Construction Details:

Many moons ago, the usual suspects discussed a Saiunkoku group, and I wound up picking Shusui. My original plan was to do her typical court formals, but due to a number of different things that never happened. When the Angels Camp trip came up, I started thinking about what I could make that would suit an outdoor setting, and her assassin/ninja gear came to mind pretty quickly.

It was a fun costume to make -- deceptively simple clothes (okay, probably actually simple, but I kept getting things backwards) and some fancy accessories. The clothes involve two different shades of linen/cotton (pale blue-grey and mallard blue), about five fibre-reactive dyes mixed together to get the darker blue, two shades of grey quilter's cotton, organza ribbon, nylon/lycra for the gauntlets, and leather straps and brass buckles. I think I need to redo the cowl, but I'm otherwise fairly happy with the end result. The mask was purchased and completely repainted using Testor's enamels. The ring blades were probably the most time-intensive part of the costume, and are made a single piece of pine plywood sanded into shape, painted with acrylic and Testor's spray paint, sealed, and then wrapped at the grips with red suede. The gold bracelet was purchased.

It's a fairly comfortable costume, which is what I was hoping for, but it does take a bit of time to put on. Overall, I'd still say success. :D

Styling Notes

Utterly minimal wig styling was required for this: pull out some strands in the front, tie the rest back into a low ponytail, and go. I love it when I can be lazy with wigs.

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