Turns out, very.

So far, I've made the leg armour pieces for my Fran costume, and invented a couple of colourful new swear words along the way. Deconstructing the design to make a workable pattern has proved... interesting. And let's not even mention cutting out all the fiddly little pieces this thing requires. The thigh sections might have taken a year or so off my life.

But they're starting to look halfway decent now, so I'm pretty pleased. Next job is the arm pieces, and figuring out how to do that bell shape at the end...

A Yuffie costume just wouldn't be right without an unfeasibly large shuriken to wave around. The trouble of course was, how on earth do you make one? Luckily, there's a very handy tutorial on Amethyst Angel's website, so I used that as a guide and did my own thing where I felt the need.

First port of call was the local art shop for supplies:

- A1 white foam core art boards.
- A4 sheets of white craft foam.
- Hot glue gun.
- Extra glue sticks.
- Large-ish green beads.
- Silver spray paint.
- Black enamel paint.

Plus assorted craft knives, rulers, pens, pencils and extra glue. One thing I realised: However much craft foam you think is enough, isn't. Buy more. You'll be glad when you don't run out part way through, have to trek 10 miles back to the shop and have your boyfriend let you know just what a pain in the arse it is.

I managed to pick up most of the above from a large Hobbycraft store. The only thing I had to order online was sheets of styrene. This is the plastic used to cover the whole weapon. After a lot of hunting on the Internets, I found some that was pretty good value at www.stationroadbaseboards.co.uk. It's not as large as some other suppliers, but it was also a tenth of the price, so... swings and roundabouts.

Here endeth the tedious shopping bit.

1. First thing to do for the shuriken is to make the crosspiece. This is done using the foam centred art boards. You'll need four strips to form the basic cross. I went with 2 inches wide, for the length of the shortest side of the boards (though in hindsight, I think this could easily be taken down to 1.5 inches wide). Using a ruler, find the middle on each piece.

2. On two out of the four pieces, mark out the width of the strip from the middle, so in this case, and inch out from either side of the centre. Draw lines, and then chop out that middle portion, so you're left with four short bits.

3. On the other two pieces, mark out a circle in the middle that goes close to the edge, but not too close. Cut them out. Doesn't have to be too accurate, but the smoother it is, the easier the centre becomes later on.

4. Glue two short bits together. Then the other two. Then the two long strips. Making the cross double thickness gives it a lot more strength and stability, which are every ninja's friends.

5. The pencil centre markings from earlier should still be visible on the long sections, so use them as a guide and glue the short pieces onto the sides to form your cross. Step back, and admire your handiwork. Try waving it about a bit, it's fun.

6. When you've got that out of your system, use the craft knife to hack off some of the corners - this is where the blades will be going, and they need to lose some width to cope with the points. Again, don't worry too much about neatness here, since these will be covered up by the time you're done.

Part II to follow...