A skilled fighter with a free-spirited personality, Cassandra one of the main characters from Disney’s Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure.  Cassandra is skilled in many forms of combat, and is one of Princess Rapunzel’s closest friends.  As Rapunzel’s handmaid and lady-in-waiting, Cassandra’s job is to protect the princess, which can sometimes include breaking the palace rules just a little bit.

Cassandra’s signature outfit is a long grayish tunic worn over a dark red turtle neck, striped brown leggings, and large black gloves. In this tutorial I hope to show you how to make your own Cassandra cosplay.

Materials:

Tunic:

• 2 yards grey fabric
• Eyelets
• Gold Ribbon
• Faux Suede Cord

Gloves:

• Black gloves
• 1/2 – 1 yard black fabric
• Firm fusible interfacing
• Sew-on Velcro
• 1/4″ Elastic
• Safety pins

You will also need:

• Chalk Pencils
• Sewing Machine
• Matching thread
• Sewing needles for hand stitching
• Sewing shears
• Measuring tape
• Pins
• An iron
• Pattern making paper

Step 1:

To make Cassandra’s tunic, begin by drafting out a pattern.  Start drawing out a basic bodice pattern with a few adjustments.  With a measuring tape, measure from the top of your shoulders to your thighs.  Use this measurement for the length of your tunic.   Now draw an a-line from the bottom of the shoulder all the way to the bottom of the pattern.  For the collar, you’ll want it to widen it a bit.  Your pattern should now look something like this:

Use this pattern to trace out a second one, this time for the front of the tunic.  For the front collar, you want to draw it a little lower and add a long V shape to the center.  (Because we’re designing the pattern to be cut out on a fold, you’ll only be drawn half the V.)  You’ll want the length of the V to be long enough to fit 4 eyelets, spaced evenly.

To make facings for the pattern, trace the collars of both the front and back pieces and add about 4-5″ to the inside edges.  They should look something like this:

For the sleeves, start by drawing a regular, long sleeve.  Similar to how we did the bodice, you’ll want to widen the sleeve to have more of an a-line shape.  At the bottom of the sleeve, you want to add a small 1″ piece that’s angling inwards a little, so when you flip it up, it’s even with the a-line of the sleeve. Your pattern should now look something like this:

Step 2:

Now you want to cut all the pieces out of your gray fabric.  We designed all the patterns to be cut out on a fold, so remember to do so when cutting them out.  Also don’t forget to add seam allowance to all the pieces before cutting them out, as well.

After cutting them all out, take the front and back pieces, stack each one them with the matching facings, good sides together, and sew along the outer edges.  Because they are sewn on curves, it’ll help to take your scissors and clip the corners and curves.

Now flip them right sides out and press flat with an iron.  Once that’s done, top stitch along the outside edges to keep the facing in place.  Now sew the front and back bodice pieces together at the shoulder seams.

Step 3:

Attach the sleeves to the bodice.  Once that’s done, fold over the extra 1″ section at the bottom of the sleeve, wrong sides together, and press using an iron.

Now sew along that bottom edge, with enough space that a piece of 1/4″ Elastic can fit through.  Now you want to cut a piece of elastic that will fit around your wrist.   Using a safety pin, feed the elastic through the small casing.  Before pulling it through all the way, sew the tail end of the elastic to the opening you pulled it through.  Once the tail end is sewed down, pull the end with the safety pin to the other opening, remove the safety pin while still holding the elastic in place, and sew it down.

Repeat for the other sleeve.

Step 4:

Now fold the entire outfit in half, right sides together and sew along the outer edges.

Finally, fold up the bottom edge of the tunic, press flat with an iron, and hem the bottom.  Now the basic construction of the tunic is now done.

Step 5:

To add the gold details on Cassandra’s tunic, take the gold ribbon and cut it into strips that will fit around the collar of the tunic.  Because the collar is curved, you’ll have to add the ribbon in sections.  To attach it, pin the ribbon in place and top stitch in place.

To get the pointed edge at the bottom of the V, you’ll want to fold the ribbon to get a pointed corner.  Top stitch the sides indicated in the drawing below.

Once the ribbon as been sewn into place, you can cut off the excess ribbon and top stitch the remaining side.  Repeat for both sides.

Add the ribbon to the bottom of the tunic as well.

Step 6:

To finish the tunic, you want to attach the eyelets.  Cassandra’s tunic has 4 eyelets on each side of the V, and you’ll want to space them evenly.  Once they’re added, take a strand of faux suede cord that’s long enough to go through all the eyelets, and lace it up.  And the tunic is done.

(For my costume, I didn’t have enough eyelets to add four on each side, which is why I only have 3 in the photos.)

Step 7:

Cassandra wears very wide, almost triangular shaped gloves.  To make her gloves, I made a large, arm cuff to wear over regular gloves.

To make the pattern, start by measuring around your wrist using a measuring tape.  Take the width of the Velcro you’ll be using, multiply it by two, and add that to the wrist measurement.  Draw a curved line that is the same length as the total measurement.

Now draw 6″ lines out from curve at an angle so that the bottom is slimmer than the top.  Draw another curved line at the top, connecting the two 6″ lines so you end up with a curved trapezoid.

Step 8:

Trace this pattern onto your black cotton.  Don’t forget to add seam allowance before cutting out.  You’ll want to cut out two per arm cuff, so you’ll end up with four pieces in total.

Now you’ll want to use the same pattern to cut out two pieces out of fusible interfacing.  You’ll want to use really firm interfacing so that the cuff will be able to hold it’s shape.  Attach each piece of interfacing to the wrong side of one of the fabric cutouts., so you’ll end up with two pieces with interfacing and two without.  Stack one piece with the interfacing with one of the pieces without the interfacing, good sides together, and sew around the edges, leaving an opening so that the whole thing can be turned right side out.  It helps to clip the corners and curves before flipping the cuff right side out.

Step 9:

Once the cuff has peen turned right side out, you can slip stitch the opening shut, but it’s not necessary because the next step is to top stitch over the entire thing.  Once that’s done, cut a piece a 6″ piece of Velcro and attach one of the Velcro pieces to one end of the cuff on the good side, and the other to the wrong side on the opposite end.

Wear the cuff over a regular pair of black gloves, and Cassandra’s gloves are complete.

To finish the look, wear a dark red turtle or mock necked shirt underneath the tunic and wear any brown belt around the waist.  For her leggings, while Cassandra’s are striped, any brown leggings will do.  Wear any set of knee high brown boots, and your Cassandra cosplay is now finished.

I hope this tutorial was helpful and will help you to create a Cassandra cosplay of your own.