VERSION 1.0:
The original foundation was made mostly from found items; the white underskirt, corset, chemise, and of course, pointe shoes, were all in my closet previously. To transform those items into Ruby, I found some beautiful blue fabric at JoAnn's and used it to make the overskirt and headress. I then used three yards of a sheer, white sequined fabric to make a sash and a bow in the back of the skirt. I then used blue beads and white feathers to edge and detail the overskirt, back bow, and headdress. Finally, I took a peice of black ribbon and recycled a pretty blue earring (I lost the other one on the subway in Canada) to serve as a choker necklace. I used a platinum wig from Karen's wigs, and grabbed an old tamborine on eBay and painted it blue, adding ribbons to match my outfit - I was ready to go!

Ruby's debut at an Anime Boston 2006 was well-recieved, but I had lost wieght since putting it together, and as such the chemise and corset didn't really fit me all that well anymore. Also, the costume became more of a hybrid between Amano's work and my own imagination, and I decided I wanted something more accurate. So in the winter of 2007, I decided to pull it apart and start over.

VERSION 2.0:
I began by ripping the skirt apart. I loved the color, the fabric, and the petticoat, but it was too long, too big, and really too poofy for Ruby - she's a flirty dancer/barmaid, and her outfit needs to be a little bit scandalous. Plus, her skirt had more of a can-can girl asymmetry to it which mine was lacking. So I removed the seams from all of the skirt fabric, pulled off the fur trim and began again. This time, I cut it into a modified circle skirt to give it asymmetry, and put a knife pleat into it to give it some oomph. I kept the fur off and lined the top with ribbon. I sewed the petticoat back in after removing a layer and cutting it so it was shorter. Now that the skirt was short, I could wear thigh-high tights with it - what she wears in the drawing - and they would show. I added bows and lace to the top of the tights.

The next project was remaking the corset -- Ruby's underbust corset doesn't look like any other corset anywhere -- so I pulled mine apart and reworked it until I got a closer approximation. I then tackled the chemise, and solved two problems at once -- I needed more of the same material to add bell sleeves, and I needed to make it smaller. The answer? I cut the shirt in half down the back, and removed the middle section. When I sewed it back together it fit me perfectly. I then took the section I had removed, cut it in two, and used each peice for one bell sleeve. I then redid the front so that it had a V-neck rather than scoop elastic neckline, and used some of the fur I had taken off the skirt for the sleeves.

The bow, wig, necklace, shoes, and tamborine were all fine, so I just put those back on, and Ruby looks, in my opinion, so much better!

The skirt is made from 3 yards of black satin/poly blend. Working without a pattern, I designed it to have three panels: two to get the train in the back and sides, and one shorter one in the front. It closes at the hip with both a hook and eye and a black button. The white strip is also satin/poly, double layered, fully hemmed, and dyed at the end with Rit scarlet dye. The black flame designs on the panel are scraps from the black skirt, carefully crafted and then hand-sewn on. The belt is a regular black belt spray-painted gold, and decoraded with plastic silver and red gems that I glued on. It attaches to the skirt with industrial strength Velcro.

For her top half, I got a white leotard off eBay for around 10 bucks, and stenciled it with black fabric paint using handmade patterns. My drawing skills came into good use for that part! I also drew stencils for her wings, which I then cut our of posterboard and painted black. The wings are double-layered; I threaded strong wire between the layers of black cardboard to help them retain their shape, and then attached both layers together by wrapping them in black electrical tape. A pair of elastic bands attach the wings over my shoulders. To add my own flair to the design, I studded extra black fabric with red gems, covered in in black lace, and attached it to the wings to hang like a train in the back. I love how it billows when I walk. Since Adel was an evil queen of sorts, I also decided she could use a staff, so I grabbed an old gold metal curtain rod from my basement which matched perfectly.

For her hands, I got a pair of white gloves, and attached fack acryllic nails to the fingertips and painted them black. For Adel's bracelets, I took gold ribbon which I painted black designs on and glued red gems to. Her earrings I made by taking two red Christmas tassles and threading them through wooden beads I painted gold. I then tied the tassles to two earring hooks I pried off of a pair of earrings I don't care for and never wear.

The headdress was a challenge. I made the black hood out of an old halloween cape that was made out of stretchy material. For Adel's forehead design, I cut out a cardboard crown, painted it gold, and glued small red gems on for decoration. I then Velcroed it onto the hood. The horns are made out of layers of bent gold wire which I attached to a headband. Finally, I bought the red wig pretty cheaply off of eBay, and styled it around the hood and horns. I tied it with scraps of material left over from the black skirt. Whew! ^^

This costume has been a problem-solving puzzle to create, and its not easy to get into or walk around in, but the effect is a lot of fun. It's nice to see the other sorceress of FF8 get some attention.

I began by choosing the red brocade, which I searched long and hard for. I wanted to get that first, because whatever I chose would be the basis for my color scheme. I finally found this beautiful fabric at JoAnn's, on sale for $10 a yard. Using my classic Rinoa duster as a pattern, I made the top half of the Amano duster, which looked somewhat like a vest. I also used it to make an armband with Rinoa's black ribbon attached. I then used my wing pattern to cut out two wings out of white satin/poly, and sewed them onto the back of the vest. Although I planned on making big white feather wings to wear with the costume, I wanted to add the fabric ones as well in order to imitate Rinoa's original design.

For the lower half of the duster, I found some sheer yellow fabric which had a wonderful sense of flow to it. I sewed it to the bottom of the brocade vest in two layers to add color and flow to the duster. I also used the same material to make an armwarmer, and bordered it on each side with more brocade fabric. I then went about the painstaking task of decorating the yellow fabric on both the armwarmer and the duster with silver, gold, red, white, and fushia sequins and beads. One by one I sewed the tiny accents into flower and vine patterns. It took forever, but the sequin design just popped off the yellow and looked gorgeous.

The most difficult design, however, was the skirt. I planned on reusing my black shorts and tank top from my classic Rinoa costume underneath the duster, but I wasn't sure what to do with the skirt. I bought lots of half yard swatches of different fabric and tried a million things before I finally settled on a combination that was at once flashy Amano and fit in with my sense of harmony. I used a gold stretch fabric and a black and white animal print for the main part of the skirt to pull the theme into a new direction, but realed it back in by adding some of the red brocade, red beads, a gold sequined belt, and a red flower appliqué.

For the cloth "wings" which are hang from Rinoa's arms, I bought 2 yards of sequined embroidered yellow fabric from JoAnn's and attached it to the back of the duster and to the armbands. I accented it with some leftover yellow fabric from the duster and red fabric from Sorceress Adel. I also used the rest of the brocade to cover a pair of red high heeled shoes I had, and added a yellow curtain tassle to each to tie the shoes into the rest of the color scheme. I then bought a blonde version of my Rinoa wig from Karen's Wigs on eBay, and accented it with a red flower. My Rinoa necklace completed the look.

Finally, I decided to make the feather wings myself. These wings are my babies, literally, I'd never made feather wings before, and so after looking through several tutorials online, I decided to give it a go. I first took a length of industrial wire left over from my Adel wings and bent it into 3 loops: two wing shapes and one squarish shape in the center. I made sure to angle the wings outward from the middle shape. Then I wrapped each wing loop with a white garbage bag and secured it with Scotch tape. Classy, I know. ~_^ Next, I took 60 12" white turkey flats which I got off of eBay, shaped them, and began gluing them with Gem Glue to the garbage bags. I did two layers on both sides of each wing, so about 15 feathers on each side. Then I did a layer of smaller flats which I bought at JoAnn's on each side, and topped it all off by gluing on bags of craft down feathers. I then wrapped the wire connecting the two sides in peices of a white XMas boa left over from my Ruby skirt. I had no idea how these were going to turn out, and they came out beautiful. I was so afraid to pack them up and ship put them in the bus cargo hold on the way to the con! But I folded them flat, put them in a garbage bag and stuck them in an art portfolio, and that kept them in pretty good shape. I didn't even loose any feathers!

This costume was a BITCH to make. I started out with a base white leotard I already owned, and used a think, non-shiny poly/satin blend material for the skirt. I used a circle skirt pattern, and put in a full box pleat which gave the skirt a natural flounce to it which I loved. I then painstakingly sewed the skirt onto the leotard (while wearing it!) before I hemmed it - that allowed me to see exactly how it would hang and thus cut the hem into the V-shape which often gets lost. Using extra material, I sewed the hip roll, filled it with craft stuffing, and sewed it on top of the skirt. Next came the hardest part of the base costume - the skirt's colored stripes. A lot of people dye their skirt, but I really wanted it to actually be different layers of fabric. So I cut circle strips of both the pink and yellow fabric (the yellow was actually hand-dyed sections of the white fabric since I couldn't find anything at the store which was both the right color and the right material) and sewed them onto the hems of the skirt, making sure the lines rose and fell in the V pattern. That was AWFUL. I think I redid each strip at least twice, if not three times, before it was even all the way around. Ughhhh.

Once the skirt was finished, the rest of the base costume was downhill from there. The sailor flap was interfaced pink fabric with yellow ribbon sewn on for the stripes and connected to the leotard with snaps. Light pink and bright red poly/satin fabric were used for the breast and butt bows, both of which are also attached with snaps. The ring of yellow fabric above the hip roll was sewn on, and the heart charms are painted Christmas ornaments which are attached with industrial velcro. The sleeves were rolled and stuffed, and the sheer sleeve flaps sewn on. The gloves were white evening gloves, to which the pink material was stuffed and sewn on to create the glove rolls. The necklace is a yellow ribbon with a red heart sticker held on with velcro, and the earrings are hooks from an old pair, to which I attached small crecent moon charms. Finally, I found perfect pink knee-high boots on eBay, and painted the tops white, added the little point in the front and moon accent.

With all that finished, I moved on the part which makes or breaks any Chibiusa costume. . . and the part I was dreading. Her awful, awful, awful bitch of a hairdo. It would figure that for my first major wig-styling project, I would chose, arguablly, the hardest hairstyle in the Sailor Moon series. At any rate, this was a challenge, and was made twice. The first time, I used one long pink base wig and extensions. Using Katie Bear's wig tutorial, I parted the wig and made wefts using the extensions to neatened up the part. I then found two perfectly-sized egg-shaped styrofoam balls at JoAnn's, and used those and the extensions to make the odangos. However, since, unlike Usagi's hair which has ponytails falling out of her odangos, Chibiusa has springy tails which need all the hair they can get, I didn't do the stubbing meathod to attach the odangos. Instead, I sewed them directly onto the wig, which worked quite well, and gathering the ponytails to each side directly beneath them. Parts of each tail were sewn onto the odangos to give them the proper lift, and the bottoms were cut in somewhat of a layered way to make them seem more curved. I also sewed loops onto each side of her head, and used curlers and hairspray to make her bangs. The odango decorations were made out of resin and clay, and the little crown accents were made by sculpting clay "pearls" onto hair combs and gluing on the crown pieces and painting the whole thing white.

Now this came out pretty decently and I was quite proud of myself. . . until I tried the wig on and it didn't fit. As in, half the back of my head showed. Ugh. Unfortuantely, I didn't have time to fix Chibi's first con, and changed as soon as what I needed it for was completed. Luckily, however, it was a salvagable disaster. After doing some thinking, I ordered a second wig identical to the first. I removed the odangos and ponytails from the original wig, flipped the new wig around, and sewed the two wigs together back to back so that the bangs stuck out at both ends. After wefting wig number two and gathering both wigs into the ponytails I finally had the thicker falls I originally wanted, while the new wig covered the back of my head and its unstyled bangs, when trimmed, looked like the loose hairs one normally has at the base of one's neck. After reattaching the odangos, and cleaning up the styling, it looked pretty awesome. Whew! Saved!

For accessories, I made the Pegasus Clarion Bell out of a wedding bell (which I painted gold), and attaching it to a wire frame bent into a heart shape and covered in Wonderflex. I painted it and used and star studs for detailing. I also made a life-size Pegasus plushie out of a huge stuffed unicorn which I had had sitting in my closet since I was a little kid. I dyed his horn gold, added the red stud on his forehead, and dressed him up in the white feather wings I made for my Amano Rinoa costume. Instant Pegasus! It's so much fun to bring him out, although carrying him around gets annoying after a while.

This costume began with a full cotton/poly blend aqua bodysuit - hands, feet, hood, the whole nine yards. To play a half-naked green woman, I wanted to wear as much clothing as possible! I hand-dyed the legs and arms of the suit to get a good color contrast, and set to work adding decoratative accents: silver and aqua beads, paint patterns, you name it. I also coated much of the suit with a thin layer of gem glue and dusted the entire thing with a light sheen of aqua glitter. I left a small trail of this around the con. Although the suit was footed, I didn't want to have direct contact with the yucky con floor, so I sewed a pair of Dr. Schols blue gel insoles directly to the bottom of the feet - not only did this protect the costume, but my feet were so comfy walking around. I was seriously "gelin'." Finally, I painted two sets of fake nails with silver glitter and glued them onto the hands and feet of the suit with gem tack.

The "bikini" part was much more difficut; it needed to be form fitting, but the beautiful pink sparkly material was a thick, high-quality satin that did not want to cooporate. After some trial and error, the bra came together in six separate sections which give the illusion of wrapped fabric, while the bottoms are made from four sections. Both are held onto the bodywuit with a complex arrangement of snaps. I also decorated the fabric with silver snowflakes. The side skirts (which I made longer than the reference images to give more coverage) are double-layed; the bottom layer is the satin fabric used in the bikini, while the top is a beautiful sheer pink/aqua overlay. They are knife pleated and attached with snaps, and decorated with silver hoops.

The "wings" (a part I feel most FF7 Shiva cosplayers forget) are not wings, really, but pieces of fabric which float out behind Shiva. I bent a large section of wire into a small harness and covered them with two layers of the pink/aqua overlay. It was difficult making them NOT look like fairy wings, and I tried to warp them a bit to look more like undulating fabric. I also added snowflake ribbon in a train on the back of the harness. The wings slip over the shoulders with elastics.

As for the finishing touches, the wig is a long, beehive styled aqua wig which I altered; I cut the top from underneath and reshaped the scalp with stiff netting to form a taller, narrower shape. I then retyled the wig over the new shape, pulling the top half of hair into Shiva's signature high ponytail. I wrapped the ponytail in extra fabric and decorated it with silver hoops. I then dyed the ends slightly darker to give it a few highlights, and sewed strings of glass beads into the scalp, allowing them to hang down the back. The ears were elf ears I bought on eBay; I liked them because they are not tips - they go over the entire ear. I painted them to match my makeup and sewed the earings onto the lobes. My materia orb was a glass ball I had hanging around the house. Last, but not least, my base make-up is a combination of two Ben Nye products. First, I put a layer of clown white on which I had left over from my Sorceress Adel costume, and then I blended it with aqua face paint until I was satisfied. I then did detailing work with dark blue liquid eyeliner, and attached gems with eyelash glue.

It takes about an hour and a half to get the entire thing on, but the overall effect is worth it. Also, although it's very awkward to get dressed, once on it is surprisingly comfortable.