Going to my first convention, I didn’t understand the appeal of the Vocaloids. I thought it was another anime that I needed to catch up on, but after researching and finding the different costumes that people have designed I had to do one.

It was a fun and difficult project. I used a pattern for the bodice, but the rest was figured out on the dressform.

The skirt is constructed in four layers. The bottom layer is a trained black taffeta with ruffles of the same material, because the material was so thick I broke a dozen or so needles. The next layer is a chiffon layer, almost as long and edge with a ribbon trim. The next two layers were shorter, a taffeta circles skirt edge in black lace and a bubble skirt with velvet ribbon accents.

The bodice was made up of black cotton velvet with chiffon sleeve insets and purple polyester dupioni. The ruffles around the colour were also the dupioni. The outer sleeves were edged with hand-dyed black lace. As I didn’t have an embroidery machine at the time, the gold embroidery that is featured on the bodice of this dress was mimicked with gold lace appliqués I purchase off of eBay.

I have a lot of issues with the construction of this costume and I plan to remake it in the future as I have a better grasp of fitting, have a serger to finish edges, and have an embroidery machine to get a better representation of details.

It is also not a costume to wear in the heat of Hawaii. I was miserable the two days I wore it at the convention because the Honolulu convention center is open air.

I entered this costume in the Cosplay Showcase at Kawaii-Kon 2011; didn’t win any awards.

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