BELT:
Made from a fantastic upholstery vinyl I found at SAS. Though it didn't look as cheap or fake as some leather-look vinyls, I wanted to rough it up to make it look more realistic. Inspired by the way Volpin weathered the cloth pieces of his Skyrim armor (http://www.instructables.com/id/Creating-Costume-Armor-with-Wonderflex/) I attempted some similar techniques on the vinyl, though my goal wasn't necessarily to make it look damaged. I started with a rough grit sandpaper and found that it dulled the plasticky shine and made the texture less noticeable. Then I weathered it using a lighter brown acrylic paint. More sanding helped get rid of the streakiness left behind by the paint. Bright gold grommets seemed wrong, so I weathered them with orange and brown acrylics to make them appear rusty. There is craft foam on the inside to help the belt keep its shape.
The carrot "grenade" was made from pink insulation foam, Model Magic, craft foam, spackling, wood glue, masking tape, and a Sharpie.
TIE:
Made from leftover gabardine using this tutorial and pattern http://www.lilblueboo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/EasyTieFinal.pdf I shortened the tie by about a third and made it slightly narrower. I was originally going to use satin since ties are usually made from a shiny material. I chose to use gabardine mostly because I had it in my stash and I absolutely hate working with it and wanted to get rid of it (sadly I still have quite a bit left over... sigh). But it also has a slightly ribbed texture which is more visually interesting than satin, and it mimics the pattern of a typical striped tie.
CUFFS/COLLAR:
Made from the wrong side of a thick satin. The "gauntlet" cuff has craft foam and batting inside to help give it shape. The carrot "buttons" were made from thick craft foam, Model Magic, spackling, and wood glue. They are not functional and are attached using E6000 adhesive.
BUNNY SUIT:
Made of spandex for a few reasons. 1) costume debut in Arizona in August. Satin and multiple layers was not an appealing option. 2) I was sick to death of making perfectly fitting princess seam bodices/corsets 3) I had this awesome metallic spandex in my stash that looks more like leather 4) because I wanted to focus my energy on the more difficult parts of the costume (namely, the sword). I patterned it using the Saran wrap and Duct Tape method and refined it by making a mockup. I top-stitched each of the seams to help give the illusion of leather.
FUZZY BITS:
The glove, tail, and ears are made from a lucky find in SAS's fur bins. The texture isn't exactly what I wanted, but it's not overly fuzzy and it was easy to work with. All pink details were made from whatever pink fabric I used for my Mari yukata and satin-stitched on. (I fucking love my sewing machine.) Each piece has batting and lining inside.
SWORD:
I patterned the sword by taking a screencap and using my limited shooping skills to bring out the details and scale it to print out the proper size on normal printer paper. Before I started patterning I devised a way for the sword to break down into a few separate parts. Nowadays I really only go to one local convention, which meant that if I wanted to bring this costume to other cons it needed to travel easily.
From there I finalized the pattern on poster board. The sword breaks down into four parts. The main body is pink insulation foam, cut with a utility knife and a serrated knife. Recessed details were carved out with my Dremel and sanded smooth. I used spackling as a filler and wood glue as a sealant. I used to be pretty crazy about using wood glue but I'm much less so now - while it dries hard it chipped off around several edges so it's not all that sturdy. And trying to sand out drips and bumps is nearly impossible. Resin all the way from now on. The hilt is built around a dowel that fits inside the main body. The only thing currently holding the pieces together is industrial Velcro... I'm working on better alternatives. Other details were made using foam board, craft foam, Mod Podge Dimensional Magic, various hardware store bits. I painted it using acrylics and it's a very rushed job since I did most of it it the morning of the con. Whoops.
OTHER ACCESSORIES:
The shoes were found at Goodwill and painted with Angelus leather paint. I used the same paint on strips of spandex so the ribbons would match the shoes.
Not crazy about the color of the tights but it's the best I could find at the time.
5/2014:
Costume worn for the first time since September 2013 with updated tights and carrot sword!