Construction Details:

I'M A CUPCAKE!!!

But really, where to start? I began this costume in September 2011 after finishing the series with my friends. Cosplaying Madoka actually started off as a joke, but quickly became a reality. It has been one of the quickest costumes for me in regard to deciding to make a costume and its actual completion, but definitely the costume that took me the longest to make, so it was a lot of hours in a short period of time e.e

The pattern for the bodice was drafted from a strapless dress pattern I had. I hid the zipper underneath the pleats in the front left side seam. I drafted the sleeve pattern myself so that they would be the proper amount of poofy-ness and fit into the bodice as well as possible given that I wouldn't be attaching them to a normal seam designed for sleeves. The lining is slip-stitched in. The back heart was done by putting interfacing cut in the shape of the heart, but slightly bigger, on both the lining and the bodice. Then, it was satin stitched and the middle cut out as close to the stitching as possible.

I drafted the pattern for the circle skirt myself in addition to the petal skirt. I went with six petals as opposed to eight because I thought it would look more natural. I used bias tape for the red that goes around them and painted the designs on the corners.

The petticoats were the bane of my existence. I made two that each have five tiers, which includes the 1 1/2 in white bottom ruffle, which ended up being 60 ft long before being gathered. All gathering for the petticoats and the skirt was done by hand. I chose cotton for all of my other fabric (I didn't feel like the costume needed to be shiny because there's so much to it as it is) and so to keep constant with that I cut strips of white cotton to use for the ruffle, as opposed to using ribbon. As such, I had to fray check all of it...that's going over 240 feet of fabric total. Ugh.

For the gloves I drafted a pattern by just drawing around my hand and messing around until I got them to fit. I probably made about five total what with trying to get them to work. I used interfacing on the points to help keep their shape, and the pink bands are separate pieces that are kept around my wrist with snaps.

I made my own patterns for the bows too, not that they were too complicated. Just a bunch of rectangles, really. The ones in my hair are just sewn around bobby pins.

The red shoe base was bought. I then tore apart the seams a bit so that I could put the ribbons in, and used a super thick needle to sew them back together.

This was also my first time making a prop! For the bow, I started with a long stem rose. Then I tightly wrapped newspaper together and taped it with packing tape to extend the bow and add the two branches on either side of the flower. Then I wrapped the entire thing in wire to give it stability and allow me to bend it into shape. Next, I covered the entire thing in two layers of masking tape, then newspaper and modge-podge, and paper mache pulp that I made myself using newspaper. After that I sanded it a bunch (though it still could've used more) and covered in in more modge-podge. The gems are inset using model magic because they were added at a later time, but it too was sanded and covered in modge-podge. Finally, the whole thing was painted, and the string added.

Back to the gems though--I made a positive out of Sculpey, and then made a silicone mold of it. The whole process was really cool but kind of scary because I hadn't done anything like it before. I then used clear epoxy resin with red dye added to make the actual gems. They were then sprayed with acrylic coating and backed with metallic cardstock for extra shine.

Last but not least, BIG BIG THANKS goes to all of the people who were so kind as to take super pictures of me--I don't know what everyone goes by where, but they include Ryuuraigeki, Lionel, Swoz, Cassie-tan, Ackson, Chris/CosItPhotography, and Mary. Also, thanks goes to Mallory/VoodooDolly for making my awesome soul gem for me. In general, I am so flattered by the overall reception of this costume!

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