I stumbled upon the artwork for Granado Espada at just the right time. I had hit the point where I knew I wanted to branch outside my sewing comfort zone and try something more challenging than I was used to. Although ALL of the Granado Espada artwork is gorgeously detailed and really beautiful, the Fighter costume immediately jumped out at me. I loved the little hat and the silver spandex and, because I already had a wig and needed a costume for Youmacon, I was sold.
The jacket was a bit of a challenge because half-way through construction, my machine decided it HATED the fabric and refused to sew through it any more. I made the bag and on my legs I'm wearing one pair of gray tights, black fishnets, silver spandex thigh-highs and silver spandex boots. The shirt is a very low cut black shirt and I used bias tape for the orange stripes. The collar is connected to the shirt using a series of snaps and the "pin" is just a painted button. I got the hat for my birthday from my friend Megan and modified it with bias tape and made the little eagle out of craft foam.
There were a lot of "firsts" with this costume. I drafted all of the patterns myself (poorly) and tried a lot of things I had never attempted before. While I could do a much better job with this cosutme now, I was very proud of it at the time and it helped me branch out to more difficult projects.