Costume Breakdown | Black Cat DVa
In an effort to fully document all of the costumes I’ve created, here’s one from the archives: Black Cat Dva!
I unfortunately don’t have progress photos saved, but I did find a draft of the start of a breakdown post - so here it is, unedited, without progress shots. Let me know if you have specific questions about the creation of this costume - I’d love to assist!
COSTUME BREAKDOWN:
DRESS
The dress is made from black polyester for the bodice (found at my local fabric store) and plum casa collection satin from Jo-Anns. The bottom has black lace and silver trim. There's a black "overskirt" that sits over the purple underskirt.
BOLERO JACKET
When I started this costume, I wasn't sure if she was wearing a poufy sleeve dress, or if she had a jacket on. Now I think she's wearing a dress, but I made a jacket at the time :)
CORSET
I wish I could be more specific about this corset, but I used a pattern that I've used over and over again in the past that's been drafted to fit me. It's about 4" short of closing so it can tie in the front like her design. There are only 2 layers of fabric in this corset, and there is plastic boning along all of the seamlines. To create the boning "channels" I used open double-fold bias tape. Seriously, adding boning makes a huge difference in how it fits!! I used a grommet press to punch eyelets along the edges of the corset. To finish, I used black ribbon to tie.[PIC OF CORSET & GROMMET PRESS & CORSET INSIDE]
WIG
Epic Cosplay Hestia in Natural Blonde. This wig is one of my oldest...I've used it for Alice, Sherwood Forest Ashe, Spellthief Lux, and Steampunk Fionna.Styling was minimal - it's not a ponytail wig, so I pulled the hair into low ponys. Not exactly accurate but I didn't want to purchase a new wig.[HEADSHOT close-up]
EARS
At first with the ears I tried making a 3D blueprint and printing them, but they wouldn't attach nicely to my headband. Instead I used 5mm foam and cut the cat ear shape out. I curved the bottom edge to fit snug and glued to the headband. I glued 3 mm triangle pieces inside the ears and painted them pink. Finally, I glued pink ribbon bows to the sides.[pic of ears]
ACCESSORIES
DVa's main accessories were bows...and lots of them! She has a giant bow necklace and bows around her ankles. These bows were all interfaced with stiff interfacing and secured with velcro to fit around my neck/ankles. I was fortunate enough to already own some black gloves, so I added some pink trim to them using a hand stitch. The heart earrings were 3d printed. The belt was actually made from recycled beads from my Mafia Jinx cosplay from 2015. I strung them onto thin wire and put a bell and bow at the front. To secure around my waist, the last few beads of the wire twist around themselves to hold it in place.