Over the weekend, I went to Saboten Con with a group of my friends in downtown Phoenix. Saboten Con is an anime convention associated with Monkey Paw Entertainment, its organizers, that is hosted at the Sheraton Grand Downtown Phoenix during Labor Day weekend. It is one of the largest anime conventions in Arizona that lasts from Friday through Monday. In 2015, its attendance reached 6,745 (unique). This year, attendance reached a record high of 13,298 (unique)! Many people attend Saboten such as vendors/exhibitors, local creators, special celebrity guests, and cosplayers!

(Pictured from left to right) Me in my Elma cosplay, and my boyfriend Bryce posing at Saboten ConAdrienne Kalehuawehe

Attendees are welcome to arrive in costumes that they have put together, but they must follow the general policies that the convention has put forth due to the event being family-friendly, so modesty must be expressed!

Last year was the first year that I attended Saboten Con. That year, I had gone as Rin Tohsaka from the "Fate/Zero" anime series. Because I had learned about it the week of the event, I didn't have a lot of time to properly prepare a costume so I had to throw something together that was both quick and cost-efficient. For my costume, I used a black pleated skirt that I had already owned along with black closed-toe shoes and purchased brown hairspray, knee-high socks, and two black hair bows from Walmart as well as a red turtleneck from Goodwill. The costume came out fairly well for only being put together a few days before, but I knew that I would have a proper costume when the time came around the next year.

(Pictured from left to right) Vi League of Legends Cosplay, my Rin Tohsaka Fate/Zero Cosplay, Caitlyn League of Legends CosplayAdrienne Kalehuawehe

Since then, I had brainstormed various characters that I could cosplay as such as Nico Robin from "One Piece" and Elma from "Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid". I decidedly went with Elma, and began to plan the cosplay accordingly.

First, I used Google to search for Elma cosplay costumes which had given me various pricey results. Shoes for her cosplay, in particular, were $36 alone, and being a not-so-wealthy college student, I didn't want to have to spend unnecessary amounts of money where it wasn't needed. After calculating the costs of everything I could buy online, the overall price for this cosplay came out to be $284.95, not including taxes or shipping fees. Even though I could very well afford this, I didn't want to have to pay that much when I knew I could improvise some of the accessories and save money. I went with this route instead.

I had decided to purchase her general costume which included her kimono, socks, and scarf, as well as her wig, trident, and blue contacts to match her eyes since these were things I couldn't produce on my own. This had ultimately cost me $157.97. That meant that I would need to produce her horn, tail, and sandals. Making her sandals was one of the easier tasks of what I needed to make and only cost me around $3.50. Since her sandals were yellow wedges with red wiring, I had simply purchased 3 yellow sandals from Walmart that were 88 cents each, hot-glued them together to make the wedge, and used the red wiring from the pair of red sandals that I had also bought for 88 cents.

I figured that her horn would be pretty easy to produce as well and decided to make it out of bakeable clay that I found on Amazon for $4.99, but cost me basically nothing since I had an Amazon gift card. The only difficult factor in that was molding it correctly to match the waves of her horn in the anime.

I had the most difficulty trying to produce her tail. I have no sewing experience whatsoever, so that was an option I didn't have. At this point, I was running low on time before the convention because I had waited so long. So, I took to Pinterest to find DIY No-Sew Dragon Tails. This was a bit difficult because a lot of what I found had needed at least a bit of sewing, but there were also some options that allowed the use of a hot glue gun. I went with this method. I bought two different colors of felt that matched the colors of Elma's tail, dark blue pipe-cleaners, and a few more hot glue sticks which overall cost me around $7. Despite it being cheap, it came out wonderfully and I was very pleased with my work!

My DIY Dragon Tail prior to adding detailAdrienne Kalehuawehe

Through creating my own accessories, I had spent a grand total of $168.47 on my cosplay and saved a total of $116.48!

My completed Elma cosplayAdrienne Kalehuawehe