Wow, this costume was a huge level up for me! I made everything except for the corset, which I commissioned from Holly Messinger. Gurren Lagann is one of my favorite anime series and I love Adiane’s character and design, even though we really don’t see her in that many episodes. I’d always wanted to make this costume, but felt it was past my skill level. I’m glad I was able to make this costume and improve my skills! I even entered Anime Central’s masquerade for the first time with this costume (only my second competition), which was a great new experience.
Kimono
I used a Simplicity kimono pattern and shortened it. All the fabric I used was cotton and it took me awhile to find a fabric that I felt fit the two main colors. The biggest difficulty I encountered with this costume was figuring out how to properly line it, especially the sleeves. I don’t know how many times I had to rip up a huge seam I had just sewn. It was all sewn the week before the con and I had to pull an all-nighter to finish it… never doing that again. The butterfly motif was done using Heat-n-Bond. I free handed the designs and then used pattern paper to trace and then mirror image them.
Eyepatch
As for the eyepatch design, I created the pattern in photoshop and printed it out. I cut out felt for the eyepatch using the pattern and glued it to the eyepatch with felt glue. The actual eyepatch itself was made using a single layer of cotton fabric and I just freehanded a design on paper and adjusted it until I liked how it looked on my face. I also glued felt to the back of the eyepatch and then made a dart so the patch would close around my eye. I used some fray check on the edges and gave it a spray of fabric stiffener. I jthen just tied it in bow around my head since it was covered by my wig.
Tattoos
Similar to the eyepatch, I created 3 tattoo patterns in photoshop (one for my leg, one smaller for my neck and chest, and one for the hand). I traced them on to stencil card and used it as a guideline. My husband helped me paint the tattoos on my dance tights and I painted the tattoos on my neck, chest, and hand. I used acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium for the tattoos on the tights and the same acrylic paint (for color consistency) mixed with PAX for the neck, chest, and hand tattoos.
Circle
The circle she wears around her hips gave me the chance to test out worbla for the first time. I covered worbla around a foam circle and then cut out the middle. I used spackling to smooth out the back since I didn’t do the best job piecing it together and then painted the whole thing with acrylic. I then tied some cording to each side.
Tail
I followed this tutorial for making the tail. Basically I used styrofoam balls and made a hole in each one using wooden skewers. I made the stinger part of the tail using a slightly bigger ball and carving a small divet into it, in which I glued the stinger using gorilla glue. The stinger was carved from a cone of styrofoam. Keeping the balls on the skewers, I hung them over a drying rack and layered them with 9 layers of gesso with sanding after each 3 layers addded. This took a few weeks. I then covered them with primer for good measure and some brown spraypaint. I then strung the balls up using fishing wire, which was tied around a thin belt I wore underneath the kimono.
Wig
The wig was purchased from Fantasy Sheep. I cut out the bangs at an angle. Then I held the bangs out and heated them with a blowdryer. Then I gave them a good spray of hairspray. I should have touched them up a bit before I wore the costume though, as the bangs had lost most of their hold and lift, but oh well. Next time!
Other Finishing Touches
I’m wearing red contacts from PinkyParadise.com as well as false upper and lower eyelashes. I also covered my lips in red lipliner and lipstick. I bought some acrylic nails to wear and I used some dark blue eyeshadow on my eyebrows.
