Goosestarian (Baldur's Gate 3 - Astarion Meme)

Why: I like most people who played Baldur's gate 3 was FLOORED by how good it is. FLOORED. More often than not, I cosplay things I love. However, as much as I wanted to cosplay a companion from this game, I was not sure I could remotely pull of any of them off until I heard about Goosestarion. A random joke the voice actor made of his vampire character, Astarion, as a goose turned viral meme. That I could get behind. I cannot tell you how much fun I had designing and building this piece.

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Side note: Took it to Dallas Expo 2024 to meet Neil Newbon and to have my wing signed by him. He is as charismatic as they say. Holy crap is he tall. Also took this build to Anime Fest Dallas 2024, cosplay competition. I won best in Hallway. My first win in Masters. Mind blown.

The core of my idea was a “goose” suit with the doublet over it so that if I decide in the future I can make a different top found in the game. I took key impressions and recognizable style points from the character, Astarion. I wanted the outfit to have a “in game” feel to it. Something you might see if you were to wear it in the game instead of a kurigumi or furry suit. Things like the mask, hood, kilt like skirts, bloomers and leg/ shoe gaiters. 

Supplies

1. white fabric (poplin in this case)
2. white feather patterned lace
3. white feather trim
4. packaging paper for drafting
5. wood burner with knife like tip
6. white colored hot glue

Making

1. Drafted basic pattern for bloomers with a lot of room for butt area.
2. I made sure to have ruffles in the back to help prop up the skirts as they lay them over.
3. Prep lace fabric. Used wood burner to cut the feather pattern out. This only really works for a synthetic, like meting plastic.
4. Lined the edge of the fabric cutout with white hot glue to protect the lace fabric and deter it from snagging.
5. I concentrated the use of the feather lace and feathered trim towards bottom of the bloomers to create weight and push the feather underside are of a goose.

Supplies

1. white fabric (poplin in this case)
2. white feather patterned lace
3. white feather trim
4. packaging paper for drafting
5. wood burner with knife like tip
6. white colored hot glue

(1) Patterning

1. Under skirt => Fashioned a long simple, fabric, piece to cover the length needed and depth for the pleats I wanted. 
2. Top skirt => I needed to create a paper pattern for this one. The front is to lay just above the first layer. However, the back needed it to pull up more to perpetuate a feathery butt.

(2) Feather lace layer

1. Under skirt => Wood burner used to cut out long strip outlining the feathers.  
2. Top skirt => During the patterning process I marked up how far up I wanted the feather lace to reach when attached to the bottom white fabric. Smaller in the front and all the way up in the back. 
3. Line the edge of the bottom feathers with white hot glue to protect from damage/ fraying
4. Sew on lace layer to base fabric layer.

(3) Pleats for both top and bottom skirts

1. Folded and set pleats with iron.
2. Sew all pleats into place.

(4) Mid-section corset

1. I tend to fluctuate in weight. I thought it best to make the waist band part of the skirts to be a mid-section corset. 

Supplies

1. white fabric (poplin in this case)
2. white feather patterned lace
3. white feather trim
4. 1 zipper
5. cheap fabric for drafting
6. 2 types of HTV-Heat Transfer Vinyl from Stahls' https://www.stahls.com/heat-transfer-vinyl (purple holographic and iridescent ice blue)

Making

1. Drafted a fabric pattern
2. Sewed the top together making sure there was a zipper in front to get in and out of it
3. Created vector file of the scarification design.
4. Cut 2 versions of hot transfer vinyl.
5. Main design is a purple holographic HTV
6. “Bloated” design underneath is an iridescent ice blue to accentuate scar.
7. Applied HTV. Bloated design first followed by holographic main design on top.
8. Created waterfall ruffle. It took 3 tries to create a ruffle that would fit correctly for the feathered ‘butt” in the back.
9. Used lace fabric to cover the entire front side of ruffle pattern cut.
10. Lined edge with feather trim.
11. Also attached a long panel in front with feathered tips to accentuate the flat front on skirts. 

Supplies

1. white fabric (poplin in this case)
2. white feather patterned lace
3. white feather trim
4. packaging paper for drafting
5. 2 bamboo sticks

Making

1. Drafted basic wing pattern
2. Wing structure: encased bamboo sticks (2.5 feet) in a fabric casing and sewed inside the wing so that I could direct the wing in any fashion I wanted. Also gave a great edge to the wing so that it didn't flop. 
3. Made sure there were slits in the wing so that my hands can slip out when ever I need my hands.

Supplies

1. blue grey twill fabric
2. white fabric (poplin in this case)
3. white feather patterned lace
4. white feather trim
5. cheap fabric for drafting
6. hole puncher
7. snaps
8. grommets

Making

1. Based design on hood found in game
2. Drafted the pattern over the ball cap that will be the base structure for the goose mask/head
3. Feather lace over white poplin for outside of hood.
4. Blue grey twill inside of hood to push space into the background so that you are more focused on the mask/ head
5. Used snaps to have the hood snap together in front
6. Vampire bite: Added “holes” on the left side where the character was bitten and turned into a vampire. I also added stray feathers to show permanent damage done to the character’s neck

Supplies

1. fabric
2. deep blue pattern woven type
3. red pattern woven cotton
4. black thick woven type
5. brown fake suede type
6. cheap cotton for drafting
7. 2 zippers
8. gold HTV
9. gold pearls
10. e6000 adhesive (for gold pearls)
11. metallic gold cord
12. round silver colored studs
13. Elmer's Craft Bond adhesive (fabric to fabric glue)
14. 2 kinds Worbla: regular and black
15. then EVA foam

Making

1. Drafted fabric pattern against goose suit.
2. marked on the pattern wear the 2 colored fabrics would be
3. connected the 2 colored fabrics together then used the pattern to finalize the fabric pieces
4. Sewed together the pieces to create the base double.
5. 2 zippers. One in front to help with on and off of doublet just in case I decide to make another top. The 1 in back is to open up and show the scarification design.
6. HTV
7. Created vector file of the upper decoration from back across the shoulders to front and down
8. Took picture of pattern laid out and moved vector art following the area so that when it was die-cut out it would fit the designated area better
9. Applied HTV in pieces. The pattern I created did not lay perfectly in one go. I had to cut and piece together a lot of it separately. Things like to shifting over, remove or add to so that it lines up on the doublet as desired.
10. Attaching gold cord
11. Chalked off where metallic cord to be attached
12. Used a zigzag pattern to sew on metallic cord to doublet
13. Attached gold pearls to doublet with e6000
14. Attached belt and baby "pouches"
15. Hand sewed the belt strip (brown fabric) onto doublet
16. Drafted pattern and attached metal studs to fabric pieces
17. Pieced together pouches with EVA foam insert.
18. Glued pouches to belt with Elmer's Craft bond glue. This stuff is permanent AF once it sets. I have gone through A LOT of glues for fabric and htis stuff is the shizz.
19. Belt buckle
20. Designed belt buckle to look like 2 goose feet facing out. Used combination of black and regular Worbla to create buckle with EVA foam as initial structure inside. 
21. Sealed with wood glue, painted with acrylic, finished with gloss acrylic spray

Supplies

1. generic ball cap
2. masking tape
3. duct tape
4. plastic bags
5. thin board
6. thin dense EVA ofam
7. regular Worbla
8. EVA foam
9. white feather trim
10. waterproof wood glue
11. e6000 adhesive
12. contact cement
13. white primer/paint
14. color acrylic paint (bill & shadowing)
15. red resin pigment
16. resin
17. resin silicon mold
18. Black 3.0 (THIS STUFF IS THE BEST for absolute absorption of light and color. Does not reflect ever)
19. high gloss acrylic spray

Making

1. Detached bill from ball cap.
2. Used paper, thin board, plastic and duct tape to draft head and bill pattern
3. Made EVA foam pieces from pattern
4. Pieced together EVA foam pieces for the base bill and head.
5. Laid Worbla on top of EVA foam bill and head separately as final layer.
6. Made teeth out of Worbla bits
7. Attached together the teeth to bill and bill to head. Worbla is naturally sticky to each other. However, I would double up on a strong adhesive in the future for parts that are touched a lot.
8. Used foam clay to add facial details to mask
9. Covered lace feather pieces with wood glue to add to the mask. The idea was to tie in the head to the goose suit. 
10. Glued feathers with e6000 to mask/head
11. Primed, painted and finished out with a gloss finish
12. Poured resin gems and glued on as the eyes.
13. Built out the inside of of mask with foam piece before attaching to ball cap
14. Wanted underside of mask to absolutely push into the background. All fous is to be on the mask. Used Black 3.0 from Culture Hustle (www.culturehustleusa.com). It is a black that is super matte and it does not reflect any light. No matter how strong the flash or light source is, it will never reflect

Supplies

1. Thick EVA foam. The kind used for workout gyms
2. heat gun
3. white and clear PlastiDip (ruberizer)
4. acrylic paint (silver, white & black)
5. hot glue

Making

1. Hair inspired by drag foam wigs
2. Shape a curved base for wig
3. Added randomly shaped pieces first for height structure. They will not be seen but would allow "hair" pieces to sit on when added
4. cut out long tapered shaped from thick EVA foam
5. used heat gun to mold and shape pieces following the character's (Astarion's) curls
6. attached pieces with hot glue as I built up the wig
7. hit the wig with white PlastiDip to seal the foam and also lay the base color
8. slowly darkened the inside part of the wig to push back and also hide any imperfections internally
9. painted in the hair with huge sweeping strokes. These created flow oh the hair and also accentuated the curls. Without it, the wig was flat even with the curved foam hair pieces
10. Sealed with clear PlastiDip. I LOVE this stuff. It allows me to seal with a malleable surface so that the cracking of the acrylic paint is kept to a minimum being housed between 2 ruberizers (white and clear).

Supplies

1. baby saw
2. miter box
3. those hard plastic straws for the water cup containers
4. grommet base pieces
5. 1/4 in magnets (in the future I would get a larger contact area)
6. wood burner
7. super glue
8. e60000

Mechanics

3 prongs starting from mask with magnets housed inside going through 2 holes in the hood and connecting to 3 magnets glued to hair piece

Making

1. sawed straw pieces. made sure they were long enough to go through and connect
2. Roughed up base of grommets bases with sand paper.
3. Glued grommet bases at the top part on the mask/head with e6000
4. Glued straw pieces to grammet bases. (straws fit perfectly around them)
5. Glued an anchored the magnets at the top of strws just indie. I did have to fill the spce inside with glued trash so that the magnet was at the very top
6. Added 3 grommets to hood so that the 3 straw parts can pass through
7. Burned 3 areas in foam wig wear the magnets would sit
8. Glued magnets to wig with super glue

Supplies

1. thin plastic bags
2. duct tape
3. sharpie
4. brown packing paper
5. 3 colored vinyl fabric
6. sew in boning
7. snaps
8. grommets

Making

1. Designed them to be like goose legs and feet
2. Drafted pattern using duct tape then finalized with paper
3. Cut vinyl pieces
4. Sewed in boning
5. Sewed together
6. Added snaps and grommets

I love this thing so much. Best build to date. IG: @kieshareme