Rogue: X-Men Animated Series

Completed: May 2013

Hours Spent: 7-10~ (on my end)

Debuted at: A-Kon 24

Why This Costume: If Sailor Moon was my first forray into anime, the 90s X-Men cartoon was my “gateway drug” for all-around nerdom. I adored this cartoon, and Rogue was my all-time favorite character. I was born in Mississippi and raised in the South, so I really identified with her as I grew up. Plus, Rogue is one of the few comic heroines that I match up with in terms of physical attributes (see: tall, busty, muscular, brunette), and I can pull off a mean Southern accent when necessary.

How I Made It: The bulk of the credit for this costume goes to the amazing Ana Aesthetic. I secured a commission for a bodysuit from Ana in mid-April. It was a bit more than I normally spend on my costumes, but I really wanted to do this character justice and Ana’s work is simply wonderful. I could rave about this all day, but I’ll just let the pictures tell the story.

Fun side story: since I’m in the process of moving, I had this shipped to my parents’ place. I wound up trying on my costume and doing things around the house in the costume, much to my BF and family’s amusement and chagrin.

To smooth out imperfections under the costume and give a really exaggerated hourglass appearance, I wore a dancer’s body tight and a waist cincher from Victoria’s Secret. I also wore a Victoria’s Secret Bombshell bra so that I didn’t look flat 😛

In my initial planning for this costume, I wanted to make all the accessories myself. That didn’t pan out for a couple of reasons; 1) In late April, I was offered a job that required moving; 2) My cat maimed my sewing machine.

I wasn’t quite ready to debut my Tifa costume and really wanted to get some pictures with Ana at A-Kon, so I opted to commission and buy most of the other pieces I needed so that I didn’t have to worry about borrowing friends’ sewing machines while moving. Here’s a list of where I got the various items:

• Boot covers: Angry Robots Cosplay. These ladies were great. I mailed them a pair of my old work shoes and they took it from there. They were also fantastic about communication and charged a very reasonable price. The tops tend to flop over a bit, so I’m planning to put in some interfacing and stuff them with craft foam.

• Jacket: eBay. I got it from this seller, but the specific jacket I got is gone now.

• Gloves: Amazon. They’re a little too short, but only $6.

• Earrings: Wal-Mart

• X-Patches (for jacket): eBay. Very fast shipping, and super affordable. I’ll definitely order more of these when I remake the jacket.

Hair: I’m naturally brunette and my hair holds curls pretty well, so the only thing I needed to do for this costume was figure out the white of Rogue’s hair. I had ordered a long white bang from Arda Wigs for a different Rogue costume, so I just curled this piece and clipped it in.

Belt/buckle: For the belt, I re-used a faux leather strap from my Codex costume and attached a parachute buckle. To create the buckle, I created the X logo with craft foam, following this tutorial to create a sealant. After the glue dried, I painted the buckle with watered-down acrylic paints and attached it to the buckle with sticky-back Velcro.

X Logo/Bars: *sigh* Where to even begin on this? Well, one of the things I needed to do to the bodysuit was add the X and black bars. Initially, I planned to paint them on. However, the paint I used bled really bad (even with resist) and I could barely move without getting wet paint in splotches all over the rest of the suit. After much weeping and gnashing of teeth (along with some running water and lots of soap), I managed to scrub out the ink to the point that it’s barely noticeable.

About two days before the con, I stumbled across this tutorial about applying appliques to lycra and decided to give it a go as a last ditch effort. The fabric I used wasn’t as neat as I’d hoped, but you can’t really tell in pictures. I’m going to trim it up a bit before D*C, but overall, I’m pretty pleased with the result.

Thoughts on this costume: Overall, this is a very comfortable costume. I’m super, super happy to finally have a chance to cosplay as one of my all-time favorite comic book heroines! Apparently a lot of people at A-Kon felt the same way, because I got stopped for SO MANY PICTURES! :-O

The timing of this costume worked out pretty well too. I had initially planned to go with friends as a Borderlands group to A-Kon, but it didn’t wind up working out. While I enjoy my Lilith costume, I only had one day to attend and had no desire to spend hours on bodypaint when I could have been running around the con. My prep time for this costume only took about an hour and a half, which was amazing.

My only real frustration with all this (aside from the paint) was shipping. Since I was in the process of moving, some of my packages were caught in mailing limbo and I didn’t get some of my stuff until a few days before the con. I should have just sent everything to a “safety” address. Oh well, live and learn.

There are definitely some things I want to update for future wearings. I’m planning to re-make the jacket for D*C (I just ordered a Rogue jacket pattern from God Save the Queen Fashions). The paint on my belt buckle is chipping pretty badly, so I may invest in a resin cast belt buckle and take the time to make some utility pouches. I’m also planning to pick up some green contacts and a wig for D*C since I’m cutting my hair short soon.

Several pictures are posted on my Twitter account, @librarianmindy, but here’s one from when I met up with my friends.