Costume: Shelke Rui (Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus)

As often as I cosplay characters and such from Dirge, I don't actually like the game. There's very few games I rage quit because I'm having such negative amounts of fun but Dirge is one of them. I eventually pushed through and beat it. Years later. Because I was dying not knowing how it ended (I'm not sure the story was even really worth it because it it was ooooout there). But the shooting mechanics are just horrible and it is a shooter. That said, I've named my car after one of the characters and have done two outfits from this game now. I love the design and a number of the characters are either awesome (Shelke, so snarky), adorable (Oh Mr. Commish, oh you) or cool (I hope my car will be as loyal and kick butt as you, Nero). I also realized I'd never actually done a straight up costume from FF7, just that lolita!Reeve.

So hey, why not do Shelke? I like her a bit better than Aeris and despite basically being Shalua's body double right down to the glasses and matching crippled left arm I can't actually stand Shalua. So Shelke. She's sassy and snarky and we both look significantly younger than we are. And I dig her bodysuit and internet hat (which I haven't actually made yet but soooon). Most importantly was that I'd just retired Yuna and had that Final Fantasy gathering at A-fest coming up and no FF costume any more. I always forget how few FF costumes I have. It also meant I could carry around my Cait Sith plush I made.

It was pretty simple but I was working up to the last minute to finish. The bodysuit is some form of matte navy stretch from Joann's and some leftover grey sateen. I had plenty of silver 4 way spandex left for all of the silver and all of the armor, the belt, the thigh buckles, shoulder pads and neck and glove interfacings are craft foam. The flourescent lines are for once not a reflective tape but glitter ribbon it gets a similar look without the need for flash and still sparkles so yeah. The ribbon is on top of black bias tape. The wig is actually my Yuna wig but restyled. That's why I love heat styling wigs, you can restyle them~. There's also some black metallic spandex as the chest belt and there's armor on the back which I have absolutely no pics of but looks fantastic. ToT

I need to do some repairs as my costume was torn in a few places by some LoL fans at PAX East and I want to redo the logo on her chest plate but that's not too much work.

Edit: I've since made her Internet Hat and Sabers. :D

Sang Le Cosplay Photography

Series: Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus

Construction Time: ~1 week

Cost: $52.98

Materials and Construction: 

$15.13 2 yd Navy interlock

$1.07 Black Velcro

$3.56 Black invis zip

$3.79 2 packs black bias tape

$11.37 2 rubber pipe insulations
$1.08 White flip flops
$16.98 Shoes

Sabers:

$9.99 Welding wire

$4.99 Wire stripper

$5.98 2 Solder

$6.60 Pipe fittings for handles

$.99 Paint
$.99 Wire
$3.99 Soldering iron

Helm:

$2.28 Bath cups

$.76 hosiery, black

On Hand:

Wig

Grey sateen

glitter ribbon

craft foam

hot glue

metallic spandex

 Cait Sith plush

Debut: A-fest 2013

Final Appearance: Still in Rotation (awaiting repairs from being trampled at PAX East)