Costume Notes: Book 2 Korra

Completed: March 2014

Hours Spent: …we’re not going to talk about that.

Debuted: All-Con 2014

Why This Costume: My first cosplay was the Book 1 version of Korra. Now that I’ve been sewing for a few years, I wanted to revisit the costume and make a better version of it. I like the Book 2 design more than the Book 1 version, so… yeah.

How I made it: This costume is a mix of refurbished old pieces and new pieces.

The top is made from Simplicity 5098, which is out of print. I managed to find one in my size on Etsy. The only modification I made was to swap the front pieces around. Everything is a cotton jersey. For the trim around the front and collar, I took a long strip of fabric on the cross-grain and treated it like bias tape. Machine stitching wasn’t really working out for me with the snap tape enclosure, so I finished it off by hand. I didn’t hem the top since I underestimated the final length. Not really a big deal since it’s a knit and I tucked it into the top anyway. I wish I would have added princess seams. Eh, live and learn.

The arm warmers are my favorite piece of this costume. I snagged the pattern from Smarmy Clothes a few months ago and added 6″ to the total length in addition to the color blocking.

The belt and front flap were quickie projects that I figured out by playing with my tape measure. The “pelt”, pants, and boots are all taken from my first Korra. I neatened up the pelt from my first go and added a casing for the belt. With the pants, I added elastic to the base so that I would get more of a poof. I attached the front flap to the pants with a strip of velcro on the inside of the waistband. For the boots, I attached faux fur with heat-n-bond velcro. I ❤ velcro, guys.

I didn’t use a wig with this costume, which has been one of my big holdups. I don’t really like my natural hair for this costume, but I have had a horrid time trying to style my ponytail wig. I need to figure that nonsense out so I can make Sailor Jupiter! The front hair pieces are thread spools and the top hair piece is a bit of PVC pipe and craft foam.

Thoughts on this costume: Ugh, where to even start with this? This costume has cost me a lot of mental energy. I had everything except the hair pieces done back in December. I had this huge hangup about making the quality of this costume since my first version was super terrible. Throw that in with massive fan frustration over season 2 and I nearly trashed it several times.

When I finally left for the con, I realized how dumb I was being about it. The costume is perfectly fine and very comfortable. Several people at the con responded positively and the pics I got from Neither Noir look great. I’m still frustrated with Korra (partially because I’m so biased to the first Avatar series), so I don’t know how much I’ll wind up wearing this costume, but I think it turned out okay in the end. More pics of this costume and others are on my Facebook page!