Commander Shepard (Femshep) Mass Effect 3 dress

The story of this dress is very simple: my boyfrend had gone on a trip and I wanted to bring a simple and light cosplay to Expomanga so I wouldn’t have to carry a lot of things on the bus. So, the week before the convention, I started sewing and this is what came out.

http://troodon80.deviantart.com/

The truth is that this design is not one of the ones that attract me the most from Mass Effect and my Shepard always wears a sweatshirt and pants, which is more my style. But after playing Citadel, it started to grow inside of me because I put on that dress for the party and I loved the textures of the fabrics, and how the lights reflected on the dress. I’m a texture slut! So I decided to make the matte parts with imitation leather and the shiny ones with patent leather. In addition to red pleather for the side lines.

It’s not that making this garment is something very difficult (I’m sorry, but after making Maya, anything seemsto be ez) although it has a few pieces and some are uncomfortable to fit together.

To start, I took out the patterns. As always, I made a front half and a back half because they are mirrored.

I numbered and cut all the pieces. The back part doesn’t seem to fit in the waist area, but I managed it. Since I had a transverse seam at the waist and I didn’t want to modify it, I started the back dart in place (from the armhole and going down), but instead of continuing it towards the butt, I cut it at waist height and completed it by drawing what was left of the dart in a mega dart in the center. Yes, I’m terrible at explaining these things. The moral of all this is: Patterns are not immovable and darts can be adjusted as it suits us best; as long as they fulfill their function, which is to make the garment adapt better to our body. As an example, here is a website where they show different modifications for the breast clip.

At least that is one of the things I have learned through experience.

I transferred the patterns to the fabric. The piece number 3 (if you enlarge the patterns you will see it) I first made it double and then I realized that it was only one, so I merged it. But I didn’t take photos of that, so I urge you to use your imagination.

I usually go over by basting the edges of the pieces a little wildly because it is easier for me to join them by feel. The bad thing about this is that later you have to remove lots of threads.

Little by little I put everything together.

I finished off the edges of the chest and back. These kinds of things always have a hard time explaining to me. But, well, the idea is that I join the fabrics face to face and sew them following the edge line.

I also put the zipper on it, but I don’t have any photos of that either. It’s the stupidest zipper in the world because it ends right where it’s needed most, which is at the waist. Luckily the fabrics are a little stretchy and, with a little skill and holding my breath, I can put it on and take it off.

And this is how it turned out:

Regarding the details of this cosplay, like the necklace, I can tell you that I was extremely lucky. I found one very similar to the one Shepard wears at Bijou Brigitte. I had to buy two because he was short and Shepard wears a double. First I found it in one place and then I spent another day wandering around Madrid until I found another one just like it in another of their stores.

And the shoes, for example, I know that they are not the same as the ones she is wearing. But I don’t like those beach sandals at all, so I allowed myself the license to wear my usual high heels, which are elegant as well as comfortable for going out to dismantle reapers. Of course!