Monster Prom is a super fun game, full of charming and terrible monster protagonists; but when it came to picking one to cosplay there was no question it would be Vera, who doesn’t want to be the best business gorgon? Vera is one of those cosplays that you can quite comfortably purchase most of it, or you can choose to make it all from scratch – I went for something in the middle, and this tutorial walks you through both how I made the outfit as well as some suggestions for other options.
This cosplay and tutorial was made possible by my generous Patrons, head over to Patreon to check out awesome rewards!
You can also find more information on making the wig in my blog post, as well as my video walk through and video makeup tutorial.
Dress, Jacket and Accessories
I chose to make the dress, but it could easily be purchased as well – any black tank top dress will work, you’ll want to look for one with a higher neckline and make sure it isn’t too see-through! For my dress I used a black 4 way stretch knit, the “performance” or “athletic” type that has a lot of stretch and isn’t too thin; additionally, my fabric had a slight sheen to it, as I liked the idea of it being just a little bit shinny. Spandex world has a great selection of black knits that work for the dress.
To make the dress I created an outline for the front and back that followed my measurements, and then stitched it together along the sides. I ended up taking the dress in a lot as I wanted it to be very tights (it rode up a lot , so I might have made it too tight…), and added darts at the bust to keep the sleeves lying flat, then all of the hems were folded over and stitched to finish. You can find a pattern for the dress in my store.
The necklace was made out of two layers of worbla, curved slightly to shape before painting it gold. Rather than worrying about making a full necklace or it shifting as I wore it, I poked holes in each end and stitched it directly to the dress shoulders.
For more accuracy the jacket can be made from scratch, but I purchased this one online and then made some alterations to it, be wary the jacket runs small! For alterations, I shortened the sleeves, and bottom hem (and squared it off), changed the button, and took the bust and side seams in for a slimmer fit.
Vera also wears two gold bangles – I struggled to find plain ones to purchase, so I got wooden bangles to decorate, and then painted them gold to match the necklace.
For her shoes, any black pumps will work – and her heel is pretty modest!
Wig
Information on how I made the wig can be found in my other blog post.
Makeup
For her skin I used two different approaches, tights and makeup. You can find a tutorial on the make-up portion over on my YouTube, and here are some handy links to some of the materials I used:
- The base green make-up I used was the Pro Aiir hybrid make up, White mixed with a small amount of Green and Galaxy Green to get that grayish very light green sort of color.
- The lip color I used was NYX Suede Cream Lipstick in Sway and the lip liner was the NYX Prune pencil.
- The contacts I used were the Red Cat Eye contacts from Funky Eyes, I did have issues with these rotating, but my eyes also do not like contacts.
For her her arms and legs I used white tights and dyed them to the correct color using green and a small amount of yellow RIT Dyemore synthetic dye (make sure your tights are also mostly Nylon, or the dye won’t work). The tights need to end up a fairly light color so they really won’t need much time in the dye bath, for me is was probably about 30 secs, but you’ll want to do a couple of tests to get the right shade. For the arms, I converted the tights into gloves, sewing around a template of my hand, like in this arm sock tutorial. My gloves only went up to my bicep as the rest would be covered by the jacket and I wanted them to be removable for eating and game playing at conventions, and I started with small tights so I needed to do less fitting overall. I finished the gloves off with claw tip acrylic nails painted purple with Sally Hansen “No Hard Feelings” nail polish, and super glued in place.
