Personal Project • cosplay | November 2nd, 2017

Marie [Splatoon]

A handmade dress complete with steel boning and a ribbon made of stuffed tentacles to make the perfect squid kid.
  • cosplay
  • fabrication
  • sewing
  • Technologies
    Shark Euro Pro X (Sewing Machine)

A photograph of 4 young adults posing for the camera in colorful costumes

For Fanime 2016, my friends and I decided we wanted to be Splatoon characters. In the popular Nintendo exclusive third person shooter, most characters are themed after cephalopoda. There are two game show host type characters named Callie and Marie (get it? Calamari), and my friend and I decided to go as the sister squid duo.

Concept art for a video game depicting two girls who are part squid posing for the camera

The Process

Making the dress

Marie's dress is pretty form fitting until the bottom, and it has slits in the outer layer showing the green lining underneath. I went to work to making the lining and to figure out how to add boning so that it is more form fitting.

Photograph of green fabric with black boning sewn in Photograph of a blue mannequin with tape outlining a heart top Photograph of a girl looking in a mirror figuring out the fit of green fabric Photograph of green fabric with black boning wrapped around a mannequin Photograph of a black sequins dress with green cutouts on a mannequin Photograph of a girl in a black and green dress with white gloves and a white wig posing for the camera

Making the bow

After the dress, I set out to make the tentacle bow and hat. The tentacle bow was made with furniture upholstery foam and the tentacles made with the same type of stuffing used for stuffed animals. I used an airbrush to paint on the pattern on the bottom of the tentacles. The tentacles were sewn onto the bow, and the bow had hair clips sewn onto it to be affixed to the wig. The hat was made using a plastic ramen bowl with an adhesive green vinyl strip painted with acrylic paint. It was glued to a silver hair band that went into the wig.

Photograph of a stuffed tentacle with gray spots Photograph of a stuffed tentacle with a fabric sucker Photograph of a giant bow with tentacle ribbons Photograph of a girl in a white wig with a giant bow with tentacle ribbons and a small hat

Somehow I don't have pictures of my shoes, but I made covers that slip onto high-top sneakers and close with velcro on the bottom.