Viola
Eternal Sonata

Inspiration: Eternal Sonata is a beautiful game and I highly recommend it anyone! I knew I had to make a costume from it and it helped that my friend Meru was also into the game and wanted to do a group with me. I seriously love all the costumes, especially Frederic, but I went with the character that matched me the best. Viola plays the older sister role in the game, although she’s sometimes over looked by the other characters, which is why she refers to herself as the bronze medal. But other than that, she’s an animal loving goat herder with a very giving personality. I had goats growing up, so there you go.

Materials/Construction Details: I chose to do the majority of this costume in suede, which is actually how I developed my love for the material. She’s a very outdoorsy kind of girl, so I wanted to use a fabric that resembled animal pelts. I used three different shades of tan, as well as light blue and rust colored suede. There are tiny zig-zag patterns all over this costume, which all had to be cut out and ironed in place and the rust suede had to be turned into several yards of thin bias tape. Heavy duty interfacing had to be used in the gauntlets and ankle guards, which meant a ton of hand sewing because my machine wasn’t up for the task. Viola also had gold rings that seemed to levitate around her wrists and ankles. To get this look I stitched the rings in three different places along the back so that they appeared to float in the front.

For a while I had a hard time deciding whether the fluff along her butt was feathers or fur, since it was hard to distinguish in the game. Fortunately, some concept art pictures came out and it cleared up the issue. I went with a light cream long pile fur. To make the fur lay in an arc across her back, rather than just flopping down against her legs, I had to make a frame for it out of chicken wire. Once the fur was in place on the wire, I hand painted the fur to give it more of a yellowish color with tinted tips. I got the look I was going for, but having a chicken wire frame around my butt meant no sitting while in costume.

Wig: This was the first wig I ever did major styling to and I’m actually very pleased with how it came out. I started with an ‘innocent’ wig from amphigory.com in blonde. Reinforcing the ties of the pigtails, I hacked them off and then used caulk to stub the ends until the wig was just a base with two little stubs on either side. Using the hot water method, I straightened the thick curls I had cut off. I then took a block of styrofoam and carved out the shape of the two horns, making a hole in the base so that they would fit on the stubbed ends of the wig. The styrofoam was painted a color as close to the wig color as I could get and then I set about wrapping the horns in hair. This required a lot of pins, hair spray, and patience. Once done, the horns were attached to the wig by putting a lot of glue in the hole and along the stub and then pinning the horn in place. This isn’t a very detailed description, so if you would like to know more, please contact me. I was getting asked about the wig a lot so I made a detailed tutorial with pictures that I would be happy to share.

Prop: I had so many props for this costume! For starters there’s the bow, which was made for me by a friend. It’s the exact shape of Viola’s and handcrafted out of wood and painted. He really did a beautiful job with it. It was carved out so that it was already a curved shape and didn’t require a string (strung bows aren’t allowed at cons).

I also commissioned an Arco plush from yutakayumi.deviantart.com and he turned out adorable! She used the perfect fur and colors for him and his head even turns!

Lastly, I made bottles of Mineral Powder and Floral Powder, which were items from the game. The Mineral Powder was made out of layers of purple and blue powdered sugar with pop rocks mixed in and the Floral Powder was made out of yellow, orange, and pink powdered sugar. The bottles each had labels too, the MP featuring Count Waltz and the FP featuring Polka.

Awards: This costume along with Meru’s Polka won Best Video Game at AWA in 2008. We were thrilled!