Construction Details:

The costume itself is not very complicated: cotton pants were bought, bleached and dyed. The shirt, made of a kind of linen lookalike, was trickier than I thought, namely the collar, but I'm glad it looks decent (more or less XD). The boots were made from a pair of old shoes, modified with EVA foam, covered with brown poplin and finished with a decorative stitch. I also made the loooong belt myself.

Finally, I must admit that Needle was a really rushed work, but despite making it in 3 or 4 days, I suppose it looks good enough in photos. The design is not based on the HBO series (which, believe it or not, I haven't seen yet: I love the ASoIaF books but I won't watch it until I've read all of them, it's an old habit of mine XD), but on Valyrian Steel's design made from the books descriptions (http://www.valyriansteel.com/shop/swords/needle-sword-of-arya-stark/prod_3.htm).

The base is a toy sword which was covered and modified with EVA foam, papier maché and filling putty. And, you know, quite a lot of sanding, as much as time permitted. I didn't make the sword as shiny and clean as the original, because I thought that'd give an unrealistic feel. It's a little bit shorter than it should and it has inconsistencies... but it's the second sword I made and I like it more or less :3 (the first one was the first attempt at Frog's broadsword and it ended in the trash can XD).

Personal Thoughts:

I originally planned to wear this costume (without Needle and using my own hair) for the Iron Throne Tour that was coming to my city for the first time. But the opportunity to go to a convention I really like showed up and so Arya was going to end being one of those cosplays that end up forever unfinished.

But! The adorable Limnauth appeared out of the blue and suggested that I could bring Arya to that convention, and that I'd have her as a kick-ass half-brother and Adri as a sweet and beautiful mother, and so I accepted :3

After all, I loved being the kick-ass little Arya, which in my opinion is the best character in the books along with Daenerys. Being able to endure every hardship she encounters and never falling down despite her young age is something I really admire. I felt a little bit ashamed cosplaying her since I'm almost 20 years older! But I had a lot of fun and many people shared their love for the character with me, which always makes me happy ^^

Styling Notes

Since the wig came out perfectly straight, beautiful and seemingly untangleable (if that word even exists) and I wanted to give it a more realistic look, I braided the wig in a few different ways, sprayed it like crazy, applied a little bit of heat and removed the braids later. I also used a little bit of pomade to make it look "dirtier".

Wig Review

Since this project was now a little bit more serious, I wanted to be more accurate and used a beautiful lacefront wig from Arda I have sitting in my wig box instead of my own hair. I don't regret it at all, the wig is really awesome, with a beautiful color and the lacefront looks really natural!

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