After so many delays this costume is finally finished! Each year something came up and I had to forgo any convention plans, which killed motivation for working on the costume (went to Disney World a couple times, which was a pretty good trade, in my opinion).
Overall I am so happy with how the costume turned out. Like any true cosplayer I didn't wear the entire costume at once until ACen. I love the color, the fullness of the skirt, the way it looks. Though, I have learned a valuable lesson about wearing a hoopskirt to convention. Can't wait until winter when it snows and I can visit a local park or Botanical Garden for pictures!
Patterns I used:
Simplicity 9764 (petticoat & hoop skirt)
McCalls 4698 (cloak)
There are a few things I want to tweak before I can be completely 100% happy with my dress. My wig especially needs to be redone. I ordered it from Coswig Wisp in a warm brown. It's hard pinpointing an exact shade for Sakura so I choose this color because it would look best on me, since my natural hair color is light brown with either natural auburn or blonde highlights, depending on the time of year. The wig itself was a good choice since the back is short with long bangs. There was definitely more bang than I expected, which made it difficult cutting. Though, it was my first time styling a wig and did turn out really well. Only issue is one side I cut too far over so it came out uneven. The antenna turned out perfectly. I used a super ingenious technique: tissues and hair spray.
The dress itself was both easy and difficult. I only used patterns for the skirt, petticoat, and hoop skirt: Simplicity 9764. AYes I am wearing a full hoop skirt. No it is not painful. If you find the right weight for boning a hoop skirt can be really fun to wear. I got my boning from Hedgehog Handiworks, which unfortunately does not sell it anymore.
For the underskirt I used a thin, on sale fashion fabric that is both great on durability but horrible to gather and then sew. The lace was bought at Wal-mart when they still had a fabric section. It is the perfect design with mini scallops and five petal flowers all the way around. Top skirt used the same pattern from the petticoat and the scallops were a very fun adventure. Using my mathematical skills I was able to figure that I wanted 22 large scallops and then traced them out with a large, unused flower pot I had (that was the hardest part, finding something with the right diameter). I had to take out almost an entire panel from the petticoat pattern to make sure that the scallops would lay flat and keep the gather effect at the top. Instead of using a hem I just did a decorative stitch all the way around, using interfacing on the back for durability and reinforcement (and by decorative I just mean a zig-zag stitch with no spacing). The darker pink scallop on the bottom was much harder to do since I just used fabric glue to attach it. The glue made the fabric wet and stretched out so I had to cut it to make it fit. Instead of it being 3 long pieces it was almost each individual scallop. That is one thing I would like to redo when I get the chance.
The bodice pattern was handmade. I have a small body so finding any pattern in my size is not possible. I thought why not, let's make my own pattern. Another reason for that was that it's not like normal bodices which has curves to conform to the body. It's just straight. Plus I needed to add the darker pink strips on the front and back. I did end up making the bodice 3 times: first one the stripes were too far apart, second I lost a lot of weight since starting, and this is the last one. Even the third version had to be taken in areas and I would definitely like to redo it. Thankfully I bought a lot of this fabric so I could have plenty incase of mistakes. The sleeves were a nightmare. I choose the fabric for its color and thickness (since the chapter takes place in winter) but thickness made the sleeves very difficult. The scallops and darker pink scallops were done the same as the top skirt. The shoulder wings/caps were the first part I worked on since it had a lot of the same details as the skirt. It took between 5-6 versions before I got the scallop size and spacing that I wanted. The ruffle is just that, a ruffle. One continuous strip all the way around the top. There is a hidden zipper on the side under one of the dark pink strips.
Let's see, oh the apron. The apron fabric was actually given to me by a family friend who cleaned out her collection. Which means I had a very limited amount of fabric, like a couple yards. Overall the apron came out very nicely. Only part I do not like is the bow. It's small and doesn't really look that great. Don't think I will ever load back photos unless they are sans apron or I have redone the apron.
For the cloak I used the same type of thick fabric as for the dress; though that didn't help keep me very warm during the weekend. I used McCall's 4698 costume pattern, tailored the curves after I had the hoop skirt done so. Again, I didn't use a hem because of the curves and just substituted bias/binding tape. The hood was just a big a pain as the sleeves. The original pattern's hood was just terrible. I actually ran out of white fabric and had to settle on whatever I could find. So it's thinner than the rest of the cloak. I may need to redo the cloak since the pattern's collar wasn't as close to the neck as it should be. As you can tell in one picture I completely left the collar out until I can work on it more. The clasp was bought, I made the white ruffle and fabric rose.
Shoes are just some slip on's that I found at a shoe store and then made covers for them. The roses I made for the shoes and cloak are handmade fabric flowers using the same fabric as the darker pink used for the scallops. For the choker I used the same dark pink fabric, bought a rose from Jo-ann's and then found jewelry clamps to fasten it. My hair rose is a bought felt rose glued onto a mini-clip.
That's a lot more than I thought but I hope it helps anyone who wants to try to make their own Sakura Spirit Town dress.