SELPHIE TILMITT

Game: Final Fantasy VIII
Worn to: Acen 06, C3 meetup 06, Anime Iowa 08
Status: In need of minor repairs
Difficulty:

Why I made it

I only played a little bit of FFVIII but I loved Selphie's character. Around that time, I decided that I wanted to start making costumes by myself and Selphie seemed like a good choice for a beginner. When my friend Kayla decided to cosplay Rinoa, it was all go from there.

How I made it

Selphie's jumper was made out of a stiff yellow twill and a very simple pattern. The zipper was, stupidly, one of the most annoying part of the entire costume - I couldn't find a long yellow zipper ANYWHERE! I ended up buying a silver zipper with a white edge and had to paint the white areas yellow...which made it difficult to pull up and down. I used model magic for the zipper's design, more model magic for her necklace, (which I sculpted to look like a train) and blue ribbon for the braclet. The first time I wore the costume, I hot glued pieces of ribbon to strips of tape on my arm. It hurt a lot and was probably one of the stupidest things I've ever done for cosplay! The next time I wore the costume, I used double-sided tape.

The nunchaku are made from wooden rods painted red, metal chains painted white, and electrical tape.

The wig was styled using pop cans, cheap hairspray, and lots of patience. I preferred the cartooney, gravity-defying curls to the naturalistic approach so I went that route when styling my wig. I first divided the hair into 3 pieces then styled one curl at a time by gradually wrapping the fibers over the pop cans, making sure that the wig spead out evenly over the cans. (I may have even taped 2 pop cans together...) At the beginning of the styling process, I would often use a wide-tooth comb to gently brush out the styling that I had done on the wig. This helped the wig from looking too weighted down with hairspray but, after combing out the hair spray, much of the curl still remained. The next time I went to curl the hair, it was much more receptive to being curled and the process got easier and easier. The curls have gotten a bit beat up over time and need to be restyled.

Final thoughts

This costume is definitely not the most flattering on me but it's so cute that I can't help but love it! I keep looking for another excuse to wear it but, sadly, haven't found one yet.