Avatar Kyoshi Build Book

Hazel | @hazelthewriter

Inspiration

Photo collection

I opted for a divided Hakama or pants rather than the under garments shown here for ease of movement. This image was my most referenced

This screen grab of the Kyoshi warriors also swayed me to divided Hakama

Kosode

Under tunic

Kosode Details

I made a couple of mock ups first before finding a beautiful remnant of fabric at a traveling Japanese fabric store that was the perfect mix of yellow and green tones.

Being a remnant there wasn’t much so the Kosode turned into what I call a cropped Kosode. Since only the sleeves and collar need to be visible it works!

The front panels that form the shoulders are quite wide, but that ends up falling into the sleeves for a slightly poofy look.

The small sleeve detail at the end is hidden by the bracers but is there to add more structure for folding the sleeve into the bracer

The collar is just stitched at the nape and then free folded the rest of the length to remove stitch lines on the collar

Hakama

The bottoms/pants

Hakama details

I originally made an undivided Hakama but I wasn’t super happy with how the pleats came out and there were limits to movement in the skirt version.

I remade the Hakama as a divided Hakama and pleated it to lay in a way that hides the divide when standing normally.

I placed my pins vertically so I could try the hakama on while pleating.

It’s always left over right in Japanese clothing so the left panel overlaps the right where they meet in the center.

I stitched all the way down the innermost right pleat to make it permanent and easier to keep flat under the innermost left pleat.

The rest of the pleats have small columns of edge stitches intermittently to help the pleats stay and make them easier to iron. The inside of every pleat or the valley pleats are stitched down fully along the edge.

I made these sketches of how all the hakama pieces come together- mostly because I find making pants incredibly confusing and this helped immensely.

False seams and back pleats

Japanese loom widths historically were 13”-14” so a hakama with 6 pleats in the front like mine would use four 13” panels. I did two 26” panels and added a false seam to the center of both. This left neat hems with no raw edges to fray.

There are 4 pleats in back, made to look like two as there are 2 inner pleats under 2 outer ones.

This was a challenge but I like the final product. Just like the front pleats I used small intermittent stitches on the edges of the mountain pleats and then edge stitched the full length of the inside of valley of the pleat.

Overskirt

There’s a chance this over skirt is supposed to be another Kosode, but there’s no way to know and it’s all around easier to wear and make as an over skirt

Just a simple square of fabric with ties. I made the hems extra bulky to just help with sturdiness and the ties are seamed in the back but just extra long and acting as a top hem as well

Over Tunic

This garment seems to have been created for aesthetics in the show and not based on a historical garment

Over Tunic Details

This was a big challenge to make! I based the initial pattern off a Kosode, just no sleeves or collar, and then added some ‘house’ shaped pieces to make the two side squares.

Then I added trim and used gold thread to top stitch and add extra details.

While the hardest piece to figure out it actually came together fairly easy!

I made a sketch to show the house shape and how roughly where it fits in.

I used acrylic paint on the corners of each bottom panel of the tunic to match the cannon gold squares on the shoulders. The shoulder gold squares are pieces of fabric I stitched the edges down, then painted and then stitched to the shoulder. The folding hems and paint really helped to give structure to the squares

Bracers & Gloves

One of the simpler parts

Bracers and gloves details

There are multiple versions of Kyoshi’s bracers in cannon. I went with the simplest ones which are just two strips of leather bound with two strips of leather each.

The gloves (and the fans) are the only things on the costume I did not make, although I want to re-build both.

The gloves are white leather work gloves that I used brown leather paint on the tops of to get the right look.

Fans and Headpiece

The headpiece is the first thing I made for this cosplay!

Fans and headpiece details

The fans on the title slide aren’t my current fans

I’ve gone through a couple iterations. Today I have spray painted gold Tai Chi fans as they work best for performing. I am working on some slightly smaller diy Tai Chi fans. I also experimented with cardboard fans and the ones on the title card are just cheap fans I painted.

The headpiece is actually made out of thin cardboard and the tassels are bakers twine and spray paint.

Costume images