Construction Details:

I was the leader for this group, so it fell upon me to design how we were going to approach the characters. I knew I wanted to integrate LEDs into the design, and came up with a way to thread the lights into the chest and butt bows while using translucent glitter casa as fabric. I imagined a way to layer the fabric in my head to hide the wires and still allow us to use interfacing, and to my surprise, it actually worked in reality the first time I tried it! I decided to use a store-bought leotard and attached sleeves to it using a stretch stitch. The triangle-shaped collar was hand-patterned and made as a "pocket" of fabric with interfacing and stuffed with posterboard. The detailing was done in bias tape and the collar fastens in the back.The skirts are layered half-circle skirts which zip up the side and are puffed out with a petticoat and a large plastic zip tie sewn into the bottom hem. The two heart gems are cast in resin and glued on. The most challenging part of Chibiusa's design is the space helmet; I decided to get a kid's toy astronaut helmet which Sketch cut in half, cut holes for my odangos, and reshaped the visor to the curved edge found in the artwork. The circle pieces where found at Michael's, which we painted with the crescent moon and screwed them onto the helmet. A wooden dowel with and LED and glass ball finished off the top. I was afraid the helmet would force me to remake my Chibiusa wig to fit, and I was running out of time in the leadup to Dragon*Con. Luckily, my old Chibiusa wig and odango accents worked pretty well. I'm pretty happy with how this came out, though I want to do some more minor detailing before I wear it again.

Personal Thoughts:

I rarely have the desire to make a costume which is based on fanart; the only one I had made prior to this was the "Kingdom Hearts" version of Rinoa Heartilly drawn by Dion Rogers in 2006. However, when I saw these adorable Senshi designs by DeviantArt user hyamei they were just too amazing to pass up! The Jetsons-style 1960s space costumes just screamed glowsticks, glitter, and a lot of fun. Check out the artist here: http://hyamei.deviantart.com/art/Retro-Scouts-393932077

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