Construction Details:

I decided to do the artbook version because I like the artist's original coloring better, so there are white as well as purple butterflies on her dress and the tassel is blue. This is the reference picture used: (http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/4431/69526722re8.jpg)

I made a really stupid mistake and put on the flower while looking at a mirror, so the flower & tassel are on the wrong side for some photos T_T

The butterflies on the dress are handpainted on with 5 layers of acrylic paint. Wig was made by me from a cheap short base wig and 1.5 packs of 48" jet black bulk/braiding hair extensions from doctoredlocks.com. The dark blue trim on the dress is of dark blue double fold 1/4" bias tape. The chinese knots were all individually handmade out of the same bias tape (omg it took FOREVER!!) and handsewn on (FOREVER +4 MORE HOURS).
The dress is made out of 7 pieces (not counting the collar) and has two darts sewn on the front to make it more form-fitting, the darts are hidden under the corset.

The corset is made out of 4-way stretch black pleather and lined with the same blue as the jacket fabric, because I bought ~20 yards of it for cheap and it's a fairly stiff/sturdy fabric. As such, I did not need to use boning in the corset. It laces up in the back and I picked a white stretchy shoe-string type cotton cord thing because it looks closest to the shape and size of the white ties in the character sheet.

For the trim on the jacket, I used black satin blanket binding. The jacket is fully lined and I had to custom make the blue tassel out of 2 bunches of embroidery/floss thread because I couldn't find one the right color and length.


All in all I am pretty happy with it. My favorite part is the bells. I used thick gold cord and sewed on 7 bells on each anklet and I jingle everywhere when I walk XD. For the designs on the jacket I also used thinner gold cord to match the anklets and sewed small gold buttons on top. What's really nice is that the artbook picture shows all the details of the outfit so there was a very nice guideline to work with and very little guesswork involved.

I spent a total of about 1.5 months on the costume with rigorous planning and intensive fabric hunting beforehand (I am really picky with color matching and how the fabric texture looks like in photos), and am really happy with how it came out. I installed a long zipper into the dress so it's fairly easy to get in and out of the costume, the hardest part is the corset which is made out of 11 different pieces. It takes me longer to do the makeup for this cosplay (~2 hours) than it does to put on the costume (~30 min), since it requires a very ethnic style of makeup.

Personal Thoughts:

one of the main things that made this costume so enjoyable was being able to debut it with some awesome friends :3 thanks ycysusan for doing Ciel and Evalime for cosplaying Lau with me, & Wilson for being my part-time bodyguard XD

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