Vaporeon Gijinka - Wrap Skirt "Tail" - Pokémon

This is the third part of my Vaporeon Gijinka costume. If you want to see how I made the Bolero, go here! If you want to see how I made the under layers, go here!

Thanks to Elemental Photography for the great photoshoot! Credit for the original costume design goes to Cowslip!

One thing I loved about this design was the way that the tail was incorporated into this wrap skirt.

The "tail" was made from the same blue silk as the bolero jacket. It has a really nice shine to it--without being overly shiny. The fabric itself actually has a salmon-y pinkish colour woven in, which you can see in the shine. It helps to break up a bit of the blue overload.

This piece took a bit of adjustment before I was satisfied. It was first draped and pinned in muslin to create the pattern--a much less scientific method than I am used to.

The tail itself ended up being over 5ft long. It was a bit cumbersome, so I pinned it up to walk about the con.

You can see how it tapers from the waistband down.

The next step was to finish off the edges. I neatly rolled them over and top stitched it. I wanted to make sure it looked neat from both sides, as the inside would be quite visible. Also, this fabric frayed like nobody's business. I wanted to make sure the edges wouldn't get destroyed.

I gathered it to the desired size and attached it to the waistband. The waistband was a simple rectangle of beige cotton that had a hook and eye closure. I would later reinforce the waistband with nylon webbing I had leftover from my Splatoon Inkling harness rig. This reinforcement was necessary, as later the leg wrapping rigging would be sewn into the waistband.

The tail fin pieces and decorative waistband ruffle were sewn right sides together, clipped, turned right way out and then top stitched to finished them off.

I used 4 long pieces of navy cording as my detailing on the train. I hand stitched them on at the top and tacked them at various points as they wrapped around the tail. There is easily over 12 yds of cording on this costume (including all the lacing on the bracers).

I pinned the tail fin to the end of the tail, arranging the ruffled look how I wanted it and then tacked it on with my most invisible hand-stitching. It's basically like a giant bow.

It was around this point that I realized I would not be meeting my original deadline (AN 2014) and gracefully admitted defeat. I took a year-long break from this costume.

The next step was to attach the decorative waistband ruffle. I arranged it and pinned it in place until I was satisfied with the look then tacked it on with hand stitching.

Then I went about creating the brooch that attaches to the waistband, covering the clasp. It was all made of scrap materials--leftover cording, fabric, beads, etc. I used some of the yellow silk from the hairpiece flowers to create a matching kanzashi style detail for the petals (I will go into more detail on my wig and hairpiece post for this costume.). The entire thing was sewn to a felt backing that was glued to a brooch pin.

Extra cording was used to decorate the waistband and create more dangling bits near the opening at the front.

Then I had my friend Harriet (the official Bead-Dazzler) sew on tons of beads. Props to her for her hours of hard work (in exchange for food)--I certainly have the skills to sew beads myself, but I definitely lacked the time.

The detailing is what really makes the design. There is such richness and embellishments, and I had a lot of fun realizing those little details.

Next I had to create the leaf detail that sticks up from the waistband of the skirt. The problem was, it need to be rigid, but also sheer. The fabric I had was nice and sheer, but super flimsy. 

On the Splatoon project I was introduced to this magical stuff called "heat n bond".  I essentially used it to fuse my fabrics together around a central support structure made of leftover corset bones. I have to say--I had no idea if my crazy idea would work, but it did, so YAY! 

First I traced out the shape I wanted on the paper side of the heat n bond. I cut this out and then ironed it to my first layer of silk. Then I used fray check and applied it all around the outline of the leaf shape and let it dry before cutting it out--this way, when I cut it out it would not fray. 

Then I laid the leaf shape heat n bond side down on the second layer of silk. I carefully lined up my corset bones where I wanted them and pinned them in place. I carefully sewed around them using the machine's zipper foot. The bones were now sandwiched between the two layers of silk. 

Then I ironed the whole thing, fusing my layers together.  

The next step was to apply more fray check, around the edge of layer two, allow that to dry and then cut it out.

The finished leaf feels completely different than the fabric I started with.

To create the veins on the leaf I used a similar process. 

First I traced out the desired shape in heat n bond. I then cut that out and used an iron to apply it to the first layer.

Then I fused it to the second side. I fray checked the outline, allowed it to dry and then cut it out.

This was then tacked on the leaf by hand in a few key spots.

The leaf was simply tucked into the waistband when I wore the costume.

Sakura - Sailor Suit - CardCaptor Sakura

First let's take a look at my more casual Sakura outfit: her school uniform (spring/summer version). I've been cosplaying for over 10 years and this is my first school uniform/sailorsuit outfit I've ever made! Crazy huh? This cosplay was especially picked for Otakon because it packs into a suitcase really easily, I already had the wig, and it has very few layers which makes it great for insanely hot weather.

I got a couple cute pics with EleventhPhotograph at Otakon this summer! Many thanks! Also thanks to my sister Alex for lending me her adorable Kero plushie while she is away in Japan!

One thing I made sure of when I bought my fabrics for this costume was that none of my fabrics were shiny. I've seen many school uniform costumes done with shiny fabrics and I always think it looks cheap... Lets be honest, I've never seen a real school uniform that is shiny/satiny. It's also not coloured to look shiny in the show either.

To start I patterned a basic block for the shirt, ignoring the usual front and back darts in favour of only having a small dart come in from the armhole at the bust. I curved in the sides a bit at the waist, but did not make the shirt tight fitting. This was to ensure that a) I could slip it on over my head even though it is not made of stretch fabrics, and b) so I looked younger. Sakura is supposed to be a between grades 4-6, meaning she is a child, so I wanted to make sure that I didn't look too old for the character. In spite of the fact that I am not particularly well-endowed, a fitted blouse would still reveal curves that a child would not have, so hence a more loose fitting shirt was in order.

I patterned the neckline and sailor collar by creating a mockup of the shirt and then draping the collar on Molly (my Judy) with muslin. This way I was able to easily figure out the proportions.

Once that was done I laid out my fabric and cut out my pieces.

The collar was first sewn right sides together, excess fabric clipped and then flipped right way out and ironed.

I then top-stitched on 1/4" black twill tape to make the edge detail. I made sure my bobbin thread was white (as opposed to black to match my top thread) so my stitching would be virtually unnoticeable from the other side.

Then I sketched out the crest for the back detail.

Next step was the appliqué and embroidery of the crest on the back. Using yellow fabric leftover from Kero, I blocked out the areas for the 'wing' part of the crest. This saved me from having to fill that area with an embroidery stitch. Instead I merely sewed around the edges. Next I did the red shield-shaped piece in the center.

After finishing all the seams inside the shirt,  I made some puffy sleeves. I made sure they weren't too puffy, so they were only slightly larger than the armhole. I used a basting stitch along the sleeve cap and bottom and cinched them to the right diameters before sewing them to the armhole and cuffs respectively. The cuffs are just rectangles sewn into a loop and folded in half lengthwise that I have sewn another stripe of black twill tape on.

I hemmed the bottom of the shirt with a simple rollover, but went back and changed the side seams to have a 2" slit up each side.

Then I attached the collar to the outside ans zigzagged the raw edge. I flipped it to the inside, pressed it, then top stitched it down. I took extra care to reinforce the point of the v-neckline.

The last step for the shirt was to create a little triangle  to sit under the v-shaped neckline. It was secured with dome fasteners so it could be removed so I could take the shirt on and off. 

Now lets talk about the skirt. Creating a pleated garment is all about math, unfortunately. The garment has 10 pleats. In order to make it fit snugly at both waistband an over hips I had to take 2 measurements, one at waist, and on 4" down from waist. Then I divided those numbers into 10 equal parts and carefully drew out a pattern piece. Left you can see one of my side panels. The thin trapezoids are the parts that would be visible, the wide ones would be hidden in the folds. 

The hardest part of patterning this was making it so the side seams would be inside a pleat and therefore virtually invisible. 

The size of the skirt at the bottom was arbitrarily decided, but I knew I wanted it to be pretty full, because it's CardCaptor Sakura guys.

Each of my three skirt pieces I sewed the center pleats into before sewing the pieces together. I sewed the center back together and added in the zipper before finishing the pleats directly beside it.

I ironed the pleats centered, rather than off to one side (because that's how it looks in all the reference photos). I didn't press the pleats all the way to the hem either, because I wanted them to still have that soft, rounded look. For your own reference look at my Long Pleated Skirt to see what pleats look like when pressed to one side, all the way to the hem. Very different, right?

Once the pleating and waistband were finished I hemmed the skirt.

The saddest part is I couldn't figure out how to work pockets into the skirt, so this costume has no pockets. Oh well.

Above you can also see my mockup for the hat. Surprisingly this is the item I was most excited to make. I've always loved the hats that Clamp designs, particularly these adorable sailor hats. I love that they magically perch on the back of the head.

When making hat, always take the band measurement while wearing the wig you will be wearing under it, otherwise you run the risk of making it too small!

Below you can see the pattern pieces for this--the pieces on the right are both folded in half.

First I assembled the band, with is a long rectangle, sewn into a loop and then folded in half lengthwise. For the cap first I sewed the c-shaped piece into a circle, then sewed it right sides together with the top of the cap.

I finished the inner seams, then pressed it right way out. Next I attached the band, leaving a gap at center back to attach the black tails. The tails were sewn right sides together, clipped, flipped and pressed. These were then inserted into the gap at the back, splayed at a slight angle, and stitched in place. I then finished the inner seams of the hat.

Last piece to make was the under skirt. Above you can see the pattern, which is completely different from the pleated over skirt which is made of rectangles. This is because a) pleating is time consuming, b) all you see is the edge and c) I didn't want all that bulk under the already considerable bulk of those pleats.

Using the 2 measurements I took earlier to create my pleats, I made the top piece of the underskirt. Then I made a circle skirt piece to attach to that (of which I cut 3, making the bottom 1.5 circles). This ensured that all the flare of the underskirt would be below the stitch line of the pleats, reducing bulk.

I attached a lace trim to the bottom edge as an extra cute detail.

At the center back at the waist of the underskirt, it was finished to remain open. The underskirt was attached to the overskirt by buttons (holes on the underskirt, buttons on the inside of the overskirt). This way it was removable and could be washed separately.

Lastly I made a tie. I mocked it up with leftover muslin scraps, and then made a nice one out of red twill.

Each of the individual pieces were stitched right sides together then flipped right way out and pressed. I top stitched more black twill tape along the bottom of the tie edge. before hand stitching the pieces together. The last thing I did was make a velcro closure at the back.  Because I have no idea how to tie a real sailor tie.

Isabelle - Outfit - Animal Crossing

Hey all! This is the second (and last) post on my Isabelle costume I made for my sister Alex! Isn't she adorable!? :D The outfit itself is pretty simple, but presented its own challenge: making checkered fabric!

Go here to look at how I made the Wig, Ears & Tail!

Thanks again to EleventhPhotograph for the cute pics! :D Be sure to check out his con gallery!

Let's talk about the easy stuff first: namely the purchased items. The blue skirt we got at H&M on sale for $7! Not bad! We both agreed it wasn't necessary to spend the money on fabric and/or the time on making something that could be easily purchased and worn as is. (Especially when it is perfect.)

The tights are from American Apparel, who have a decent selection of colours, but are on the pricier side. Sadly my favourite tights/socks store at Queen&Spadina seems to have gone out of business. (This was the place we got all of our insanely purple tights for the Katamari costumes...) I'm a bit sad about this, because I would rather not pay the iron American Apparel price for wacky coloured tights... So if anyone knows another good local GTA store to buy coloured tights, let me know!

The shoes are from her wardrobe (though technically the character doesn't wear shoes, we were both in agreement that shoes were necessary for wandering around a convention). The red ribbon was from Sussman's Bridal Supplies!

For the blouse I used the same pattern I created for her Suppi costume, but modified it: I made the collar rounded, and the sleeves pouffy. The pouffe sleeves were really just trial and error, I took the original pattern piece, made it a bit wider and taller and then gathered it along the top and bottom edge. Then I just added a rectangle to make the cuff. If you want to see how I put the original blouse together, go here!

To make the checkered fabric I started off with 3 different colours of green: light, mid and darker. I had a heck of a time finding 3 colours of green that looked good in combination that were close to the reference image. I eventually ended up with this combo, which is not 100% accurate, but I like it. :)

I started by cutting strips of fabric 3" wide. This included a 1/4" seam allowance on each side--meaning my finished squares would be 2 1/2" wide. I cut twice as many of the mid green fabric. Then I sewed my strips together lengthwise. The goal was to make 2 separate striped fabrics: one in light and mid green, one in mid and darker green. Make sure when you hold them up to each other the mid green stripes are offset, like in the picture above. This is important for the next step.

(You can also use this technique to make regular checked fabric--like a chessboard--you will just only need to make 1 striped fabric with an even number of each colour stripes.)

You then press your seams flat on your striped fabrics. Then you can begin cutting again. Cut 3" strips of your striped fabric perpendicularly to your stripes. You should end up with strips like pictured above.

Then you sew those strips together alternating the light stripe fabric with the darker stripe fabric. Press seams flat again. The result should look like the picture on the left.

It's difficult to gauge exactly how much fabric you are making, but as a rule of thumb I think it is better to have too much than too little.

I laid my pattern pieces down on my fabric and cut out the shapes. (I had already done a mockup at this point) I had to be mindful of the checker pattern, to ensure it lined up at the center front.) I sewed the vest together at the side seams, shoulders and closed the darts at the armholes. I opted to leave this garment less fitted because a) the character's body is essentially a sausage shape and b) too many darts really mess with the checker pattern particularly when the squares are this big.

I made an identical vest in the darkest green fabric to line the vest with, otherwise all the seams from the checked fabric will be exposed and fraying on the inside. I made the front placket and collar facing in this fabric also. I finished the bottom edge with a stripe of my darker green (the one I used in the checker fabric).  This finished those raw edges. The darkest green accent fabric is actually leftover from the Prince costume!

 I added 2 strips of velcro to close the jacket. The 2 large buttons added on top were just decoration.

Using the darkest green I made 4 rectangles. 2 were top stitched onto the front as fake pockets the other two had velcro to cinch in the waist at the back. This was instead of putting darts, which would have looked weird on the checkered fabric.

Lastly I attached a bias tape to the inside to finish off the armholes.

Long Pleated Skirt

This is an original design based loosely on (late) 1930's fashion, with my own spin on things. It's a very plain skirt, mostly an experiment in pleats, which are just as tedious as I remember. Last time I did a fully pleated garment was quite a while ago... I think I've come a long way since making my Hogwarts uniform.

 This is a wool fabric with a nice weight to it. It hangs nicely, though I wish the colour was a touch brighter. I like it with the bronze-y coloured buttons. :)

I patterned the waistband to dip down in the front, but somehow managed to seriously mess up my math and made it 5 inches too big... Not sure how that happened. :/

The skirt panels are all rectangles, and there are 18 pleats. The pleats are a lot of math that I can't possibly explain. It involved deciding how many pleats I wanted, how full I wanted the skirt and then doing lots of division. All I can really say is that it is much easier to do in centimeters than inches...

Also: so much ironing. Every single pleat had to be ironed before and after sewing.

The most difficult part was that I added in hidden pockets to this skirt. They are hidden under one of the pleats, built into the seams joining the front panels to the back.

After attaching the waistband, I did all the top stitching on the pleats and the waistband.

< Here you can see one of the hidden pockets.

The last step was the buttons and button holes.