Holtzmann Build Walk-Thru

Holtzmann was a pretty easy cosplay that would've taken me about two months less had I made the jumpsuit in a month like I originally planned. I decided to cosplay her when the movie came out and finished it by February 2017 so it was by far the quickest I've managed to make a costume so far (about six months, though keep in mind a lot of that is me being slow and lazy about ordering/working on things).

Jumpsuit

So obviously the most important part of a Ghostbusters cosplay is the jumpsuit. You can probably go to the work uniforms section of someplace like Sear's and get one that works, but I made my own. I used this pattern from McCall's with a mid-weight khaki fabric.

For the orange reflective stripes, I ordered six of these iron on reflective tape packets, which came out to about ten feet. You need enough to have double stripes around your chest and both arms, so measure your bust and biceps and multiply the bust measurement times two, and the bicep measurement times four, then add those together. The tape comes in 32 inch packages.

I got this iron-on Ghostbusters logo patch for the sleeve. In the movie, all the Ghostbusters have name tag patches on their chests, which I didn't do. If you choose to do the name tags, there are lots of options on Amazon and Etsy.

Obviously, since all the Ghostbusters have matching jumpsuits, you can use this portion of the tutorial no matter which Ghostbuster you're cosplaying.

Wig

Holtzmann's got a pretty unique signature hairstyle. I'm not blonde, so I used a wig. I got the Tawny 1310 off Amphigory in #22. Style-wise this wig works, but it's a bit on the small side so it squeezed my head after a day at comicon and the adjustable sizing straps are velcro instead of hooks, so they get caught on the wig fibers, wig caps, and your own hair. Whether you're using a wig or your real hair, this Youtube tutorial is an excellent reference for doing Holtzmann's hairstyle.

Necklace

Another signature Holtzmann item is her Screw U necklace. I got a 3D printed pendant from Etsy and put it on a chain I already had. It's a little bigger than the pendant is in the movie and is obviously not metal, so if this option isn't the look you're going for, there are lots of other people on Etsy that make and sell Holtzmann's necklace.

Glasses

It can be really hard to find non-reflective yellow lensed glasses with side-visors without spending a lot of money. After some trial and error, I bought some cheap yellow tinted glasses off Amazon. I then used a paper towel tube, aluminum foil, and double sided tape to make the side-visors. Here's a tutorial I already made for how I did it. However, the visors fell off during and after comicon, so I'm going to be experimenting with better alternatives and will update when I've found a winner.

Shoes

I admittedly sort of forgot about doing anything specific with the shoes. I just wore combat boots, but you can wear rainboots like she does during the scene at the concert, or you can make boot covers for the ones all the team wears at the end of the movie.

Proton Pack

The hardest, most work intensive part of a Holtzmann (or any of the Ghostbusters) cosplay is definitely the proton pack. Mattel sells a toy version if you don't want to make it yourself and are willing to dish out some money. I made my own. Mine isn't perfectly screen accurate nor detailed because I didn't have the time and resources and I also wanted to make mine have a double function as a backpack.

The materials I used were mainly a bunch of random junk. I got a cheap plain backpack off Amazon and removed the front pocket and label. In order to stabilize it and make sure it won't collapse under the weight of all the hardware, I put a cardboard box inside. You should definitely do this first because I did it last and had to use industrial strength velcro to attach it, which barely worked, and if you do it first then you'll be able to use a stapler/staple gun/something else more successful because you won't have to work around all the stuff you've already attached to your backpack.

For the faraday cage, I used a banana basket I found at Goodwill. For the lights inside, I got a short strand of red LED rope lights from Ebay. It has an adhesive back, so I wrapped it around one of those plastic flower pot trays and stuck it on there. I then used a heavy duty needle and thread and tacked the lights and the basket onto the front of the backpack. I simply let the battery pack for the lights hang down into the backpack (remember to bring spare batteries to comicon in case yours wear out).

For the bottom of the pack, I cut a cardboard box in half so it fit the bottom of the backpack. I painted the sides silver and the front and bottom black, and painted diagonal yellow stripes across the top of the front. I then used industrial strength velcro to attach it to the backpack.

For the blaster, I got PVC pipe, cut two 13 inch sections, and painted them silver for the barrel and handle. I used an old alarm clock box and painted it silver for the center box. I measured out the circumference of the PVC pipe on the front end and used an Xacto knife to cut a hole, into which I inserted one of the pipes for the barrel. I duct taped it into place, then duct taped the handle pipe onto the side of the box, facing the other direction (you'll want reference pictures for this). I then hot glued some black craft foam around each pipe for handles. For the cord that connects the blaster to the pack, I got some random cords from the electronics section of the thrift store. I threaded one end into the handle pipe of the blaster and duct taped it into place, then wedged the other end into the center of a small thread spool that I'd painted silver. I duct taped the spool to the backpack to hold it in place. I made a holder for my blaster by sewing a 1 1/14" plastic plumbing coupling to the side of the backpack.

And there you have it! As a finishing touch, I added some fingerless leather gloves that I already had for Black Widow. By no means a requirement, but she does wear gloves in the movie. You can find lots more references, especially for the proton pack, in my Pinterest board. And now for the finished product:

Happy cosplaying!

Rey Build Walk-Thru

Rey's costume is, so far, one of the few where I've made almost the entire thing myself. There were only a few pieces that I actually bought and used as is (or almost as is).

To start off, I got the McCall's pattern set, which I used for all the pieces except the shirt and cuff. There were a few little adjustments I made to make certain pieces more accurate, but generally I followed the given instructions. So here's what I did.

Shirt

As I mentioned before, I didn't use the shirt included in the pattern. If I had, it probably would've been a little closer to screen accurate, but I bought my shirt before I even found the pattern. The shirt I got was a light tan basic v-neck tee, originally from Target (I already had the same shirt in a different color so I recognized it) though I got it at a thrift store. I cut off the sleeves to make it a tank (though looking back I probably should have just cut them a bit shorter to make them cap sleeves instead).

Pants

For the pants, I used the pattern pretty much as directed, I just lowered the waistline a little to my own taste. I used a lightweight linen-esque fabric in a shade of beige just a little darker than my other fabrics.

Wrap/Tabard

The wrap (referred to in the pattern as the tabard) was made out of a stretchy gauze fabric in a creamy beige. I followed the instructions pretty much directly for most of it, though if you want to be perfectly screen accurate, you should leave the edges raw instead of hemming like I did. When it was finished, I discovered that the width of the drapes made them all fan out into almost a dress, which wasn't right (some of this may have been because I'm so tiny). While trying to find a solution, I consulted my reference pictures and noticed that the left-side drapes are actually connected at the bottom in a loop, presumably because the original costume is made with all one piece of fabric. So I took the two left side drapes and sewed them together at the bottom to form a loop.

Arm wraps

Lots of people just use ace bandage wraps for the arm wraps, which works well enough but runs the risk of them coming loose halfway through a con or photoshoot and needing to be redone. The pattern's cheat for the wraps is one thing that I did exactly as instructed. I used a stretch knit fabric that had some light flecking in it, giving it more of a gauzy look without it being the same fabric and color as my wrap/tabard. If you're not using the McCall's pattern but still want to make your own wrap instead of using bandages, here is a similar tutorial online.

Cuff

I was originally going to use the pattern for making the cuff, but by chance I found a costume replica of it at Hot Topic among the jewelry. It's a bit stiff and might be slightly on the large side, but it works really well and saved me from having to sew suede any more than necessary. I have no idea if Hot Topic still carries this item, I tried with no luck to find it on the website, but you can always keep an eye out for it.

Belt

The way the pattern has you do the belt is kind of confusing and, while it works for being on a tighter budget, is not necessarily the sturdiest. So basically I just used the pattern piece for a guide. I got a roll of suede from Tandy Leather and scotch-taped the pattern piece onto it so I could cut it out. I used an Exacto knife for puncturing the center section so I could cut it out. I highly recommend doing a test run first on butcher paper just so you know what you're doing before cutting into your suede!

To close the belt, the pattern says to use velcro, but since I was using real suede, I didn't think that would be sturdy enough. So I got some snaps and attached two snaps at the right tightness for my size (I recommend measuring your belt around yourself while wearing the rest of the costume so you know it'll be the right tightness around the tabard). The fasteners should be on your left side.

Finally, I got some light brown twine and wrapped it around the front portion of the belt, between the fasteners and where the two tiers split off. I used Elmer's glue to tack it down on the inside of the belt.

Pouch

I bought this screen accurate bag off Amazon. It's great quality and holds up beautifully carrying your stuff around all day at a con. In order to attach it to my belt without it being permanently affixed, I undid the stitching on the bottom of the two straps on the back of the bag and sewed on velcro instead.

Boots

The shoes used in the movie are Po-Zu's piper v brown linen boots, but they're on the expensive side. Other people have made boot covers that look like po-zu's. I just got these boots off Amazon. They're not perfectly screen accurate and they were a little uncomfortable to walk around in all day at comicon, but they still work really great.

Staff

I used this tutorial that I found for adding the details to Rey's staff. I used a light wooden staff that I had lying around instead of PVC pipe, and for the grips I used scrap fabric from my wrap/tabard. For the sling strap, I used a spare luggage strap. To make the attachments for clipping the strap to the staff, I referenced this tutorial. I used some of the suede from my belt, snaps, D-rings, and some scrap fabric to back the cross sections (you put the D-rings between the suede cross section and the backing so it doesn't slid around and rub all the paint off your staff).  Fair warning, sewing suede is a pain.

And there you have it! That's how I made my Rey cosplay. I have lots of other resources in my Pinterest board if you're needing references, other tutorials, or want to branch out and try things differently. And now for the final results:

Happy cosplaying, and may the Force be with you!