I'm going to start by saying that I don't have a lot of cosplay-making experience, but have been sewing for a long time. This is absolutely not a beginner project! I wanted to do a sort of write-up of how the project went so that I can share what I leaned with others. This costume is for my friend Trinity, who loves Sailor Mars. Here's the main image I used for reference while making the costume:
I started with the McCalls pattern number M7455, which is a Yaya Han pattern. Clearly, it's designed for Sailor Moon costumes, so it seemed like a no-brainer to use this pattern instead of drafting one myself.
rest of the post is under the cut
I made the v-neck bodice, gathered sleeve, and tiered skirt. (pattern pieces 2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22)
As for fabric, the red and purple are both polyester satin, the pink is organza, the white is four-way stretch spandex, and lining is swimwear lining. The spandex and lining both came from Bra-Maker's Supply. Those types of fabric usually need to be bought at specialty stores.
After I measured Trinity, I found I needed to take two inches off the length of the torso. That meant one inch out of the middle of each torso pattern piece so that the seams still lined up. The pattern itself has instructions on how to do that. If I do this again, I think I'll take all the length off the midriff piece only, because on my finished product the seam between the midriff and bodice pieces falls a little too high.
This was my first attempt at sewing stretch fabric of any kind. At one point there was actual literal screaming. Like I said, not a beginner project. I hate basting, and this pattern has more of it than any other pattern.
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| a little non-euclidean geometry on the bodice |
The puffed sleeve was shortened by a whole 3 1/2 inches, and I made the cuff longer to accommodate the two rows of piping filling. I decided not to make the under layer of the sleeve. In the pictures the sleeves look very translucent. (You can kind of see her arms through them.) Organza is not the easiest thing to work with either, but it looks so pretty when it's gathered.
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| such poof |
The skirt pieces were absolutely enormous. They took up just about the whole table once they were unfolded.
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| even folded up, the skirt pieces are huge |
The first set of pleats (on the red layer) was almost impossible. The marks on the pattern didn't make any sense and didn't exactly match up with the picture of the finished product. Finally, with some help, I got them figured out.
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| just before I spent hours basting pleats in place |
Then the pink layer was fairly straightforward, I just laid out the red skirt and copied the pleat direction from that.
There was a point where I was a little worried the floof would eat me, but I managed to subdue it with pins and basting.
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| take that you giant fluffy jerk! |
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| The dress, right before everything went wrong. |
On the subject of things not going even remotely according to plan: When Trinity tried to try on the costume for the second time, it wouldn't pull over her hips. There just wasn't enough stretch where the bodice attached to the skirt. (This is when I took another little break to scream into a pillow and then eat some chocolate.) In the end, I cut the panties off of the outfit, and had Trinity wear a pair of athletic shorts under it instead. This also makes it much easier to use the bathroom without having to take off the whole outfit.
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Overall, I feel like the individual steps worked well, and the result I was getting was good, but somehow it wasn't fitting on Trinity like it was supposed to? Also maybe the pattern itself should have gone through a couple more test stages and maybe a more thorough proofreading. If/when I make it again I'm absolutely making a lot of changes.
I also have a post on how I made the accessories and decorations here.
If anyone has any tips, tricks, or questions, feel free to comment here or drop me a line on my tumblr or facebook.
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