Final Fantasy Ten- Moogle Cosplay

As I posted in my first entry, FFX was a struggle for me as I had never played that particular game (though I do recall watching my brothers play Final Fantasy 7 when we were growing up).

Luckily Cat suggested (at Nichole's plea for help because she could see I was getting frustrated- steam was probably coming out of my ears) that I cosplay a moogle.

This was great because unlike the other two cosplays, I get to use a little creativity and add my own flair. I just needed a few things to make myself look moogle-like, and then I could do what I want from there.

First, here is a moogle:

What is a moogle? It's a creature that is summoned by the character Lulu. It will protect her in battle by kicking things. (I can kick things!)

They look like a cross between a cat and a bat, and they mimic the moves that Lulu does.

Photo credit: Bangbez on Deviant art

As my best friend Nichole will be cosplaying Lulu, this works out as I get to mimic her all day.

Anyways, to make sure I look moogle-like, I need:

__Ears
__Red-puffy-ball-thing
__Wings
__All white (or white with some purple) outfit

The outfit took me a while, because no one is selling white dresses this time of year (why didn't I start this sooner?!) But I had lost some weight lately, so a white dress that didn't really fit anymore suddenly fit again, and I was able to use that!

I will need to post a picture of the outfit later, I don't have a good one right now.
(I should have a post this weekend about getting everything wrapped up!) (Unless I end up playing pokemon all day instead.....Got to Catch Them All!!.....heh)

Alright, while searching for outfits, I started making the headband and wings for the moogle.

My handy Journal.

The ears were fairly simple. Nichole and I (team Colorado) made a craft shopping trip and got some pink and white felt. (We got purple for the wings too, of course!)

I put up some paper and messed with possible shapes until I found one that worked, and then I traced it onto the felt.

Basically just a triangle with long edges so that I can wrap them in front and sew them together. 

I sewed them onto a fabric white headband, which was a little challenging and I will try and post an up close picture of the final product later (I forgot to take a picture of that).

The red fluffy ball part took a little bit of time. I tried to find some large fluffy cat toy, or extra large pompom, but in the end I settled with some normal sized pompoms I found in the craft store, and I glued three of  them together.

I had to do this twice, because one of the cats stole the first one. Which actually worked out, because in the first one I forgot to glue the wire into the pompoms. Oops. (The wire is to hold the pompoms up off from the headband).

All glued together! With normal non-fancy glue.

I used some wire I got from work, (it was trash, so I recycled) but any strong wire would do.

Here's the finished product:

I am also wearing a white wig I got for the costume. I cut the bangs myself. You can tell, because it's terrible, haha. Oh well.

The wings were also pretty easy. I cut out a wing shape onto some paper, and used that as a template. I traced it onto four pieces of purple felt.

Why four pieces? So I could sew some wire into the middle that would help prop the wings a little and keep them from being too floppy.

More wire!

After sewing the wire down into the wing, I could sew the other felt on top of it.

After both wings were sewn together, I could attach them to the fluffy white sweater that I found at a thrift store!

Nichole pinned the wings on for me while I wore the sweater, and then I pinned the rest of it down and sewed it. This fabric was tricky, it wanted to move all over the place. But, it worked!

I have not yet decided if I want to do any makeup for the moogle (red nose, that sort of thing) but for now, I have the basics!

I will try and post a more complete photo soon!