Canon Issues: When there's a big metal buckle on your belt…
Yes. You are correct.
And rivets, and D-rings, and eyelets…
Early on I spent some time brainstorming about how to design the Vin Mistborn costume without any visible metal just as Brandon Sanderson describes in the Final Empire book.
Mistcloak
On the Mistcloak and cowl, I tried to solve it in a couple ways:
Buttons: I used large resin buttons and a toggle closure on the cowl. Coat toggles came in handy too.
Wooden elements could work also
There are button and loop closures on the vest of the Mistcloak
Lacing was a good way to secure the costume as well
In all honestly, I had already sewn on hidden metal eyelets that were an important structural piece of the costume, so that was kind of a step backwards but really important from a sewing and wearability perspective.
And if I wasn’t going to leave my phone and keys at home either then I wasn’t sure how practical this “no metal” requirement was going to be.
Bottom line, I wanted Vin’s Mistcloak to fit me well and be comfortable to wear. Coming at this from a sewing perspective, that was a fair trade to use some metal in my opinion.
Belt and Hip Pouch
For the belt and hip pouch, I decided to opt for some traditional metal buckle closures simply because they’re easy to build with. I wanted to get this Mistborn cosplay DONE. Unfortunately, having zero extra metal on the costume became too much of a construction roadblock for me to solve in the time I had. Heck, there’s probably tiny metal flakes in the gold and pewter paints I used on the leather belt too. Oh well.
Even though the belt buckle and the hip bag were challenging to make without any metal, I think given enough time there are some good alternatives to belt buckles and rivets on a Mistborn Cosplay. Here’s some ideas I had when planning:
Straps and belts could be fastened with wooden loops and ties
Also, braded or woven elements could be neat to consider
Leather accessories can be stitched instead of riveted too which would be a great option and probably look really nice
Belts could have a wooden ring and could then loop and tie through that
Buttons and pin closures could work for some elements also
And zippers, Velcro, and plastic buckles could be more modern solutions to the problem as well.
Hmm. That would be a fun costume to do - a futuristic, sci-fi Mistcloak… ;)
When I started thinking about it, I was amazed at the quantity of metal around me in every day life. My imagination then trailed into the scenario where a grumpy Kelsier came to raid my sewing box full of needles and bobbins and scissors. And I just gave up.