Cosplaying Floral Makoto last summer, I learned that I was comfortable doing costumes that are a bit revealing. Knowing this, it didn't take me long to realize that I could make a costume that I had wanted to do for many years: Cure Black.

I started with the shorts, skirt, and belt, since I knew that was the area most likely to give me problems. The shorts I simply made from a pair of leggings. The leggings were a great find, as they were not only seamless, but they were nearly a perfect match for the nylon spandex fabric which I used for the other black parts of the costume. The belt and skirt are a single piece with a zipper in the back. I really like how Cure Black's belt is narrower on her left side than on her right, so I exaggerated that a bit. There is a button attached to the side to which the pouch clips.

The bright pink material used for the belt and hearts is pleather. I am glad that I didn't have to sew much of the stuff, because it was a challenge. The hearts were basically just cut out and glued on where they needed to go. If I were to do this costume over again, I would try to make the hearts in a way that they would be convex instead of flat, but that's a minor complaint.

The paler pink material is satin that was left over from making my Utena dress. I'm really happy with how cute the ruffles on the skirt turned out. I made the ruffles on the shoulders the same way, but they look a little stretched out because of how they have to curve around the pauldrons. In hindsight, I should have made them denser to compensate.

The remaining parts of the costume were pretty simple. The pauldrons have foam pads inside to give them their shape, and the arm guards have a layer of vinyl. I had made gloves before for Sailor Mercury, so I already had a pattern for those. The leg guards don't actually have any elastic to keep them up. They're just fitted very tightly and have a zipper in the back. Amazingly, they didn't slip at all, even wearing them for several hours. I had fashion tape on hand just in case, but I ended up not needing it.

The shoes were another great find, since they look pretty spot-on in terms of both shape and color. They loop through holes in the leg guards but are not attached. I found heart-shaped earrings that were a close approximation as well. I probably would have attempted to do more with the wig if I was more experienced with wig styling, but I'm happy with how it looks. It's nice that Nagisa's hair is meant to look a little messy.

The commune pouch is an official product from Bandai. You cannot see them in this photo because they were inside the pouch at the time, but I do own a Card Commune and the cards that go with it. One perk of doing magical girl costumes is that I have an excuse to buy cute toys. I posted a photo of the whole set here: http://mahoshojodylan.tumblr.com/post/130013720343/

Anyway, I love this costume. I've wanted to do it forever, but I didn't think that I actually would until recently.