Katara at the River
Katara is happiest by the water. As lockdowns relaxed, we took the opportunity for a social-distancing adventure by taking Katara to the Yuba River. The river has wide trails and lots of room to distance when you aren’t trying to use one of the popular swimming holes. Anika created the Katara cosplay before the Avatar: The Last Airbender release on Netflix.
It was fun as we passed a few teens on the trail that recognized her right away. And another group sang the theme song to us from afar. We thought about how much fun they must have sharing how they saw Katara at the river :)
The logistics of our Katara cosplay used creativity and ingenuity with simple supplies. We bought the dress on Amazon (link here*). We used white bias tape along the seams for white trim. We pulled out the seams along the legs. And the criss-cross was a little tricky. We had to snip a few threads to sew the white bias tape and then secure it in place again with a few stitches. All of it was straight sewing on a sewing machine. For the belt, we bought a piece of wide white elastic and a hook-and-eye closure in the same width. Sewing the hook-and-eye onto the elastic created a quick belt.
Another big puzzle was her armbands. We thought we would find a long sleeve shirt to cut into fingerless gloves in a thrift store but that didn’t manifest. So we tried to think of how we could possibly sew armbands. And realized that we could use socks. Yes, socks. We snipped the toes off of a pair of knee-high socks and clipped a thumbhole. For the strips, we did find a stretchy shirt (jersey) in a thrift store. We cut along the hem around in a spiral to make long stretchy strips of fabric. She winds those over the fingerless-gloves/socks and tucks the loose ends under the wound fabric.
Our other fun project was her necklace. We bought Sculpey*, which can be baked hard in an oven. Anika “drew” the glyph by embossing lines into the soft clay (pressing them into the clay). We added a small pendant holder, baked it hard, then painted a darker blue over the light blue and rubbed clean the raised parts of the necklace. We sewed it onto a wide band of blue ribbon, which she ties on each time.
Every cosplay is a fun mix of challenges and solutions. We always try to see the elements and how we can successfully create those elements with a budget. This one is one of our favorites when it comes together. And it’s so fun to see reactions when she goes out and about. It helps that she looks a lot like Katara (in my opinion :)).
I add a few waterbending effects in post-processing for extra fun. I can see going to other watery places for photoshoots. She’s a wonderful character to bring to life!
And we did bring masks in case social distance wasn’t possible. And to show that heroes look good in masks too! In a pandemic, Katara would certainly wear a mask to save lives. And I know it’s hard to see, but this mask is water-themed. Everyone looks good in a mask :)
Wishing you a day of safe adventures :)
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