The finished product
Today I thought I'd review my Bombshell Harley Quinn Cosplay! Since I don't have any tutorials for it I thought I'd just go over it. What I bought and what I made and everything.
Harley Quinn is one of my favorite characters of all time, but to be honest, her bombshell look did have to grow on me a bit. This cosplay was also going to be pushing me out of my comfort zone a bit. I had never really worn a revealing costume before except for Celty and she doesn't really count since her suit is just skin tight and not really revealing (but she'll get her own review in time).
I'm not always confident about my body, especially my stomach because I have zero curves. But I really wanted to do it, so... I did.
Alright so first things first I needed a reference photo. Luckily the bombshell series has figures so it's very easy to get a 360 degree picture of the outfit. Instead of going with the official comic artwork I went with the figure's look which has slight variations. I also changed some features just because of my skill level (such as the patch on the back).
What we are going for
So since I like props, I decided to do the gun first. I've never made a prop gun before so I just winged it (that's like my catch phrase, I seriously don't know what I'm doing about 97% of the time). First I bought a Nerf gun at Target for like 5 bucks. It's really basic but it had a handle I liked since I would be covering up most of the barrel.
Next I stopped at the Dollar Tree and picked up some flower arrangement foam since it was already in a cylinder. However, I've never ever ever even touched flower arrangement foam so imagine my surprise when I got home and opened it and realized how crumbly and weird it was. But I stuck it out and started by pushing the barrel of the gun into the foam to get an impression of it so I knew how much to cut out so I could just glue it to the gun. After cutting the shape I glued it on and did the same with two more of the cylinders. After that it looked like this: (I swear I'll be making better tutorials in the future).
Nonetheless, it looked great!
After that I covered it in duct tape to hopefully keep it from crumbling apart. After that I covered it in paper mache. Then I painted everything black, except the gray ribbon looking stuff on the handle. I put a thin coat of silver paint on that part, kinda sloppily to make it look a little ruff or dirty. Then I drew on the barrel indents. Since I wasn't going to be carving it into the shape of a gun I just painted it on, creating a 3D kind of effect by making it darker in the middle than the outside of the shapes.
And that was it! I didn't add the cork because I made it so that it could still shoot and I thoroughly enjoyed shooting my husband with it while I was working on it. I might add it later attached with velcro so I can still use it.
At this point I started working on the actual costume. I ordered the gloves, goggles and hair chalk off of Amazon. I bought the coat and shorts from the Goodwill! I already owned the thigh highs and boots. The thigh highs I believe we go from Hot Topic, but I can't really remember and the boots are from Target. The belt buckle is from Spencer's Gifts.
After I miraculously found a bomber jacket at the Goodwill I took it home. I had to sew up a large slit in the back to make the jacket just a bit tighter. Then I designed the patch. I was originally going to have a much more complicated patch. I was going to change it from the original anyway because I don't ship Harley and the Joker at all but due to my skill level the patch I designed didn't work so I made it much more simple by just making it her symbol. I made it out of felt and just sewed it on in a patchwork like style. I didn't add the the fur because I'm actually really liking how it looks without it right now.
Next I needed to find a bra. I am very flat chested, which is another part of my confidence issue, especially when I'm cosplaying a other wise large breasted character. It's obviously my preference that I beef up my chest as much as possible. I went to Walmart, which actually has a very nice selection of triple padded bras for a reasonable price. I found a red one that looked very nice but it had lace on it. Oh well, it's the one I went with. When I got it home I whipped out my trusty seam ripper and very carefully took off all the lace. One side was going to be black anyway so I didn't mind that there were tiny bits of black lace still there, even the red side in most illustrations has a black outline was I just did my best.
The bra right after I dyed it
Then it was time for my first time dying any type of clothing. Since the shorts I bought were white I had to dye those anyway, I did the bra and shorts at the same time. That's not the best idea. This is because you have to keep the clothing moving while it's in the dye so I had to stir the shorts while holding the bra half out of the water, also moving that around as well.
The shorts were originally white but a little black dye fixes that
Let's just say it was the longest 20 minutes of my life...
But when it was done it was indeed half black (and the shorts turned out a really nice black as well). My mom had advised me to add a package of black dye and a package of blue dye to the water to get a true black and it definitely worked.
After the bra was dry I just took a sharpie and drew the diamonds on the red side. She for this look there should be 4 diamonds but she typically only has three diamonds, which I prefer so I went with that.
First look at bra + jacket
Next I made the utility belt. I got some craft foam and just winged it with the size. I checked Pinterest (my favorite cosplay resource) for a tutorial and I used this one: http://www.thefoamcave.com/captain-america-belt-build-tutorial/
Obviously I didn't make it as fancy as the one pictured but I used the same principle. I referenced the statue for how they looked. I hot glued all the pieces together, painted two red and two black, added velcro to keep them shut and a strip of craft foam to the back of each to slide them on the belt. On the belt the alternate colors.
Before it was painted it looked a little like this
Lastly, the accessories. I made her choker out of black felt by just cutting out a strip, measuring it to my neck and adding velcro to the ends to close it. I already owned a dog tag that I bought at the Air and Space Museum back in 2012. I quickly put together her earrings. I was happy to find out upon closer inspection that her earrings are bells (I love bells, it's my favorite sound in the world). I already had bells for the collars I make so I just attached them to a pair of earring findings.
As for hair and makeup, I'm already blonde. Harley is the only character I use my real hair for because it's actually a huge pain to use your own hair for cosplay. I put in low perky pigtails and barely straighten my hair, my hair is wavy and Harley's has just the slightest wave to it. Then I added the hair chalk. Hair chalk is great for coloring your hair temporarily. It washes out in a shampoo. The one I found was about three dollars on Amazon and it had really good staying power! I don't wash my hair everyday so I ended up keeping it in a day after my photo shoot and it stayed it really well, with very little transfer to your clothes (only right after applying it). Actually it took a somewhat aggressive shampoo to make sure it was fully out (I'm not ready to commit to red hair yet!).
For my makeup I went to the dollar tree and picked up some cheap white face paint and applied it all over my face with a foundation brush (I applied bb cream first). Then I covered my whole lid with red eyeshadow, then I went back into the crease with a dark gray. After that I used my usual ELF cream eyeliner and did a basic wing and put on false lashes. I use ones from the Dollar Tree right now since I was practicing (I'm still somewhat new to the whole fake eyelash deal) but I'll be upgrading to better ones soon. For now I really like how these ones look.
I then drew on her little red triangles under and over her eye with red eye shadow and a teeny tiny brush. Make sure that you always check which side things are supposed to go on with Harley, I actually had to redo it because I put it on the wrong side the first time. Lastly, I put on a nice red liquid lipstick from Milani and called it a day!
Work it, puddin!
All in all, I'm super proud of this cosplay! It looks amazing to me and I feel like Harley wearing it. I'm currently back on my exercise routine to work on my abs so I can feel even more confident wearing it. (I'll probably be making a separate post on my exercise habits for cosplay).
My next blog should be about my adventures at Sangawa festival in Pittsburgh!
Anyway, thanks again for sticking with my super long blogs!
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