Personal Project • cosplay | May 4th, 2012

Tira [Soul Calibur III]

Constructing a replica of a deadly hula hoop sized ring of blades and a feathery costume on a budget.
  • cosplay
  • fabrication
  • sewing
  • Technologies
    Shark Euro Pro X (Sewing Machine)

Photograph of a girl in a green feather outfit and blue hair holding a giant ring with blades Photograph of a girl in a green feather outfit and blue hair holding a giant ring with blades standing next to a ninja Photograph of a girl in a green feather outfit and blue hair pushing a giant ring with blades toward the camera Photograph of a girl faced the other way in a green feather outfit and blue hair resting a giant ring with blades on her shoulder

Context

One of my favorite game series of all time is Soul Calibur, a fighting game made by Namco. Many of the weapon moves are based on real life martial art styles, and as a martial artist myself it's really fun to see.

That being said, some characters are just wacky and non-sensical. Soul Calibur III introduced this Harley Quinn-like character named Tira. She's pure Chaotic Neutral and attacks people with a giant hula hoop of death. As soon as I saw her, I knew I had to dress up as her.

Instead of dressing up alone though, I convinced a few of my friends to dress up as other women in the franchise with me for Fanime. Most of them are also martial artists/lovers of the game, so it wasn't a hard sell.

Concept art of a girl in a green feather outfit and blue hair holding a giant ring with bladesConcept art of a lot of warrior women

The Process

Making the Outfit

Tira's outfit looks like a bunch of pieces of cloth that's only staying together because of a single piece of yarn.

I took a green T-Shirt, and cut along where the seams are in her outfit. Then, I connected them back together with a maroon ribbon. Lastly, I cut up an old jacket for the cuffs, attached those to the sleeves, and sewed a green feather boa around the neck.

Photograph of a girl wearing a torn up green shirt, frontPhotograph of a girl wearing a torn up green shirt, sidePhotograph of a girl holding up a green shirt with green feathers on a hanger

For the pants, I found a pair of white pants at Goodwill for $3 and dyed them green/teal. I traced my hand and arm and made a pattern for the gloves.

Photograph of a girl with brown hair wearing magenta gloves holding up green pantsPhotograph of a girl with brown hair wearing magenta gloves with green feathers

Lastly, I bought a bunch of plastic flower pots at Orchard Supply Hardware, covered them in duct tape, and painted them for the shin and knee guards.

Photograph of black plastic flower pots cut to look like shin guards

Making the Ring Blade

Tira has a mighty strange weapon: a giant, sharp hula hoop of death. I definitely wanted to do it justice, but I had a very limited budget, so I had to get creative.

I used a hula hoop as the base and covered it with pipe insulation. I cut the blades out of poster board and slotted those into the slits in the pipe insulation, then tapped the blades onto it.

Photograph of a hula hoop Photograph of a drawing of a blade on a black posterboard Photograph of a girl holding up a hula hoop with cut out blades duct taped on

Doing the makeup

I don't really wear much makeup...and don't really know how to apply it. So practicing the makeup is actually a huge deal to me.

Photograph of a girl with brown hair with elaborate magenta and green makeup onPhotograph of a girl with brown hair with elaborate magenta and green makeup on

"Making" the wig

I also couldn't find the right color wig. Since the dying of the pants went so well, I bought a white wig and tried to dye it teal...

Photograph of a wig in a pot of teal dye. It looks unappetizing Photograph of a person holding up a very lightly colored blue wig Photograph of a girl wearing a messy light blue wig and looking kind of disappointed

Final costume

We brought our costumes to Fanime. People even asked me for photo ops for their blogs!

Photograph of a group of girls all dressed up as warriors Photograph of a girl in green with a giant bladed ring standing next to a girl dressed as Princess Zelda Photograph of a man interviewing a couple of girls dressed as warriors Photograph of a girl in a green feather outfit and blue hair holding a giant ring with blades standing next to a ninja

Here's one of our guest appearances on a vlog: