First, I finished my leotard.
It fits perfectly. I realize it looks a little awkward in the picture, I had not yet sewn in the snaps in the crotch, I was just checking fit. This it with the slimming leotard underneath as well. I was able to put the seam at the bust line like I wanted to give the illusion of the breastplate thing, and I actually added a few layers of quilt batting to the top part just to emphasize it. Also when I actually wear this costume I will be wearing an absurdly padded bra just to get me closer to that anime style bust size. :P
I also tried adding an actual corset underneath everything:
I mean, obviously it adds some weird lines at the bottom, and there are ridges where the bones of the corset are, but I don't think that bothers me. And adding the corset tucks in my waist to also got me closer to those anime proportions. So I will probably go ahead and wear a corset with this costume. The collar is done too, but I forgot to take pictures of it.
So, when I first started planning this costume, I was going to be doing it with my friend Sheali who was going to be Sailor Saturn. So we decided to do the super sailor version just to make her life easier, because regular Sailor Saturn has that crazy crystal brooch and winged sleeve thingies. All the super sailors have simple heart shaped brooches and just the little extra sheer bit added to the sleeves, not to difficult. But since I'm now doing this on my own, I don't want to do the super version. But I'd already bought the heart shaped brooch. I attempted to sand it into a round shape, but it was going to end up too small. And take eight million years to get it to look nice again. So I just bought a new one:
Starlit Creations on Etsy, just a great shop. It's the same one where I bought the heart shaped ones to begin with. I'm very happy with it.
Also the little bottles you see in the background are my tinted contact lenses:
The boots came out really nicely, too. So, like I said earlier, I was just going to cut down a pair of thigh high boots to the correct shape:
To create the white trim I used bias tape, but the stuff I had wasn't wide enough, so I ironed it flat and then refolded it to the width I wanted.
The fabric was rather thin and see through, plus I immediately had concerns about stains and general grunginess that is attracted to white fabric. So I added a coat of clear polycrylic, which of course made it more see through, so I then painted over it with a layer of white acrylic paint, and then another coat of polycrylic. The white cuffs are now very stiff, but after lining the inside with some satin ribbon, it's not uncomfortable. And my white borders are stain proof, which is the main goal. It took much longer than I felt like it should have to get the fabric arranged and sew on, but the end result is good.
Sigh. I just hate pointed toe shoes. I feel like the look weird. They don't, as far as I can tell, I'm pretty sure its just the view from above that looks weird to me, but no one else. I'm just crazy. And the pointed toe is probably good, because it's supposed to make your legs look longer, and those anime sailor scouts are like 90% leg.
The skirt is in progress now, this is the fabric with all the pleats pinned down:
However, it's too long. I was just going to leave the pleats as they were and cut the skirt shorter, but then that messes with the precise measuring I did for the width of each pleat, so I think I'm going to have to cut the fabric down and then just repleat it, which is mildly annoying. But I want it to be right, I want to make sure the skirt is full enough. I'm fully prepared to make a mini petticoat if I must to fill it out. I have black tulle even. Reality defying anime outfits are so annoying! And this one isn't even one of the most difficult ones. I'm just picky.
I'm also gradually, very gradually, working on the staff. The picture on the left is a general pile of supplies, wooden board for the key parts, wooden balls for the round parts, etc. I even found the correct hardware to install screw parts in the staff so it can be taken apart if necessary. The picture on the right is my paper pattern for the head, along with my notes on the size and shape of each segment of the staff. There's a whole second page of those you can't see. The paper pattern will be transferred to cardboard which will be sprayed with expanding foam, carved, covered in paper mache and painted. I don't yet have all the orb parts for the head of the staff, I'm not quite sure how I'm doing that yet.
The gloves are done as well:
I now understand why people use cording to fill the cuffs. I did quilt batting, and while it seems puffy enough, it flattens out when I wear it. Sewing channels around cording just seems so annoying though! Sigh. But there's a decent chance I'm gonna redo this if I have enough fabric left, which it looks like I will. Fuller puffs will just look so much nicer. This isn't bad, but I can probably do better. But if I redo it, it will be after absolutely everything else is done and I just have some time left, because this is fine. It just could be better.
However, while making the gloves I tried to make my serger finish the edges, with like four layers of quilt batting in there. The end result was my serger freaked the hell out and something got knocked way, way out of alignment, making my serger unusable. So my serger is in the shop right now and I've kind of put sewing on hold until I get it back. I can redo the skirt pleats and whatnot without it, but I really want it for finishing. So my attention is shifting towards the staff right now, since I don't need the serger to do that. I'm making progress....
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