Hello!
It's been a long time no see and I realized I never got around to writing this build log, so here goes. It's the new year and hopefully it will bring positive changes to all (I mean given the year we had I don't think that's TOO hard).
Inosuke is my favourite character from Demon Slayer so right after I binged the anime I knew I wanted to cosplay him. However it took me quite some time to actually get the costume together with motivation sort of being at an all time low through all of 2020. But in any case I finished him up by the beginning of September (Started back in February right after the Swedish National Championship).
The costume itself is quite simple, both in regard to the amount of parts and the patterning/structure of everything.
So let's dig in!
Material list: 2 different types of faux fur
Black wig with blue wefts
Dark blue lycra fabric
Beige/light brown linen look fabric
5mm High Density EVA foam
Worbla
Thibra
Paperclay Cardboard
Newspapers
Contact cement and wood glue
Most of these materials I already had at home, the hardest thing to find by far was proper faux fur in the right shade and length of the hairs.
I started with the wig and wefts, both ordered from coscraft.com (not sponsored). The wig is a dark blue/black shade.
Close up of the colour, and how the wig looks on straight out of the package.
I started with sewing in all the wefts layer by layer into the wig.
Wig+wefts to see how the colours would go together, and then in the middle of handstitching. I always handstitch my wefts since I don't have the confidence to sew them in on machine and I don't trust to only glue them.
After I was happy with the amount of wefts I started on the cutting and styling of the light blue hair.
First just cutting the length of everything, and then going layer by layer so it matches up and blends appropriately with the black.
I curled the bottom of the wefts as I was going along layer by layer since the wig itself was already nicely fluffed up for Inosuke's wild hairstyle.
All done with the wefts! I did add two smaller wefts before doing the final styling to the "sideburn" portion of the wig but this was the main part of the wefting.
Next I started on the boar head. I looked at this video on YouTube to get an idea of how to make it and I strongly recommend you check it out since it's very comprehensive and easy to follow. I did make some alterations to my head such as making it out of cardboard and also using fake fur instead of yarn wefts, but to get the overall idea it was extremely helpful.
I chose cardboard instead of only papier maché to make it more sturdy. Starting out I made paper patterns to see how I'd achieve the dome shape.
Cutting the shapes and taping them together to get the rough idea
Transferring onto cardboard
I chose this type of cardboard because it's easy to bend it to get rounded shapes without compromising the structural integrity too much.
After taping it together and taking the world's most strange selfie I realized that it wasn't quite the shape I wanted though so I opted to make it similarly to my Phantom Assassin helmet instead.
Making smaller triangles and using a kitchen bowl to help with the shape as I tape the cardboard together
Adding the bottom, I made it out of one "tube" of cardboard instead of segments. Cut the bottom to make the shape better to how the boar head actually looks. And also taking another weird selfie to see how it looks with the scale.
Adding some extra tape to the bottom shapes so they all are bent somewhat the same for an even edge, and adding the nose-tube.
Starting the papier maché work to get the shape together. I use newspaper and wood glue with some added water. The head sat around my apartment in this stage quite long, definitely adding to my nightmare fuel.
After all the papier maché was done, I added some paperclay to the eyebrows and cheeks, as well as gluing the ears down with hotglue.
Adding the fur! This is what I like to call the "Gandalf stage".
All the fur added, looking like a hot mess.
Fur brushed! For brushing I use my wig brush since it has metal bristles which is better for any type of synthetic fur/hairs.
Lips painted glossy black.
I made the nose entirely out of paperclay, sanded and primed with woodglue before adding the pink paint. I used the same paint diluted with water for the tips of the ear, gently brushing with a metal pet comb as I painted. I had to do it in layers to really get the tone right so it's strong in the outernmost tips and then fading into the grey/brown fur around the middle of the ears. I also made the tusks out of paperclay, primed with woodglue and painted white.
With the head done, let's move on to the swords!
I started with making the pattern on construction paper. I had a lot of swords going on so on the top is the Scissor Blade for Ryuko which i later ended up 3d printing but that's a whole other story.
Transferring the pattern onto high density EVA foam. I use one layer of foam for the blade itself, and then additional layers for the handles. This is the same method as my sword for Griffith.
Gluing the bits down for the handles, and then after dremeling the handles and edges of the blade.
Adding the Worbla and cleaning it up.
After I was happy with the Worbla I primed the swords with a few layers of woodglue and then painted them with acrylics. I used the same fabric for the handles as my chestwrap.
Which brings us, last but not least, to the clothes. The clothes were very simple and I freehanded all the patterns so it's a bit lacking in photos, but I'll do my best to write about it instead.
The pants, inside out, to test the fit. They are basically made out of two huge parts of fabric sewn together on the inside of the leg and the crotch area. I have a drawstring in the top and in the bottom parts of the pant-legs.
Making the shoe... leg wrap thingies. To make these I mostly just put the fabric on to my legs and feet while wearing the sandals that I attached them to, pinned them together and then stitched with an elastic stitch to make it stretchy. I handstitched them onto the sandals where you can see the pins are placed.
I then added the top bits to the shoe-leg-things and frayed them up. The shoe-parts and the actual pants are separate to make it easier to wear and wash. The top edge of the shoe-parts overlap a little up under where the drawstring is on the pants so they merge nicely.
As for the chest wrap I looked at a lot of Inosuke cosplayers who make female versions to gather some inspiration, but the one I liked the most was the style I saw on Jessica Nigiri so I made mine similarly.
Testing out the wrap length and "construction".
And finally, the absolute last thing was to fix the fringe of the wig. I did some minor teasing, cutting and hairspray for styling it.
This is with the aforementioned added bits to the "sideburn" parts, still not curled.
So that's about it for photos! Some things I did but aren't pictured was:
* Making the fur "belt". I used two pieces of fur for it, stitched in the top so both the inside and outside have the fur going the same way, and then stitching it all together in the front where the V shape is. I handstitched the entirety of this part since that's the best way I know to get the most discreet seams for faux fur.
* Making the eyes for the boar head. I made them out of Thibra and then painted them with acrylics. and hotglued onto the head.
And of course, a photo of the finished costume!
As usual, to see the fancy photos head over to the dedicated page for Inosuke.
A final sidenote, I can't see anything through the head the way I made it. It's something I may change in the future, but since I don't intend to go around running with it on it's not an issue for the time being.
I hope you've enjoyed this little log, and I can't wait to finish more things to show you all!
/Darkesttears