Thoughts:

One of my most challenging costumes to date, this costume was based on the outfit Dawn wears on the cover of Cry for Dawn #8. It's a classic Dawn look and one of my favorites. Many of the photos in this gallery are straight from the Dawn look-a-like contest held at Dragoncon 2002. It was a lot of fun but very nerve wracking! I don't know if I will be in the next contest or not but I might be crazy enough to.

Construction:

Leotard: The outfit is constructed out of red pvc vinyl. I pretty much used no patterns, just trial and error. The abdominal armor is pieces of cardboard cutout into the right shapes with vinyl glued over it. I then sewed the three pieces together. Hotglue wouldn't stick to the vinyl, so I sewed a rough piece of cloth onto the leotard and hotglued it onto that. For detail, I sewed a line down the center of the leotard and also sewed two darts. Four keychain rings were sewn onto the neck for more detail. The belts were made with brown vinyl and silver rings and even more trial and error to get them just right.

Gloves: I made my own gloves by taking apart a pair of white gloves and using them for a pattern. It took a few tries to get gloves that fit well. There are some extra buckles and detailing around the right wrist, and the left glove was made longer.

Boots: These were my Tiara boots. I spray painted them a lighter red to match the costume better. The armor was carefully shaped cardboard and vinyl sewed into the right shape to cover. The armor attaches and detaches with clasps in the back. I extended the boots to be crotch high by making vinyl extensions. Metal earring backs were added for detail on the sides.

Sword, belt, and sheeth: Dawn's sword is inside a silver sheeth, which I thought was really cool. The sheeth is made from vinyl and spray painted silver. I made the handle of the sword out of Sculpy and carefully painted it with model paints. I carved out the bottom of the handle and inserted in a blade from a toy sword. I then stuck the sword into the sheeth. I took an old belt and painted it silver, cut it, and glued in the large ring that I got from an old dog harness. The sheeth was attached to the back of the belt by handsewing. I used hotglue for reinforcement.

Shoulder and elbow armor: I used a combination of half a plastic ball, flexi-foam, cardboard, vinyl, paint, ceramic glaze, elastic, and silver buttons to create these two pieces. The shoulder piece was my third attempt and came out better than I had ever hoped.

Rose and chain: The chain was purchased at Home Depot. I sewed it on while the glove was on my arm. The rose was a white rose spray painted silver. I added some more leaves and stems from a different rose for fullness.

Halo: Made from a kitchen stove ring and vinyl cutouts painted silver.

Earrings: Walmart.

Wig: Bought on eBay.