The final costume I made for Magical Quests Kung Fu Panda event was Snake. Here she is hanging out in my flat with Master Shifu on a Saturday night. As you do.
Snake was a bit of a head-scratcher design-wise. Have you seen Kung Fu Panda? Snake is, well, a snake. No legs, arms none of that so I had to get creative and interpret that into a human shape. I started with the hood, which would cover the head and neck, and worked my way down.
As you can see, I erred on the side of caution and cut the face hole (that’s the technical word, I’m sure) far too small at first. It gave me a chance to take some silly pictures too, unexpected bonus.
I got it right eventually and added a binding and snake print strip that I extended down the back.
After taking these photos I made the end of the snake print strip into a forked-tongue at the back.
The main part of the costume is basically a tunic made of different lycras. There was only a certain amount of snake print so I had to find a way to eke it out so it’d cover the front. Luckily, there’s a belt which covers the join so I don’t feel too bad about that. I must have stared at that print for ages trying to figure out how to make it work. At one point I’d convinced myself it was, in fact, leopard print. I think I have a problem where everything looks like leopard if I stare too long. “If you stare into the abyss, a leopard stares back into you”. Or something.
To finish it off, I added lotus flowers to the hood and made long, fingerless gloves.
Rocknroll approved.
I wish I’d taken more photos of snake but below is a shot of the actual event, complete with Panda on the left (I did not make that one though!)
The Lord Shen costume I made is over here and Master Shifu is here.
Awesome trio, right out of the cartoons. I think your costume idea could be inspiration for a new comic book series!
thanks! Next time I’d like to make papier mache heads for the characters out of (non collectable) comics.