Archive for the 'Raya' Category

I completed another part of my Raya cosplay, and it’s the pants!

I wasn’t sure what type of fabric to use at first. I was originally looking for some twill, but I ended up finding some olive-colored demin and went with it!

The pattern took me a few tries to get correct. I started by making some basic baggy pants, but the fit just didn’t seem to match the loose fit that Raya has. I adjusted the pant legs a couple times and also how the crotch sits, and this is what I ended up with.

As for the front flap, I originally didn’t think it was connected to the pants and that it was some sort of pants cover that went over both sides of the pants. Well, I ended up re-watching parts of the movie and screenshotting uh… basically Raya’s butt… and realized that the flap was only on the front part and seemed to be part of the pants itself.

Here it is, the finished vest!

Yet again, I’ve decided to apply a pattern by hand. (I did it twice for Tashigi already.) Why do I do this to myself?? I wasn’t sure how well it’d turn out, but it actually looks pretty good!

I did run into a few issues though, which is why the pattern looks so uneven.

• I ran out of ink twice, so I had to buy a new marker each time. Even though I got the same shade and same brand, the color looked different when the marker was fresh and when it was low on ink.
• As I went along, the stencil started to get smeared with ink, which I think smeared the ink on the vest. My first application on the front looks a lot more crisp than the back and the sleeves.
• Some parts looked too faded, so I went back to reapply the pattern, which then made it darker than other parts.

Towards the end, I started purposely reapplying the pattern unevenly (to just some spots, not all), so that it’d have more of a worn look.

I’m back! …again! Between my last cosplay (Kiki) and now, two years have passed, in which I’ve had another kid (2 girls now!) and of course, the pandemic happened. Cosplay hasn’t exactly been on my mind. But then! I watched Raya and the Last Dragon and was immediately inspired.

In the past month, I’ve been drafting new patterns and deciding on what fabric to use. Here is my progress so far!

The shirt isn’t sewn together yet, but I already have an idea of how it’ll come together. I decided to just use a cotton-poly blend for it. Though I figured out a way to do the shirt with one long strip of fabric, I decided to split the top part and the bottom part into two pieces. That seemed simpler and used less fabric.