My Kaylee Frye from Firefly Cosplay

This year I decided I wanted to step outside of my comfort zone, and do something I never really done before. This was cosplaying at a con. I have been to conventions in the past, and admired cosplayers, and from as far back as i can remember I have been really into making myself and my friends costumers for Halloween and they always came out really awesome and I loved the time and effort that went into them. So for awhile now a few people have been telling me to do it at cons. I was always nervous, the attention and everything gave me a bit of a small anxiety attack, but with Boston Comic Con coming up Eric and i decided we would do it. Now Eric's outfit took longer than expected with a few technical things, but I had decided on something a bit easy for my first cosplay. Being a huge Firefly fan, and Jewel going to Boston Comic Con the idea of cosplaying Kaylee was a pretty good one. 

The costume was pretty easy, I wouldn't have to really make a lot, (and with eric's costume being a project that was a good thing) so the first thing I did was make a list of all the things I needed, I had a few "maybes" like her jacket, and umbrella from the pilot, but I really wanted her main outfit done. I watched the show enough to know Kaylee wore her jumpsuit many different ways, with a few different shirts an her hair was either up or down. I wanted to sorta go for the well known Kaylee bun's so that was my goal.  The first step was the jumpsuit. I had looked all online for greenish tan overalls and it took me a week or so to find a pair I liked. I know a lot of people find the same ones kaylee wears or close to it online, but I had a budget, and I wanted it to be my Kaylee. I ended up finding these Dickies overalls at Kohls.com. I had kohls cash and a 20% off discount code, plus the fact it was on clearance, I ended up paying around  $20 for the jumpsuit. It wasn't the perfect color, but I planned on distressing it anyway. So one down! I ended up cutting off the sleeves and rolling up the bottoms (they were really long) but I was pleased with how the jumper looked. I was worried it would be too small or too big. 

My next issue was the patches and all the drawings Kaylee has on her jumper. I got a to of reference photos and even a few blogs helped with this. I had seen a ton of people buying patches just like the ones Kaylee wears of etsy and ebay, now  i could use those, but there was the chance I would not get them on time, and they were pretty pricey, after looking at the patches seeing it was simple as a teddy bear, a heart and a blue flower, I knew I could make those myself, it wouldn't be SPOT ON with Kaylees but I would feel good about making it myself, and it would again be my Kaylee. 

For the lettering I again used references, a few sites said they were different words in Chinese, so I just sort of winged it and used the three that were mentioned most. I placed them again where they belonged on the jumper using the fabric marker, and then I was done with the biggest part of the project. 

For the patches I bought felt in the colors I needed, for the flower I ended up finding a blue flower patch for less than $2 so I used that. The heart was easy, I just did a heart roughly the same size I seen in the pictures. The teddy bear but a bit more of a challenge but pretty easy. I traced a design I wanted on a paper, and cut that out, then I traced it to the fabric, cut it out, and took a fabric marker to do the details of the teddy bear. I then sewed it to the jumper and did the same with the heart, The flower was iron on so I just did that.

To wear down the jumper and make it look like I was working in a engine room and not all new and perfect I tried different ways of staining the jumper. First I used tea, which worked out for light stains, then I used VERY much watered down black acrylic paint for oil stains, that worked out really well, and taking some sand paper to the jumper helped make it look not so new. I was really pleased with what I had done so far.

The easiest part of the project should of been the shirt, I deicded tho a lot of people seem to find the perfect kaylee shirt on ebay, I didn't want to wait on it coming it on time, and after looking at a lot of pictures I knew I could get away with just a white or pink floral shirt, seems easy right? NOPE! Not at all.

 I spent from the start of the project to almost a week before comic con looking for the floral shirt. I wasn't being picky, it could be short or long sleave, but some reason it was harder than it looked, Lucky me i found a pretty good shirt at Wetseal for pretty cheap and it went really well, it was short sleeve, white and pink, it will do the trick!

The last touches to the outfit were the boots, she wore work boots, and also sandals, NOW as much as I would love to wear sandals I do not want my feet stepped on in a crowd of people so I oped for the work boots, I rolled up my jumper  (like she does in the pilot) tied my hair into two little buns. Now I decided not to do a wig for two reasons, it was going to be really hot in the summer time and I really didn't want to find a wig to put my hair into buns when I could just do it with my hair, Purple or not, I didn't think someone would jump down my throat for having purple hair as kaylee, (in fact it worked out in my favor), For the "messy face makeup" i did my basic face of makeup, nothing crazy. And I took a matte black pigment and makeup setting spray, I wet my finger with the setting spray and mixed it in with the pigment till it was how i liked it, (it was kind of watery which worked well for the oil effect) and I just smeared it wear needed, it made some areas more messy than others, I wiped my nose and any other places that might be messy (arms etc) and that was it for the finishing touches to the cosplay (minus the wrench).

This  was simple and easy, comfy and not to expensive and it looked really great. I got a lot of compliments on it being a different kaylee because it didn't look like all the others, Jewel called me her purple haired Kaylee, and my first cosplay experience was pretty awesome! I got to show off my love for a character, and go around talking as if i was the best mechanics  in all the verse! I am pretty sure my boyfriend iss sick of me calling things "SHINY" but I really loved my cosplay, it was MY Kaylee and I can't wait to wear it again to another con. What I learned from making this is just because you see a ton of people doing something sone way doesn't mean you have to do it also. I got creative, made my own patches and in the end felt like I put a lot of hard word into this little cosplay. I felt like I had a small bond with every kaylee I saw at Boston comic con (there was a ton of us!) and we all looked amazing. Tho I wish I had the umbrella, and maybe that would be a future ad on, I am very happy with how this turned out, and I am glad I got to share it with you! Thanks for reading guys and remember stay shinny!