Photos taken by Foto-Chan/Benihime Cosplay

Materials: Spandex, stretch satin, organza, fabric paint.

Here’s how this character choice came about:

*me e-mailing my boyfriend*

“Babe. I need to stop being obscure. Name me off some Final Fantasy characters that are known that you think I’d be good at.”

*sends list*

"Rydia. Interesting choice. And I have all of this green spandex from Riddel that I never used."

"Done!"

So all of that green…well I dyed it. The green that I received originally was more of a minty color so it wasn’t quite right. I went through and dyed all of it in varying shades.

I opted to go with the Rydia CG render, but added elements of the Amano artwork. I wanted to make this a fun costume to wear, and that was my extra touch to make it special.

The leotard, front panels, and boot covers/leg pieces are spandex. The cape is a crepe chanting. The arm pieces are stretch satin with a gradient dye. My hands were green for about 3 days, my nails for a week.

Everything you see was patterned by me. The leotard and flaps were free-hand painted with the designs.

The beads were from my giant goodie bag of Amano beads. Some had to be painted. Stringing them, however, took much longer than expected!

I also opted to make a whip. Why? Because I wanted one. The core is made of balsa wood, wrapped in a tube of craft foam (the base of a parasol I used on another costume) and then wrapped with a lot of scrap fabric.