As Princess Zelda’s alter ego in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Sheik is ninja-like and fierce. Project Sheik Cosplay made a detailed replica of the character’s costume and wore it to the recent Salt Lake FanX. In fact, she took second place in the Games category at the event’s cosplay contest. Building the armor and undersuit was a process and so is donning the outfit. Since there are so many pieces to attach, she says it can take up to 2-3 hours to get the entire costume on properly.

Project Sheik Cosplay used reference images from the game to start her build. She drafted the patterns for the armor and fabric pieces by hand on paper and then cut them from a leather-like fabric. She painted embellishments onto the leather by hand with a dark blue paint. My favorite part of the costume is the fabric she used to simulate the chainmail armor. It looks similar enough and also much more lightweight and comfortable. See a photo of the material just below.

See more making of pictures in this Facebook album.

via Reddit, top photo by I Find Cosplay/Tristan