I finally took photos of my quick 2 day make from 2024, Fern from Frieren anime/manga series. I made this for the Frieren-themed autumn/Halloween local art market in which they invited many English voice actors from the Frieren anime series. I decided 2 days before the event to make the cosplay because it looked simple and while I never made her mage staff which would have been her signature prop, I felt like I finished a recognizable costume on time and am pretty darn proud of myself. The voice actors and other shoppers thought I looked cute, too, which certainly made my day. This is one of the two secret cosplays I had planned last year by the way (original post here!)
First, I bought new white cotton muslin fabric and black cotton sateen from Joann’s since I didn’t have enough on hand for the length of Fern’s robes. As I cut out the patterns for sewing, I also started working on her silver barrette given to her by Frieren at the same time to let the paint dry. I hacked a couple of patterns from my Otome no Sewing magazines to make the bodice of the white dress- a pintuck button down blouse with high ruffle collar, combined with full ruffle long sleeves from a western pattern (the Pirates of the Caribbean one). The skirt was just a very long rectangle skirt gathered into the waistline. I did debate making functioning buttons but since I was wary of my buttonhole attachment on my new machine (due to it messing up my Iguro cosplay) and running out of time, I decided to just sew the pearl buttons on the front and snaps on the inside for ease of dressing. The black hooded robe was based off a cheap Halloween priest robe for the hood shape and length traced onto black fabric, and the hood was lined in scrap white cotton. I felt like the entire robe should be lined, though I didn’t check any screenshots to see if it was indeed lined, but a lined robe would be too hot and stuffy for the weather at the time and also didn’t have enough fabric lol. Obanai Iguro’s lined robe was extremely stuffy, that’s how I know lining this would be stuffy.
The wig is from my Sailor Mars (also Yunjin and others) cosplay, just with the top half pulled back into a clip. I wore black lace combat boots, the shoes are not very visible for Fern’s outfit so combat boots worked fine. I didn’t make her silver bangle because I don’t know how to make it sturdy, so I wore a plain gunmetal bangle I already had. The dress is loose and comfy like a nightgown, though I don’t know if I would use it as such but I could if I felt very historical and want to wander around the house with a candle. I was quite proud of the pintucks, I guess I’ve made tucks before, but it was the trickiest part of the bodice regardless. Overall, I deem this Fern costume more or less complete and recognizable, hurrah! If I plan on taking this costume to a real convention instead of the mall art market, I might look up how to make a sturdy mage staff but if I don’t make her staff, I won’t feel that bad.
I’ve thought about making a new cosplay list for 2025 since I’ve made 3 of the 6 costumes I can remember, I don’t remember the 7th costume, but 2 costumes need to be fixed if they will be reworn, and one of those two hasn’t even had the full photos taken yet lol. I also made a random casual cosplay that I never even wore, which also needs photos. So my plans for 2025 will be the same image.
1. Fix/finish Qi Rong and take photos
2. Start the rest of Yunjin’s regular costume, take photos of her casual outfit.
3. Start Sakizo black rabbit girl costume.
4. Fix Iguro’s jacket, maybe clean up some of the accessories like mask and sandals
5. Make Fern’s staff and bangle? if I feel like it
I’m not really into any new series that really speaks to me for cosplay, because well… Transformers is not very cosplayable lol. I love Delicious in Dungeon but don’t feel like cosplaying any of the characters. However, I’m keeping an eye out for a good Fire Emblem character I connect with to cosplay during my (currently dropped) Fire Emblem x 3 playthrough, and maybe I’ll finally make that owed One Piece cosplay, as I do have a couple of One Piece characters in mind but not thrilled enough to start to work on them just yet. I think I’m done with Genshin cosplay, not because I don’t still love it, but I haven’t progressed the story and I already did 3 great cosplays and working on a fourth and that’s enough lol. Anyway, unless I go work another con, I’m in no hurry to make new elaborate cosplays anymore. I’m old and tired and I came from the era where the point of cosplay is to wear it out and socialize, rather than take poorly lit photos in your home, so it really has to be an amazing opportunity for me to use that energy.
Let’s see what 2025 brings! Hopefully less horrors!