Hey everyone! It’s another Friday Fun post! What, only a week after my last one? Yep! This time it’s a new cosplay how-to guide: Ruby Rose from RWBY, a web series created by Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth. Let’s dig into how I turned this…
…into this:
In this post, Part 1, I’ll show you how I put together Ruby’s full outfit. Some people might like to make Ruby’s dress from scratch, but I found a good black dress that suited my purposes. As a bonus, the one I bought already had white lace around the bottom edge of the skirt and sleeves (which made it fairly easy to paint over with red).
After painting the lace edges of the dress (I used acrylic paint but in hindsight should have used spray paint), I took a spare red shirt and cut it into long strips. I then folded those strips over, in a back and forth motion, to create ripples. Once I had the material bunched, it was easy to add thread through each fold to keep it in the proper shape. Then I added it to the neck of the dress.
I used this same method (folded strips of a red shirt) to add red accents to a pair of combat boots, along with red shoelaces and red acrylic paint for the soles.
Ruby is also known for having a very full skirt, which I took care by wearing a red tutu under the black dress. She also has a signature belt with bullets, rose emblem, and pouch. First, I got a long and wide black belt (from Goodwill) and glued the accessories to it.
I made the pouch from a granola bar box and some grey foam (although you can easily use a gray purse or something similar). I made the rose emblem out of grey and black foam, cutting out the pieces and gluing them together based on an example image. And for the bullets I took some short dowels, painted them grey, and glued pen caps onto their ends. Alternative ideas involve finding empty gun shells or buying a costume bullet belt.
The finishing touches on Ruby’s outfit include black tights, a black corset laced with another set of red shoelaces, a couple silver crosses, and a black wig with red-colored tips. These were things I bought outright instead of making. And if you have natural black hair, you probably won’t need a wig. The costume can be a little time-consuming to put on, considering all the pieces, but it looks awesome once everything is in place.
That’s it for Part 1! Part 2—outlining the creation of Ruby’s sniper-scythe, Crescent Rose—is coming soon. If you have any questions or thoughts on this outfit, feel free to leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you.
You can find me on Twitter (@alishabmarie) and blogging about Arrow, Gotham, and board games over on Three If By Space.net.
Alisha Bjorklund 