Construction Details:

I performed a skit in this costume with Firelily for Anime USA 2011.

I worked on it in a span of 3 months, and it was pretty frustrating at times. I've never made a costume with SO much fabric for myself before! The kimono has close to 12 yards of fabric if you include the lining of the kimono. I'm not used to such a lose fit, so I felt super frumpy walking around in it!

The details on the kimono (cranes, peacock, and swirly details) are all hand painted and/or pieces of fabric heat n' bonded to the kimono. All of the different gradients were done with several colors of floral spray.

The little red dress underneath was a pain in the butt, because of the shapes of the white trim....and brocade frays so much! I ended up having to melt the edges of the inside seams before lining it so that the seams would not fray apart.

The green coral head pieces are made from Wonderflex; They insert into the wig with little plastic combs. The crown is a combo of Wonderflex, Styrofoam, Paper Clay, and craft foam.

Personal Thoughts:

So much painting! Also, I have never used so much Heat n' Bond on a costume before! I'm not used to wearing so much fabric, so I feel sort of frumpy when I wear this.

Styling Notes

Firelily did the main styling of the wig, and she did a darn good job at it! I learned a lot from it! I just made the wefts for her to add to the wig and added some hair along the back and sides to hide my black hair.

Wig Review

The quality of this wig is excellent. I babied it a lot during the convention, but i'm still amazed that it wasn't a tangled frizzy mess by the end of the night. It's still super pretty after wearing it all day which is rare for such a long wig!

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