Sherry Birkin - Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles



Cost: $95
Time to Make: 20 hours
Timeline of Construction: June - July 2011


Pictures




Information

In 2010 Amber and I were discussing future costume ideas when she brought up the idea of doing a Resident Evil 2 Cosplay group. Amber is a fantastic Claire Cosplayer and our friend Jordan (who makes an awesome Leon) was invited to be a part of the group as well. I offered to Cosplay Sherry as I can never pass up a chance to Cosplay from RE games with my friends. I’ve Cosplayed a number of children from survival horror games, not to mention, damsel-in-distress type characters, so Cosplaying as Sherry was right up my alley. XD

We decided to set the group for Fan Expo 2011 as we already had a lot of costume plans for 2010 and for early 2011. I had plenty of time to plan out this costume and in late 2010 I even purchased a red hairband accessory in preparation for working on the costume the following year.

I decided that I wanted to go simple with the costume and use a basic pajama pattern (Simplicity 2280) to construct my costume. My friend Mekou picked up the pattern for me from her local Fabricland while it was on sale. I really appreciate her help! I had to alter the collar of the shirt as it was meant to have a high collar. I just needed the collar to be very simple and low-cut, as I had to construct a sailor collar to attach to the shirt.

I bought the fabric for this costume in June. I decided to use basic twills to keep the costume light and comfy. The actual construction of the shirt was quite simple. I don’t often make shirts with functional buttons so I got to play around with the buttonhole foot on my mother’s machine. I used blue bias tape for the details on the sleeves. Although Sherry’s costume design for Darkside Chronicles is fairly similar to her RE2 outfit, there are a few differences. One pronounced difference is the school crest on her uniform top. I really wanted to incorporate that design element but I’m not much of an artist. I don’t have a embroidery machine and it’s not that simple so I couldn’t make it with foam so I asked my wonderful friend Adrien for help and he created a digital image of the crest which I printed on iron-on transfer paper and I ironed it onto my shirt. The design was made with a few artistic liberties as there aren’t many reference shots available of Sherry which show the fine details of the crest. I really like the design that he came up with as it incorporates the school name and neat elements like an umbrella logo. (^^) The transfer didn’t stay that well on my shirt though. I’m not sure why it wanted to separate on some of the edges, but it was quite frustrating.

The sailor collar was made using the pattern that I drafted for my Saki costume with a slight alteration to make it shorter in the back. I used white double-fold bias tape for the line detail. The white “undershirt” was just a piece of white fabric that I hemmed and used snaps to attach to my collar. The collar itself snaps in place to the shirt.

The shorts were made over the course of a couple of nights using the basic shorts pattern for pajama shorts. Technically Sherry wears proper uniform shorts with a zipper fly and pockets. Since I didn’t shorten the shirt pattern so it covered the crotch of the shorts, and I wanted to simplify the design as much as possible, I decided to make the shorts a simple elastic-waistband style instead. I did create a cuff on the bottom of the shorts though. I do like the fact that Sherry’s shorts in Darkside Chronicles are plain whereas in RE2 her shorts had white lines along the bottom. I think the plain shorts look a little nicer.

I bought white socks for this costume and I decided to use brown loafer shoes. I also love the fact that Sherry wears more normal footwear in Darkside Chronicles. I really didn’t want to figure out how to make blue shoe covers so the re-design was a blessing. XD

I bought the wig through eBay in early July. I had a lot of trouble deciding what sort of wig I wanted to get for the costume as I struggled with finding a shorter bob wig to use. In the end I’m pretty happy with the wig that I settled on especially since it was very reasonably priced. I just wish the wig was a slightly darker shade of blonde. Sherry’s hair is more of a dirty blonde, but the wig that I bought was quite light.

As a final detail, I commissioned Adrien to make a locket for me. I definitely wanted a locket prop as Sherry’s locket plays a key role in RE2 and with my limited sculpting skills; I wasn’t really up for making it myself. Adrien was quite happy to take on the commission and the job that he did on it was beyond what I expected. He made it look functional by including a clasp and hinges on the side. It’s really awesome and I can’t thank him enough for his help. :3 His prop work is really amazing!

Being a part of a Resident Evil group with my friends Jordan and Amber was amazing. I met both of them back at Fan Expo 2008 because I organized a Resident Evil photoshoot at the con and back then they Cosplayed as Leon and Ada while I Cosplayed Ashley. We came together then for an impromptu group and I’m glad that we got another chance to Cosplay together from another Resident Evil game. I’m also really happy with how quickly I was able to make this costume. It’s not a very complicated design, but after draining myself working on Shinku in the spring, I wasn’t sure I was going to feel up to making anything else that year. The fact that I was able to start another costume just a month after burning myself out finishing Shinku and that I finished Sherry in 2 weeks in early July, really reinvigorated my interest in sewing.

Events/Conventions this costume was worn to
Fan Expo 2011 (Thursday & Friday night)

Photo Credits
Toro Magazine & Icephoenix


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