INSPIRATION: I really love Nippon Ichi's designs. When I heard about Disgaea 3, I was excited to see new characters. Raspberyl's design is too cute, I had to make it!

THE WIG: What an adventure! First I wasted $30 when I let a friend 'order & style' my wig for me. She gave me a dark red punk rocker wig... wut. This actually made me lose interest in the project for several months. I didn't want to hurt her feelings, but I also couldn't wear a wig that was not even remotely what I needed for the costume in style or color. At this point, I had convinced myself that I could never do my own wigs. I think it was frustration over not getting a refund from this that made me decide to just learn to do things on my own.

When I finally started searching for a wig, I was kind of irritated at the choices of pink. There's baby pink in all kinds of lengths and colors, but a magenta is much, much harder to find. I finally bought a white wig and tried to dye it with fabric dye, the same way it worked for Dinah. This is how I learned that fabric dye will only dye things very pale colors--it didn't come out anywhere near dark enough, oh, and it also was not the color pictured on the box.

My next step? Ask for more help. I asked Envel (formerly Twilight Clover) who made the World's Most Awesome Etna Wig for advice on sharpie dyes. She was so helpful and gave me all the information I needed. With the help of my friend Sammy Jaaane, I did some sharpie-surgery, dunked a wig, and VIOLA. My first sharpie dye... a success! It's not perfect--it's darker on the edges than the top, and I could not get the water to rinse clear so I'm very paranoid about getting rained on in it, but I'm really happy with it. I'm so grateful for the help I received!

The styling was a little more difficult. I was very nervous to cut the bangs, and honestly I didn't put much time into styling the back. I used a hair dryer to help bend the fibers up and Got2bGlued hair glue in case I ever needed to wash it out--after combing out caulk caked over a wig, I never want to risk that again.

For Colossalcon 2008, I took the leftover dye I'd stored in a spray bottle and spritzed over all the lighter areas I could, then rinsed again. I even let it soak but once again couldn't get it to rinse clear... so am still paranoid. The color came out sooo pretty!

I then restyled everything (around the horns I'd already sewn in) using a hair dryer to bend the hair up and Got2bGlued to twist the hair into spikes. I cut a LOT of hair off to make the spikes much shorter, so I was very nervous. I also used the last raspberry colored sharpie I had to touch up some spots. But overall, this is the part of the costume I'm happiest with!

THE HORNS: These were an adventure. I kept being 'eh' on what to make them out of. I was thinking about carving them from insulation foam (which is something I still haven't worked with) but ended up going with the tried and true model magic. I molded them, let them dry, painted them with black acrylic and then coated them with polyurethane.

Attaching them to the wig was the hard part. I was DETERMINED not to use a headband. So I got tiny clear elastics, wrapped them around the horns, and sewed them directly into the wig. It worked perfectly!

THE TOP: For the first try, I wanted a thicker material, and I decided hey, why not, and just bought a black sweatshirt, hacked it up, and sewed it back together the way I needed it. Very comfortable, but also too short. Designing the back was hard. There were no back references, and I needed to leave room for my wings to get out. So I ended up leaving it pretty much open, and attaching the sailor collar just at the shoulders. The skull is model magic coated with polyurethane (again) and he was too small, plus the eyes went in instead of out. The collar was also hideous--the only interfacing I could find was way too stiff and stuck out too far. ;_;

When I remade this, I used a black twill and made it out of three pieces. The pocket parts are once again faked with bias tape--even in the pictures there's no way those are anything but decoration. The back is open for the wings again.

Mr. Skully is model magic with polyurethane, acrylic paint and enamel paint. He's much bigger and cuter than the first one!

THE CUFFS: These were an interesting process. I have the steps I used to make this photographed because I can't really describe it--it's a tube for the foamie and a tube for the elastic, flipped around for the elastic in the middle and the foamie on the outside. They look kind of like cup holders, don't they? The material is from a pair of awesomely obnoxious pink pants I got from the thrift store for that reason and that reason only--they were awesomely obnoxious. Sadly they are now part of my costume and only a memory as pants...

THE SKIRT: I HATE MAKING PLEATED SKIRTS. No pattern. This first one was actually about four layers of cotton because my white twill mysteriously disappeared. And it was STILL see-through.

The second one is white twill (yay) and made in a day (so was the shirt--made in the same day, actually. This is the first time I've really done that. ;_;) I measured four inches over, folded back two inches, and pressed. I don't really like how it turned out, but I didn't have too terribly much material to work with. But I am DAMN PROUD of my hem. It is super-freaking-neat. YEAH! And I worked really hard to put in the zipper neatly. So while my sewing skills are still 'meh' in my book... I am working hard on improving!

THIGH HIGHS: Opaque black thigh highs for the win. It took Sammy so long to find those back in the day, and now I have like three pairs just lying around for cosplay. Yay!

THE WINGS: Oh joy. The harness on this is elastic, but the first one was super cheap elastic in the back--it kept falling down. These are made of two coat hangers, foamies, pink pleather glued onto the foamies and wrapped around them, and bent to shape. I'm actually really happy with them, I just wish the edges were better finished!

The second ones were made with black elastic (smexy) and fit much better.

THE TAIL: I'm not 100% happy with this, nor am I unhappy. It's not long enough (there's an elastic extension in the back) but it serves its purpose. There's a wire inside it, and soft upholstery foam. It's pink pleather and a foamie for the white part so it matched the wings.

THE BOOTS: I love these boots! I would wear them all the time if I didn't care about them getting scuffed up. The skulls are model magic coated with what class? polyurethane! and painted in acrylic. I love them! Cuffs are made from the same pants as the sleeve-cuffs. BTW--making pleather bias tape? don't love it, not my favorite. Steam burns. ;_; Painting them was a pain. They had originally been spray painted white for another costume, and even with lacquer thinner I could not get all the paint off. So there are still white remnants in the creases. The pink paint is enamel--those teeny tiny jars of enamel paint go a long, long way.

Overall, I really am happy with how this costume turned out. I learned a lot when I was working on it and I can't wait to put that all to use in my next projects.