Hey guys! Happy new years! Yaten here starting off the new year with a new blog post! We’ve been discussing what else we can provide you guys on the blog, so we decided that we would actually start up a Q&A section. It’s going to be Ask Us Sundays! <3 The questions will be general crafting and sewing questions, and we will answer to the best of our abilities and knowledge. If we don't know the answer we will try and help you out as best we can, or at least point you in the right direction! Please email us your questions to seiya@starinighindustries.com with the title of "Ask Us Sundays". If your question requires us to look at pictures, please provide me some links. The more information provided, the better we can answer your questions! <3 Also, to respect everyone's privacy, we won't be posting any names, just the question and answer. We look forward to your questions!

Our first question actually came from Facebook! Someone contacted me when they were faced with the task of trying to recreate an historical-type dress.

Q: I’m trying to make a dress like the one in these photos and was wondering where i could find patterns and what kind of material I should use.

Cristina Vespucci from Assassin’s Creed: http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Cristina_Vespucci

A: Well it looks like a historical type with an under dress and over dress. (And now with a better picture on the link provided above, I can see that there are THREE parts to the dress, the brown under dress, the white under dress with sleeves, and then finally the overdress with the belt.)

As far as patterns, If it were me, I’d print off the best of your pictures and go to your local fabric store then look at the historical patterns in the books. You might have to get a few patterns to get the styles right (such as a pattern for the sleeves, a pattern for the weird vampire collar and ascot, and then a pattern for the overdress) and do a little Mcguyver-ing, but that’s usually pretty easy. It’s very common to need several different patterns for one costume when you’re trying to recreate something that unique.

As far as materials go, sadly since this is a historical looking piece, the materials that will look the best are going to be pretty expensive (like the fabrics you have to custom order at joanne’s or in the upholstery section). Whatever you decide on you’re going to need something that’s pretty heavy and thick for the over dress at least. (I’d do something lighter for the two under dresses just for the sake of your comfort, it’s going to get HOT.) The red fabric is going to need to be heavy and thick as well (you could go REALLY fancy and expensive and do a red velvet). But that kinda gives you the idea of historical types of fabric to use. But honestly, just go into your fabric store with the reference pictures again and wander.

When picking out fabric for my costumes I usually spend about an hour or hour and a half wandering the store with my pictures in hand so I can make sure I’ve kept all my options open before deciding on a fabric.

In the end the materials are going to be up to you, what you want out of the costume and what you have a budget for. (The red tag section in the back of Joanne’s might be your friend if you are on a tight budget, they sometimes have some nice upholstery fabric for super cheap.) I hope this helps you!

Good luck and I look forward to seeing pictures of the completed piece! <3 <3

by Stephie

(Click images to enlarge.)

So, you want to make a Princess Sailor Moon costume. Cool. You got ballz. But before you go jumping into a project, you’ll want to break it down, right? I spent a year before I made mine; researching, sketching, and collecting photos to figure out exactly what was going to go into this costume. After that was done, it took me about 6 months to make the monster.

First things first, this costume entails knee high boots, a main bodice where the hiproll, skirts, bows, and boob armor attach to, a choker, gloves, crown, tiara, odango covers, earrings, and wig.

Lets break this down into smaller groups: skirt, bodice, accessories

Let’s start with the skirts shall we?!

The main skirt is a navy blue taffeta. You can tell by comparing her skirt to the other senshi and noting the slight sheen. The skirt isn’t a circle skirt, but rather a pleated skirt (yes the pleats go towards the center) that wasn’t ironed down. So it looks like it’s been gathered. Now underneath the skirt are two layers of “petticoat”, or lace. This lace is made from an organza and is embroidered all along the edges. It has a scalloped edge, but the scallops have scalloped edges, and in each scallop there are two crecent moons.

And yes, these two layers of organza go all the way up to her hip roll! You see them when she goes to fight Beryl and accidentally flips her blue skirt up.

These skirts attach to the hiproll, of course. The hip roll is made from jet set interlock wrapped around upolstery cording and has two (yes, I said two) layers of pearls that go along the inside towards her bodice. The larger set is on the outside and a smaller strand is inside of that.

Attached to THAT is the back bow. It is made out of the same organza as the petticoat and actually has two layers for the center part. And guess what? More of that embroidery from the skirts appears on the two dang near ankle length trailers as they taper down to a point.

So, on to the bodice now. The main bodice itself is the easiest part of the costume. It’s just a basic bodice or leotard out of jet set interlock. You can use a ice skating pattern for that no problem. However there is what I lovingly refer to as boob armor that goes on over the top. Studying the other regular senshi fukus gave me a really good idea of how the boob armor works, but it basically just goes over the top of the main bodice and is also made out of jet set interlock with a thick interfaceing. Now attached to the boob armor is the front bow, collar, and sleeve lace.

The bow is made out of a metallic light pink vinyl and in the center is her brooch. The brooch is a silver heart with a silver holographic background and a clear light pink gem in the center.

The sailor collar is made out of the same material as the main skirt (navy blue tafetta) and has three stripes of small yellow bias tape that runs all along the edge. The collar actually folds under the boob armor.

Lastly, on the boob armor underneath the sailor collar is yet again, some two more layers of that organza embroidered lace. YAY! Aren’t you lucky?!

Okay, so we got all the main parts of the costume now, lets move now to all the accessories.

First of the accessories, the boots. The boots are knee high white vinyl with a pink vinyl “v” at the top and a gold moon in the center. There is an anklet of pearls around each ankle and the best part, is the clear heels!

Her gloves are a satin spandex with two different sizes of pearls sewn onto the top. They end below her elbow. She also wears a silver claddagh ring on the ring finger of her left hand.

The choker is a dark pink vinyl with white pearls in the center and hanging from it is a small gold star with a gold moon right underneath it.

The earrings are a set of three perals that go up along the cuff of her ear, below those hangs a gold star, and below that is a gold moon.

Her tiara is a set of bronze pearls with an unfaceted red gem in the center. The gem is actually set onto a backing the same color of the bronze pearls. The first four pearls closest to the center are the largest, the pearls after that get a little smaller.

Her odango sheilds are a dark pink with silver around the edge and small pearls that go on the edge of the silver part.

Her crown is similar in shape to her regular princess crown. It’s white/pearl in color with a heart in the center. The two sides are like a hear cut in half and then placed on it’s side. In the center of the heart is a pink gem that is a miniature version of the one on her brooch complete with the holographic paper background. Beneath the heart and half hearts is a row of pearls. The very center pearl is the largest and outward from the center pearl they get progressively smaller. The crown and pearls end at her odangos.

Lastly, there is her wig! It’s a dirty blonde color, parted in the back with little curls the come down around the nape of her neck. The bangs are parted in the front and curled, and there are two whisps that frame the sides of her face and come down to about her chin. The parted hair is brought up and around to make her odangos, and attached to her odangos are of course her pigtails of the same color! The pigtails come down to almost the end of her skirt and have some pretty little ringlets at the end.

Have fun making your costume and share pictures!