A comm. designed to provide support for all skill levels by motivating and sharing tips and tricks for those in progress
costume reference (exclusive for now, I'm afraid) and many progress pics

Hopefully this post will help me get my motivation back. :)
This is a design that I commissioned from Zach Fischer. It's exclusive to me until I finish it, which is unfortunately taking awhile because work knocked me for a loop this year.
I told Zach I wanted to cosplay Tron, but that all Tron cosplays--even the excellently constructed ones--look terrible in the real world because the costumes are so specifically designed for the movie's visual environment, which isn't anything like the real world. I asked him if he could design an armor-style Tron inspired cosplay that would look good on a con floor, and this was his completely amazing result.
And here are some pictures of the progress I managed between November 2015 and February 2015, before life kicked me in the head:










That looks amazing! I really can't wait to see the finished product. Do you want to wear it for a specific convention? If so, having a time table might help keep you on track.
Are you doing a jumpsuit or something underneath it?
The plan is to make a shirt and pants out of vinyl. Being a total sewing noob, I made a "pattern" out of a disposable shirt and pants that fit correctly, and after a bit of trial and error with cheap cloth, I think I can do it. They probably won't look super clean at the seams, but the seams will be pretty hidden in most cases.
Of course, if I run out of time (I'm aiming for Emerald City Comic Con in March), then I might just buy a shirt and leggings and run with that. //grins//
Using an existing outfit is a great way to do it! And the seams won't matter when everyone is drooling over your armour.
If I do it right, all of the blue will actually be LEDs, so folks might not even see seams behind the glow. :D
Nice! That will look so awesome once it's finished. It already looks really good to me. Do you have a lot left to make/do?
I'm definitely around the halfway mark. Mostly that's because all of those blue lines are going to be LED lights. That means I have the following steps remaining:
//looks at the list//
//reminds myself it's going to be amazing//
It sounds like a fair bit of work, but the payoff at the end makes it all worth it. The progress pics you have up already look really good. The nice thing is, there are always cons and events for cosplay so just keep plugging away at the pace that works for you and when you're ready, you're ready. I've never made something as complicated as that, but I def understand how frustrating a big to do list can be.
I totally agree with Miss Wraith's points, and also keep in mind that if you can't get it all done in one go, try to focus on what you can do to make it a wearable cosplay, and add more detailing for future conventions.
I'm going to be doing LED for my next cosplay, as well, but I'm starting much smaller!