Shiva from Final Fantasy X
Started 2002
Appearances: Anime Expo 2002
Awards: Honorable Mention, Craftsmanship, Individual.
ON YOUTUBE: AX 02 SKIT
STATUS: Retired
REFERENCE:
B&W Character Design Reference
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Shiva has always been my favorite Final Fantasy summon, but the FFX one is my very favorite! All that gorgeous hair and dangly things! Woo! I didn’t think I’d be able to make it, but after getting a lot of advice from Lindze, G-Chan, Stitch’n Babes and Yaya… I finally decided to give it a shot.
The hair is made up of one blue wig, probably about 14 sets of 60 inch extensions and lots of foam and ribbons. I added light and dark extensions into my “base” blue extensions, and made wefts of hair on the sewing machine. Then each weft was attached to foam and attached to the original wig. (which was a really really big pain in the butt.)
I took at least a bit of artistic license with this costume… as I didn’t really care for plain circular rings on her wig… I used upside down hearts instead. I added a lot of beading on the skirt, and on the bra, and various parts of the costume. Most of the original details from the costume, however, are there, just embellished. I took some of the designs from the game, and some from the B&W early character design. 🙂 There are even super-sculpey chain links attaching the anchor/tail to the cord which attaches to my body. Each chain link has little designs scribed into them, as does the silver scroll-like decoration on the front of the bikini. There are rhinestones and beads shaped like snowflakes on the skirt, even though they are hard to see in photographs. The bottom of the skirt was also dyed blue. There are also hand-beaded snowflakes on the wrist-guards.
The body design was acchieved by body painting my top half, and then dying some pants/tights the exact same color as the body paint. The bottom of the tights were very carefully dyed to accheive a gradation of color, eventually becoming dark bluish purple. I then put on the tights and painted the designs on while wearing it. The design I painted is a bit more decorative than the actual design in the game.
The “Ice” bra-cover is made of vinyl with careful stiches to make it hold it’s icy-like shape, and then attached to the bra. There are rhinestones on the icy-side of my face, as well as an extra icy bendi on my forehead.
The body paint is “Aqua” in a light light purple color bought from Cinemasecrets, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. I hugged several people and they got NO purple paint on them. I also didn’t show any signs of “sweaty bodypaint shiny-face” like most people in bodypaints do. I was really happy with it. About one container was enough to do my whole upper body, with a little left over.
I think the rest of the costume is pretty self explanatory! This is definitely my most difficult costume so far, despite the fact that it required very little sewing.