OVERVIEW: After playing just a few hours of Kingdom Hearts, I knew I *had* to make this costume. It's absolutely adorable, and would fit in well with my short red hair and blue eyes. Or so I thought...

THE SHIRTS: This was the simplest part of the costume. I bought a white tank top at Wal-mart, cut it to the correct length, and sewed purple trim on the top. I used an old black shirt I used to fence in to make the second top, trimming it with white.

THE ARM CUFFS: I bought a remnant of yellow fleece to make the poofy armband. Even though I tried to make it tight, it was still loose, so I used a safety pin to make it tighter towards the top. The blue one is the tip of a sleeve from an old velvet shirt, and it's not the correct color. >:( The other bracelets proved to be hard to find! I was looking for a "Livestrong" bracelet, or knockoff, since they're yellow and pretty close to what I imagine Kairi's bracelets to be like, but alas. Even though I live in Steeler territory, I couldn't find a double pack of black and gold! So I finally went to Claire's, bought a white and black pack, and colored the white one yellow with an alcohol-based marker. ... it worked, okay?

THE NECKLACE: The black collar I found lying in one of my drawers. I'd actually made it years ago from an old waistband of a skirt during my goth phase. It's a tad tight, and I keep meaning to loosen it! The other necklace proved to be tricky. I bought a length of cord, silver beads, and some 'pearl' ones, and kind of lamely finangled them together for Matsuricon. It didn't last, so I asked my Dan to see what he could do. Sure enough! For Otakon, Dan managed to get the 'pearl' glued somehow to the necklace, so you can't even tell that it's got a hole in the bottom unless you look carefully.

THE SHORTS: I knew exactly what kind of material I wanted to use--purple suede/moleskin stuff that is relatively cheap at Joann's. I got far more of this than I needed--which is good, because I messed up quite a bit. Shorts are hard to make... I used a pair of my old shorts as a pattern, cut out a seperate waistband, and then another piece of cloth for the 'skirt' part. The problem I had was sewing this all together--you can see a bit of a nasty wrinkle because I didn't trim down the shorts and skirt before sewing the waistband on top of it. I also had a slight problem with it fitting snugly at the small of my back--I solved it by folding it over once on either side and sewing there. Since the material is smooth and slightly stretchy, it fits on very well now! I only wish I'd made the legs themselves slightly snugger.

THE SKIRT: As I said before, I sewed this directly onto the shorts part, which explains how it was attached... as for how it was made? Eheheh... this was a pain in the butt. I was hoping I could do scalloped edges, and use the buttonhole feature on my sewing machine to hem them. This did not work. At all. The stitches ended up being tighter than the material and pulled away from it easily. I then decided Stitch witchery was the only way to go, and ironed on that stuff, and cut the scallops out anew. Originally, I'd wanted to make the pattern cut out, but I realized that was impossible, even with stitch witchery--it was still going to fray. So I settled for paint, and sewed a big happy yellow button on to finish it off.

THE SHOES: The shoes were bought at Wal-mart (geez, it seems like I get everything there, when in reality I rarely ever go there!) and painted by me. I didn't really have a ref to go from while painting, so it's not very accurate at all. I'm very proud of the 'straps' (for lack of a better term.) I found the black whatchamacallems at Joann's, bought a length of gold cord, and carefully removed one of the elastic straps from the original shoe to string the cord in. I then sewed the cord to the shoe itself to ensure it wouldn't come off, and slipped the black things right on! My one complaint is that the shoe design itself is very uncomfortable, so I usually only wear them for a bit at cons.

THE WIG: Before Otakon 2006, I finally decided that, once again, my natural hair just wasn't going to cut it, and I needed a wig. I phoned my friend Terranell and let her know I had a new commission for her! I bought a wig at the local costume store since we weren't going to have time to order one. She cut the wig while I waited at her house... sadly, her internet was down, and I could only provide her one very lame reference pic from the strategy guide. Still, she did an excellent job. We were both surprised with how well it came out--we'd been fearing it was an inferior wig. Even though it came from a bag, it turned out very nicely. My only complaint is that throughout Otakon 2006, it kept slipping back, so I am showing massive forhead in pictures. URGH.

CONVENTIONS:

MATSURICON 2006--This was one of the most fun cons I've ever been to. Even though it was tiny, it was drama-free, and everyone was very friendly. This was the first costume contest I'd ever participated in, so I was a little nervous. I probably told the judges more than they'd ever wanted to know about my costume. I thought I'd be okay, but when it came to my turn to walk on stage, I practically ran across. When they announced that I'd won an award, I really did run across! I was probably bright red, too...

COSPLAY MINI GOLF 2006: This was such a ridiculously fun time. Honestly, I can't say more than that. My Kairi costume got rave reviews. ::blush:: Thanks everyone!

OTAKON 2006: I wore this Thursday night and Friday, and even got my picture on the Photosuite wall. The photographer actually thought I'd look better without the wig, but I wasn't so sure. He was so nice, and got a great shot... which I couldn't afford to buy. ;-; The stupid thing is, I was on staff, and I found out later I could've gotten a free print. ARGH!

MISCELLANEOUS: I'm pretty satisfied with this costume, and I don't think I'll be making any more changes. I feel like I've worn this a lot, but I guess that's because i have so many photos of it. I don't plan on wearing it again, though I may toss it on the eBay and see what I get.

Matsuricon