Construction Details:

Most of the jewelry was made by me. The necklace and the chain bracelet was bought. The earrings are clip-ons. I have a great fear of hanging earrings being ripped out of my ears. ^^;; Silly me. The white top is cotton and lined. The black top is jersey knit and had bias tape as the straps. I wore a backless strapless bra. Yes, they DO exist and YES, they do work! The skirt is made from navy blue trigger fabric. The skirt is pleated with a box pleat in the front and back, resembling hakama. The inside of the pleats were sewn down to help keep them closed when moving around. The designs are hand-painted with pink and green textile paint. I tried to match the design to the skirt, but my imfamous "whoops! A paint spot!" chnaged that for one flower. ^^;; The sleeves are cotton, lined. The pink is dip-dyed to create the gradient. I made them a little shorter than what the character has because of the skit. In real life, you can't spin a staff and NOT get long sleeves caught up in it. :) As for the obi..... this is what ate up most of the 105 hours. The hibiscus is stiff felt with puffy paint for the design. That was the easy part. The obi itself is the terrible baroque satin. However, I used the "wrong side" of the fabric for the actually obi. It was the color I needed and the wrong side had the right amount of sheen. I used a marker and drew out the designs. I used light interfacing for the stitching. I handstitched the entire obi with satin and stem stitches. The blue flowers are bought and sewn on. Once embroidered, I removed the interfacing, washed and ironed. I put the heavy interfacing on the inside piece of satin, sewed both pieces together, turned them right-side-out, and ironed. Each section was done like this. The bow pieces are tied and stitched together to create the tied affect. The staff was created by my friend Chris. I'm terrible with props! He used a dowel rod, a wooden candlestick, some sort of compressed paper for the top, wood glue, and paint. He rocks!

Personal Thoughts:

I've made this costume 4 times. This is the final version I will be doing. I finally had the chance to make it the way I always wanted to. ^^

Sorry, you must be a registered user of and logged in to view and add comments. Either log in or register now!