Jotaro Kujo
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
- First worn to MetroCon 2015
- Spent around $75 on this costume, including wig & contacts
- Worked on this costume for a few weeks
The urge to cosplay from Jojo was definitely getting strong, I just couldn't decide on what to make. Originally I had thought to cosplay as Lisa Lisa beacause she is amazing, but in the end I just wan't crazy about her outfit. While looking at reference pics I remembered seeing another cosplayer and a friend of hers cosplaying as Jotaro and Dio. Not a girly/sexy version but just the costumes as is. I guess the thought of cross playing never occurred to me for some reason. Since I love Jotaro I asked Hannah if she would join me on this cosplay quest and to my delight she agreed and the rest as they say is history. Since I would be wearing this costume in the Florida summer I decided to do the blue variant of the uniform as oppose to the black. And I just think Jotaro looks better in blue :P
First things first; figuring out that coat! Since Jotaro takes such pride in his uniform I wanted to make sure that this costume was on point. I picked up some muslin and I started to work out a good pattern for the coat. I started with Simplicity pattern #5386 in style A and I heavily modified it. The main problem with this pattern is that is has three pieces; back, front and side. Jotaro's coat is just a front and back so I had to work out that side piece but still maintain a good fit. It took a bit of messing around, but this is why doing a mock up in muslin is so important. The next coat piece to alter were the sleeves and collar, but these weren't an issue at all. It was just a matter of shortening the sleeves and making a few adjustments to the collar.
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With the coat figured out my next step was to find a good suiting fabric.Since this is a school uniform I didn't want to use cotton or anything too light. I always start at Joann's and usually I leave empty handed, this time however I got lucky. They had a nice blue suiting fabric on sale for about $4.50 per yard, I picked that up a long with some craft fuse and white polyester lining. Then it was just a matter of using my mock up to make the real thing. The fabric has a really nice drape to it and wasn't heavy at all. I lined the coat, top stitched it and added a total of 12 gold buttons. The collar was a little tricky as it needed to stand on it's own and hold the weight of the chain without falling. I used Heat n Bond along with a piece of the lining to mock the look of the collar actually being lined. Inside the collar is 4 pieces of craft fuse along with some very rigid felt, all together this gave the collar the support it needed.
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The pants were the next step and there really wasn't must to them. I do have a pet peeve about pants being too short, so I opted to just have them regular length. I used Simplicity pattern #1112 in style C and the instructions were super easy to follow. Looking back I may rework the pants and add pockets. Accessories were the next step and were really the most fun. I started with that silly hat; really only half of a hat. I used the police costume hat from my Officer Jill Valentine costume and I covered it in suiting fabric. It took a few darts to get the fabric to curve but it wasn't hard at all. Then I literally cut the hat in half and tucked the fabric down and glued it. Instead of doing a jagged look I opted for a single clean cut. The gold pieces added to the hat were made from worbla scraps and foamie.
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For the collar chain I heated up worbla scraps and rolled them together to make each link of the chain. Worbla was great to use as it's super sturdy and the finished product wouldn't have a lot of weight to it. Then it was just a matter of priming it and spray painting it gold. The belts were made out of duck cloth and I painted on the triangle designs. They aren't functioning bets and are held in place with industrial sticky back velcro. The pink t- shirt I ordered online and the shoulder strap was made from the same duck cloth as the belts.
FINAL THOUGHTS: I will most likely remake the pants or just add pockets to the ones I already have. There is a few little things that need adjusting, but I am very proud of how this turned out. Cosplay Jojo was a total blast and I can not wait to do it again! |