Modesty's Costume Closet

For me, a big challenge comes with picking a character or making one up because I have lots of fondness towards the characters. And I am not opposed to doing a bit of cross-over or reaching back into my high school art and making Sailor Virgo or some other original character design.  For the base costume, I am keeping closer to the Manga references or the Reboot for references. Every character has multiple versions depending on the series and powerups. I'm going to try and stick with first season basics/initial costume. First I'll go over characters I'm considering: (Images all made with the Sailor Senshi Maker ) Canon Characters Sailor Moon Sailor Mercury Sailor Venus Sailor Mars Sailor Jupiter Sailor Saturn Sailor Pluto Original Characters Sailor Virgo Sailor X Sailor Goro Crossover Characters Sailor Rarity Sailor Fluttershy Sailor Mitsuri Sailor Tanjiro Sailor Shinobu Sailor Kyojuro So 16 character ideas total. Time to evaluate and eliminate to determine which one I will...

 This year for the Dance Party I want to go as a Sailor Scout. Currently, I'm not sure which character I'll go as or if I'll design my own or do some kind of crossover. (Sailor Mitsuri maybe. 😜) I have such a soft spot for the original characters as I grew up in the 90s with the original release of the manga in English and the wonky 90s anime. However, I do like some of the new designs of the reboot.  Thankfully, the characters all have the same BASE to the costume that is a leotard, with a sailor collar and short skirt. In essence, I'm going to work off my growing knowledge of how to sew swimsuits and leotard-based dancesport costumes to make this. And I did cheat and get a pattern just to get some ideas about how to put things together. But I think I'll make my own way.  As far as the variations between characters go, the differences are typically found in the sleeves, the colors, and the gemstone broach designs. (When looking exclusively at the Sailor Fuku/Unifo...

The intention here is to help you plan and prepare to create a feminine kimono ensemble for either an original design or character recreation.  For the feminine style kimono planner, we will cover:  Identifying Feminine Kimono Formality Customs Design Planner Resources, Tutorials, and Patterns  The key feature of a feminine kimono is the opening under the armpits and down the body side of the sleeve. The opening on the body is called Miyatsuguchi. Other identifying features are very rounded marumi on the sleeve corners or just very tall sleeves. When worn, there should be a fold underneath the obi called Oshori. The hem should be just over your toes and the collar is worn off the back of the neck instead of against it so there is some subtle shape differences compared to a male collar. But the obvious indicator is the open sleeves and miyatsuguchi.  Formality Customs Female formality customs can be a rabbit hole of learning. Things change over time and in some cases ...

This post is hopefully going to give you some ideas on how to plan and prepare to make a masculine style kimono ensemble. This will help both with original designs and cosplay.  We will cover:  Identifying a Masculine Kimono Formality Customs The Design Process Resources and Tutorial References Masculine Kimono The quickest way to identify a masculine kimono is to look at how the sleeves are attached. There will be no opening under the armpit on a masculine kimono. The sleeves also tend to have a sharper corner. The collar is generally all one width. Lastly, the bottom hem of the kimono reaches the wearer's ankles. However, since people vary wildly in height the most accurate and obvious identifier is the lack of an opening under the sleeves. (The opening is known as Miyasuguchi ).  Formality There are only a few identifiers that make a kimono more or less formal for men. These include material, the number of family crests (Kamon), Colors, and what other clothes you wear ...

 The next kimono I made was Ruka Rengoku's pink spring Kimono. Making this a cosplay kimono. Currently, the kimono is unpainted. But I wanted to pause and admire the progress made since starting these kimono projects.  Things that went well:  All the major seams are French seams. I did it correctly this time!  The collar was a bit easier to do this time.  I put the chikara nuno in correctly this time. At least for one of them.  I was able to do a blind hem by machine!  It fits!  Some things I learned:  Matching thread color is important. Hot pink really shows up.  This polyester silk is a bit more slippery than I expected.  My Clover Seam Iron is hottest on the rod part and not the flat part. Burned a little hole! (I was able to hide in the hem.)  What still needs doing:  I want to paint the flower pattern onto the kimono. I'm trying to make stencils to help me with clean lines. But I'm having trouble with placement. It's ...

 Sorry for the delay. I meant to write this out and post it a week ago, but I got laid off from my job a few days ago. However, I am pleased as punch with how my Yukata turned out. It makes me happy to look at it. So here she is!  Front view Back side. Infusible Ink Flowers I was SO scared this would not work. However, I can say I am SO HAPPY with how they look. It's spot on...except for one sleeve where I used the wrong green for the scattered leaves. 😖 It did help that I got the heat press.  Chest flower Sleeve flowers with the wrong green  Heko Obi To be honest I am already a bit worried about the heko obi. I serged it and I already had to redo the seams on my sewing machine due to little tears. I really should have learned more about sewing gauzy fabrics. Otherwise, it does match the character perfectly! Reminder this is the character. Things to Improve Like a dingus, I had written that I would use a microtex 70 needle and instead I used universal 80 for the yuk...

When you want to dress up as a character but it would not be appropriate to cosplay at the event,  character bounding or casual cosplay may be the solution! Or if you just don't have as many chances to go to cosplay events.  Personally, I just like the idea and think about Character Bounding or Casual Cosplay in everyday life a lot. But let's clarify what we mean by character bounding and casual cosplay.   What is Character Bounding? Typically, character bounding involves using a character's color schemes or motifs in your everyday clothes to portray the spirit of a character. This is popularized by Disney characters since you can't really cosplay at any of the Disney parks (because that is a job at the park.) However, you are not limited to Disney or fictional characters. I've also seen people use historical figures or fashions as a form of "bounding". (I honestly don't know why it's called bounding. If I were a good blogger I'd probably look ...

So the male kimono projects are fairly straightforward. One will involve fabric paint but I feel much more confident about that aspect now.  Although I am finally working out my own pattern for my hakama trousers. I'll post updates about that when I make them. However, construction will be following what patterns suggest. I'm not going to get creative.  Shinjuro Kimono Pattern/Instructions:  Alice in Cosplayland Kimono  Other References:  Gathered Hakama Hashira Shawl Knitting Pattern Materials : Fabric: Polyester Twill (Wine), Cotton Broadcloth (Black) Needle: Universal 80 Thread: All Purpose Presser Feet: Normal, Blind Hem, Wide Hem, Button Hole Techniques/Methods: French Seam/Felled seam/Pinked Seam Blind Hem My Production Plan Sew Kimono using the pattern instructions but using Billy's sleeve construction method.  Use my own pattern for the Hakama Trousers.  Add pocket pouches to the leg panels.  Sew and serge crotch seam, joining the left and...

 More Roses! More Ruka!  My belly is also that big...but with a food baby! This all happened because I purchased a set of an obiage and obijime that were very similar to the colors in this screenshot. Then somehow I ended up with purple cotton polyester and pink silk dupioni in my shopping cart. No idea how that happened. 😝 Juban  The juban will reuse the white nagajuban from Gothic Rose and use a plain white han eri.  Kimono The plan is to make this a hitoe kimono with tomosode length sleeves. It's made of pink polyester dupioni and will include stencil painted Rose flowers in a darker pink and pale green. The flowers will be placed similarly to the flowers on the Yukata: Back and top of sleeves, over the chest on left front panel, on the bottom corner of the left front panel.  Obi I'm making a Nagoya obi in purple cotton with some sections done in leftover purple satin fabric. I think I might keep it all one width all the way through, but I may make it half h...

 Two of my kimono projects are men's kimono which are constructed and worn differently than a women's kimono. But the projects are so similar that I'm going to talk about them in one post.  These are "formal" or semi-formal because they will include a haori and hakama. Despite making two they are the same design. I will refer to Kyojuro's Kimono as "Red" and Shinjuro's Kimono as "Rust".  Juban and Kimono For these outfits, I'm using the same juban! A black cotton hanjuban. The length of the juban should be around my hips and the sleeves very short!  You'll note that the sleeves on both kimono are short in length and height when compared to female kimono. Because we're busy fightin' and can't have sleeves in the way! The length of kimono will be above my ankles, but as you may imagine needs to be hiked up to wear hakama. This is often done by tucking the back hem of the kimono into the obi.  Hakama Speaking of Hakama ...

 My first kimono project is to recreate Ruka Rengoku (Luka in the english dub...ugh...) blue flower kimono from the anime.  This one! So some quick analysis.  What kind of Kimono is it? Going through my "design tree" I have these main questions to answer: Who is wearing it, what's the occasion/formality level and what time of year is it? Who: A middle aged married woman. This means that the height of the garment is my full height and the sleeves will be shorter.  Occasion: Sick in bed. So this will be a very casual kimono...even though it's pretty. They're pretty pajamas basically. The screenshot doesn't show it but she's not wearing juban, the sleeves are horizontally and vertically short, the obi is not very wide.  Season: Summer based on the colors and floral designs. Based on this information, I deduce this is likely a yukata. (Or possibly a sleeping kimono.) Either way, I will be making a yukata which means:  short sleeves A hanhaba or heko obi cotton...