AI EBIHARA

Game: Persona 4
Worn to: Youmacon 09
Status: Retired
Award: Best of Friday Craftsmanship at Youmacon 09
Difficulty:

Why I made it

I made this outfit as an excuse to cosplay with my friends Chris and Tara. Although I knew nothing about the game, I wanted to spend time with my friends and didn't mind making an easy costume to be a part of their group.

How I made it

For four weeks, Tara and I met every Sunday to work on our costumes. Tara made the patterns for the jackets, pants, and my skirt, and I essentially served as her sewing minion. Together, we sewed 3 jackets, each of which are fully lined. To replicate the white top-stitching in the art, we marked the jackets at one centimeter intervals and used white embroidery thread and hand-sewed across every seam. My saior collar is sewn directly onto my jacket and a small, triangle-shaped piece of fabric is sewn onto one side of the sailor collar and snaps into place on the other. (So my head can fit through the opening) The school logo was printed out by my friend Chris and ironed on at the con.

Tara also helped me make my skirt by pinning the pleats while I wore it to ensure that the pleats would fall in a flattering way across my butt. Next, I sewed down each pleat 3/4 of the way with the intention of making it fit like a pencil skirt with a flare at the bottom. The sarf is a yellow cotton and my tutrleneck was a thrift store turtleneck which I added trim to and resized. The wig was my old Fighter wig and my shoes were a thrift store find, which I painted.

Final thoughts

In the end, our group looked great! Thank you to Tara for all of your help - I learned a lot from you! This was my boyfriend's first (and probably last!) time cosplaying so it was a unique experience.