Please watch my full build video for a more in-depth look at how I made this costume, but I will break down some of the materials and process here as well.

Research:

When I signed onto the project, I had exactly one month to make the costume, do a photoshoot and edit an extensive video documenting everything. So, I started collecting materials and patterning out the costume right away. This project involved a lot of planning because I had to split up the work between two locations to accommodate the sheer scale of it and the video recording. I did all the garment work in the sewing room at my house and used my warehouse for prop building where I could use power tools and get really dirty. I ended up keeping a daily task list on my phone that helped me stay on course and be efficient with my time. I would sand foam, mold pieces or paint in the warehouse in the mornings and then I’d be sewing at home while materials were curing or drying.

The update to Vayne’s classic Night Hunter skin makes it more realistic but also more difficult to make because there is less room for interpretation or mistakes. At first, much time was spent drawing up templates and making test pieces, so that when I got into the time crunch phase, I could forge ahead knowing that my methods would work.

Props:

Because I’m more confident in sewing, I focused on the props first. Both crossbows are made with EVA foam and I was very lucky to have a huge stash of foam at home from my Cosplay Fabrics line.

I built the base pieces for the large crossbow out of 10mm EVA foam sheets, stacked on top of each other and glued together with Barge cement. Brian helped me make support structures for the props with PVC pipe and metal rods, and he also had the genius idea of using bicycle brakes for the moving mechanism in the wrist crossbow. The large crossbow breaks apart via PVC pipe joints so eventually, I can take it in a suitcase. The small wrist bow is permanently attached to the gauntlet and moves in a snap motion.

There were many days of cutting and layering foam sheets, then sanding them into the shapes I needed and piecing them together with the support structure sandwiched in between. Then came the days of making the details and adornments for the bows, including resin-casting the round gear buttons and creating the gold armor plates using foam sheets and triangle bevel trims. A lot of small fiddly bits. Once everything was made and glued on, we sealed the props with Plasti Dip and I went on a fun adventure of wood grain painting. Shout out to Kevin at Hobby Town in Kennesaw, GA for giving painting advice and paint suggestions. With a combination of acrylic paint, Tamiya spray paint and airbrush paint, the props were finally finished.

Would you like to see a more in-depth video or blog-post about the wood grain paint process?

Garments:

Vayne was a very precise sewing project. It’s honestly 10 times easier for me to sew a ballgown than it is to sew a tight fitting hunter suit out of pleather lol. I made sure to pattern out the collar and coat so when it came time to sew everything, I didn’t waste any of my precious marine vinyl. Oh yeah, I was able to find vegan materials for the costume, such as a dark red upholstery pleather for the coat and navy blue superpreme 4-way stretch fabric from Cosplay Fabrics. I also used this great brown textured pleather from my fabric line for all the belts and boot covers.

Without a doubt, I spent the most time on the coat, which was a beast to wrangle at times thanks to the heavy upholstery material. The “petals” on the back of the coat added a lot of weight and layers so that I had to hand-stitch them on with a thimble and needle-nose pliers.

Also, every edge and hem on Vayne’s coat is finished with a Hong Kong binding so I spent a lot of time turning under binding strips and mitering corners.

The bodysuit was the last major piece I made on the costume because after so many years I can make a bodysuit in my sleep. I added the applique pieces the same way I did on Zhen Ji, except that the pieces were simple enough to stitch out on my sewing machine rather than having to digitize them and embroider them. I cut out the designs in matching navy superpreme and spray-fused them to a second layer of pleather for stability, then adhered the pieces to water-soluble stabilizer. After satin-stitching around the perimeter of each individual applique, I washed away the stabilizer and was left with nice clean designs, ready to be attached to the bodysuit. Because the bodysuit had to be tailored first, I stitched all the appliques on by hand in order to not have to take the garment apart.

Ponytail:

This is a costume that keeps surprising you with more components lol. I had the foresight to get long wefts and a ponytail clip from Arda Wigs at the beginning of the project, but then only found time to make the ponytail in the last days before the photoshoot. Thankfully the styling went pretty quickly and I was able to affix the ponytail to my head without much problem. I sprayed my purple hair black on the day of the shoot.

Arrows and hardware:

There are many metal bits and hardware on Vayne’s costume, down to her shoes. Just her collar has two large emblems and a dozen hardware pieces! It became a scramble in the last two days before the photoshoot to get all the details made, painted and affixed. Brian was a big help in making the center emblem and casting out a bunch of hardware bits for me, and I also had him make on the arrows while I worked on the bows. He mostly used resin and apoxie sculpt, and I made all the shoe armor and collar hardware out of EVA foam.

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