Vee~! North Italy WIP & preview

A few months ago I decided to cosplay North Italy from Hetalia: Axis Powers at Tracon 2016. At some point I almost cancelled this plan since, well, I really thought that I couldn't make this costume - I've never made military outfits before and I thought that they would be too difficult for me to make, especially when I haven't made almost anything myself this year. In the end I decided that "fuck it, I can do it", called my godmother and she was kind enough to help me with the patterns etc.

So, let's begin~!

The collar shirt I used in my second Walter photoshoot is actually meant for Italy. I bought it from Tallinn in May since it cost something like ten euros and I wouldn't have had time to sew it myself anyway. Well, in that point I might have had time, but.. I know myself too well.

The first self-made thing for this costume were the pants. I used the same patterns which I used also for my James and Levi pants, just modified them a bit. Nothing too difficult, only took me a few hours to make (I think it was something like four hours). Note that the fabric I bought isn't legit for the uniforms but North Italy's uniform in Hetalia isn't legit either so I decided not to be too strict about it.

The next part on my "must to do"-list was the jacket of the uniform. I know, it's missing some details but I ran out of time (probably my own fault this time AGAIN) and since the uniform isn't legit I was like "nah, fuck it, it's good enough". I'll probably make those details later.
Since I hadn't done anything like this before I quite quickly contacted my godmother again and asked for her advice. And today, a couple of days before the con, she had time to help me. It took us 8 hours to make everything ready, and I had already made the lining, half of the jacket and some things for the pockets! x__x
One can't see the buttons in the jacket since the buttonholes are hidden under the facing - we decided to be ninjas since the buttons can't be seen in the reference picture either.
The most difficult thing to make was probably the collar. I've tried to make a similar collar before but without good results. This time, however, I managed to make it quite well!
I didn't have time to take pictures during the making process but there really wasn't much to photograph (and at some point the whole costume got on my nerves and I was ready to go into the rubbish bin).
Anyway, here's the end result (some kind of preview at the same time)! Pictures © my brother.

I'll wear the same shoes which I wore when I cosplayed Levi in 2014. I had no time to search another shoes so those will do this time.

But here it is, the blog post about my North Italy! See you at Tracon, vee~!

(Oh, and I bought my Italy wig from Lucaille WIG. I had a huge headache while doing the preview so I decided not to wear it but you'll see it in the photoshoot pics - and probably in a bunch of stupid selfies I'll post on FB and Instagram.)

-Firith