Total cost (including wigs) 125.00
Time spent: About 35 hours including redos and not including the time looking for costume parts.
Monsterween 1999
Anime Theatre 2000
Cosplay Party 2000
AFO2 2001
FITcon 2002
Cosplayer Triathalon 2002
AFO3
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| Utena Tenjou | My inspiration to do this stemmed from seeing the Utena series in a Blockbuster video store. When I rented it, I could not wait to see more! This was initially made to attend a costume party in Orlando, and for some reason we were constantly mistaken for the Bee Gees! Materials used were black stretch velour, white satin, gold cord, white fringe, red satin, red 5/8" ribbon, floral foam, gold buttons, red buttons, wooden circles and triangles, gold lame, styrofoam circles, acrylic paint, and puff paint. Mind you, all this stuff wasn't initially used in the original making! | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Back to the studio! | |||||||||||||||||||
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| I made the jacket from a cheongsam pattern and modified the front a little to give the overlap and the back and sides for the flaps. The cuffs, I made from satin with no pattern, same with the pockets and the skirt. After all the components were made, I started sewing the trim. The details of this were insane, as I put seven yards of red ribbon trim all along the outer edges of the entire costume, including the cuffs and pockets. The original epaulets were carved from a piece of floral foam and I covered these with the sewn epaulets made from red satin, gold lame, and white fringe, which were similar to bun-covers in design, and rather oddly shaped and constructed. | |||||||||||||||||||
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| After attatching all the decorations, I sewed on all the buttons and made the front closure with sew-on snaps hidden beneath them. The triangles on the collar were made freehand, using tulip paint, and the brooch was made using wooden triangles and circles and painting them the appropriate colors. I then attatched them to the gold cord with stick-on brooch pins. The shoes were painted with fabric paint and laced with the same red ribbon as the trim. The sportsbra, socks and shorts were purchased. I initially believed that spraying my hair pink was the way to go, but learned otherwise when everything but my hair was pink! (my car still has pink spots) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| After the first event, I decided that the costume needed improvement, so I threw away the floral foam and got some styrofoam! The wig was found at a costume store in Melbourne called the Looking Glass botique, and new socks and shorts were purchased. After several alterations and replacing the trim, the costume was ready for showing...all except my poor, ruined shoes. The puff paint had cracked in a dozen places and peeled off in sheets, so I got a new pair of shoes and covered them in acrylic. Sadly, this did not improve matters because I used a pleather-like shoe, and the acrylic cracked | |||||||||||||||||||
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| in the same manner. So I replaced the shoes with a canvas based shoe, and they have served me quite well. After the discomfort of wearing the first wig, I opted for a wig I found at Wal-Mart during halloween. Unfortunately, this looked terrible with the costume and I needed another replacement, so I found one at an online costume store. Now, after three years, this costume has almost as much mileage as my car, but it is still my favorite! I can't wear it to too many more events, though or people will get tired of seeing it! Maybe this one is ready for retirement... Total cost (including wigs) 125.00 Time spent: About 35 hours including redos and not including the time looking for costume parts. |
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| Worn to: Monsterween 1999 Anime Theatre 2000 Cosplay Party 2000 AFO2 2001 FITcon 2002 Cosplayer Triathalon 2002 AFO3 |
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