I’ve thoroughly enjoyed She-Ra and the Princesses of Power on Netflix. I never watched the original show, but the reboot is delightfully queer, and deals with complex relationships and feelings. It’s a great children’s show!
Hands down one of my favorite parts of wearing cosplay’s from kids media is how excited kids get to see you all dressed up as one of your favorite characters. I got to make several kids really happy at Geek Girl Con, definitely going to be wearing She-Ra a few more times!
This cosplay and tutorial was made possible by my generous Patrons, head over to Patreon to check out the full set of photos, exclusive wallpapers and many other rewards.
For a visual walkthrough of how I made my She-Ra cosplay and sword, check out my video:
If you are looking for information on how I made Mermista head to my other tutorial post.
Purchase the pattern for this cosplay in my store.
To jump to a specific portion of the cosplay:
Body
The body consists of three parts: top, shorts and skirt. I decided to construct them as a single unit, while this does make going to the bathroom a little more tedious (yup, you have to talk most all of it off…), it keeps everything in place, the lines smoother and prevents the top from riding up every time you raise your arms.
For the all three parts of the unitard I used a white miliskin spandex, I would suggest a matte fabric or use the matte side of the fabric if like me you can only find the shiny version. As most white fabric is a touch see through I also used a white spandex swimsuit lining. All of the pieces were doubled layered, I sergered the lining to the pieces before sewing them together. If you feel your fabric is opaque enough then you won’t need to worry about it. In total I used about 3 yards of the white spandex (for each lining and outer fabric).
Top
I started with a basic fitted top pattern, I based mine off an existing leotard pattern (minus the bottoms), I also added a bust dart to have less gaping around the armhole – depending on how busty you are this may or may not be necessary. The back has a center seam to insert the zipper.
First I stitched the bust darts together on the front. Next while the pieces were flat and easier to work with I added the gold design. For the design I used Yaya Han Bright Gold spandex (about 2 yards for the whole cosplay), I liked the amount of shine this one had. I used Wonder Under (a fusible iron-on stretch interfacing) to fix the design in place, before then top-stitching around it in a gold thread. The interfacing is great for stabilizing everything while sewing but it won’t last permanently on the stretchy material so the top-stitching keeps it all in place. I left the bottom tail of the design un-stitched (you can see this in the image below), as I wanted to be able to line it up properly with the gold waist band which would be added later.
After the design was done I stitched the front piece to the back pieces at the shoulder and side seams. Next I cut out the collar, and then ironed the gold trim in place using wonder under and finished with top stitching. After that I sewed the collar to the body, lining up the gold trim to the center of the design. I added a few small ladder stitches at the very base of the collar to keep it from splaying out as much. I sewed the zipper into the center back seam, about halfway down to open up the top wide enough to be able to slip in on over my hips.
For the shoulder armor I drafted my initial pattern out of paper to decide how large I wanted them to be. I then cut the pattern out of foam, and two layers of fabric. I ironed Wonder Under to both sides of the golden fabric and then sewed them together, right side facing, to create a little pocket.
I turned the gold fabric right side out and tucked the foam piece inside, I then ironed the fabric with the foam inside to get the wonder under to hold the fabric more securely to the foam. While a contact adhesive of some kind would give a stronger hold the Wonder Under does a good job of a light hold and is very quick and easy to apply. After that I stitched the shoulder pieces directly to the armholes on the body, and top stitched the seam to the inside of the armhole.
The center gem was sculpted with Sculpey and painted with acrylic paints and nail polish to get the color and shine, and was glued in place using E6000 glue.
Shorts
For the shorts I started with a basic bicycle short pattern using an existing pair of athletic shorts I had on hand as a base for the design. I chose to keep a center front seam for simplicity, but you could remove the seam and add a gusset in the crotch if you prefer the look. After sewing the shorts together, I then ironed the gold stripes in place on each side, covering the side seam, using the Wonder Under, before top-stitching it in place. I finished off the bottom hem of each leg with a simple seam. I trimmed the waist to match the waistline of the top, so it dipped slightly in front.
Skirt
The skirt is a simple circle skirt with a center front split, and slightly less than a full circle. The wait seam is a few inches smaller than the waist seam on the shorts/top, it also dips slightly down at the front making the front edge slightly smaller in radius than the rest of the skirt, to match up with the dip on the waistline. The bottom edge was finished with a simple top stitch seam.
Assembly
To put the three section together I basted the skirt to the top, making sure the skirt opening was aligned to the sides of the center point, right side together. I then pinned the shorts in place, right sides of the shorts touching the lining of the skirt, such that the seam would be on the inside of the unitard with the skirt sandwiched in the middle of the top and shorts. Once I was certain I had aligned the pieces I stitched them all together and trimmed the seam on the inside.
For the waist band, I cut out the front and back pieces separately, matching the shape of the seam, and stitched the front and back together as the side seams, making a single curved band.
Next I trimmed the tail on the front design of the top so that is just sits under the waistband, and ironed it in place. I then ironed the gold fabric for the waist band in place, using wonder under, before top-stitching the band in place as well as doing the final top-stitching on the front design tail.
Cape
The cape started as a single large square of fabric about 45in by 35in, I used my favorite red peach skin satin as I love the color and drape. I hemmed all the edges of the fabric. The I pleated the edges of one of the long ends of the fabric, making it about 20in across, so about 12 inches of pleating on each side. Lastly I hand stitched two snaps on each corner of the cape, and at the shoulders of the unitard. I put them at a slight angle so they would drape outward rather than just straight down.
Bracers
For the bracers I used the same basic concept as the shoulder pads. I drafted the design by wrapping my arm in cling film and tape and then drawing out the shape I wanted. Using the template I made I cut the design out of the gold fabric and 2mm EVA foam. I iron Wonder Under to the gold fabric and then stitched it together along the top and bottom seam, and then turned it right sides out.
I slipped the EVA foam into between the gold fabric and iron the fabric to the foam. Then I sewed the foam inside the fabric at the side seams, making a single pieces I could slip my arms in and out of, they rely on the stretch of the material slightly so try to use a stretch stitch when assembling. You might also want to stitched the last little bit by hand so it;’s easier to turn the bracers right side out.
Wig and Tiara
Wig And Makeup
For the wig I started with a base of the Ayumi wig in Flaxen Blond from AnimeStuffStore. I then took a second of the Ayumi wigs and took it apart into the separate wefts. I then stitched these wefts from the second wig in between the wefts of the base wig doubling the volume of the wig, as She-Ra has so much hair. So much.
This will make the wig quite heavy and also easily tangled, to be careful and consider adding wig clips or using a wig band to keep in in place while you wear it. Lastly I trimmed two small side burn sections of the wig to help them sit in front of my ear and cover my own side burns.
The makeup wasn’t anything too complicated, thankfully She-Ra has really dark eyebrows so I just filled them in. For the contacts I used EOS Bubble Blue from Pinky Paradise, I really liked how this made my eyes look extra blue and ethereal!
Tiara
For the tiara I cut out the design from 2mm EVA foam, and then wrapped the foam in the gold fabric, using Wonder Under to once again help the fabric stick lightly to the foam, and using hot glue on the reverse side to keep it securely attached. I trimmed the band to fit after sizing it with the wig on, and sewed the tiara into a loop at the back.
For the wings I cut the base outline out of 2mm EVA foam and then cut slightly smaller shapes for the design. I then hot glued these to the base. I made a pocket of fabric much in the same way I did for the shoulders and bracers. I put hot glue into the crevasses and pressed the gold fabric into them to create the raised design. Lastly I sewed the gold together at the bottom edge.
To attach the wings to the tiara I removed some of the gold fabric where the two pieces would be in contact as the EVA foam will stick to it’s self fairly securely so I wanted to get a foam to foam contact. I then hot glued them together and added some extra glue for stability. To finished I glued and stitched some combs to the tiara to keep in in place on the wig.
I sculpted the gem out of sculpy, and painted it with acrylic and nail polish for the shine. I then glued with E6000 a small strand of fishing wire which I glued to the back of the tiara to allow the gem to float in place.
Boots
The boots ended up being more of an adventure than I intended. I had initially purchased some pre-made boots, but ended up making them unusable after attempting some modifications. So I went back to basics and made boot covers!
To get some extra height I built the boot covers over a pair of about 3in heels, totally option but does help with the giant woman vibe. I drafted the pattern with the tried and true cling-film, tape and sharpie method. Using these pieces I cut a single large base out of white felt to give some stability to the structure. I then layered the a white satin, as the base. I made the top section one flat piece the the bottom section two pieces.
Next I top stitched the blue sections, and lastly the gold (again I recommend using a fusible interfacing to stabilize the stretch fabric when sewing). Lastly I added a zipper in the center back.
For the sole I used a sturdy vinyl fabric and glued some rubber sections to give grip and stability. I finished off the boot with a strip of 2mm EVA foam wrapped in the gold fabric to give a more shoe like look.
Sword
I have to thank Banzai Baby who was an immense help with making the base of the sword. She is a very talented woodworker and stream so be sure to check her stuff out!
We started with the blade of the sword, using two pieces of 10mm EVA foam, cut to shape and sandwich around a thin strip of wood to give a stable core, gluiong with contact cement. Note the wooden piece is long enough to also fit into the handle of the sword. The edges of the blade were then sanded down to give a tapered edge. Next we inserted the wooden strip into a piece of PVC pipe long enough for the hilt, and use expanding foam to keep the wood secured in the pipe.
For the hilt we cut out the base shape in 10mm EVA foam, as well as smaller wedges to account for the width of the PCV pipe. We also sanded out the center of each of these pieces so they would fit more snugly around the PVC pipe. The wedges were then glued to the PVC pipe and the hilt was glued to the pipe, wedges and base of the blade using contact cement. The handle of the PVC piped was also then wrapped in two layers of 2mm EVA foam, attached with contact cement.
The shaping on the hilt was done with a Dremmel, and the pommel was sculpted out of EVA foam clay, which was also used to fill in a few holes and gaps.
The sword was primed with several layers of Plastidip and then painted with thinned acrylic paints. The gold was done with Rub n Buff, using a few different colors (Antique gold as the base, Autumn gold and the shadow, and gold leaf as the highlight). The lines were drawn on with Sharpie and the whole thing was finished with a gloss top coat.
The gem was made from a resin cast, to save time I made the molds from Worbla. I mixed in blue and green inks to get the color (be sure to use alcohol based inks), as well as some pearlescent powder and glitter. After being removed from the mold I sanded them to a smooth surface and finished with nail polish. I cut out a matching hold from the hilt and glued them in place with E6000.
