_________Taichi
_________Costume Stats
Character Name: Taichi
_________Reference
Series: Digimon Adventure
Specifics: main outfit
Cost: $150
Time: ~60 hours
Started: sometime 2000?
Completed: May 2006
Debuted: Anime North 2006
_________Information
Taichi is my favorite anime character. If you know me at all, you know I've wanted to make this costume since before I started cosplaying. This meant I was very excited to make this costume. However, it also meant that I had a lot of expectations on myself to do it right.
_________Misc
I've started this costume many times over the years, but I've never gotten very far. I've always been too hard on myself and quit. Finally, for Anime North 2006, I decided to get to work and actually finish this costume.
Digimon costumes look easy, but they're not by any stretch of the imagination. They're actually quite hard. There are a lot of parts of Taichi's costume that are almost impossible to do correctly.
I made his T-shirt first. I suck at making shirts, so the t-shirt took me around four days to finish. (It took me an entire day to attach the sleeves.) After I made a blue t-shirt as a base, I slowly added on the detailing.
Technically, Tai wears a yellow shirt under his blue t-shirt. I couldn't think of a way of doing this and still having it look right, so I cheated. ^^; I made a yellow collar and little yellow cuffs for the sleeves and bottom of the shirt. This way it looked accurate without having the extra shirt underneath.
It was important for me to have the collar stand up straight and tall. It took me a few attempts to get it right, but I like the way it came out. So that I can take the shirt on and off, there are snaps on the back of the collar, as well as a zipper down the back of the shirt.
The three yellow buttons down the front of his shirt are leftover from my Himiko costume (which I have yet to finish). His "pockets" are strips of yellow fabric I hand-sewed into place. Last, but not least, the orange stars on his sleeves are each a double layer of felt that I also hand-sewed on.
The shorts... well, I'm not happy with them. I couldn't find the color fabric I wanted, so I'll probably end up re-making them. I also don't think I made them "puffy" enough, but that might have more to do with the fact that Taichi's legs are sticks.
For the record, the hardest part of the shorts were the pockets. They don't look like it, but they took over five hours to make.
Tai's gloves were a challenge, seeing as they were the first pair of gloves I ever made. I wanted to make him over-sized gloves, since Digimon character's have oversized hands. I cut up a pair of winter gloves for a pattern. At first, I tried to make the gloves out of regular white fabric, but they looked horrible. A couple of attempts later, I made them out of white fleece. They're hot to wear, but at least they look good. ^^;
Tai's socks were also made out of polar fleece. They're actually fake socks, since they don't cover my feet. Instead, there's an elastic that goes around the bottom of my foot to keep them in place. They have elastics in the tops of them to keep them up. His socks were the easiest part of this costume by a long shot.
Tai's random black armband is actually one of the armbands from my Jam costume. Yay, for re-using pieces!
His shoes are made out of an old pair of running shoes I painted with white vinyl spray-paint and white acrylic paint. I patterned out pieces for the details on the shoes. I then made the pieces out of fabric and I glued them on. Sadly, I suck at making shoes, so these shoes are the suckiest part of the costume.
His wig was tricky. It started out as a Punky XL wig from Dani's Cosplay Supplies. I grouped the hair into sections so I could get it to take the shape of Tai's hair, and then I basically attacked it with Got2Be Glued hairspray and scissors. After adding in some white glue, it looked like it does now. I'm happy with it, but at the same time, I know it could've been better.
I should've sewed more hair into it, because it looks a little bare -- especially in the back where I didn't have enough hair to do what I wanted. Realistically, I know there's no way to make a real-life hairstyle that looks exactly like Taichi's hair, but it still disappoints me that I wasn't able to get it the way I wanted.
I had a friend act as my personal wig head when I trimmed his sideburns and all his hair that goes under the headband. It's funny to think that the hair on this wig reached my waist before. ^^;
The headband and goggles were the hardest part. Since the headband curves around my head, if I made it out of a straight piece of fabric, it would buckle funny. Instead, I experimented with different rounded shapes until I got the one I wanted. I made the blue headband out of the same material I used for his t-shirt and hand-sewed black felt on it for the black stripe.
The goggles are made of model magic that I painted white. There are actually little piece of plastic in them to make them look more like goggles. I originally wanted the goggles to be larger, but they'd look silly if they were actually to scale.
I had a friend help me sew the headband to the wig, and glue the goggles to the headband. It was terrifying, since we only had a single try to get the goggles even.
But after that, the costume was basically done. ^^
There are some things about this costume that bother me. I can't get the scale of his costume accurate no matter how much I try. My hands, feet and head aren't huge in proportion to the rest of my body, and my arms and legs aren't sticks (thank goodness), so there is no way I can make his costume sit right on me. Also, his hair is huge. I can't duplicate that at all. The best I could do was make the costume to scale with my own body, even if it was inaccurate.
I'm still not happy with the shorts, and the wig tends to sit higher on my head than I'd like, but all in all, I'm happy with this costume. I'm glad I finally made it. It was well worth all the effort. ^^
I debuted my Taichi costume at Anime North 2006. People seemed to like it, so I guess I did something right. ^^;
_________Images
Anime North 2006
_________Taichi, Sora and Yamato
Since I helped with Sora and Yamato's costumes, this is a mini-section dedicated to them. :3
_________Images
In June of 2008, I wanted to re-wear my Taichi costume to the Toronto Cosplay Picnic. For the picnic, I originally planned to finally make my Sora costume and dress up my friend Becky. To my surprise, my friend Sakura volunteered to make Sora's costume with me. We're both Taiora fans, so it worked out. Since I had all the materials and the wig for Sora, she only needed to purchase a new yellow fabric for the shirt. I provided the pants and gloves, patterned the hat, and made the shoes. That being said, Sakura made the majority of the costume herself. :3
As for Yamato, a week before the picnic, we called our friend, Becky, and asked her if she was interested. Becky and I got together one afternoon and made Yamato's costume in a record-breaking five hours. We cheated a bit. Like Sora, the pants for Yamato are mine. The boots and gloves are re-used from my Van costume. We were going to made the shirt out of a stretch cotton, but we couldn't find the right color. We ended up salvaging fabric from a long-sleeved shirt we found at a used clothing store. I altered it into Yamato's turtleneck. As for Yamato's wig, Becky has a old blond wig lying around that she allowed me to cut up and spike into Yamato's crazy Cloud-like hair. I styled it on her head, and she was a great sport about it. :3
Sora and Yamato's costumes were a group effort and they turned out wonderfully. Sakura and Becky fit the parts to a T. It was great to cosplay with them again. (The last costumes the three of us did together was Team 7 from Naruto, and we couldn't help think that the Digimon characters we ended up cosplaying were remarkable similar to the Naruto characters we cosplayed. Tai is like Naruto, Yamato is like Sasuke, and Sora is like Sakura. XD)
So long story short, I've achieved my dream Digimon cosplay group! I'm so happy~ X3
And as an added bonus, our friend LGA!Kevin brought his Joe costume to the picnic, so the four of us Digimoned-it-up together!
Before I forget: our tags and crests were made for us by the talented Hikari Light~
Toronto Cosplay Picnic 2008
