Commercial Pattern: Simplicity 8482 (with alterations)
Working Time: 11 Hours
Materials:
Snake Print Fabric, 5m
Faux Fur Fabric, 0.5m
Cost Total: 66,85 Euros
When I was choosing the perfect Yennefer outfit for my cosplay, I couldn’t quite decide which one I wanted to make. After recreating her dress from “Bottled Appetites”, my eyes also fell on the beautiful fur coat she is seen wearing in “Rare Species”, so I somehow tripped on my keyboard and ordered the fabric. If you’re interested in how to make her dress, look here.
Choosing Fabric And Patterns for Yennefer’s Coat
Okay, it wasn’t as simple as just going online and ordering what I wanted because it was incredibly hard to find. At first, it was also hard to make out just what kind of pattern Yennefer’s coat is made from, but looking at HQ photos from the first season, I realised it mostly resembled a snake print pattern. The fabric also looks very soft – maybe a kind of velvet? – but the combination of print and fabric was impossible to find. I eventually settled on a purplish-grey snake print fabric. The fur was equally hard to spot because faux fur tends to come in all possible colours except for the one that you need, but I eventually got lucky on Amazon.
Now, the sewing pattern was another matter entirely and the one I chose actually made me put the entire cosplay on hold for several months. I opted for Simplicity 8482 because it is a nice, long coat that suited my needs – or so I thought. I had the brilliant idea to try it out on leftover fabric first because the pattern and the fit of the top part were a complete disaster. I’m not exaggerating. This pattern and the one for my Eowyn dress are the worst patterns I have ever worked with (and I’ve worked with a lot of ill-fitting patterns). I now know that Simplicity always adds four inches of wearing ease to most patterns, which I why they almost always turn out too big, but I felt like this sewing pattern was designed by a medieval monk who only has a vague idea of what people with breasts look like. The top’s front was made up of four pieces on one side (so eight in total – and that’s just for the front) and they went together in the most horrible way. The little cup that I think was supposed to hold the boobs was halfway down my belly button. I gave up for a while and when I returned to it a few months later, I decided to scrap the whole thing and alter the pattern. For that, I cut out all the pieces, glued them together and cut them from fabric as one piece. Suddenly, it was a nice-looking piece of clothing.
Working Around the Mess of a Pattern
Figuring out how to deal with this nasty pattern was actually the biggest part of the job and from there on out, Yennefer’s coat was practically smooth sailing. I cut the pieces from the actual fabric, place a little dart in my improvised top front and ended up with something that was actually very pretty and fit me well. When I pinned it to the bottom parts, I hit another little flaw and noticed that the so-called “waist” sat a little too low, so I cut off a few centimetres from the top. Now, I finally had a good fit for my Yennefer cosplay.
Putting Together My Yennefer Cosplay
After attaching the bottom part of the coat, I decided to leave it open and not close it with hooks or buttons because Yennefer also wears a belt over her coat. I decided it was enough to hold my coat in place, too. Then came the scariest part of attaching the fur to the top of my Yennefer cosplay. I used my sewing machine to attach it to the collar and then hand-sewed it to the rest of the coat in a few spots so that a gust of wind wouldn’t be able to blow it away. When that was finished, I combed the fur and ended up with so many hairs it looked like my dog’s shedding season.
Finishing The Coat
After 11 hours of work, the coat was finally finished. As mentioned before, the worst part was figuring out and fixing the sewing pattern, but once that was done, the coat was finished in no time at all. I’m very happy with the results and I love wearing my Yennefer cosplay with the dress and necklace underneath this coat. I’ve also seen other cosplayers in this particular Yennefer outfit and some opted for heavier, fancier fabric and chose a different print instead, but I’m glad I stuck to the snake print pattern simply for the variety. Browsing the Yennefer cosplay tag on Instagram always brings me particular joy because of the creativity and different solutions cosplayers come up with to make their costumes work. Even though everyone uses different materials and different sewing patterns, even though some cosplay Game!Yennefer and others Show!Yennefer, the character is always recognisable and the variety is amazing 🙂
