September 5, 2010

Costume cross-section- Joxter


Joxter is by far the most colorful cosplay experience for me. Also first cosplay experience from Moomin. Yoki got a head start last year when she did Snufkin, while I was pretty much hung from doing anything because of horrible back pains. The construction pf the costume didn’t include anything too fancy or complicated. The only relatively new thing for me was needle felting, but it wasn't too hard to accomplish.



The costume consists five main pieces: trousers, anorak, shoes, scarf and hat. In addition I had an old leather backpack, which suited the character surprisingly well. It hold our water bottles, snack and a emergency sewing kit. For pictures I prepared a pipe and a tobacco pouch. It's mentioned on Tove's books that Joxter carried them around (and enjoyed smoking). I have written about the make-up few times, but worth mentioning is the brownish nose. Because of that, I was accidentally mistaken for drunken Snufkin.

For the trousers I used simple basic pattern with carrot legs. String on the waist act as an attachment. The fabric is brown corduroy, which I stressed with sanding paper and grater.


The anorak I made from green “brushed” cotton. Again, I’m not sure about the correct word for it, but the surface is almost similar as in velvet. The pattern I had made year earlier for Yoki’s Snufkin worked well, but I added darts to make the stiff fabric fit nicely. For Snufkin’s anorak they were not necessary, because the material was really limb and draping. I soaked the anorak in tea dye after it was ready to age the color a little.


Pockets I placed on the side seams. I didn’t find any references with attachment visible, but I still chose to do one at the back of the anorak. While Snufkin has buttons running down the length of the anorak, I put three for Joxter. As a detail, it adds a nice touch. It’s quite easy to quess that the anorak was somewhat hard to put on with wig and make-up, because it’s fitted from the waist and the opening on the neck doesn’t really help much.


The hat has its own post. It was made mainly from wool. The scarf is rectangular piece of linen, finished with baby hem. The shoes are leather and found from flee market for about three euros. I only redid the lacing to match Jocter’s shoes. The wig I used for Joxter was purchased from Punanaamio. I'm not sure was it Cristelle or Juliette, because I bought it fairly long time ago. It was originally long, so I cut and styled it to suite the character.


I almost forgot about the black gloves (and also forgot to photograph them). I, or Yoki if I'm honest remembered them when we went to a supermarket and there were leather gloves on sale, about five euros a pair. I was laughing that now we only need a cosplay with particular gloves, because they are so cheap. Yoki was looking at me like, yeah, do you have gloves for Joxter or are you planning to use Snufkin's?

By the way, trying to quickly pull snug leather gloves on your hands when they are tacky and a bit sweaty isn't easy. I felt little sorry for the photographers who needed to wait for the picture because of my costume malfunction.

And I really need to add, that whoever came up with Joxter's color scheme must have been somewhere high above. It makes no sense at all!