by Sparkle Pipsi

MATERIALS NEEDED: - white lycra: 1.5 yard - white fleece: 0.5 yard (for armor padding) - poplin - skirt/collar color: 3 yard - poplin - front bow color: 0.5 yard - poplin - back bow color: 0.75 yard - poplin - glove roll color: 0.25 yard - decorbond interfacing: around 0.5 yard - white ribbon: 1.5-2.5 yards - batting / stuffing PATTERNS NEEDED: - Green Pepper "Crystal Lake" Skating Pattern Available at Joann or online: LINK SIZING NOTE: This tutorial should fit the following range of sizes: B: 30" - 36" W: 26" - 31" H: 35" - 42" If you fall outside this range, you may need to modify the measurements accordingly.

Okay, were gonna start by making a basic pleated skirt! You have a couple options for cutting out your fabric, depending on how long of a piece of fabric you have to start with. If you have a longgggg piece, just cut out the 90 strip so you dont have to worry about sewing the three smaller pieces together. Less steps = happy cosplayer! Once youve got your pieces cut out, sew them all together. For the bottom hem, I like to do a pocket-style hem rather than a rolled hem so it looks nice and smooth at the bottom. Now that thats done, lets get ready for some pleatage!

90

cut 1 fabric, 1 lining

12

OR
32 28 32 cut 1 fabric, 1 lining cut 1 fabric, 1 lining cut 1 fabric, 1 lining 12

Sew these together...

...and these together!

Now that youve got your uber long skirt strip ready, lets pleat! Use the pleating guide below to pleat your skirt. The middle pleat should stand alone and a little wider than the rest, with pleats folding outwards on either side. Follow the arrows for which direction to pleat. Pleats should be 2 wide at the top and 3 at the bottom (with the exception of the front middle pleat, which is 2.5 at the top and 3.5 at the bottom.) Use a measuring tape and pins to mark where to pleats should go, and then of course iron away! middle stand alone pleat

2.0

3.0

2.0

3.0

2.5

3.0

2.0

3.0

2.0

Continue same pleating pattern to end of skirt

Pleat this line to this line

Pleat this line to this line

Pleat this line to this line

Pleat this line to this line

Continue same pleating pattern to end of skirt

MIDDLE PLEAT
Align with center of super-long skirt panel!!

3.0

2.0

3.0

2.0

3.5

2.0

3.0

2.0

3.0

Once you have your skirt fully pleated, hold it up to yourself or a dressform at about belly-button height to make sure it turned out the right length around. There may be a little extra, and if so, carefully trim pleats from evenly from both sides until its the right length around.
back innie pleat

Once your skirt is the right length around, finish the back with a french seam. Dont worry if the back pleat looks a little derpy when its done; its gonna be covered by a giant butt bow for the most part so nobodys gonna see it. Also dont worry if you cant get the skirt over your hips at this point; adding the V in the next step will fix that!

Time to cut out the signature Sailor V from the front and back of your skirt! First, lay your skirt out flat
stay stitch along the pins!

with the front side facing up and the middle pleat centered. On the middle pleat, measure 8 from the bottom of the skirt and mark that point with a pin. Then continue to use pins to mark out the V shape of the skirt, with the top of the V ending at either side of the skirt. Refer to the picture to the left for this. Once you mark where the V should go, stay stitch along the line you made with your pins, making sure to
8 from bottom of skirt!

keep your pleats nice and flat. Once its all stay stitched, cut out the V like the picture in the lower right. Now flip it over and repeat with the back of the skirt, except this time mark the tip of the V at

front

about 9.5 from the bottom of the skirt. This is a quality of life change Ive made to my fukus over the years to prevent the skirt from riding up too high in the back. (We shouldnt make it too easy for the fanboys, after all..!) And now youve got your V-shaped skirt! Just remember:
9.5 from bottom of skirt!

POINT OF FRONT V: 8 from bottom of skirt POINT OF BACK V: 9.5 from bottom of skirt

back

The pattern I used for the leotard is Green Pepper's "Crystal Lake" Skating Outfit pattern. I found mine at Joann, but you can also purchase it online. The pattern will need to be modified slightly to accommodate your sailor collar; the neckline should be lowered in the front, and raised in the back. At this point, just make sure to raise it in the back and you can trim the front later once you have your chest armor and sailor collar to reference. Other than the neckline this pattern should be good to go! Cut out the top and bottom parts of the leotard out of your white lycra. Set the top part aside for now. You'll then want to sew the bottom of the leotard to the inside of your V-skirt. Match up the V's in the front and back, then simply pin the rest of the leotard evenly around the edge of the skirt and start sewing!

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Use this guide and picture to cut out your hip rolls! You'll want to cut out two of these.

fold

Remember to cut two of these!

Stack the two pieces on top of each other, then stitch along pink line.

Gaps in stitching to allow for stuffing. Stitch closed after stuffing.

Leave sides open so its easier to stuff evenly

Diagram A

Diagram B

First youll want to lay both of your hip roll pieces on top of each other, and stitch them together along the V at the far end. Use the Diagram A above as a guide. Once the two pieces are are stitched together, refold them long-ways so it resembles Diagram B when laid flat. The V it makes will end up being on the front of your skirt, so make sure its laid out looking nice! Stitch along the guides in Diagram B, leaving room for stuffing. Dont totally pack it with stuffing... just enough to give it a nice shape. Remember these will be stretched across your hips. Less stuffing is needed in the tip of the V and towards the back. Once your hip rolls are stuffed, stitch the sides shut.

Make sure the V of the hip roll and the V of the leotard match up, then sew away! Your hip roll should match the length of the bottom of the leotard piece. If theres extra in the back, just trim it off. When youre done attaching the hip roll, go ahead and sew up the back of the leotard, and the armholes too. This will prepare you for the next step...
Step 8

Take your skirt with the leotard bottom attached, and the top of your leotard with the hip roll. Pin the two pieces together, making sure the Vs in front and back line up happily. Now sew away! Your machine will probably hate you since it's a lot of layers to sew through, but if you work slowly and it should be fine! Once youre done stitching the two pieces together, turn it right side out and make sure there werent any boo-boos. Sometimes one of the pleats might get accidentally tweaked, or the V in the front might not look absolutely perfect the first time you try it. No worries, just seam rip the problem area (no need to take the whole thing apart!) and try again. You may also want to try it on to make sure everything is laying flat and perfect. And with that, your base fuku is completed!

The chest armor is a separate piece from the main fuku. You can use the Crystal Lake ice skating pattern to create the pattern for your chest armor on a new piece of tissue or paper. The photo to the right shows how I modified the original pattern to create the new chest armor pattern. The trick to getting the slightly raised, puffy look the chest armor has in the anime is to line it with a single layer of white fleece, so for each piece cut 1 fleece and 1 lycra. Sew them together as if you were using the fleece as lining. The edges along the bottom of the armor, the arm holes and the neckline should be smooth.

cut on fold!

add a little extra in the back since fleece doesnt stretch quite as much as lycra.

Like the hip rolls, you will need batting to make your sleeves look nice and puffy! Follow the guide below to construct your sleeves. Once theyre constructed they should look like the pic in the upper right. Pin and sew to your chest armor, and youre done! Note: Your sleeve wont reach around the entire arm hole of your chest armor. There should be a small gap at the bottom; this is so your arm is comfortable while hanging at your side, and so you dont have to worry about the sleeves digging into your arm and looking weird.

3.5

fold

17 cut on solid pink line stitch closed along dotted pink line stuff loosely sew shut stitch on dotted green lines to create the puffy sleeve rolls

The internet is home to a plethora of Sailor collar tutorials, but I've included the dimensions I used for mine to give an idea of scale. Basically you can cut a 16" x 17" square of fabric (and one lining!) and then cut it to the shape in the photo on the left.
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I recommend sewing your ribbon on before you sew the two pieces of poplin together... its easier to get a clean edge that way! Oh, and for some weird reason everyone has different # stripes on their collars. This list only applies to their original henshins, the stripes vary on their super fukus ~ to annoy the cosplayers, I'm sure. Two Stripes - Moon, Chibimoon, Mercury, Jupiter One Stripe - Mars, Venus No Stripes - Uranus, Neptune, Pluto

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Follow the guide below to assemble your glove rolls. I hope the diagram makes sense... basically you need to hide the original seam by disguising it as a seam between two of the rolls. Once you create the channels in your glove rolls, stuff the ever-living crap out of them!! They will need lots of batting to make sure they look nice and round. Finish your rolls by sewing the ends together with a french seam. You can then hand stitch them to your (purchased) gloves. Stitch the top of the glove along the seam between the top two rolls.

this seam...

3.25 fold
turn inside out

13.5

sew two seams to create three even channels. becomes this seam fold fabric so one of the channel seams lines up with the original seam. This will make it no no ugly edges show.

Heres the measurements needed to make the patterns for your bows. These measurements dont include seam allowance, so add however much youd like!

FRONT BOW: (cut 2 fabric, 1 interfacing)

BUTT BOW: (cut 2 fabric, 1 interfacing)

3.75

6.33 5.5 9.5

12

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FRONT BOW TAILS: (cut 4 fabric, 2 interfacing) FRONT BOW KNOT: (cut 1)

BUTT BOW TAILS: (cut 4 fabric, 2 interfacing)

BUTT BOW KNOT: (cut 1)

8 x 2 10 x 4
9

10.5

Front bows and butt bows are different sizes but they are assembled the same way ~ follow these instructions for both!

Main Bow For the main bow piece, start by ironing the piece of interfacing to the wrong side of one of your two fabric pieces. Then pin the two pieces together, right sides together, and stitch as shown to the left. Leave the bottom open so you can turn the bow inside out. Once you do turn it inside out, use a pointy object (like a pencil) to get the corners to point out, and iron all the seams flat. Tuck in all the raw edges at the bottom and sew that shut (It doesnt need to be perfect since the knot will cover it).
leave open!

Tails Youll follow the same steps as above for the tails (interface, sew, turn inside out, iron seams). When youre done sew the two tails together in the middle!
sew these edges together last!

Knot For the knot, simply fold the fabric piece in half, stitch, and turn inside out.

Assemble! Now that you have all your pieces, lay your main bow piece on top of the tails piece, pinch them together in the middle and wrap the knot around the middle. Stitch the knot in place in the back, and youre done!

PS: You can make super easy broach for your bow by painting the insides of a clear christmas ornament!

Snaps You will need to sew snaps onto your costume in a couple different places. Firstly, you will need snaps on your chest armor in order to attach your collar (see the pic on page 7 for snap location). Also, you will need to sew snaps in the crotch of you leotard to keep your leotard in place. Make sure its snug, because this is what will keep your skirt from riding up, and it will also make it so your hip rolls are stretched across your hips just right! Attaching Bows So funny story... most of the Sailor Fukus Ive made were meant to be assembled easily on stage, if you will... so Ive always used industrial strength velcro to attach the bows to my fuku. Its worked just fine for me, but I'm sure there are other methods that work just as well (or better)!

I hope this tutorial was helpful!! Please feel free to poke me if you have any questions ~ my email is sparklepipsi@gmail.com or message me me on on facebook facebook. Good you can message luck on your cosplay!!

Suzanne / Sparkle Pipsi www.sparklepipsi.com