ETERNAL CHIBIMOON

Series: Sailor Moon Stars
Worn to: Ohayocon 07, Acen 09
Status: Active-ish
Difficulty:

Why I made it

I knew I was going to end up making a sailor fuku eventually but I could never quite decide between Jupiter and Chibimoon. I knew I was too big and too old to do Chibimoon justice but the temptation of styling the wig was too overwhelming so I caved.

How I made it

I was a novice seamstress when I made this - it was my first time constructing a costume that had to fit perfectly without a zipper so I had a lot of fitting issues. I used a perfect Kwik Sew ice skating pattern and still managed to mess it up! the skirt was the only part of the pattern that I modified; I used a combination of pleating and gathering to give the skirt more volume. I got the pattern pieces for the bows and sailor collar from Lynleigh.com and later remade the collar and bows using patterns given to me by my Sailor Moon group.

The wig was an adventure. I started off with an Innocent wig from Amphigory. This was both a blessing and a curse because, while it meant that I didn't have to add wefts to the back or put it into pigtails myself, it meant more work for the bangs and more adjustments to make it fit my head correctly. Then I took a second wig (a chinadoll, also from Amphigory) and cut it in half down the part. I chopped the pigtails off my curly wig and sewed part of a styrofoam ball to the base where the pigtails used to be. This would ensure that when I added the new, chinadoll pigtails, they would have more lift. Next I sewed on the chinadoll pieces and glued more styrofoam underneath to make them even poofier.The cones were just styrofoam eggs covered in wig fibers taken from the original pigtails. I used a mixture of hot glue and hairspray to keep the fibers in place and each cone took a little over an hour to complete. They were just sewn/glued on and ended up staying in place really nicely. The little curlies were made with hotglue and the little hair accesories were made using model magic and plastic christmas ornaments cut down the middle.

Final thoughts

Despite being very happy with the craftmanship of this costume, I feel like too much of an old lady to be cosplaying such young characters anymore!