The Broken Sword (Arcade Riven) from League of Legends
I made another plush sword, which I guess makes me a swordsmith. Just, of the plush variety.
This was probably the quickest turnaround for starting a new craft for me (started 3 days after returning from PAX Prime 2015, after debuting my Star Guardian Lux!) It took about a week to complete (weekdays leave little time to work) but it still served as a reminder that regular crafts take a lot less time than cosplay (something about not having to fit everything to your body).
The arcade skins that have been coming out have been so fun that I needed to at least do something about it, like further my fledgling swordsmith career.
The broken sword was created pretty much like how I did my Transistor: determining the reference-picture-pixel-to-real-life-measurement ratios. The only aspect I absolutely needed to have though, was that the sword would fit in my checked baggage. The biggest issue I had with my Transistor sword was that it was too long, making it impossible to travel with unless I took it apart, stuffed it into checked baggage, and then sewed it back together after I got to my destination :C I wanted to make this sword travel friendly in case it wanted to travel to a convention with me.
One sadness was that the fabric store only stocked 2 different shades of grey fleece, meaning I couldn’t use contrasting grey tones for the actual blade. I tried to get around that by just layering my lighter tone of grey, hoping that the top-stitching would make the accents stand out. Might have worked better with a fluffier fleece, but bearable for these purposes.
I stressed for a bit wondering how I’d make a hexagonal end for the sword, but then realized that a sphere would probably be acceptable for a 3D-model hexagon.
The entire hilt was sewn on with careful pinning and sewing. A lot of extra seam allowance was trimmed off on the inside and the sword turned inside out for a quality check! In order to simulate the dimples on the sword, tiny buttons were sewn on to the triangles (no pictures because I suck).
The chain decoration was the most improvised part of the sword, but surprisingly also my favorite. The chain links were made from bundles of pipe cleaners stuck into a tube of fabric. I was sure to hide the seam of the fabric on the interior of the chain links to keep them somewhat neat. The star decoration attached to the chain links by a yarn braid, and the entire assembly connected to the ball of the sword using the same yarn braid method.
In order to give the sword somewhat of a rigidity, a 2′ x 1″ PVC pipe was put inside, sandwiched between 2 layers of foam. The yarn braid of the chain decoration was actually routed through a hole drilled into the PVC pipe to hopefully help support the weight of the chain decoration. After some more pinning, foam massaging, and final seaming, the sword was finished!
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