| This has got to be one of the most pain in the butt costumes, and yet one of the most satisfying costumes I've ever recreated. First problem was the green under kimono it was the first time I used the pattern so I had a couple of problems with that. Also the blue and green kimono's don't have the traditional kimono sleeves so I had to recut/sew to make them tube sleeves. Next the blue kimono, I had to watch and rewatch the videos so that I could get a somewhat acurate picture of what the pattern looks like. I first drew it on with a chalk pencil then I used fabric markers I think I went through about 20 or so of them to make the design on the kimono, when the pens weren't bleeding everywhere it was hard to get anything out of them. And I didn't just do the portion you see the entire blue kimono has the white pattern on it. But the over kimono was the biggest pain by far. Because of the pattern I had to seriously fumble with how to put it together eventually I decided to sew the maroon strips on first so that the seems for them where hidden behind the lining instead of going through the lining. So I had to match the maroon colored strips before sewing them down then rematch them when I sewed the actual Kimono pieces together. At first I was sewing them on straight, then I realized they were slanted, so I started to resew them only to realize that on part of the kimono they slanted one way then bent back up to slant the other way, so I had to rip out more seams and resew again. This is why you ALWAYS have reference pictures in front of you and you acutally check them before you sew! I think the little curly white things on her kimono were the easiest part of the kimono. The earrings were made with green cats eye beads in varing sizes. And the fans had to be painted, yes fans, I had two one to stay permenatly open and one permenatly closed. I had to style an old wig to be Kagura's hair, which kind of worked with many bobby pins and clips to keep stray ends from falling all over the place. |
