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Cosplay
Cosplay is something I enjoy doing on occasion as a hobby. Take a look at some of the costumes I've made and/or showcased!
Eight (Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King)
San Japan 2025
Created by me
I played Dragon Quest VIII back in 2019 while I was in junior college, and I thought it was good. It was the first and last Dragon Quest I played, and I'm glad I played it, but it didn't leave much of a lasting impression on me as it seems to have done for many others. Truth be told, I never actually finished it; I arrived at the final boss and realized I was under-leveled. I couldn't be bothered to grind up and I shelved it. However, Hero was added to Smash Bros. at nearly the same time and he became one of my favorite fighters rather quickly, so that's where my primary attachment to the character comes from.
In 2025, my friends (not pictured) and I decided that we were going to go to San Japan together and do a group cosplay. The theme: Dragon Quest. Of course, I claimed Eight immediately, since my friends are all bigger Dragon Quest fans than I am and he was the only one I knew (outside of the Smash alts, of course.)
For this costume I wanted to take the next step up from my previous and do everything custom, head-to-toe. The outfit, boots, bag, and Munchie doll were all constructed by me, which I take pride in. The props were rather simple, so it wasn't my most involved project, but since I was working on this during the end of my Fall semester I was happy for it to me manageable.
Once again, all of my fabric, accessories, and notions (like buttons) were either thrifted or left over from class assignments, so we had a budget of nothing for this costume. The brown paper for the map, as well as the orange fabric used for Munchie, was actually given to me from one of my supervisors at work who knows I do this kind of thing. Big thanks to her, because it was the perfect material!
I used my personal slopers for the shirt, coat, and pants like I did for Hikari, but this time I made adjustments to the pants and sleeves for additional comfort and length, respectively. For the bandana, bag, boots, and Munchie, I found some free patterns online and printed them out. Cutting out the pieces was slightly more challenging this time around since the best space I had was the kitchen counter in my dorm, but I made do.
From there the construction was straight-forward. I was focused on getting it done as swiftly as reasonably possible, which means that I took some shortcuts. In retrospect I wish I would have taken more time to finish seams and add some surface detail; I ended up having plenty of time to spare. The Munchie doll was hand-sewn, leveraging some experience I gained making pin cushions in a class a few semesters prior. I also happened to have some doll stuffing that I was using for a separate project, which was gifted to me by my supervisor as well (she rocks, as you can see.)
Everything fit really comfortably on this one. I could honestly see myself wearing this outfit all day, even in the urban Texas heat. The bag was also very useful. I think from now on I'll be picking costumes with pockets and bags because its just too convenient. Plus, wearing a backpack with your cosplay just spoils the look for me, personally. Anyway, the one aspect that didn't quite work as I hoped was the boots. They are as cozy as they look, and held up surprisingly well, but I had ill-fitting soles that caused the heels to slide forwards. Soles were necessary, and I didn't have a better option, so it wasn't avoidable unfortunately. But otherwise, this might be my most wearable costume yet.
I entered the costume contest solo and was placed in the journeyman category, somehow. I didn't win, but I had a good time and the audience was great. They especially loved Munchie, to no-one's surprise! We also met a number of Dragon Quest fans who recognized us, which is always nice. One my friends (who went as the hero from Dragon Quest V) became the Pokemon Gameshow Champion, which aside from several other awesome prizes came with a free pass to San Japan 2026, so we'll all be planning to do another group cosplay next year, and this time the seams will be finished!
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Hikari Ku (Octopath Traveler 2)
Anime Matsuri 2024 / West Texas Comic-Con 2024
Created by me
Octopath Traveler 2 is my favorite JRPG of all time, and every one that I've played after it has had a hard time competing with it. Prior to the summer of 2024, it was the game I was playing, and I loved it beginning to end. If you ask me, it's an improvement over the first in every metric, which is high praise considering how great Octopath Traveler 1 is.
In the Octopath games, you may select any one of the eight party members as your protagonist. In the first game, I selected the merchant character, Tressa. I was tempted to go with the merchant again, a capitalist cowboy named Partitio, but I decided to mix it up. I went with Hikari, the warrior, and he ended up being one of my favorite characters. Factor in that his costume is almost purely clothing/fabric, and he was the obvious choice for my next cosplay.
This time, everything was custom, including the patterns. Coming off of my college patternmaking class, I was eager to put those skills to use. I took my measurements, drafted some basic slopers for a bodice, sleeve, and pant, and modified them accordingly. My textbook was very helpful here, especially for creating the bell sleeves. I wanted to do the same with the pants, but couldn't find any instructions for it, so I went with a flared pant pattern instead.
I sourced the fabric for the red robe and white sash from a local Goodwill pound store. Curtains and bed sheets work wonders as cheap material! However, it's difficult to find black fabric there, so I had to hit up Joann's for that. The yellow for the diamonds was left over from material I had to buy for class, so I'm glad I could still make it useful.
From there, I started tracing the patterns, adding the seam allowances, and cutting out my pieces. I've since bought a rotary cutter, but man do I wish I had one then. Using scissors sure does take awhile. Then I put all the pieces together. I make it sound simple, but it's only kind of simple. I always seem to end up having to add a pleat here or there, despite how carefully I think I measured. Plus, finishing all of the seams takes a while. At first I went with a flat-felled finish, then opted to simply serge the allowances, and finally decided that no-one was going to see the inside anyway and left it at pressing them down.
There were some notable aspects of the construction. Clearly, I need to study collars more closely because the collar on this costume did not turn out right. It bunched up in the back and didn't stand upright, despite my use of interfacing. I tried to compensate by inserting metal wire, which worked alright, but would occasionally poke out of the fabric. The decorative trim on the edges of the robe was fun; I cut out strips of black fabric, then serged the long edges with yellow thread, followed by a decorative stitch down the middle. Then I stitched the whole completed strip onto the robe. I was unsure of how to accomplish the trim for a while, so I was happy with the final solution!
The only non-sewn aspects are the arm guards (recycled from Akira, painted black), my shoes (I can't make shoes yet, but the slip-ons were inconspicuous) and the crown jewel of the project, the sword. It's a single solid prop, with no blade; it stays sheathed. It's made from layers of EVA foam, secured with contact cement and dowels, painted with spray paint, and finished with a handle wrap made from the last of my bias tape. I learned how to do the wrapping authentically from a YouTube video; it's easier than it looks! The sword is easily the best prop I've ever made, and I'm quite proud of the finished product. It's staying on my shelf for a while!
I unfortunately didn't win any contests with this one, and no-one seemed to know who my character was, but that's fine. This was yet another milestone project, being the first costume I built from the pattern-up, and is yet again an improvement over my others. Not only that, it's definitely the most comfortable one I've worn so far, which goes a long way. I don't know who my next cosplay will be, but you can bet that when Octopath Traveler 3 (hopefully) comes out, one of those travelers is going to the top of my list!
Akira Howard (Astral Chain)
Lubbock-Con 2024 (Judge's Choice Award)
Created by me and my father
At the time I had the idea for this project, I was just finishing my first semester at Texas Tech's apparel design program, and had heard there was a convention in town come February. Needing something to occupy my time over the winter break, I figured I'd finally do another cosplay and put some of my newfound sewing skills to work.
The character choice was inspired by the fact that Astral Chain was the last game I had completed at the time, and I really liked it. The main character also had a cool design that I figured I could knock out before school started back. It was also convenient that I still had lots of blue fabric left over from the Richter costume. The crafts aspect (props and armor) were more involved, but that made it an appropriate step up in challenge.
The central feature is the jacket, which I patterned, cut, and sewed myself. I had to sacrifice one of my dad's jackets to produce the patterns, but he wasn't using it anyway. It was big on me, but the looser fit would be more comfortable once I had the shirt underneath and the armor on top. On close inspection, it has some obvious flaws; raw edges, mismatched elements, and exposed interfacing on the collar being the most glaring. However, from a distance it looks great!
During my studies I experimented briefly with embroidery. My machine wasn't very good at it, but it could do linework. I incorporated embroidery on the left shoulder with the Neuron Task Force insignia and on the back of the belt with the "POLICE" text.
EVA foam was heavily utilized in the armor, back cradle, Legatus (the thing on my arm) and the titular astral chain. This is where I had some assistance from my father, who helped cut and glue things together. Notably, the cradle and chain were mostly his work. Detailing was simply carved with a box knife and smoothed with a head gun. Afterwards, the pieces were spray painted.
Everything else was thrifted or found: the grieves, dress shirt, tie, gloves, pants, belt (and accessories), and boots. Overall, I am very pleased with how this one came together. Separately, some pieces looked good, but all as one it's a great ensemble. Most didn't recognize who I was; I got "Borderlands," or "Beyblade," and a lot of "Yu-Gi-Oh," but it was more amusing than annoying. Despite that, this cosplay is also significant for being the first of mine to win an award: Judge's Choice! It was of course very gratifying, but I think the thing that made me the happiest that con was someone actually recognizing my character and wanting a picture. That never gets old!
Richter Belmont (Castlevania Series)
Fan Expo Dallas 2022 / Anime Matsuri 2022
Created by me
This is the first costume for which I actually used a sewing machine, and is in fact the first time I ever used a sewing machine at all! That alone makes this costume special to me, but I also put it together almost entirely on my livestream. Needless to say, the process was a valuable learning experience in sewing, stitching, pattern-making, and giving yourself more wiggle-room than you think you might need, because you'll want more (it's a miracle that glove fit on my hand).
Richter was not my first choice for my 3rd cosplay. Originally, I was going to do the more obscure Beyond The Grave from the video game and anime series Gungrave. However, the scope proved a bit too daunting for me and I decided I wanted to try something a bit easier. I had already bought the materials for the Beyond costume, which included a length of chain for his signature coffin gun. So, I went to thinking of other characters with chains, and landed on Richter. Not only was he featured in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which I had recently played at the time (and love, by the way) but he's also one of my favorite characters to play as in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate.
In another first for me, this was the first costume for which I made a prop, in this case the legendary Vampire Killer whip, which I decided to do first. I cut the cross-shaped body out of plywood with a jigsaw, used a weird-looking toy I found at the thrift store as a spike ball, cut off a section of chain, and then spray-painted all the parts with the same matte gray to emulate metal. The paint ended up chipping off of the chain, but I thought it added character. Then I bound it all together with shoelaces, d-rings, and spare pleather. All in all, I'm impressed with the result but moreso with how secure it ended up being. You wouldn't believe how fun it is to swing around!
The rest of the costume was fairly straightforward. The fabrics, dagger sheath, pants, and boots were all obtained from thrift stores and garage sales. The rest of the components - belts, cardboard, chain, paint, etc. - were all from around my house or purchased from a hardware store.
This is definitely my favorite cosplay to date, not only because my experience with it was so much more intimate, but also because it's a character that I really enjoyed playing and walking around as. It also helps that it's my most comfortable costume to date. Stitches work a lot better than staples and duct tape, imagine that!
Vaan (Final Fantasy XII)
AnimeFest 2021
Created by me
This is the first costume I've ever made entirely by myself, based on the protagonist of one of my favorite RPGs of all time. Being my first, I wanted to choose a character that I thought would be relatively simple to put together. Vaan wears a pretty basic outfit for Square Enix standards but also some light armor, so it seemed like a beginner-level challenge.
I did not do any sewing for this costume, because I did not know how to sew at that point. Instead, I relied on modifying clothing I found at Goodwill with scissors, staples, duct tape, and velcro. The armor, amulet, and belt objects were made out of cardboard, tin foil was wrapped around everything to simulate metal, and strips of duct tape were used for detailing.
Although the amateur construction showed and predictably began to fall apart during the convention, I am very proud of how it came out and had tons of fun showing it off at the cosplay contest. Even though I totally should have won "Creative Use of Materials," but whatever.
Ratchet (Ratchet: Deadlocked/Gladiator)
AnimeFest 2021
Showcased by me, created by my father
Although my family has a history of making our own Halloween costumes, this was the first time my dad and I collaborated on a proper cosplay. I use "collaborated" lightly, as my dad did all of the actual making while I simply lent my assistance in taking measurements and creative consultation.
Anyone familiar with the source material will see that the costume takes a number of creative liberties with the Marauder Armor that it was based off of. We considered painting the armor, but decided to keep it as it was; we figured it was already different enough that we should just lean into it being a unique set. The text on the front reads "Ratchet" in the Lombax language, and the "020" is there because I like multiples of 5 and we thought a number there would complete the look.
The armor is made almost entirely out of EVA foam, but also includes plexiglass for the visor, PVC piping, a pair of leg braces, a Nerf revolver, and a few LEDs for the lighting.
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