I chose to cosplay Keqing becuase I’m a huge fan of Genshin Impact, and I just think she has a gorgeous character design that I thought would be both fun and challenging to bring to life. The costume is made from a self-patterned silk dress, with custom embroidery, silk painted sleeves, custom modded shoes, and lots of EVA foam and 3D printed accessories.  This cosplay pushed me to try multiple new skills beyond just sewing, and I’m very proud of the final result. 

Silk (dupioni and taffeta), EVA Foam, Resin, 3D printing

Take a look at the amazing photo gallery!

Corset: Redthreaded 1860s corset
Sword: Mistplitter Reforged pattern from NATACosplay
Everything else was self drafted

Liyue fence added in 3D Studio Max using Quixel assets

Adding a blurred background of Liyue harbor (screenshot from the game)

Adding some lantern (mix of 3d rendered and game screenshots)

In order to create this composition, I used 3DS Max to model and render the foreground, and then superimposed the original photo onto a blurred background and added some additional lanterns, details, and lens effects. Scroll around to see how all the layers come together to form the final image. This composition was inspired by this video by Kamui Cosplay, who I'm grateful shared their tips and techniques. Check out their video here

Keqing enjoying the Lantern Rite Festival in Liyue Harbor

The costume has 4 layers: corset, underskirt, under dress, and over dress. Each layer was sewn by me from my own custom pattern (except the corset, I used Redthreaded's for that). The dress is decorated with hand stitched appliques and custom digitized embroidery. To create the ombre effect, I hand dipped purple fabric into dye remover. The sleeves are hand painting silk panels. The accessories are made of EVA foam, 3D printed pieces, resin cast pieces, and embroidery. If you would like to read more on the specific steps and materials used, please check out my write up below!

I was originally inspired to try and make a Victorian Ice Skating outfit, however it just turned into a regular winter outfit from the late Victorian era. The outfit is made of wool and cotton with a hand sewn soutache braid for the embellishment. The hat and jacket are trimmed with fur. It is super warm and fun to wear, and given how much inner structure the jacket has, I was able to pull off wearing without a corset (shock! scandal!).

Wool, kasha satin lining, cotton organdy, fur, soutache braid, 

Truly Victorian: TV125, TV261, TV462, TV551 

The original Inspiration for the dress was this fashion plate from 1876, however I wanted the bustle to be smaller and of course for there to be no train.
The first step, as always, was to create a mockup and fine tune the pattern. The next step was to design the piping on the back and sleeves of the jacket. This was definitely the most time consuming part! After the braid was attached, I flatlined each piece of wool with kasha satin lining. The fabric is definitely not period-accurate, but it's super warm and lightweight. After the flatlining was done, and everything was sewn together, I whip stitched the seam allowance down since I knew I wasn't going to be adding a lining. The sleeves were assembled in a similar fashion. Next step was to hand sew on the fur trim, and finally, add a boning channel to each seam and dart. I used German plastic boning everywhere except the side back seams, where I used spiral steel boning due to the horizontal curve of the channels.  The skirt is made from black wool suiting fabric, and flatlined in cotton organdy. The hat was made with buckram covered in scraps of wool and trim.

Keqing

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Keqing enjoying the Lantern Rite Festival in Liyue Harbor

Construction

Keqing Cosplay Construction Details