Taboo cosplay: Gloves and almost done!

     There are only three items left for Taboo at this point: pants, a tail, and something for her hands. I did some research on making claws for costume, and it looked like the easiest way to do so was to add them to gloves. I got a pair of fingerless gloves and sketched out some claw options, but when I went to trial it, they were very cumbersome, and having pink fingers show through when the rest of me - literally head to toe except face - is covered just looked dumb. 

     Found another site that suggested sewing Worbla bits onto cloth gloves, and the results looked decent, so I figured I'd give that a try. Got some inexpensive gloves from overseas, but they were... not well fitted. So first step, fixing that. 

     I have to say that staring at black thread on black, stretchy, shiny fabric is NOT fun, but the results were worth it. I found and cut out pattern pieces and taped them to my hands, to make sure I could still move, flex, scratch my nose, etc, and it looked pretty decent. 

     Next step, cut all the pieces out of Worbla and shape them. The original site that I'd found suggested pressing the Worbla into the fabric while it was hot to bond it to the fabric, but I did not find that created a solid connection on stretchy fabric, so I used a leather needle to punch holes in all the corners and once again pulled out the sewing supplies.

     I'll spare you the hours of grumbling, swearing, and general suffering that this entailed. The only way I could find to get them properly placed so they'd sit at the proper angel was to do the first few stitches on each piece while it was on my hand. Even discounting the fun of being stabbed in the finger webbing, sewing one-handedly is a pain in the tail - and 20 times worse when you're sewing ON your dominant hand WITH your off-hand, trying to angle a tiny needle through a tiny hole in the worbla, without putting it through the loops of thread that were already in there. Not fun, but the results looked good.

     After far too much of that hilarity, everything was attached and it was time to make 'em the right color. While that might have been somewhat easier before sewing them on, the several coats of glue, paint, and clearcoat probably would have closed up the tiny stitching holes, and I really didn't want to have to re-poke out each one and risk the paint coming off again. Priming and painting wasn't too horrible, actually, since all the pieces sit slightly up... when my fingers are bent. Cue several hours of holding my hands weirdly while priming and painting each piece several times.

     It was well worth it though, and I finished off with a layer of the acrylic sealer I'd gotten for the gentleman's shoes, making the worbla pieces more shiny (on the thumb and forefinger in the picture above). Total time: just over 25.5 hours. 

     So only two pieces left! I figured I'd strap everything on and see how it looked so far, just wearing regular old house/ yoga pants. I was quite pleased to discover I can still function fairly well with the gloves on, and can put them on/ take them off myself (yay easier bathroom breaks!). Turns out, the greaves need tweaked a bit; it was impossible to get them tight enough to stay in place with just velcro, so I'll add a bit of elastic to the straps. Otherwise, though, it's coming along nicely. I ordered some pants, and if those work, all that's left is the tail! (And hair and makeup, whenever I finally get to debut this in public).