Construction Details:

For the record, I am aware that my color choices aren't exactly on-par. The thing about the early manga illustrations is that the color of her uniform varies from a baby pink, to fuschia, while her hair ranges from a light yellow blonde, to the nearly orange seen in the pictures I've posted here. For my purposes, I already owned a wig in #144 (Gold Coin) that was the perfect base style, so it's what I used. As far as my selection of shade for the uniform, it came down to 2 factors. The reference image I had on me at the time leaned more towards the fuschia, but the deciding factor for me was to find a stretch-knit and a non-stretch that matched in color. I succeeded in finding a stretch knit, and a quilters cotton, that matched EXACTLY, and I took it as a sign from the cosplay gods.

As mentioned above, the wig is a Linda in #144, with only a little bit of bang-trimming, back-combing, and hair-spraying. The jacket was made almost completely off a butterick jacket pattern -- the one I also used for Mytho's school uniform, Japan, and the base for my jacket for Magical-Girl form Homura Akemi. the only modifications were to split the side and back seams, and fold the fabric in ever-so-slightly to achieve that 'flared' slit. All the trim work is light blue bias tape, and the pockets are facade made of a matching bias quilt-binding. I am extremely proud of all the trim work, as I learned to do mitered corners and stitch-in-the-ditch for this costume, and I LOVE how clean the end result is. Obviously, I went with the cartoony look on this one, so I actually painted all of my buttons with a 'inca gold' colored metalic paint, and then bought a cotton to match as closely as possible for the triangles on the collar; said triangles are appliqued/satin stitched on. The shorts were made off a basic leggings pattern I had lying around, and taught me the tricks of having the right kind of needle in your machine for knit fabric, as well as tension adjusting for sewing on a stretch fabric with a zig-zag stitch. Oddly, the shorts probably took me longer to figure out than the body of the jacket. The socks are extremely ghetto, and yes, I made them -- they are the same stretch fabric used on the shorts, using the stir-up bottom part of the same leggings pattern... then I attached a tube piece onto the front, so they had a way to stay anchored inside my shoes. the shoes themselves are white vinyl... saddle-shoe like lace-ups that I bought ages ago when I first entertained the idea of cosplaying Utena again. A quick coat of pain to the toes and heels, and then I re-laced them. Luckily, the shoes are so tight, I laced them loosely and they still fit snug to my feet. I knotted the laces and tucked the ends, and glued my little bows onto the knots, effectively turning my shoes into slip-ons. The ring is actually the same ring I made back in 2004, with a little sanding on the inside to better fit my finger, and a quick paint touch-up. I got a lot more comments on that ring than I expected to!

Personal Thoughts:

All things considered, I'm extremely pleased with this costume. I ended up looking a lot better than I expected it to, and it meant a lot to me to make this costume; my first costume ever was Utena's TV uniform, and I had a lot of help, and it didn't turn out well. This character and costume have a special place in my heart, and it's been wonderful to go back and do it over.

Styling Notes

All I did was trim the bangs, back-comb the roots, and hair-spray. Done.

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