Princess Zelda from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Made In. October 2005-January 2006
Debuted. Anime Los Angeles 2006
Info. When I saw the character design for Princess Zelda for the upcoming game, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, it was the first time I experienced "drop-everything-and-move-this-costume-to-the-top-of-my-to-do-list". The design had everything I ever wanted to make in a costume--a gorgeous dress, armor, jewels and embellishments, sculpting, etc. It was my biggest challenge thus far, and I wanted to do it right.

I started this costume in late 2005; I struggled with deciding how I would go about making the costume, like fabric material, armor materials, jewels and the like. More planning went into this costume than any of my previous costumes, and was my longest project to date--4 months. My friend Jinyo helped me immensely with this costume, but most notably he is entirely responsible for the embroidery that is all over the costume. He used this costume as an excuse to buy an embroidery machine, and spent a week embroidering the panels onto several layers of stabilizing fabric so that they could be appliqued onto the dress (I am seriously indebted to him for the rest of my life). On top of Jinyo's immense help, practically my whole family joined in to help me get this costume finished before Anime LA. My mom spent 15+ hours hand-stitching the appliques onto the dress, and my dad was a huge help in constructing my sword. I was working on the costume up until the night before Anime LA, but when I finally got to wear it I got a spectacular response! I really feel like a princess when I wear this costume!