Korra Cosplay - Fur wrap

Making the fur wrap for Korra's costume introduced me to working with leather, sheepskin, and best of all, ADOS super glue.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what the fur wrap is for. A convenient sitting place? To keep your bum warm? Your guess is as good as mine.

Probably just to match her boots

I started by buying a leather scrap from a fabric store. I would have used synthetic, but it seems to create a bit of shine when a camera is using flash. I also wanted a more natural, water-tribish look.

I was also going to use a fur trim, but when considering what to use for the white trim on the boots, I decided on sheepskin (shearling).

The trick would be finding some - you'd think in a country where sheep outnumber the population seven to one, it would be easy. Not so! It took me a good long while browsing through thrift shops, TradeMe and souvenir stores to find a reasonably priced sheepskin rug.

Next, I needed to wash it. It smelled of old people and must. About five rinses in warm water did it. The rainy and cold weather didn't really help with drying, but it got there after about three days.

In the meantime, I began work on the leather. Since it was my first time working with leather, I was pretty nervous! Once it's cut, it's cut, and I only had enough to cut out one skirt.

I started by marking out where to cut on the wrong (right) side, then used a ruler and a rotary cutter to cut everything out.

Since the sheepskin, leather, and layers inside would make it quite heavy, I designed the skirt to have a belt hidden inside to hold it up. I would then cover it with the blue fabric belt to be more accurate to the original design.

This was probably the most enjoyable part of the process - making a belt fastening! I started by cutting a strip, then removing a slot where the buckle would go.

After I had it folded over, a mushed a belt loop in there along with a generous amount of ADOS glue. Dive weights to the rescue again!

To reinforce the glue, I pierced two holes and crushed a rivet into each. Solid!

I also cut and sewed a lining from some blue fabric, and made some pockets for holding phone, keys, and cash.

Now onto the sheepskin! I used the rotary cutter to score the leather from the back, then ripped the pieces out. This preserved the natural edges of the wool instead of cutting hard lines into it.

 More glue was used to attach the trim to the leather.

Here it is all bonded together.

Ever paranoid about it falling apart, I cut some more leather strips and glued them onto the join between the sheepskin and the leather.

The final piece of the puzzle - two fabric belt covers for the leather fastener. The wider parts are tubes that will encase the belt.

I used the last of the leather scraps to join the lining. By this point I had run out of glue, but I'm pretty confident this isn't going to fall apart any time soon.

Here you can see the leather belt peeking out of the fabric enclosure.

And the final result.

I really love how it turned out. The dark blue apron underneath sneaks out the top, so I'll need to figure out something to keep it in line.

I'm also not a fan of the bracers any more. I think I'll just make some fabric ones - then I won't require assistance every time I need to put them on!

The end is sight, though. The boots I'm wearing in the photo above need to be covered in the right fabric, I need to make the hair ornaments, and I need to sort out her armband/tattoo thing. But after that...it might be the end.

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Next post: Korra's boots