Let's just go top down for this one: The headset is made from wonderflex and a heart button that I gesso'd and painted red (those heart buttons are all over the costume), using the worbla to create an eat attachment. The shirt was purchased, but I took it in on the sides, cut and re-hemmed the length, and dyed it, so really how much is there left. I attached a brown lace trim to the bottom, and used freezer paper to create a stencil for the shirt, which is painted with fabric paint. I patterned the collar, using a ribbon with hearts on it for the white lines, and attached it to the neck. The bow also has the same white heart trim sewn into it in striped, with the heart in the middle being made from cardboard, covered in fabric, then also painted using a stencil. The suspenders have custom clips attached made from wonderflex and more of the painted heart buttons. The cardigan was a labor of love for sure!
The cardigan is hand patterned and made of a cotton knit material. With no access to actual rib knit fabrics in the size, color or spacing I wanted, the cardigan detailing on the sleeved and bottom are actually strips of fabric (red, white, red, white, red again) sewn together, then PIN TUCKED every inch to create the cartoonish-rib knit stylization depicted in the design. The white bands on the arms are also sewn into the sleeves, and the white detailing on the front is ALSO pin-tucked to create the right look. The buttons are brown buttons that are painted, and the arm-band to the side was painted also using a stencil, then sewn onto the sleeve to secure. The wings on the back are knit with two heavy layers of interfacing on each side for support, with stuffing in the middle to create the 3-d effect.The decorations on the side of the cardigan are a mix of fabric covered cardboard, buttons, and wonderflex, all of which have snaps on the back which match with snaps on the jacket, done that way for easy washing and transport.
The skirt is made in much the same way as the cardigan, the fabric is all sewn together in strips to create a seamless look to the skirt's details, with a nice lace attached to the bottom. The thigh-highs are actually slightly inaccurate to the design, however this was a deliberate choice. I had originally made the all-brown thigh highs, but felt after putting them on that they brought down the tone of the outfit and made the bottom-half of my body a brown mess, so I instead decided to go with a brown and gold pinstripe to continue the color to the outfit. It's secured with elastic at the top and, of course, more trim. The shoes were bought and painted with leather paint, and while also slightly inaccurate to the design, I felt going with the natural line of the shoe's own details for the paint instead of trying to force the specific design onto them would allow for a cleaner, more polished look, and I was correct! The shoe accessories are more heart buttons, with the same fabric as the wings, attached with clips to the side of the shoe.
The bow and arrow were probably the most time consuming things on this costume though! I started with rigid insulation, on which I drew the shape of the bow, and carved it out with a knife. From there I used that carving knife to whittle the insulation to a point where it was rounded, then sanded it smooth. After that, I covered the entire thing with a layer of wonderflex, my first time using the material (ive only used a small amount of worbla before on my Homura shield, never anything this curved or large) and after a lot of frustration I finally got it to the shape I wanted. I then spend about a week covering it in layer after layer of wood filler, sanding it down until completely smooth and ready for painting. There's probably about six layers of wood filler on that bow alone! For painting I primed it with a couple layers of gesso, then used craft paint, making sure that I used a nice amount of white and black to give the lines depth. You can see in pictures that the swirls on the ends look fairly prominent, that's all paint! I sadly couldn't get the swirls I had carved all the way through the wonderflex and wood filler stages, so I had to use some shading magic to make them appear to be there still! The bow itself is also shaded around the top and sides- gotta make sure it looked good! The arrow was much easier, a wooden dowel makes up the base, with the point of the arrow and hand grip at the side being molded from wonderflex and also painted to give it a three-dimensional look!
Overall this costume is one of the most intricate costumes ive done in a little over a year, i'm so happy to have gotten to make it, and I hope I get to cosplay a lot more Love Live in the future!
With Katsucon's Saturday being on Valentines Day this year, and my love for Love Live having just burst into fruition, as soon as I saw these cards I KNEW I had to cosplay them. The outfit itself was my first time really getting to have fun shopping for trims and laces and small little details, and while it was down to the wire in it's creation, i'm so happy with the result!!!
