Korra Cosplay - Pants

So I've been wanting to cosplay for a while, and this year's Armageddon (New Zealand's poor version of Comic Con) presented a good opportunity to try it out.

I picked Korra, the outspoken successor of Avatar Aang, from the series Avatar: The Legend of Korra.

Korra's outfit presented a challenge in that I don't know if the character designer considered sewing construction while creating her costume. The fitted top suggests it is made from a knit fabric, but then it has a stiff mandarin collar. She has some sort of dark blue apron which only function appears to be to hide her crotch. And then there is the leather/fur wrap held up just by a fabric belt. She also has something on her arm that everyone is adamant is an armband, but I'm going to call it a tattoo.

So I started by gathering up all the blue fabric I could find (naturally there are about five shades in the outfit) and making the big, baggy pants.

Dive weights make great fabric weights

The blue fabric is a thickly woven cotton-y woollen poly something or other. I used a pattern-making book to draft up a tracksuit-pant pattern without side seams. I made a toile out of cheap polyester and somehow it worked perfectly the first time!

I used my serger to join the seams and finish the hem and waistline, then used a twin needle on my sewing machine for the rest (hemming and making the elastic band carrier).

And the results:

They passed the boot-tuck test, as well.

They are super comfy and baggy, so I can prance about in them as much as I like. They are also going to be pretty durable, and I'm not worried about them tearing.

Next up I think I'll do something easy, like the apron. I'm not really looking forward to the top, although I did buy the perfect fabric for it. Stretchy knit and fluffy on the inside, so it's going to be incredibly cuddly.

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Next post: Korra's armbands as bracers