Construction Details:

This was my first truly 50-50 shared project with Alex. I did most of the sewing, but she did a lot of the patterning and made the sword (her first prop!) with pretty much no help from me.



All of the fabric is stretch cotton sateen (except for the buttcape, which is casa satin, and the armwarmers, which are spandex/lycra), and I think I speak for us both when I say I LOVE THIS FABRIC!!



We started off with the shirt, which is probably the most difficult piece. I sketched out a really vague pattern for a paneled tank top and made it extra long so we could do the whatever it is that's going on the ride side hem. There are seams straight up the middle in the front and back, and in the sides as well. After sewing up the tank, I attached the collar and added red bias tape around the edges, and extended it down the shirt until it hit the point where Alex wanted the middle "pointy" panel to start, then I sewed the shirt closed in the front.



For the weirdo right side hem, Alex marked where she wanted the longest point to come down to, (since the tank was still extra long at this point) and then just followed the production art of Asuna to sketch out the pattern/shape of the hem on the fabric. And she got it right on the first shot!! So we cut out the bottom part of the shirt and added the bias tape there as well. Bias tape also went around the arm-holes (woo no hemming!).



For the smaller red lines that outline Asuna's outfit, Alex painstakingly drew those on with a fine-tipped fabric marker, but we'll probably make them thicker for future cons. Alex cut out the other little crosses that go on the shirt, fray checked them, and fabric glued them to the shirt.



Alex said she wanted her skirt to be super short, so we cut out a 13.5" by 70" (I think?) rectangle of the red fabric, hemmed it, sewed on the white ribbon, and then pinned it into box pleats, ironing as we went along. For the waistband of the skirt, we simply took a rectangle of 5" width and Alex's waist measurement for length, folded it the hot-dog way, and pinned it to the top of the skirt after we had made the box pleats (allowing me to both sew the box pleats in place and attach the skirt to the waistband at the same time)! There's an invisible zipper in the back to close it.



For the buttcape, we did a trapezoid where the top part covers a little more than half her waist measurement and the bottom flares out to I want to say 1.5x her waist measurement, and comes down to just past her calf. We added bias tape around the edges rather than lining it so that it wouldn't get too stiff.



For the armbands, we just made little sleeves that were her bicep's circumference at the top, and then tapered after her elbow. Added bias tape to the end, and a little piece of elastic as a ring to slip over her middle finger to keep it from twisting. There should be lace near her shoulder, but I mixed up her measurements with someone else's the night before the con so it wound up being too small and seam ripped off.



We are still in the process of figuring out what on earth her red back/arm piece is doing, but will hopefully have it complete for AB 14. She did have shoe covers made out of craft foam, but unfortunately, one of her dogs thought that it would be like a totally awesome snack right before the con. We didn't have enough time to finish the chest armor, but we plan to make it out of reinforced craft foam.



The sword has an insulation foam base and was wrapped in painter's tape so it could be spray painted without the paint eating away at the foam. The "ring" is craft foam, and it does feature a resin gem on there somewhere!

Personal Thoughts:

THE CON IS COMING, LET'S TRY TO FINISH THIS IS IN ONE NIGHT!

Styling Notes

Alex is a perfectionist and had to get the braids JUST SO. We also trimmed the bangs and straightened it.

Wig Review

I have never cried over straightening a wig before, but this one is so pretty that it felt like a crime!

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