Eichiro Oda's One Piece is one of my favorite pieces of media ever since I first watched it years ago. The story, worldbuilding, and characters, among other things, make it a must-watch (or must-read) for any anime fan out there. The protagonist, Luffy, is many people's highlights regarding the series, always managing to keep a smile in the most dire of situations. At a certain point in the story, Luffy dons the persona of Lucy (or is it a different character?!?), which is one of my favorite iterations. So for this year's Puerto Rico Comic Con, I wanted to pay tribute to the character by coming up with a cosplay as budget-friendly as possible, and I thought of sharing my whole journey here.

Note: Before I even considered making this instructable I had already done most, if not all, of the cosplay. In other words, I'm not posting this intending to make a definitive guide on how to make the cosplay, but rather I want to document how I went about with the process, given my limited experience and resources. There are better ways to go about doing this cosplay. Also, some items like the shirt and beard were bought and not made, therefore I won't include them in this post. Also, I apologize beforehand for any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors, English is not my first language.

Supplies

I want to go ahead and divide this instructable into two main parts: the helmet, and the rest of the cosplay, because of how many materials were used for the former.

For the helmet, you'll need:

1 pack of party balloons
Newspaper
x4 packs of Funny Gommy clay (or brand of choice)
A bundle of small red feathers
Red pipe cleaners (A pack of 40 minimum)
Cardboard
A bundle of cone cups
White acrylic paint
Gold spraypaint finish

For the rest of the outfit:

x1 Red cloth (5ft wide; 1 1/2 yards long or longer)
x1 Yellow cloth (5ft wide; 2 yards long or longer)
x1 White faux cloth (1 1/2 yards long or longer)
x1 Black cloth (Big enough to cover the straw hat)
Blue shorts (barely past the knees)
Red sewing thread
x1 peach foam sheet
x1 brown foam sheet
Black paint
Black cotton string
Thin rope

Pieces of outfit bought:

Dressrosa shirt
Strawhat
Fake beard

Makeup materials:

Red and brown blush
Black eyeliner
Makeup setting spray

General materials:

UHU glue
E6000 fabric glue
Elmer's glue
Paint brushes

*Optional:

Long, black gloves (for the haki effect)

(Note: I got almost all of my materials from local shops and warehouses that don't have an online shopping component, so I won't be providing links to some of them; however, a lot of these materials can be found elsewhere, both in-store and online.)

Step 1: Lucy's Helmet (Part 1/5)

For the helmet, I decided to go with a paper mache base. I don't have a 3D printer, nor do I have that much experience using foam, so I wanted to go with something I was somewhat familiar with. I inflated up to three balloons of various sizes using my head as a reference (same size, bigger than, and smaller than it); having them be different sizes is useful since they tend to deflate a certain amount during the process. This way, you can choose which of the three fits the best after completing the process. Additionally, having multiple balloons as backup is important in case one or more pop during the process. Once you have your inflated balloons, start tearing up your newspaper to shreds (at around 3 inches in size) and mix Elmer's glue in some water to create a solution. Glue your newspaper threads to your balloons, one by one, until they're completely covered. A good rule of thumb is to shine a flashlight right next to the balloon, to see which areas need more coverage. You'll know you're done when there's no light passing through the newspaper. Lastly, hang the balloons on a clothesline, or somewhere they won't be disrupted, for two days or more.

After they dried up, I chose which would fit my head the best, drew the eyeholes and noseguard, and cut them out.

Step 2: Lucy's Helmet (Part 2/5)

Because I made my helmet's base using a paper mache balloon method, I was unable to make some details like the horns or the crest during that part of the process; therefore, I had to make these parts separately. For the horns, I used some cone paper cups; since they bend easily, I stacked a couple and glued them together with some superglue. For the crest, I used cardboard, since I wanted it to be sturdy. Using the helm's circumference as a reference, I made it fit as best as possible on top of the helm. When cutting the sides of the crest, make sure you keep an extra one to use as a reference in case something happens. Cut up a total of three, that third one will go in the middle, equidistant of both ends; this is where we'll place our crest's feathers, which will be touched upon later. The shape of the crest is going to vary, sometimes it's L-shaped while in other cases it's a lot more curved. I found it inconsistent throughout the games, anime, and merchandise; nonetheless, I decided to go with an L-shaped crest.

(Note: It may be more convenient to place that third piece after the whole crest has been assembled).

Next, cut out the remaining sides of the crest, the more important ones are the ones that will be located at the front of the helm, and the bottom of the crest on the back of the helm; I measured them at around 4cm or so, the rest of the sides will depend on the length of the lengthier sides. After everything is cut out, assemble the crest with superglue; once it's dried up, glue it to your helm with UHU glue. By being more pasty and viscous, it helps the crest with staying in place on top of the helm.

Step 3: Lucy's Helmet (Part 3/5)

Because of how your balloons will deflate during the drying process, you're unlikely to end up with a completely spherical, smooth surface. This made the crest slightly unstable, even after gluing it with UHU. It would also be unwise to paint over the paper mache and cardboard, which more than anything could ruin your craft in the long run given the situation. This is where the Funny Gommy clay comes in: not only is it going to provide the helmet with a layer of protection, but it will also keep the helm, crest, and other components together; additionally, when sanded, it can give the overall craft a cleaner, smoother look. In the beginning, I used a wooden potter's rib to smudge pieces of clay onto the helmet and spread them over until they covered the entire thing, however, I found better results when I started cutting out flat, rectangular pieces of clay and placing them as close as possible to each other. The latter will take longer, but it is worth it. The clay dries quickly, so smoothing your surface as much as possible before sanding should be prioritized over covering the helmet. Place a bit on the backside of the noseguard, so that your nose's sweat doesn't dampen the paper mache. It's not necessary to cover the inside of the helmet, but if you feel the need to do so nothing is stopping you.

(Note: I highly recommend covering the horns with clay before gluing them onto the helmet. Even when stacked, paper cone cups are very fragile and therefore will deform when being covered if you don't have a hand inside of it that can correct said deformities.)

After the clay dried up, I placed some googly eyes on the front of the helmet, which are meant to be the rivets. You also have the option of doing them with clay; however, with the googly eyes, you don't have to worry about making each one the same size, plus you save up on clay.

Step 4: Lucy's Helmet (Part 4/5)

Early during the process, I found out that spray paint doesn't adhere to the clay when I tested it on some dried-up clumps I had lying around. Due to this, I covered the entire helmet in white, acrylic paint which does adhere to clay, but also the spray paint will adhere to it. At first, I decided to spread a thick coat of paint to make the helmet look as smooth as possible; however, I didn't take into account that the top layer would dry up before the bottom layer, which caused it to crack all over the place. Instead of covering up the cracks with multiple thinner layers of paint, I sanded the whole thing to get rid of them and to smooth the entire thing as much as possible. It could've used a bit more sanding, but I honestly don't mind how it looked. It gives the helmet a more battered look to it, which is fitting. After that, I applied various layers of thin acrylic paint, which helped reduce the cracks, significantly. Let the paint dry fully for a day or two before applying your gold finish.

Step 5: Lucy's Helmet (Part 5/5)

A couple of days after the acrylic paint dried, I took the helmet outside and gave it a good, even coat of spray paint; I went with Harris's High-Luster Gold Finish for this project. If there were residual small cracks on the acrylic paint, like in my case, this would help cover them. Once it's coated, leave it to dry for an amount of time; in my case, I left it for a whole day to dry and fully cure.

I wanted the crest to stand out, so using a red broomhead wasn't going to be enough. Instead, I opted to use red pipe cleaners and red feathers to give it that lively look. Pipe cleaners by themselves sway a lot and easily bend, so to mitigate that I started to braid pairs to give it more stability: around 20 pairs were enough for my build. Cutting them down to a smaller size also helped with the stability. Once I had my braided pipe cleaners ready, I placed them on the cardboard holes at the top of the crest, leaving some space between each, and deep enough for them to remain stable. I drew a mark on the pipe cleaners as close to the base of the helm as possible. From that mark upwards, I glued the small red feathers onto them, until the left and right sides were covered. To make your crest look longer without relying on longer, more unstable pipe cleaners, you can glue a pair of feathers near the top end of the pipe cleaners. At a certain point, the crest's size starts to decrease, so the pipe cleaners should become shorter and shorter until you reach its back side. Because the ones on the back were very short, I made sure to reinforce them with UHU.

AND THAT'S IT! HELMET'S DONE!

Step 6: Cape

Lucy's cape has a gladiator look to it, meaning that there's no thread connecting the ends, nor is the cape tied to the shoulders, but rather the ends on one of the sides overlap each other enough to give it that "scarfy" look to it. With the two ends like that, sew them together with some red sewing thread. For the cape's insignia, I used some colored foam sheets and glued them with UHU.

Step 7: Pants and Sash

For the pants, grab the white faux fabric and cut it long enough for it to overlap a little when going around the leg opening; make sure it's also around 3 1/2 to 4 inches in width. Use the E6000 fabric glue and apply pressure to keep it in place.

As for the sash, fold it enough so that it's not too wide, wrap it around the back, and then tie it on the side. I found a YouTube video titled "How to Tie a Pirate Sash N Belt" by Tiger Lee to be very useful, I recommend giving it a watch.

Step 8: Straw Hat Fix

During the Dressrosa arc, Lucy has his straw hat covered with another, slightly smaller straw hat to conceal his identity. If you're on a budget, you can replicate this look with two pieces of black cloth. The first piece should be around the same size as the straw hat, so you can use it to trace over the circle. Next, make a cross-shaped incision in the middle that's around the same length as the top of the straw hat's diameter; this will make it so that the brim has a clean, uncrumpled look by wrapping around the top of the straw hat. The second piece of cloth is meant to cover that top part, so make sure its diameter is a bit longer than the first piece. Once you have your pieces of black cloth, place them on the straw hat starting with the larger one. It should wrap neatly around the top, with a small portion covering the brim. Then, place the cloth with the incisions; make sure the folds caused by the incision are folded inwards if you choose not to cut them off. Once the two pieces are placed, you can glue them together with some superglue or UHU; trim the black cloth's brim to cover most of the straw hat so it doesn't go over it. Glue the ends to the straw hat or use staples to keep them in place if you don't want to ruin it.

If you're like yours truly and bought your straw hat, you'll know that the string that comes with it is severely short, which can be pretty uncomfortable when leaving it hanging from the neck; this feeling is only going to be more notable when you're wearing both the helmet and the cape. To fix this, I bought a small rope from a local shop and tied it to the ends of the straw hat's string until it was long enough so that it didn't feel uncomfortable to wear.

Step 9: Sandals

During my search for cosplay materials, I didn't find a pair of sandals that looked like Lucy's that were also my size. So I bought a pair of white sandals at Walmart, painted the outside part of the straps black, and tied onto the latter a piece of black cotton string so that it looked like the third strap on his sandals.

Step 10: Makeup and Optional Details

For his chest scar, I used brown blush for the corners and red blush for the inside to give it that "burned" look. As for the scar below his left eye, thin black eyeliner should do the trick. I recommend you get some makeup setting spray, this will help in preventing the makeup from being ruined, especially if you start sweating.

As an optional detail, you can buy a pair of long, black gloves to recreate the armament haki effect for your cosplay, or you could paint your arm with black paint as well.

Step 11: Get That Flame-flame Fruit!!

You're done!

Thank you for taking the time to go through this entire instructable. I had a lot of fun making this cosplay, and I hope that I was able to teach a thing or two to anyone who read this. Here are some images of the final results, alongside other amazing cosplayers.

Go out and show the world what Dressrosa's best gladiator is made of and win that Flame-Flame fruit!