shape. mod podged. spray painted. mod podged. Hot glued the two layers together. Added eyelets. Glued the armour to a strip of material in the order that I wanted it to sit. Tied together with leather thonging.
Problem areas:
1. Bulging in the top slat of armour. I think this required a more sturdy material as a backing to keep it still - maybe cardboard?
2. All the pieces ended up sitting longer than intended due to slipping of the leather tying it together.
3. I ran out of brown/black foam and had to use a different colour. When hot glueing together they were slightly different sizes and required the edges to be trimmed and hence you could see the red, green and orange foam underneath... Moral - just use brown foam!

Detailling:
Head piece was 3 layers of craft foam. I sewed the ties of the headdress onto the backing piece before hot gluing it to the main piece. I then hot glued on the fan spokes, foam rectangle and circular button.
The medalions were made by ~ubercaledor using a button with hot glue to add the details. We threaded cotton through the buttons before adding the hot glue so that they could be sewn into place as well as hot glued in for added strength.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask - sorry if its a little long winded...

==========================
Related photos:
Best Warrior: [link]
Best Warrior, huh?: [link]