How I Made May in 24 hours and under $50*

*minus the anchor and with some supplies I already owned / NOT including time put into it.

I guess this could count as a tutorial?? This was a really fun little project that I used to be intimidated by. I wanted to cosplay may for a LONG time - ever since Guilty Gear vs. BlazBlue came out years ago ahahah! I was always unsure how I wanted to do her design, so when Strive released, I was SO excited to see a comfy version of May that I can even wear when I work conventions (even though different shoes will be a must when I'm on my feet ALLL day).

SO, to start, what you'll need is:

• White hoodie ($10)

• White baseball cap ($7)

• Rit Dye ($5)

• Cheap high top sneakers (found these ones at walmart, pictured are the ones I bought foronly $13!)

• Variants of ribbon (I bought 2 skinny ribbons for $3 each and a wider ribbon for $5)

Everything else I already owned, i.e. scissors, foam, extra fabric(scraps), paint, and glue! (I actually bought 6 packs of glue from amazon for like $50 months ago!)

• I started by cutting the ends of the sleeves and bottom of the hoodie off and threw the hoodie into the dye (instructions vary on each dye - I wish I kept it in longe for more color accuracy but I love how it came out anyway). As I let that sit, I went to it every few minutes to continue stirring and added the white hat to it as well. You can skip this entire step if you can find an orange hoodie and hat!

• While it was dying, I took the white pieces I cut and added the ribbon I purchased, sewing it together to give the stripe effect. By the time my machine allowed it to work, the dye job was finished! Threw the hoodie in the dryer and allowed the hat to air dry. Before putting the hat in the dye, I added some extra fabric I had to match the dye as well! I HIGHLY suggest if you're dying - use all white materials so they can all come out the same color. My oranges are a little off but I was able to adjust with extra dye and paint. BUT ANYWAY -

• While all that dried, I started on the SHOES!! Shoes are always the most intimidating pieces for me when I want to be accurate. SO I specifically wanted the style of high tops to get that lazy, oversized look. (Kinda like Kingdom hearts, amirite??) I couldn't find any high tops that had a velcro style strap, SO, I made one with foam. I cut to size, added paint and border with materials at home, and glued it to the show with velcro on the opposite side. The nice thing is - since I like my shoes to feel tight, I managed to hide laces UNDER the faux strap so they're still comfortable for me. Plus, in previous experiences, a single strap is NOTTTT enough to hold together a shoe LOL.

• So I painted the base of the shoes orange! You can do a base of orange or black, but I chose orange so I could paint less later for the details. I took my ribbon and glue it to the shoes to match the hoodie look. Everything is just layered acrylic paint to minimize cracking!

• Once the hat was dry (it only took like an hour to air dry), the fabric I added to it made a perfect shaped shell to STUFFFFF. May's hat has always looked puffier to me and I wanted to bring that element to life. I took some scrap fabric I had that matched and stuffed! So it now has that puffy effect - BUT if I wasn't careful in HOW it was placed in the fabric, it would lay too face one direction. Then just glued it shut! I had extra foam from one of my old armor sets I don't wear anymore and cut the little skull from it! Luckily,it was already black and white so no/minimum paint was needed!

• Back to the hoodie - this part was one of the more fun parts! I spaced and cut the little holes where the ribbon is ACTUALLY laced through. Before cutting and lacing though, I took the thinner ribbon and brought it from the pockets to the shoulders. Stitching silky ribbon gets frustrating but it's very doable! (Could be more frustrating when your machine is OLDDD like mine)

  I had the shorts and gloves on hand and voila!! That's how I built May in a day!! What do you think? Would you have done something different? DO YOU LIKE THESE TUTORIALS? Have they helped you at all??