This post has been underway for a while, and I am pleased to finally present you with this complete Keyleth cosplay tutorial. It’s a long walkthrough, so I’ve made sure to section all the different parts of the tutorial with a description and an accompanying gallery. It should be easy to navigate through, especially if you’re just interested in certain parts of the costume. If you wish to see my whole cosplay, you can find my Keyleth gallery here.
But before we dive in, I want to emphasize that this tutorial contains my interpretation of the art in the Vox Machina: Origins comics. Perhaps your eyes will spot something in the art that mine didn’t. In any case, I hope this post can help and inspire your interpretation and process. Remember to adjust measurements to your fit. I’d also like to apologize in advance since English isn’t my first language, but I hope the intention is still clear.
Happy crafting!
Headdress
What you’ll need: A pen, pattern paper, worbla scraps, a heat gun, primer (I used gesso), brown acrylic paint, glue, a gemstone and hair clips.
I measured my head for the size of the headdress and made a rough sketch of the design on paper. I then made a copy of this to cut out to see if I liked the shape compared to my head. Remember to take the wig into consideration when sizing! I corrected anything I didn’t like on the original sketch. Once I was satisfied, I cut it out and taped down the design to my worktable (photo 2).
Then I grabbed my many worbla scraps, heated them and started rolling them together to create a shape on top of the design (photo 1-2). Please remember to be mindful of the heat gun. Once I had covered the entire design (without attaching the antlers to the main piece), I carefully heated it up and started shaping it to a foam head. When I had achieved the right shape, I started blending the antlers and ‘lower spikes’ into the main piece (photo 3-4).
Afterwards, I primed the headdress with 4 layers of Gesso, since it’s what I had at hand. Priming with a brush left stroke marks and I quite liked that, since it added texture and made it look (slightly) wooden. I then painted it with 2 layers of acrylic paint: first a darker shade of brown and then a lighter shade using a coarse brush.
Since the gem looked very specific, I sculpted my own with some leftover monster clay, made a mould and cast it in a clear resin with green mica powder mixed in. I gave it a clear coat of primer afterwards and attached it with hot glue (photo 5-6). But frankly, any gem should work just fine. To make the headdress stay on, I glued two small clips on either side of it, and that’s all it needs to stay put (photo 8).
After finishing, I noticed that Kiki has small white flowers attached to the antlers and I decided to add some as well.
Green Dress
What you’ll need: Pattern paper, mockup fabric, two shades of green fabric (I used linen), an iron/ironboard (and patience).
I’ll start this section by saying that this dress was the bane of my existence for a good while. The design manages to be both figure flattering and loose at the same time, and it was a difficult shape to achieve. Not to mention the cutouts.
I sketched out the general shape on fold on a piece of pattern paper (it won’t be cut on fold though). For this I measured the length from my breastbone as well as the shoulders, hips, waist and bust. The design is cut very low in the back, so the last two measurements are for the coverage of the front part. On top of the main piece, I also sketched the pattern for the bias tape/straps and then copied it onto a fresh piece of paper (photo 3).
I decided to have 4 panels in both the front and the back (I’m assuming these count as princess seams). You can see the general shapes in photos 1-4. This made it easier to adjust to my form once I made the mockup. Out of all the pieces, this is the one where you should not skip out on making the mockup. I chose not to line my dress which is something I now regret since I spent a lot of time doing bias on both the right and wrong side of the garment. I recommend that as an option.
Once I had the panels on the front and back piece put together, I started working on the bias for the cutouts. I didn’t sew the side seams until after I finished this. I cut two pieces for each of the total three diamond sections: front top and bottom and the bottom back. These are visible in photo 3. I pressed the outer edges of all of these (photo 6) and matched them up with the diamonds on the garment (on both the right and wrong side). I topstitched these down and carefully started folding in the raw edges, pressing and topstitching everything again (photos 7-8). To achieve neat seams, it’s really important to press the fabric before topstitching!
The bottom edge of the dress also has bias (photos 9-11) and I folded, pressed and topstitched that in place on the font and back pieces before finally sewing the side seams.
The bias/straps look like double folded bias, but due to the many curves and edges, it obviously could not be cut on fold. I sewed the straps (front and back) on the outer edge and turned them the right way out, pressed and topstitched them (photos 12-13). I then ‘slid’ the edges of the garment into place between the folded pieces and topstitched it in place (photos 14-16).
Since linen is prone to fraying, I had to hand stitch some of the edges and tuck any threads into place as a final step.
Top
What you’ll need: Cling film, a marker, mockup fabric, pattern paper, green stretch fabric, brown fabric (I used pleather), lining for the collar, hooks and eyes.
Keyleth’s top is essentially a fantasy sportsbra. To create the pattern, I wrapped a dress form in cling film and drew the design on it. After removing it from the form, I traced the pattern onto paper and proceeded to make a mockup. My dress form is slightly bigger than me, so the mockup was necessary to get the right fit. This was also the stage where I drafted the collar piece by measuring/tracing the neckline and drawing the height. My finished pattern pieces are visible in photo 5. Both the front and the back parts of the top were drafted to be cut on fold. The back piece will be cut open later for the closures.
Let’s start with the lower and stretchy part of the top. This consists of 6 pieces (3 on each side) in the front and back, 12 total. It reminds me a bit of a leaf (photo 6). The curved seams leave plenty of opportunity to fit it according to body shape. I assembled the front and back panels and left them to be attached to the rest of the top later. In the concept art, there is a brown edge at the bottom hem of the top and, while I did pattern it, I decided to leave it out since the pleather would have ruined the stretch. I would rather have a comfy fit than total accuracy.
For the pleather cutouts, I was inspired by the method used by Ginny Di. I measured out diamond shapes and cut them open across two sections (photos 9-12). I then carefully topstitched the fabric. After having made the cutouts, I carefully cut the back open down to the top of the middle diamond, folded and topstitched it in place (photo 5).
Before putting the lower and top halves together, I cut some additional strips of pleather to use as piping between the two (see photo 13 and 15). I then sewed the side and shoulder seams together.
I decided to line the collar since the gray underside of the fabric would be visible otherwise. After having lined it, I topstitched twice around the top edge of the collar and then attached it to the rest of the top. I folded the remaining seam on the inside of the collar and handstitched it into place.
To finish off the raw edges on the arm seams, I cut two 4 cm wide strips of pleather and folded them like bias tape. I then topstitched these down (photo 13 and 15). Make sure your machine is equipped to sew through 5 layers of pleather. Mine sure had some complaints.
The final step was adding closure to the back. I opted for two pairs of hooks and eyes. It’s a bit of a tight squeeze to get my head into this top, but the fit is well worth it.
Leggings
What you’ll need: Pattern paper, green stretch fabric (alternatively: bought leggings), tracing paper and a tracing wheel.
For the leggings, I used the same green stretch fabric as for the top. I recommend finding a high waisted leggings pattern that you can alter to your size. I won’t go into too many details about the basic construction as there are plenty of tutorials on that out there. Alternatively, you could buy a pair of leggings and imitate the leaf pattern that I will demonstrate below.
Most notably, Keyleth’s leggings have a pattern on the side. I drafted it as a leafy shape with four lines each. I measured and simply drew this on my pattern and only cut out the main curved line (photo 1-2). Remember to add seam allowance here. I went ahead and marked out the remaining lines with tracing paper after I had cut the fabric (photo 3). This way I could simply pinch a few millimeters of the fabric to sew the lines and avoid bulky seams (photo 5-6). I recommend doing this technique for the entire pattern if using bought leggings.
Once I had the seams done on each half of the ‘leaf’, I attached it back onto the rest of the leg. Then I put it together as a standard pair of leggings (make sure to line those seams up!). Lastly, I drafted a waistband and added elastic to the back part of it. That way I achieved a tight fit, and avoided any fabric scrunching up at the front. I really wanted it to lay nice and flat.
Shoes
What you’ll need: Cling film, a marker, mockup fabric, your choice of shoe for the base, two types brown fabric (I used pleather and faux suede), fabric glue, a zipper.
Depending on your choice of artwork, Keyleth’s boots vary a little. I really liked the cut-out heel and wanted to find a way to achieve that. I also wanted a bit of additional height as Kiki. The answer? A pair of thrifted wedge sandals (photo 1).
To make the pattern, I put a shoe on and wrapped it and my calf in cling film. I proceeded to sketch the design onto it. I decided to make these “boots” in two parts to make it easier to quickly get out of the heels at cons. The calves simply ‘snap’ onto the shoes in my design (photo 8).
I patterned the entirety of the shoe, cut away the sole and split the pattern in two. The top of the shoe itself has two pieces and I topstitched the faux suede on both sides of the middle seam (photo 4). I then started gluing the fabric onto the shoe. My fabric covers the vertical elastic bands and leave the black elastic that goes around the heel visible. After trimming away any excess fabric, I glued down some of the same pleather I used for the top on the heel (photos 5-6).
The top parts were made in faux suede with pleather bias at the top and the bottom. The bottom edge also served to hide the fact that the shoe was really two separate pieces. This is also where the snap buttons are attached to connect to the shoe itself. The two pleather diamond shapes on the calf pieces were cut and topstitched around the edges before being attached with fabric glue.
To save money, I used some very bulky zippers that I had in my stash to make the closure in the back. I ended up having to cover these with an additional strip of faux suede and went a little freestyle with the design from there. I added bronze buttons and elastic to keep these covers shut. Not the perfect solution, but it worked.
Gloves
What you’ll need: Cling film, a marker, pattern paper and brown fabric (I used pleather).
For the fingerless gloves, I once again used cling film to make a pattern (photo 1). You could use tape to make the pattern less flimsy, but I found this step unnecessary. I transferred this to pattern paper and made sure to add half a centimeter on each side, so it would be possible for me to slide the glove on without any closures.
The design amounts to three large pieces. One for the hand/thumb cutout, a front and back piece. The latter two consist of multiple smaller pieces. I went with a variety of angular shapes for this design and topstitched the sections on top of each other (photos 2-4).
To put everything together, I sewed one side of the forearm piece and placed it flat on the piece for the hand. I then topstitched it in place (photos 5-7) and lastly closed the remaining side.
Accessories
This section covers the remaining accessories in the design: a belt, three arm rings and a bag.
For the belt, I simply cut some long 2 cm wide strips of faux suede (photo 3) and put them together to get the right length (about 200 cm). The belt is supposed to wrap around the body and hang in the front. I folded the strip in half and stitched on top with a decorative stitch on the machine. I then used thinned-out brown acrylic paint to dye it a patchy brown to match the boots. The last step was cutting two fringes at the ends and adding beads (photo 4).
I used the exact same technique for the straps and drawstring on the backpack and added my leftover beads to the ends of the drawstring. The bag is a simple drawstring bucket bag and I made it from leftover faux suede (photo 2). It consists of a circular bottom piece and two square pieces. As a final detail, I used pigment powders to shade it.
The arm rings and emblem were 3D printed and I’ve made the stl files I created available for free here for those who have 3D printing available. An alternative to this could be eva foam. I originally made the arm rings from 2mm eva foam. I made these pieces slightly smaller than my arm and glued elastic onto both ends, so I could slide the rings over my arms.
That’s everything for now. Thank you for reading!
