Construction Details:

There were a lot of challenges that I tackled for the first time when I made this; wig styling, painting the pattern on the dress, and gradient dying the underlayer of the dress which you can't see.
I'm a wig styling noob so I really had no clue how I would attempt to do Tsukumo's wig. I ended up recycling my SeeU wig for this (that I bought from ArdaWigs) and had originally thought of separating the back into 2 side ponytail pieces. But then I stumbled upon a drill curl tutorial that I found on DA and ended up using it as a guide in making the wig. I cut the long wig & used the leftover pieces to make the drill curls. Since the drill curl pieces were small and thin enough, I didn't need to leave the tape/wire piece in and just generously hairspray the curled pieces itself. I made 6 drill curls, hot glued them and they were attached onto the wig with hairclips with some stitches sewn in for support.

To get the dark blue gradient on the dress, I used floral/basket spray paint. As for the pattern that circles the dress, I freehand drew the design on freeze paper, cut it out, ironed it onto the dress and went away with fabric paint~ I ended up mixing pink and white to get the pale pink color and I had to paint the white layer with 2 coats for it to show up really well. It wasn't difficult, but it was the most time-consuming and frustrating part of making this costume. It drove me insane a few times and I wanted to give up and put this costume on hold but I somehow found the motivation to make the top and finish it. The same technique was used to paint the white design on the bodice.

The furry pink fabric piece on the hem of the dress is filled with some polyester fiberfill to make it poof out a bit. I thought it looked a bit funny at first, but I liked it in the end.

The underlayer of the dress, which you can't see, is a black and white striped fabric which I gradient dyed by hand to give hints of pink just like in the reference photo. It was my first time using dye and I was really nervous, but I found this process to be the most enjoyable and fun.

I'm wearing 2 petticoats underneath! There's a long and a short petticoat. I had to add extra tulle onto the long petticoat to add enough poof to the dress so that you can clearly see the pattern that goes around my dress.

Personal Thoughts:

I started watching Karneval because I found the manga artwork really pretty and colorful, almost circus like. I ended up really liking Tsukumo's character since I feel we have similar personalities. I chose this particular outfit to do because I really wanted to do a cosplay dress since it's been a long time since I've made one. I used to make so many when I first started cosplaying and I thought it would be fun to get back into making another one. Also, it felt like it would be a nice change to cosplay a feminine character since I've been doing a lot of Ciel Phanthomhive cosplays.

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