Rebecca Chambers - Resident Evil Zero



Cost: $154
Time to Make: 25 hours
Timeline of Construction: September - October 2009


Pictures




Information

I grew to really like Rebecca after I managed to buy a used copy of Resident Evil Zero at a game store in 2007. I was worried about making this costume for a long time because of the level of detail on the vest. I really found Rebecca to be an adorable and sweet character so I didn't want to do a bad job on the costume. She's quite an endearing character in the RE franchise. I asked my friends for some costume suggestions last year and several of them suggested that I do Rebecca so I put her on my list of costumes to make in 2009. I fully intended to start this costume early in the year and work on it bit by bit throughout the year so I wouldn't be rushing it at the last moment. I ended up getting sidetracked by other projects so I really didn't start hunting for materials for Rebecca until late August.

I ended up finding a lot of pre-made clothing for various parts of the costume. I bought the cargo pants and the t-shirt on eBay. I was originally hesitant to make the costume because I didn't want to have to make the pants and t-shirt so finding clothing that worked was really lucky. Granted, I did have to alter the pants. When they arrived they were super long on me since I'm pretty short and I had to cut and hem the pants. I also removed webbing and button detailing on the pockets and I had to dye the pants. They were originally a dark khaki colour which I didn't expect. I bought emerald Dylon dye and since the pants were 100% cotton (which I researched before I bought them) they took the dye very well and they came out a perfect shade of green. :3 The cuffs on the bottom of the pants were just sewn strips of white fabric that were loosely attached. The t-shirt worked out fairly well colour wise. The type of fabric isn't the best for sewing on the patch, though. The patch didn't really conform to the fabric when it was sew on. I was given the S.T.A.R.S. patch back in 2008. I was planning to use it for a RE1 Jill costume that I never ended up making so it was perfect for Rebecca.

In early October Pan went out with me to the fabric district where I managed to get material for the pouches, tons of buckles and webbing for the black belt Rebecca wears. The black belt was super easy to whip up and I got an interesting silver buckle from a leather store downtown. The webbing for the second belt and for the vest I got a couple of weeks later at Fabricland. I had remembered that Fabricland had the right colour of webbing from when I had been looking for webbing to make Jill's harness from Resident Evil 3. Unfortunately the largest size of the webbing in the right colour was kind of small for the belt but I made do and the belt was very easy to make.

I patterned out the pouches and interfaced the fabric before sewing the pouches with my sewing machine. The material ended up being a bit flimsier than I expected so I had to reinforce the insides of the pouches with cardboard. I made the cross symbols for the pouches using Paint Shop Pro and printed them out on iron-on transfer paper. I forgot, however, that since I was using transfer paper for light fabrics when I ironed them on the white circles became transparent. I ended up using white acrylic paint to paint over the transparent circles, which worked out alright with minimal chipping, but I do sometimes have to touch them up. I sewed the back pouch directly to my pants and I sewed the front pouch to my off green belt so it would stay in position. I had to cut the webbing I used for the belt to make it smaller to work as straps for the pouches. I bought small buckles downtown that I sewed to the webbing. I think the back pouch looked a little lopsided, which was unfortunate, but it still looked alright. (^^);;

I bought my fingerless gloves on eBay. I really didn't want to make them and I was worried about finding a pair that would fit my small hands but luckily I found a seller that was selling x-small ones and they fit me really nicely. The only problem was that the dye rubbed off on my hands after a while. I discovered this as I was running late to go to a RE shoot at Youmacon. XD It wasn't too difficult to get the dye off though. I bought a cheap silver watch at Ardene (an accessory store) to match the one Rebecca wore on her left hand.

Pan made my choker for me since I was stressing out about finishing my costume in mid-October. I bought fabric with her and she fashioned it with my measurements using glue to get the right shape. The material I bought was like a thick vinyl. It was the perfect colour so it was a lucky find and Pan was really sweet to help me out. :3 The boots were a bit of a pain in the butt though. I bought a pair through eBay and they weren't very expensive. I knew they weren't going to be the best quality but the seller didn't ship the size that I requested. I think they were size 7.5 or 8 and my feet are a size 6 - 6.5 so it was a little hard to wear them. I ended up padding them a bit with foam around my ankles so they wouldn't sink too much. It made the boots looks really lumpy though so I'm tempted to buy a better pair if I can find something nicer. The boots were white to start with so I painted them black around the laces and then I used tape to cover over the boots and my dad spray painted the rest green. I was hoping that since the boots took the acrylic paint really well it wouldn't chip when it was spray painted but the paint chipped quite a bit. It didn't help that the boots would bend a lot because of how big they were on my feet. (~_~);; I'm going to look into a better paint in the future but as I said with the sizing, I may try to get a whole new pair of boots. It was really the only part of the costume that I'm not happy with. The white socks were an old pair of knee highs which I folded down. I should have worn them a little higher because they kept slipping.

The crème de la crème of the costume was of course the vest which was a bit of a challenge to make. I was having trouble finding a pattern to work with but luckily I was able to dig up an old tank top pattern (New Look 6483) that I had used years ago which worked out wonderfully as a base pattern. Of course, I somehow lost most of the pieces of said pattern. I had to use the back and the front facing to trace a new front part for the vest. My friend Amber gave me fabric for my vest since finding fabric with deep lines in it was a big concern of mine. I really didn't want to make the costume until I found a more heavy duty fabric so Amber really saved me. :3 I used leftover white material from my nurse dress for Lisa as the lining for the vest and in the middle I put a layer of quilting batting. It was integral for me to have a padded vest because I think it gave the costume more of an authentic look. Sewing through so many layers was a pain in the butt though. My mother ended up helping me a lot with the sewing on the vest because I got a series of colds in the last few weeks before con. As she helped me with hand sewing the vest I put together the rest of the costume. I patterned the main piece of the vest, which is slightly raised, by scaling back the pattern for the front of the vest. I also cut out a layer of quilting batting so it would be thicker. I used strips of the webbing for around the sides, on the top of the back and on the shoulder straps of the vest. I bought buckles downtown and I sewed them down around the shoulder straps. I ended up getting last minute silver plain buckles for the front side straps at Fabricland when I had to make an emergency trip to the store a few days before con because I ran out of webbing. XD I bought buckles at a leather store downtown but they were kind of big for the webbing so the smaller buckles looked really nice.

The finishing touch of the vest was the Rescue symbol on the back. I used Paint Shop Pro to make the circle, cross and text which I again printed out on iron-on paper. I was really nervous about doing the transfer because of how big the symbol was. I cut out the circle and the cross separately so I didn't have to worry about extra transparent space around the symbol (given the fact that the material I used was white). I was also really nervous about the symbol cracking given that the fabric had deep lines in it. The transfer actually went on very well and didn't shift. A couple of places didn't take very nicely and I used some red paint to fill in the holes. The paint didn't exactly match, though so you can see it if you look closely. I also trapped a bit of dark thread under a small part of the text and that was annoying but not super visible. I'm really happy with how the vest turned out and it's one of my costume pieces that I'm really proud of. :3

I bought a wig back in August, but I never got around to cutting the bangs. I ended up re-wearing my Hitomi/Starfleet Commander wig which I love to death. The only hitch was that I had to wash out my antenna which were kind of a signature for the wig. XD I think the wig looked nice and although it was slightly too long for Rebecca, I thought it was a perfect colour and looked really cute so who knows, maybe I'll never get around to actually wearing the wig that I bought for the costume. (^^);;

I'm really happy with how this costume turned out. I was really hesitant to add Rebecca to my list of future costumes because I never thought I could find materials and patterns that would work well for the look of Rebecca's uniform. I'm really glad that I challenged myself with this costume because it's definitely a favourite costume of mine which I'm itching to wear again. I have a feeling I'll wear it as much, if not more, than my Ashley costume. When I wore this costume at Youmacon 2009 I got a lot of compliments regarding how much I look like Rebecca and just how happy a lot of people were to see Rebecca being Cosplayed. I'm glad that I was able to do the character justice and it's really neat to Cosplay a character that has the same name as me. (^_^) I did a shoot with SolarTempest at the con that turned out really nicely. I also had a lot of fun participating in the RE photoshoot on Saturday night of Youmacon. Wearing this costume was a fantastic Cosplay experience. I had a lot of fun re-wearing this costume at Ohayocon 2010. I was able to meet a few really nice RE Cosplayers and I took a few shots with people Cosplaying Billy and Chris. When I re-wore my Rebecca costume yet again at AN 2010, my great friend Adrien made a health spray for me out of an old spray paint can. It looked amazing and was a fitting prop for Rebecca given that she's the medic on Bravo team! :D

I re-wore my Rebecca costume again at Youmacon 2010 and did a wonderful shoot that included my friend Ammie as Claire and a great Chris Cosplayer we met by the name of Jay. We were able to get some nice group shots care of Kyle Mistry and I had a really fun time Cosplaying Rebecca yet again. As of mid 2012 this costume is retired unless I find a Billy Cosplayer to do a shoot with or if a full S.T.A.R.S. group ever happens. I'm still crossing my fingers for that!

Events/Conventions this costume was worn to
Youmacon 2009 (Saturday), Ohayocon 2010 (Saturday daytime), Anime North 2010 (Friday evening), Toronto Zombie Walk 2010 (Saturday, October 23rd, 2010), Youmacon 2010 (Saturday evening), Wizard World Toronto Comic Con 2011 (Saturday) & Otakuthon 2012 (Saturday evening)

Photo Credits
Pan, Eurobeat King, SolarTempest, Stillvisions, Kyle Mistry, EleventhPhotograph & IcePhoenix


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