Construction Details:

This costume was made along with Pixie Kitty's Houmei for the AUSA 2011 Masquerade and won Best Overall Craftsmanship!



Kureha has such a pretty design, although fairly simple. I wanted to use as many natural fabrics as possible, since in the show she gets the outfit in a medieval nation in an alternate universe. I was very pleased with how everything came together so nicely!



Kureha's sleeves, skirt panel, and top are made from a tan polished cotton that I dyed orange. The sleeves feature hand made brown bias tape trim and arm ties, and I sprayed an orange gradient onto the bottom using Floral Spray. The spiked edges are interfaced for shape. The skirt panel features a line of topstitching per Kureha's reference art, and it attached onto the brown cotton hakama over skirt, which was free patterned and folded by hand. The top has a white flower made of Casa satin that is satin stitched onto the right side.



The obi and bow are made from a buttercream yellow sateen. Both are interfaced for shape. The bow is separate and sets into the obi via a wire loop. The bow tails feature white Casa satin designs satin stitched onto the bottom. The main dress is made from white Casa satin. The top portion is fully lined and boned and features scalloped edging on the upper back, with interfacing and topstitching for support. The dress skirt has a free flowing lining slip, and the satin has scalloped edges that are interfaced and satin stitched for shape and stability.



The boot covers are white Casa satin that have elastic at the bottom to make the weird poof that Kureha's boots have, and the top ties on via hand made brown cotton bias tape. I already owned the white boots. The collar is made from white Casa satin, brown cotton, and orange dyed polished cotton, fully lined and topstitched, and closes via snap. The button on the front is a button with a brad head glued in, both painted.



I re-covered a headband in white twill, interfaced for stiffness. The wig started as a beautiful light blonde and was then sharpie dyed to the perfect brown sugar color! I'm really proud of that color!



I did style Pixie Kitty's wig for Houmei. It began as a long, braided white Leia wig that I put up into two high stubs. Extra wig hair was caulked and shaped into the two main loops, then attached. An additional wig clip was separated into two portions and each attached to a stub, then tied with red ribbon. Pixiekitty sewed more wefts that we sewed along the edges of the wig for more coverage, and Pixiekitty added additional wefts to the front hanging pieces and ponytails for fullness and coverage.



Mu husband and I made the rotating platform and replica fan used in our skit. The platform is pine, MDF and casters on the bottom. NeonGenocide later added rope pulls and skirting to the bottom edge. The fan is made entirely out of cardboard. The main base is white on the front and covered with blue lame on the back. The top "scales" are covered in fuzzy fur and sprayed with a slight beige gradient. The talismans on the front are painted white with a beige gradient, and the symbols are drawn on by hand. Everything is held together by Velcro and magnets and Velcroes directly onto the platform. The black front piece is cardboard painted black, with the white designs hand drawn on and clear coated. This piece sets into the platform via wooden dowels.



This was such a fun skit and I'm so glad we won something for our costumes! We put a lot of months of work into the whole thing and tried to come up with something very unique, which is why we went with dubstep and fan dancing! For anyone interested, the song we used is "Heartbreak (Bare Noize Remix)" by M'Black and was a collaborative choice between the four of us.

Personal Thoughts:

This costume has been sold

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