*Princess Sakura (Fire Kimono)*
Tsubasa: Resevoir Chronicles
Worn at: Anime Expo 2006
Chara Info: Sakura is a happy-go-lucky princess of the Kingdom of Clow. She mysteriously loses all of her memories, and her childhood friend Syaoran sets out to find them for her.
Why Her?: I have always loved Sakura, and I'm pleased to see that she's older in the Tsubasa universe. Now that's she's not 11 years old (or whatever it was in CCS) I might pull off this costume. I know I'd make a much better Fai, but I wanted to do a couples cosplay with my boyfriend :).
As for this outfit -- Robbie was actually the person who thought that Tsubasa cosplay would be fun. I wasn't too excited until I found this picture. I absolutely LOVE these designs! With Sailor Moon I proved to myself that I can paint designs on fabric fairly well, so I was looking forward to another challenge in that area!
The Story: The main white fabric is a nice, thick 100% cotton twill Aya Mizu helped me buy in the LA Fashion District. It's very heavy and soft, and I wish it didn't wrinkle so much :(.
The skirt is 6 panels that make a full circle when I'm sitting down. It's floor-length in the front and lengthens to a 10" train in the back. Yes, it's very pretty and dramatic, but it's VERY hard to walk!
The top is based on a kimono pattern page I found online, with changes obviously made for the sleeves. Because of the paint I had to line the sleeves, which was a pain in the butt X_x.
Both of these parts were painted with Jacquard's Dye-Na-Flow paints. Because the paint spreads quite a bit when it's placed on fabric, I first painted the flame borders with a gold resist.
The obi and undershirt are made from cotton sateen (mmm, I love this fabric ^^). I used a pattern for portions of the undershirt, but the obi and attached bow are patterned by myself. The obi is boned and laces in the back, and the bow is then pinned to it.
On those pieces, I painted the design with Jacquard Lumiere. Since these parts were accents, I wanted them to shine a bit more than the main outfit. That's why I embellished it all in beads. I used gold and red seed beads, sometimes staggering the two to create a pseudo gradient. This portion is what took the bulk of the time.
The wig started life as a Femme Fatale. I straightened it a bit, then gave it a cut and styled the antenna. Oddly enough, once I cut it the hair naturally curled into Sakura's style. The bangs are inaccurate but I left them the way they were to better accent the headband.
The headband actually consists of two pieces. The first piece clips into the wig, and the second is sewn onto the kimono top. I used glass beads that were far too heavy for the wig to handle, so that's why I sewed part of it to the kimono. I especially like the gradient-painted butterfly that ends the string of beads.
Pictures
