Maruwins

Crafting Blog: Tifa Lockhart

Added 2019-03-09 17:00:03 +0000 UTC

Intro

Tifa was the second cosplay I ever made. I remember making the belt from duct tape and craft foam and wearing 2 bras (one of which belonged to my friend with bigger boobs). I remember how many people told me they loved my cosplay, and I think it was then I realized this hobby was for me.

She's the most iconic Final Fantasy female character (sorry Aerith and Terra) and one of my favorites in terms of design. I love her simplicity. She's similar to Lara Croft in a way, who is another really iconic female video game character. Like Tifa, Lara kicks ass too.

Material List

Wig from Arda
Earrings from Etsy
Suspenders from Amazon
Belt from Amazon
Dr Martin knock-offs if you can find them
Rust colored pleather
Red stretch fabric
Black Stretch leather
White stretch fabric
5mm and 2 mm craft foam
Industrial strength Velcro
Acrylic and leather paints
Wood glue
Spray sealant
Hot glue
Contact cement
Mold making supplies
Small glass aquarium rocks
Resin
Resin dye if you want the materia to be transparent.

Wig

With Tifa, I much prefer her hair a really dark brown like in the original art. I think I am neutral in terms of the style (fluffy and big, like the original vs more realistic like the AC renders). Since I was planning to do the original outfit, I chose to style the wig with lots of volume.

I hot glued in extra wefts fo volume, as well as crimped a bunch of hair for more poofiness. Kinpatsu Cosplay has a great tutorial about wigs: https://kinpatsucosplay.com/product/wig-styling-for-cosplay/ And its where I learned about crimping for volume.

The rest of the wig was just teased for extra volume and sprayed in place. I chose to omit the whale tail ending because I would have to glue the hair into shape- therefore not being able to brush it out.

The tie is made of red pleather and ties in a bow or wraps around.

Boots

I'm lucky that Dr Martins boots are in fashion, because you can find knock-offs everywhere for cheap. Thats what I used for Tifa's boots. I used leather paint to add the red, and the armor piece is made of foam. It stays on with industrial strength velcro.

Shirt, belt, suspenders and skirt

I bought the belt and suspenders from amazon. I think they were 50$ all together? I didn't want to make them myself because it would cost me more in time and materials.

The skirt I made from this really nice stretch pleather. It has a real leather texture too. I wanted the skirt to specifically be leather-looking, to contrast the long black gloves (which I made from a smooth stretch pleather.

I also made the top, which is another thing you could probably buy. The problem is I didn't want to pay $40 for a non-see through white top to cut up. I just Found some thick stretchy fabric and used another top of mine as a pattern.

Materia

I had originally just painted the back of some glass aquarium gems, but they would not adhere to the pleather. So I used the gems and made molds to cast out of resin and dyed them with acrylic paint. If you wanted them to be transparent, I'd use acrylic dye.

The first cast didn't glue either. So I casted them a second time, and set a sewing brad into the gems before they hardened. Then I was able to attach them without glue.

Gloves + Elbow Pad

The gloves were a pain. The pleather I bought was nice, but no glue or even leather paint stuck to it. I used hockey stick tape for the white wrap on the glove as well. The underside of the gloves are just red stretch fabric that I weathered with my airbrush.

The elbow pad is just 5 mm and 2 mm craft foam. I made a pattern with paper to trace on to 5 mm foam. I glued both sides with contact cement. I glued on little foam circles as well. Then just paint and seal. It secures with an adjustable velcro strap.