Vin Cosplay (Complete!)

[Glory530 she/her]

Hello!

After completing the Mistborn trilogy recently, I really wanted to make a Vin costume for myself since I absolutely loved her character, and I am Vin-sized (at least vertically ). Now that I've completed the most complicated part (her mistcloak), I wanted to share some WIP notes and photos! More updates will come as I complete more pieces, but I just have the belt and accessories to go now.

First off, since I tend to obsess over accuracy, here are the sources I used for the mistcloak design:

1. Text from the novels
2. This quoted email from Brandon: https://www.17thshard.com/forums/post/282302
3. A search of "mistcloak" in the Arcanum section of 17th Shard
4. Some of the official Vin art, but mostly this picture by Ben McSweeney - https://coppermind.net/wiki/File:Vin.png

I also partially followed the tutorial in this blog post, which is (in my opinion) the best fan-made mistcloak I found in my searching of the interwebs. I already had a pattern from a previous costume I made that was almost the same as the one they used - Emmy Mom--One Day at a Time: Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Mistcloak (emmymom2.com)

The blog poster mentioned fleece, and I thought that would be a little too thick and warm and wouldn't match the feel of the fabric mentioned in The Final Empire, so I looked for something a little lighter and smoother that also wouldn't fray (so a knit) and wouldn't curl at the edges. I found a really nice polyester knit in charcoal gray at Joann's. It looks, feels, and drapes right, and it moves sooooo nicely!

I made one embellishment. Ben McSweeney draws swirls in the mantle and hood of Vin's mistcloak in most of his art, and I've been wanting to try out the free motion embroidery mode on my sewing machine. So as an homage to Ben's work, I added what I have decided to name "McSweeney McSwirlies" to my cloak. 

 

 

As for the clothes, I just got them from Kohl's (the just about perfect shirt in my size off the sale rack was a VERY luck find!), and the wig is from Epic Cosplay Wigs. The dagger shown is version 1.0 off the resin printer (modeled in CAD by my husband as I was doing costume research). Our clear resin got a little yellowed from sitting in the tank, so we're going to reprint both of them.

 

Edited May 27, 2024 by Glory530

[Trusk'our he/him]

5 hours ago, Glory530 said:

Hello!

After completing the Mistborn trilogy recently, I really wanted to make a Vin costume for myself since I absolutely loved her character, and I am Vin-sized (at least vertically ). Now that I've completed the most complicated part (her mistcloak), I wanted to share some WIP notes and photos! More updates will come as I complete more pieces, but I just have the belt and accessories to go now.

First off, since I tend to obsess over accuracy, here are the sources I used for the mistcloak design:

1. Text from the novels
2. This quoted email from Brandon: https://www.17thshard.com/forums/post/282302
3. A search of "mistcloak" in the Arcanum section of 17th Shard
4. Some of the official Vin art, but mostly this picture by Ben McSweeney - https://coppermind.net/wiki/File:Vin.png

I also partially followed the tutorial in this blog post, which is (in my opinion) the best fan-made mistcloak I found in my searching of the interwebs. I already had a pattern from a previous costume I made that was almost the same as the one they used - Emmy Mom--One Day at a Time: Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Mistcloak (emmymom2.com)

The blog poster mentioned fleece, and I thought that would be a little too thick and warm and wouldn't match the feel of the fabric mentioned in The Final Empire, so I looked for something a little lighter and smoother that also wouldn't fray (so a knit) and wouldn't curl at the edges. I found a really nice polyester knit in charcoal gray at Joann's. It looks, feels, and drapes right, and it moves sooooo nicely!

I made one embellishment. Ben McSweeney draws swirls in the mantle and hood of Vin's mistcloak in most of his art, and I've been wanting to try out the free motion embroidery mode on my sewing machine. So as an homage to Ben's work, I added what I have decided to name "McSweeney McSwirlies" to my cloak. 

 

 

As for the clothes, I just got them from Kohl's (the just about perfect shirt in my size off the sale rack was a VERY luck find!), and the wig is from Epic Cosplay Wigs. The dagger shown is version 1.0 off the resin printer (modeled in CAD by my husband as I was doing costume research). Our clear resin got a little yellowed from sitting in the tank, so we're going to reprint both of them.

 

Nailed it! The cloak especially looks awesome!

[Glory530 she/her]

It took me a little while, but I got the belt figured out. I wanted a wide fabric sash that ties like the books describe, but I also did not think that would work for hanging the coin pouch and dagger sheaths onto. After much research, I went with an obi that could be wide in the front, wrap around to the back where it tapers down to narrow ties, and then the ties wrap back around to the front. Voila - a narrow strip over the wide sash to hang my stuff on (once I complete the pouch, daggers, and sheaths). Since there is a front and a back layer, I even snuck in a pocket on the inside to hold the metal vials in place (which are currently empty, but that will change soon enough)! 

On a side note, my husband and I were able to purchase badges for Dragonsteel Nexus, and I am SUPER excited to wear this costume there - it will be our first time! I should be done with several months to spare!

 

Edited May 10, 2024 by Glory530

[EdgedancerJacob he/him]

This looks awesome! I appreciate the density of the fabric strands -- often I feel people's Mistborn cloaks just look like cut up robes lol 

[Glory530 she/her]

I've now finished my coin pouch and metal vials. Almost there!

The coin pouch is just a basic leather drawstring bag I made that loops on the belt, keeping with the black and grey motif. I struggled with how to do the metals in the metal vials. The most accurate way would be to obtain pieces of all 8 metals and file them into shavings, but I didn't think that would be worth the cost and effort when I would just have the vials tucked in my belt 99% of the time. So I went with metal foil flakes and rubbing alcohol. It looks like metal fish food . I wanted the flakes a little smaller, but the foil sticks to everything, so it was hard to tear apart. I'll call these close enough!

 

[Trusk'our he/him]

50 minutes ago, Glory530 said:

I've now finished my coin pouch and metal vials. Almost there!

The coin pouch is just a basic leather drawstring bag I made that loops on the belt, keeping with the black and grey motif. I struggled with how to do the metals in the metal vials. The most accurate way would be to obtain pieces of all 8 metals and file them into shavings, but I didn't think that would be worth the cost and effort when I would just have the vials tucked in my belt 99% of the time. So I went with metal foil flakes and rubbing alcohol. It looks like metal fish food . I wanted the flakes a little smaller, but the foil sticks to everything, so it was hard to tear apart. I'll call these close enough!

 

Looks really good! 

The vials especially are a nice addition. 

Edited May 15, 2024 by Trusk'our

[Glory530 she/her]

And now I have glass daggers! My husband modeled these in CAD, and we 3D printed them in clear resin, so they look super glass-like! Add some simple leather sheathes we made, and they're good to go!

This costume is so close to being done! All I am missing is the earring (my birthday is next week, and I dropped some strong hints for the Badali one to my husband). Also, I just have US pennies in my coin pouch for now, but I may try to make some actual copper clips before December. We'll see...

 

[Glory530 she/her]

OK, I'm going to call this costume complete! When I get the earring, it won't be visible from under the wig since I have to pull the cap part down over my ears for it to fit right (hooray for having a child-sized head), but I'll wear it anyway. 

I took Vin up to Cherry Capital Comic Con this weekend for a trial run. I wore her for a couple hours yesterday, got recognized by one amazing person within a couple minutes of hitting the main con area (yay!), and took some fun photos outside. Despite having to repair one of the sheaths where the contact cement didn't quite hold, having to remove most of the pennies from my coin pouch so the weight doesn't cause the belt tie to droop low, and being reminded that jumping my forty-something year old body barefoot off a ledge onto compacted ground at the end of two straight weekends of three-day cons on my feet is a terrible, terrible idea, my trial went really well. This costume is so much fun to wear!

Here are my favorite photos from the day. I took the liberty of doing a little Photoshop recolor work to make beautiful Northern Michigan in late spring look a more like pre-catacendric Scadrial .

[Trusk'our he/him]

22 minutes ago, Glory530 said:

OK, I'm going to call this costume complete! When I get the earring, it won't be visible from under the wig since I have to pull the cap part down over my ears for it to fit right (hooray for having a child-sized head), but I'll wear it anyway. 

I took Vin up to Cherry Capital Comic Con this weekend for a trial run. I wore her for a couple hours yesterday, got recognized by one amazing person within a couple minutes of hitting the main con area (yay!), and took some fun photos outside. Despite having to repair one of the sheaths where the contact cement didn't quite hold, having to remove most of the pennies from my coin pouch so the weight doesn't cause the belt tie to droop low, and being reminded that jumping my forty-something year old body barefoot off a ledge onto compacted ground at the end of two straight weekends of three-day cons on my feet is a terrible, terrible idea, my trial went really well. This costume is so much fun to wear!

Here are my favorite photos from the day. I took the liberty of doing a little Photoshop recolor work to make beautiful Northern Michigan in late spring look a more like pre-catacendric Scadrial .

Looks awesome! Nice work!

[kalevatha She/her]

On 4/21/2024 at 5:15 PM, Glory530 said:

Hello!

After completing the Mistborn trilogy recently, I really wanted to make a Vin costume for myself since I absolutely loved her character, and I am Vin-sized (at least vertically ). Now that I've completed the most complicated part (her mistcloak), I wanted to share some WIP notes and photos! More updates will come as I complete more pieces, but I just have the belt and accessories to go now.

First off, since I tend to obsess over accuracy, here are the sources I used for the mistcloak design:

1. Text from the novels
2. This quoted email from Brandon: https://www.17thshard.com/forums/post/282302
3. A search of "mistcloak" in the Arcanum section of 17th Shard
4. Some of the official Vin art, but mostly this picture by Ben McSweeney - https://coppermind.net/wiki/File:Vin.png

I also partially followed the tutorial in this blog post, which is (in my opinion) the best fan-made mistcloak I found in my searching of the interwebs. I already had a pattern from a previous costume I made that was almost the same as the one they used - Emmy Mom--One Day at a Time: Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Mistcloak (emmymom2.com)

The blog poster mentioned fleece, and I thought that would be a little too thick and warm and wouldn't match the feel of the fabric mentioned in The Final Empire, so I looked for something a little lighter and smoother that also wouldn't fray (so a knit) and wouldn't curl at the edges. I found a really nice polyester knit in charcoal gray at Joann's. It looks, feels, and drapes right, and it moves sooooo nicely!

I made one embellishment. Ben McSweeney draws swirls in the mantle and hood of Vin's mistcloak in most of his art, and I've been wanting to try out the free motion embroidery mode on my sewing machine. So as an homage to Ben's work, I added what I have decided to name "McSweeney McSwirlies" to my cloak. 

 

 

As for the clothes, I just got them from Kohl's (the just about perfect shirt in my size off the sale rack was a VERY luck find!), and the wig is from Epic Cosplay Wigs. The dagger shown is version 1.0 off the resin printer (modeled in CAD by my husband as I was doing costume research). Our clear resin got a little yellowed from sitting in the tank, so we're going to reprint both of them.

 

This looks so good!

 

On 5/27/2024 at 3:25 PM, Glory530 said:

OK, I'm going to call this costume complete! When I get the earring, it won't be visible from under the wig since I have to pull the cap part down over my ears for it to fit right (hooray for having a child-sized head), but I'll wear it anyway. 

I took Vin up to Cherry Capital Comic Con this weekend for a trial run. I wore her for a couple hours yesterday, got recognized by one amazing person within a couple minutes of hitting the main con area (yay!), and took some fun photos outside. Despite having to repair one of the sheaths where the contact cement didn't quite hold, having to remove most of the pennies from my coin pouch so the weight doesn't cause the belt tie to droop low, and being reminded that jumping my forty-something year old body barefoot off a ledge onto compacted ground at the end of two straight weekends of three-day cons on my feet is a terrible, terrible idea, my trial went really well. This costume is so much fun to wear!

Here are my favorite photos from the day. I took the liberty of doing a little Photoshop recolor work to make beautiful Northern Michigan in late spring look a more like pre-catacendric Scadrial .

Beautiful shots