Construction Details:

I'd say that this has been my most labor-intensive costume to date. Construction-wise, it's a hodgepodge of different patterns all frankensteined together in a hopefully cohesive whole.

For the sleeves and collar/hood I used a cloak pattern and attached them to a thrift store T-shirt. The dress is dropped-waist 50s-style, lengthened from the pattern with Heat'N'Bond appliques. The bloomers are just a standard bloomers pattern, lengthened to add the goofy frill at the bottom. The wrap...I kind of hate it because it never wants to behave, but I probably just need to modify the fit. It's made of faux fur with ruffle trim and a pleather waistband. The bow is also pleather, and the ring is painted wood with ribbon ties. The shoes are good old cheapo flats from Target.

My favorite part of this costume is definitely the headpiece. It's made from heat-formed craft foam, model magic, and a wooden doll head, all painted and glued onto a barrette that goes through the wig mesh, through my hair, and back out the mesh to clip. When that thing's on, it ain't goin' nowhere.

As for the props, these are my first real homemade props, so I have a special fondness for them. The spear is a cheapo rush job of painted PVC pipe with a craft foam head. The head's kind of mangled now, so I probably need to replace it with something a little more sturdy. The neat thing about the spear is that it breaks down into three pieces for easier travel and storage- I just tape it together and hide the seams with the wrappings. There are dowels jammed into the joins for extra stability.

The pagoda was one big adventure from the start. I took a plastic Christmas ornament, painted it with transparent glass paint, made a base from model magic and a paper cup, made the top from heat-formed craft foam (seriously, I friggin' love my heat gun), painted everything, and then glued the whole shebang together. The neat thing about the pagoda is that it does light up blue- I have a blue LED keychain from Skyy Vodka that I jammed into the hole of the Christmas ornament and taped to stay on. When you remove the keychain and shine it at the wall, it projects the Skyy Vodka logo. It's like the Batsignal, but for drankin' times.

Personal Thoughts:

Shou, Shou, Shou, how I love you and making bad puns with your name. Shou is one of my favorite Touhous for her personality, and she has my favorite design out of all of them. With Miluda as my Byakuren, it's good times. I still want to do a proper location shoot of this costume, as I mostly only have con photos. The costume isn't the easiest to wear (so many layers!) but at least I was nice and warm at ALA.

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