My cosplay for PAX East this year was Linkle from Hyrule Warriors Legends, the Dynasty Warriors-style game set in the world of The Legend of Zelda. I played the original version on the Wii U last year, but never finished it. For some reason, I like the 3DS version much better–it’s a bit more forgiving, and it’s fun to hack and slash away on the 3DS while also watching TV or something.
My favorite thing about the games is the vast amount of playable female characters. It’s like the team went through every single Zelda game and picked out every female character and made them a hero. Even Marin from Link’s Awakening (one of my favorites!) is going to be a new playable character in some upcoming DLC!
Linkle is special, though, because she’s a new character just for Hyrule Warriors Legends. Her design was immediately appealing to me, and I knew right away she would be fun as heck to cosplay. She’s based on some concept art conceiving of a “female Link,” which is lending some credence to rumors that the upcoming Zelda game will let you play as a girl or a boy. That would be just amazing.
Playing as Linkle in the game is fun as well. She commands an army of Cuccos and fights using dual crossbows. Her missions follow alongside the main story and chronicle her attempts to locate Link and help save the world from Cia and Gannondorf, while helping people along the way.
Anyway, here’s how my costume came out!
And here are some progress photos.
The cloak is made of a wool blanket I found on eBay. My skin is sensitive to wool, so this was a bit itchy, but the look was so worth it. Since the costume itself is relatively simple, I wanted to focus on details, especially fabric choice and getting the right textures. The skirt is faux suede from the upholstery section of Joann’s (they just happened to have the right color–lucky!). I made the lacing by basting the three front skirt panels together, then threading by hand some leather cording through the gaps. Then I sewed the seams with a normal stitch to hold them in place.
The shirt is just a peasant blouse I made out of white cotton. The compass is from eBay, and the wig I got at Arda Wigs‘ black friday sale last year and had styled by a wig stylist. The belt buckle is also from eBay; I replaced the buckle on an extra large belt from Target and basted the side to the top of the skirt so I would get a nice hip-slung look. The necklace is a strap of faux leather with a charm I made out of sculpey clay and painted with glossy finish.
I made the boots and gloves out of faux leather. The gloves were an ordeal! I looked up tutorials on how to make gloves online, and it turns out gloves (that aren’t made out of spandex, anyway) are pretty hard! I tried a few times using muslin and fleece, and once I thought I had a handle on it, I went for it in the faux leather. They turned out a bit tight, but workable!
The boots were time-consuming, but fun. I found some knee-high boots at Ross’s on clearance and used those as a base. I fully covered them using the faux leather and added the high cuffs with the knee emblems and buttons. There are four grommets in the back of each boot that the ribbon is threaded through. You can’t see them, but I am indeed wearing over-the-knee ribbed socks like Linkle does; I got them from Sock Dreams!
That is basically it! I hope I’m able to get out and do a real photoshoot soon, as I’m really proud of this costume!