3. The Puppeteer: Gloves, Hat & Mask

Year: 2013/2014

Source: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag multiplayer

Conventions attended: Armageddon 2013, EB Expo 2013, Supanova (Melbourne & Sydney)2014

Awards: Placed 2-5th in Ubisoft's E3 Fan Video Contest - Cosplay Category 2014

The Hat

Materials: wool felt hat, lace, bias binding, fabric, hat wire, buttons

Hand-made cockade

I researched what types of materials pirate hats were made from. Surprisingly, many of the "leather" pirate hats weren't actually leather at all! They were usually coated with bees wax or animal fat to weatherproof them, but it also made them hard and appear like leather. Hence the wearing of a bandana or scarf on the head.

Hats back then were usually made from wool felt. I managed to find a local millinery store who sold round wool felt bases. I had to get them to steam form the hat for me to fit my measurements. It still turned out to be a little loose, but I found I was able to use the hat to hold my mask without having to tie the mask around my head.

I think I added the red lace around the brim first, then zig-zag stitched thin hat wire around the brim of the hat before covering it with a layer of white bias tape on either side, hand-stitching the top edges closed. The wire helps keep the shape of the tricorn.

The cockades were made from a strip of fabric had the ends sewn closed to form a ring. Fold it in half lengthwise, right-side out and sew across the open edge.I then pleated it into a cockade and stitched it onto the hat, covering the centre with a button.

"Dyed" lace with red acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium and diluted with water.

How to dye lace with acrylic paint

Materials: lace, acrylic paint, fabric medium, hair dryer, iron

NB: Test on a small section first as not all types of lace will work. Also best to use this technique on things that won't be washed, just in case...

1. Dilute about a teaspoon of acrylic paint with fabric medium until you get a nice watery solution. Ratio as directed on fabric medium bottle.

2. Dampen the lace first. You can either use a brush to dab the paint on, or do what I did and just dip it/soak it.

3. Between each dip/soak, rinse it with hot water to remove excess paint. Wring out, dab dry with paper towel and dry with the hair dryer. Do this a number of times until you get close to the colour you want.

4. Keep repeating step #3, but this time you want to iron the lace after blow-drying it. Iron it between some baking paper so as not to get paint on your iron. This will help set the paint.

5. Give it another rinse in hot water to make sure the paint's not bleeding out. If the water is still a little bit tinted, that's ok. As long as most of it's out.

This took me about 2 hrs to complete. It just saved me having to deal with messy fabric dye, not that this isn't messy itself. Basically, it's dip/soak, rinse, dry, repeat x times, then drip/soak, rinse, dry, iron, repeat x times, done!

Also, this page helped: http://littleblackkitty.typepad.com/a_little_imagination_and_/2008/04/tutorial-diy-ha.html

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The Gloves

Materials: soft leather, buttons, lace

The original glove (left) with white buttons and the updated glove (right) with silver  buttons

I hand-sewed these gloves from soft leather I purchased off an eBay seller in Italy. I modified the basic glove pattern I found online and originally used for The Smuggler costume. The cuffs were lengthened and I added that little button panel as per the original artwork. In 2014, I changed all the white buttons to silver because I found the white buttons looked tacky and horrible. The costume looks a lot better with silver buttons. Thin elastic was sewn onto the lace and hand-stitched to the edge of the glove.

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The Mask

Materials: Worbla, craft foam, acrylic paint

1-2. I found a template online and modified the eyeholes to be more comfortable for me (stupid Asian eyes...). After a bit of back-and-forth in Illustrator, I finalised the mask size and design and cut it out of craft foam. 

3-. This was the first time I'd used Worbla. With a pen, I embossed around the eyeholes in the craft foam before sandwiching it between two layers of Worbla.

4. I cut the swirl details out of the Worbla and carefully applied them onto the mask. Each of the discs around the edge of the mask were individually cut by hand and applied.

I didn't have a heat gun at this time so I was using a hairdryer instead. It works well, but just takes a while to heat up.

5. The mask was heat formed to my face and primed with gesso. I didn't bother with trying to smooth out the Worbla too much as I liked the texture of it. It was painted with black acrylic paint and sealed with a clear spray.

Originally, I did add some ties to the sides of the mask, but once I got my hat, I used the hat to keep the mask in place instead and it's more comfortable that way.