ACEN 2010 Cosplay - Miwako Sakurada [Paradise Kiss]

I decided to cosplay one of my all-time favorite manga/anime characters - Miwako Sakurada from Paradise Kiss *o* Not only is this series among my top two favorite series, this character is herself one that I especially like and feel like I can identify with.

Since it's my first full dress, I decided to go with one of her simpler looking outfits that doesn't require special printed fabrics. I also chose a very Lolita styled dress so that I could make good use of the tutorials floating around the Lolita sewing community on Livejournal, plus maybe be able to actually wear the dress for something other than my cosplay! Hence, I went with this outfit:


I couldn't find any actual colored reference pics, but based on previous cosplayers, the consensus seems to be that the dress is pink with a white apron on top, and then white socks and shoes. So that's what I went with as well. I needed a matching thing-carrying device as well, and Miwako conveniently has an adorable Happy Berry backpack to go with this outfit!

So there were four main parts of this cosplay that I had to do: dress, apron, wig and backpack!

Scallop-Edged Dress

This was quite a big project, since it's the first full dress I've ever made! I had to draft patterns for bodice and sleeves, as well as a skirt with a scalloped hemline. For the bodice and sleeves, I used this awesomely helpful tutorial from the Livejournal sew_loli community.

I decided to do a fully lined bodice, so I basically had to make 2 bodices (inner and outer layers shown):


And then sewed them together in the final assembly (front and back - with elastic channels):


The skirt was also fully lined (with polyester lining) and has 2 pockets. Just the outer layer (before lining was attached) is shown:


And the final assembled product?


Yaaaaaaaaay! Okay, so I had to dart in the waist because my waist is noooot as big as my bust, so next time I should just draft the darts into the pattern instead of doing them ad hoc. Also, I should've been more careful with the skirt gathering, because it's actually slightly skewed offcenter relative to the bodice, but oh well... Now I know.

Apron

The apron was pretty easy to draft. I basically just made a rectangle for the upper part, and a circle skirt (with a cutout in the back) for the lower part. Waist ties are attached at the waist and neckties run through the top of the upper part (to make the gathers).

Tadaa!!


This one also wasn't perfect. I should've used more like a trapezoid or something, because it tended to hitch up in the side/back and droop in the front. I fixed this on the fly by just safety pinning the top edge of the apron to the dress so it wouldn't droop anymore. Oh, and the neckties needed to be longer.

Wig

I started off with an "Innocent" wig in pink from Amphigory:


I took out the original ribbons + rubber bands and redid the ponytails a little higher with matching pink baubles:


And then proceeded to make a partial bun twist with each pony, and pin the remaining dangling curls into place over the bun part.


I'm actually really please with this! Yay for successful first wig styling!! Not that it was complicated, but, still...

Happy Berry Backpack

Aaaaand the part I'm most proud of... my backpack!! It's fully functional, with a drawstring closure and a hook to keep the top flap down (I'm going to switch it to something better soon), and is lined with silky pink lining on the inside! The green part is actually a removeable pin, if I ever wanted to remove it, and the wings are stuffed so they're actually 3D!

After full assembly with outer and lining, but before wing-stuffing and drawstring (front and back):


Ugly grommets are ugly, but hey, I did it! It was kind of a pain putting them in by hand, but it actually worked pretty well, and they seem sturdy enough.


Green thingy pin:


Made of 3 layers of green felt (top layer is lighter green than the bottom 2), and the spiral is yellow paint.

The adjustment buckle on the strap is made from Shrinky Dink (painted pink):


Aaaand the final product:



I am very very completely pleased about this backpack, and it was plenty roomy to carry water bottle, program book, snacks, 20 calling card goody bags, camera, makeup, and more!

Pics of it all worn!




I need to learn how to put on wigs better to hide my stupid sideburns, but other than that I'm pretty pleased since it's only me second time cosplaying!!

Strawberry Frenzy - Wristcuffs and Sock Toppers

Aaaand here's part two of my strawberry frenzy! And at this point, it really is a frenzy, what with ACEN looming, piles of schoolwork, unfinished cosplays/goody bags... T_T

As mentioned before, the awesome lady I'm modeling in the fashion show for asked me to bring some strawberry-related accessories to go with the outfit. I made this set of wristcuffs and sock toppers with felt stuffed strawberries. Unfortunately, this is really short notice, and apparently Vogue Fabrics has fantaaaastic fabric selection but really rather... meager... lace selections. I realize this lace is "bad lace" (I'm going to be itching like crazy) but it was the best I could do (it had to be a beige, not white) in the time and resources that I have T_T I think they'll be fine from onstage though... Yay 20-feet rule!

Anyways, onto the pictures! I was in such a rush I didn't take any progress pics... oh well :-P

The wristcuffs! I decided to just have a single strawberry directly attached, so that it's not too busy/overwhelming for wrists:




And the sock toppers! These have cute dangles, since my legs are big enough for them to not look ridiculously overpowering :-P




Aaaand I finally managed to finish my complete Miwako cosplay (although, I'm waiting on shoes to hopefully get here in time), but Amulet Spade's shirt seems like it's not going to get redone anytime soon. At least I'm (hopefully) getting new boots that I will spraypaint brown, so that I'll have correct boots this time around.

Strawberry Frenzy - Jewelry Set

I'll be attending Anime Central 2010 this year (it's coming up soon!) and I'm walking in the fashion show. The designer I'm working with has me wearing a Country Lolita outfit with a strawberry motif. While she is providing the dress, a matching purse, and a necklace, I was asked to provide some other accessories of my own.

So I decided to start off by making a ring and some earrings to go with the outfit!

I've been experimenting with making plastic jewelry from Shrinky Dinks, and while I've had varying levels of success, I figured they would be the way to go for making some simple plastic strawberry pieces. It took a couple of tries to figure out which colors to use (because they get darker when the shrink plastic is cured) as well as how much to scale up the final size that I wanted (because it's not exactly 3X like the instructions say it is).

Here's the final setup, with one cured piece and two pre-cured pieces:


I used Sharpie permanent markers to draw and color the pieces first. Then I cured them in a toaster oven, and drew on the seeds afterwards using a black Sharpie. The holes in the earrings were punched before curing, using just a single-hole puncher.

I then added some wire and earring findings (wire was to make the strawberries face the right way), and glued a ring base onto the back of the unpunched strawberry.


TADAA!!

The backs are a bit rough, because the plastic got stuck to the paper I had it on in the oven, which had some lines. Those lines unfortunately transferred onto the plastic. And Shrinky Dinks sometimes end up curling up on themselves while they're curing, and while usually they unroll eventually, the Sharpie sort of melted off a little onto the backs, so there's random patches of red and green on the backs of a couple of the pieces. But nobody's looking at the backs anyways, especially not while I'm up on the stage.

So all in all, I'm quite pleased!

Next in line is a set of wristcuffs and sock toppers with felt strawberry dangles!

(And of course, I need to somehow find time to finish my cosplay(s)...)