Cosplay Crafts - Apokélypse

The next cosplay plan I am undertaking is an apocalyptic twist on Pokémon, or as me and my boyfriend affectionately call it; 'The Apokélypse'. 

The plan is for him to dress as the eternal-10-year-old Ash Ketchum (well, a grown up version) while I take a human twist on a Growlithe, we then cover everything in dirt and blood and act as vicious as the characters undoubtedly would if a nuclear disaster left the world in tatters. ;) 

So since my cosplay partner has yet to collect any items for his costume and MCM is less than a month away -(we booked the tickets yesterday, eeek!)- I decided to take matters into my own hands and make him a bandolier that could not only accommodate bullets but also pokeballs. 

I soon found this kind of act will earn you mega brownie points, it's so easy and, if you get inventive enough, cheap to do. I was admittedly bitten by the cosplay-crafting-bug a little before deciding to undertake this project and so found it really fun anyway, but no way did I expect it to turn out as good as I think it did! 

Basically, I kinda put this accessory together with whatever I could find just lying around the house so there is no right or wrong when it comes to materials or technique, do what you want to and make the piece your own! 

For my bandolier I used an old pair of jeggings that had worn out, I cut both legs to the width I wanted so I'd have two doubled up pieces that I could sew together for the basic length and padding of the thing. I sewed them up length ways by machine and then sewed both sets of ends together to make sure the stitches were secure. 

I ended up with this;

it was sturdy and made a great base meaning all I had to do after was sew some fake leather around it to cover up the denim. I did this by hand as I wanted to keep the stitches inside, admittedly this took time especially since I had to keep double-triple checking that my stitches were secure but I'm not all that confident of a sewing machine so I feel it was worth it.

I decided to try my hand at making the pokeballs and bullets before going any further as I intended to sew all of the pouches on the bandolier separately, and needed the objects to fit. The pokeballs I did with just basic papier-mâché, I scrunched up a ball of paper, taped another sheet around it and attempted to make it as even looking as possible, they're a little uneven, but I'm not so bothered by that.    

The bullets were incredibly easy, all you need is a long (but small) rectangle of cardboard folded in half to double up the size and some masking tape. Wrap the tape around the cardboard to bulk it up a bit and make it look more even, when you're happy with the shape and size of your bullet you can paint it up! 

Now I am sure there has to be a better way of doing this next step but like I said, I usually just find my own tricky and not-so-sensible way of making things and as long as they don't fall apart I'm happy. Using the same fake leather I cut off small strips and pinned them around each individual bullet to ensure they were tight enough to keep them in place, but still loose enough so that they could be slipped out if need be. For the pokeballs or any similar objects I would suggest using two long strips that crossover in the middle otherwise they will fall out. I sewed all of these pieces up individually, which doesn't take too long once you get into the rhythm of it, and it does mean all of the bullets fit perfectly into their own little section. 

And hoorah you're finished! 

I kind of assumed this project a success after forcing my boyfriend to do a 'super-kawaii-fun-time' face for one of the modelled pictures, but who knows, it could fall apart at MCM!  

Hope this badly done cosplay tutorial worked for you guys, let me know what you think or if you're going to be cosplaying anything at MCM/in general in a comment. :) 

~ Ninjasaurusroar