Arachne Queen

So Convergence's theme this year is a celebration of cosplay, so I thought what better way to honor that than tackling a costume I've been wanting to do for a while now: an arachne woman.

While not the biggest spider fan myself, I've written an erotic short story featuring an arachne woman, "Playing With Your Food," that I then adapted into a romance novella, Thoughts & Preyers. What can I say, the mind latches on to the weirdest things. And, ever since, I've wanted to see if I could make this into a costume.

Taking what I learned from my centaurette costume, I've been constructing the "bones" of what will become my spider legs.

First lesson: Make it lighter. Conventions are walking events; everyday you are putting in your steps. So, whatever you wear, it'd better be something you can move around in.

I love my centaurette costume but, with all the wooden and plumbing parts, it is a beast to lug around with me everywhere. By the end of the day, it feels like I'm dragging around a dead body behind me.

And, with an anthropomorphized arachne, you've got two extra legs to contend with. So, being the cosplay MacGyver that I am, I decided that soda bottles were my solution. They're light, retain their shape, and even when dented, can be popped back into place. Plus, they're cheap and easily obtainable which, when taking into account how many of them I needed, was important. All in total, it took 9 liter bottles and 12 16oz bottles.

Next, again, taking what I learned from my previous cosplays, I decided to use grocery bags to hold my bottles in place. Mostly, I just needed sturdy, cheap fabric that would help me shape my legs and old shopping totes that I already own and don't do anything with... yep, that fits the bill.

Cutting up all the bits, pinning them together, and stitching them all up was a feat and definitely fulfilled the "it isn't cosplay until you bleed" requirement of my costuming process. Ouch.

Next lesson: Gotta be able to sit and pee in it. While I love my Medusa costume, wearing it the first time around was a teachable moment for me. While I am a firm believer that cosplay necessitates a certain amount of masochism, not being able to go to the bathroom easily is my hard limit.

Hence why, for this, I opted to go the centaurette route again and attach all this to belts.

Next came attaching all the legs together,
again, using the handles from all the grocery bags to connect the joints, meaning more pins and more poking. But so worth it when it all came together.

I even got to do a crafting stream on Twitch so people could watch a bit of the process. I might do more of those, so keep an eye out!

Eventually, I'll be adding strings to all the legs, much like with the centaurette costume, to help both emphasize the shape of the legs and help lift them off the ground. Both the centaurette and Medusa costumes taught me that it's best to have as little dragging around on the floor as possible. Not to mention covering it all with fabric to make them look like my legs and adding the same stocking I'll be wearing to them. And I needed to attach the tutu-esque skirt that I plan to wear for this as well. 

Here it is all finished: