Aviendha Costume

Photo by Samuel Laubscher

About six months ago, I decided I wanted to make a pretty involved costume for an upcoming convention. About 2 days before the convention, I started making it. Yee haw!

As I think I’ve mentioned before, I am a giant fan of the Wheel of Time book series and thought it would be really cool to dress up like a Maiden of the Spear. The Aiel are essentially desert warriors with red hair and light eyes. So 2/3 already achieved. I also thought this was an excellent choice because I would be marching in the hot sun and a desert warrior’s garb would probably be excellent for that (it was).

I have made many a costume for Halloween, costumed a few musical revues, and have an excellent ability to find and buy things. Give me a sewing machine, however, and my brain turns to static and only sharpens again three hours later with 15 minutes worth of work done. I’ve broken almost every sewing machine I’ve worked on. It’s sad. It’s true. I’ve taken a class. Maybe one day I’ll try it again.

LUCKY FOR ME, the Aiel have pretty simple clothing and a bunch of weapons. After disagreeing with a bunch of fan illustrations I saw, I ended up referencing both The Thirteenth Depository and a Wheel of Time Military Compedium since they focused heavily on the books and examples of the historical weapons/clothing Robert Jordan (probably) used as reference in creating the Aiel.

If you’re still with me on this total nerd-out, here are the pieces of the costume and what I used to make them:

Spears: This was the toughest part for me because the Aiel spearheads are of foot of dull steel and I was on a budget. The MacGyver in me was convinced that I could disassemble hedging shears or something similar for the tips, but my Home Depot scour turned up no good matches and I went home frustrated with a can of “weathered steel” spray paint. After obsessing over options for way too long, I ended up going to Michael’s (which I should have done in the first place) and grabbing some balsa wood and a 2 pound bag of scrap leather for $6. Carved up the balsa wood, painted it, then set it in a nock at the end of a three foot painted dowel. The leather wrapping helped to hide not-so-glamorous nocking job.

Shoufa/Scarf: I originally had cut linen for this, but passed by a perfectly colored pashmina at the hotel gift shop when I got the convention that fell a bit nicer so I snagged that. Score.

Black Veil: Scrap cloth long enough to wrap around my ear on one side and pined on the other.

Short bow/ Bowcase: I didn’t get a photo of this, although you can see the strap coming across my front and the tip of the bow behind me. The bow was a kids’ toy bow caulked and painted. I also replaces the thick string that came with it with waxed twine. The bow case ended up being easier than I thought. Used some of the scrap leather to create a strap with a thicker shoulder section. I took a giant leather skirt (used later for buckler) and cut a bow case pattern to fit the bow. Stitched it up with some of that waxed twine and was pretty happy.

Then I tried stuffing my spears in it. Disaster. It says in the books that the spears were stored through the strap of the bow case, so I wanted to wear that correctly, but Aiel bow cases must have been made differently than the light weight bow cases I was using for reference or had a much fancied strap. So I attached the bottom of the case to a belt to stabilize it and stuffed the spears in the case. It wasn’t perfect but made the spear stick out pretty high which was cool and kinda scary looking.

Buckler: I went through this whole process of boiling leather that would take too much time to explain so I’m skipping that tragedy. I ended up hating the way it looked. Luckily, right after I finished the first version, I noticed a really old set of thick wooden placemats I had in the bottom of a shelf. I cut up a leather skirt from the good old Goodwill and stretched that bad boy over one of them, putting a second layer on for design. Scrap leather (praise be that stuff) made for an easy handle.

Bracers and Boots: Amazon with a little doctoring.

Quiver: I owned this already. It’s a pretty Bear quiver my sister got me for Christmas last year. <3

Buffalo Bone Hilted Dagger: Another item I already owned thanks to a pretty awesome roommate. So it helps to already be at least a base level nerd before moving on the the higher levels.

I think that’s everything! The pants and shirt were just regular light weight loose clothing. I wore pink socks, for anyone wondering. Also, look how I made it all the way to the end of the post before writing the word cosplay.