Year made: 2010
Cons worn to: Anime Central 2010
Awards won: Best Journeyman - Anime Central 2010 Hall Cosplay Contest

Comments:
I have had many yards of this dark wine red vinyl laying around that I got from Joann's Halloween clearance. I pondered over which characters I could make with it and I-no stood out. I think the color is a little too dark, but in photos with direct sun it looks pretty close to the spirte artwork in the game. Since a lot of reference images of I-no differ from picture to picture (ie: in some she has a black border on the bottom of her dress, others don't -- some have more buckles on the hat, others don't) so I picked the parts that I liked from each reference and mixed them together. Not to mention, the hat design from Isuka was a lot easier since it only had one buckle instead of 3.

This is my first costume in which I didn't alter a commercial pattern. I made all the patterns myself, and even sculpted the rings and buckles myself out of sculpey. All the black belts and belt loops where tedious and time consuming. The dress was a bit of a difficult task in construction, but I'm happy with the overall look. The jacket is fully lined and has wire in the front seams attaching to the collar to help retain shape. The boots have the heels painted with acrylic paint, and clear coated on top. The boot covers are glued on with a strong epoxy.

I regret not being able to have her cool guitar prop due to not being in my budget, but I figured it was better that way then for me to lug my heavy black bass around in platform heels.

Materials Used:
Wine Red Vinyl - Dress, Boots, Hat
Black Matte Pleather - Details on hat, jacket
Sculpey - Gold Rings and buckles on dress