Konoha Chuunin jackets

[Kiel]

Hi, Kiel here!

Now, I hope I didn't get anybody's hopes up with that title, hoping to find Chuunin jackets here.

I'd like to know if anyone knows of any internet patterns on making them, or if any veteran cosplayers have any ideas or tips for making one.

Toronto Anime is coming up and I'd like to go as a Konoha Chuunin, but, I've got no clue on how to make a good chuunin jacket.

Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, You're my only hope.

[NarutoNinjaGirl]

^^ i have yet to do one either^^;;
I'm scared to.lol,my seamstress has done one before,so she has the pattern,but doubt she'll give it up T_T.
But,yeah,a couple of people have already done one or still in the middle of making one,see the Cosplay Pics thread.

[Kiel]

earlier this year at CNAnime (Ontario's biggest anime event) I spent the entire weekend hanging out with the team of Naruto cosplayers.

Their stuff was awsome!!!

Beat the heck out of my half assed gaara costume. Although, I did get to pose with them for photos, as I was one of the only gaaras

[UchihaJyounochi]

oooh Ooooh OOOOH!!! *points to cosplay.com picha gallery!!!* You can see my 90% done Chounin vest there! *searches for his thread bout chounin vests with no luck*

Oh well... whatya wanna know? Or if yah want I can just write up a little walkthrough fer yah (after food time o cerse)??

[NarutoNinjaGirl]

see,i told you someone would be happy to help^^

[Tensei Kaori]

I want to make one. If I do make one, whether or not you will still need any help with it, I will post here for anyone who may need advice.

That is, if I remember to. Just poke me or something, if I forget.

[NarutoNinjaGirl]

okay,i'll poke you.

[ZakuKitty]

My friend and I altered some vests and it turned out REALLY well we think. It is in my gallery on cosplay.com (I am ZakuKitty over there) or I posted it recently in the Naruto cosplay thread. Should be last page.

[Jove]

One word....batting.

The trick to getting a Chuunin jacket to look perfect is to give it a little volume. I've seen too many flat/thin jackets ruin a well designed cosplay. ^_^

[Tensei Kaori]

Yeah, I've seen that happen with ANBU vests too. They just don't look right if you don't add some volume. *still wants to make one of those Chuunin/Jounin vests just to randomly wear around*

[Kiel]

^_^ heehee

I'd love to make one and just randomly wear it.

i already wear my Konoha sweater around, blue sweatshirt, red konoha swirls on the shoulders.

[Tensei Kaori]

Oooh, fun! I like to randomly wear my Tsunade jacket around.... but no one ever recognizes it.

We're off topic again.... this happens alot. Lol.

[UchihaJyounochi]

Ahhhh... break time! I finallt have some free time to maybe type up a little info on the jacket.

This was the first cosplay item I ever made, and it took quite a long time (most likely due to my newbish-ness) I went out to the fabric store(with a junk load of reference pictures), bought a basic vest pattern and an ample amount of fabric(more than was needed, but more is good cuz there were quite a few backtrackings done on this item). note: I bout some pretty nice and heavy fabric to help give it a more 'flak jacket' look to it. Shiney fabrics and stuff just tend to not really work to its purpose.

I went home, and after a few hours of planning and thinking over, and modifying with my mom, we finally had the plan. We went and made most of the vest to the original plans. After getting the basic form together, here's where the trial and error modding came in.

You may wanna try and change things around yerself, but here is basically what we did. For the very bottom, we put a long thin strip of foam (can't remember the tickness of it) inside the vest, to give it the volume.

For the collar, we pretty much winged the entire thing. We took a piece of very thick foam (I think it was around 2 inches, maybe more) And to keep it in the curved shape, we put a piece of flexible, but stiff metal at the back, and bent it so that the collar would stay curved.

As for the area around the arms and neck, the part that seems to be raised... the part with the metal 'buttons' on em. We used the design the vest gave for that part of the asctual vest and just modified it a bit. We stuffed inbetween the two layers to give it some minor vloume (soory, but I can't remember what we actually used to stuff it with) and gave it a very large seam allowance to give it the look it has in the show. We didn't actually sew it onto the actual vest, but we left it was a seperate part. I sewed four button holes in it, and attached four large metal buttons to the vest itself. This gave it the most realistic look in my opinion. All we have to do now is the pockets, and a few finishing touches and we'll be done.

I hope this at least helps a bit, and I'm sorry it took sooo long for me to post it. Good luck to everyone who is gonna attempt this item!

[Tensei Kaori]

That's great! It sounds like your ideas for the vest would work really well. Be sure to post pics!

[LastWarrior0]

I need to make a chuunin jacket for my shikamaru cosplay...hopefully I can make one decent enough thats otakon worthy by this august...