For Youmacon this year I dressed up as Ranka Lee from
Macross Frontier (second movie). Not counting any casual cosplays, Ranka is the
eight-ish character I’ve done since the pass 3-4 years. Despite the time, I’m
still an amateur cosplayer in all aspects.
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| Photo by DistractingShotImages |
Since Ranka is a pop idol, I chose to recreate her performance
outfit from satin because it gives off a matte sheen and looks fancy. I really
liked the orange satin used for the skirt and bow. The material had a nice
thickness to it and responses well with ironing (though it does melt if the
iron is too hot, more on that later). It’s also not overly shiny to the point
it looks cheap. It was priced 7.99 per yard.
The perfect yellow fabric, however, was harder to acquire. The
original color treads the line between yellow and off-white and I could not find
a fabric that would work for it without either being too yellow or being too
close to white. In the end, I decided to get a yellow satin (a level above
costume-satin IMHO but was still $5.99 per yard) and a white sheer fabric that
is commonly used for wedding veils. The yellow fabric frays easier compared to
the orange and is less responsive to ironing. It was also a lot shinier, which
isn’t a good thing for conventions when some people use flash photography. The
sheer off-white overlay helped combat the shininess of the yellow somewhat
though it didn’t do much to add to the thinness of the material. I wasn’t a big fan of using the veil fabric, though, because
it is a pain to pin and cut. It cost the same as the orange fabric.
The basic tube top with the orange ribbon stripes took about
4 hrs to make. The flappy thing took another 2 hrs to make and attach. I
decided to attach the thing from the inside of the top and flip it over because
it was an easier way to create a ruffle effect. The ruffles are probably the
most frustrating thing about this costume because it requires so much fabric
and effort to create. I think I spent half the time pinning and unpinning ruffles
together. Ruffles, as you can tell, are not my strong points.
The shoulder straps took approximately 2.5 hrs. It wouldn’t have taken so long if I didn’t separate the white and yellow fabric, thus creating two hems instead of just one. I got the desired effect but it wasn’t as significant in photos. I was afraid that the top was too tight to slip over my shoulders with the straps attached so I added some a button on either side like overalls. The attachment plus the addition of the buttons and button holes took another 2 hours.
Due to the fabrics’ inability to stretch, the top looked a
bit blocky and unshapely. I try to counter that by adding elastic bands around
the waist. It only made the top more dumpy and unflattering. The unevenness of the bands from either side made the matter worse. So I basically
wasted 3 hours attaching and detaching the elastic. I did end up attaching more
elastic bands to the top but they more hidden and less significant.
Figuring out how to make the sleeves and the actual process
of making them took a combination of 5 hours. The length of the fabric was 3
times the circumference of my upper arm to create poofy-ness. I used elastic to
create the scrunching on the top part and a ribbon to create the scrunching
under the poof, via tying. I had to make individual hems for the yellow and
white fabric to give a similar effect as the straps, though it didn’t really
matter since the camera didn’t pick it up. The most tedious part about this
was stuffing the elastic and ribbon through the hole to the other side. The
ribbon took at least 45 minutes to string through and the flimsy nature of the
ribbon did not help. For the second sleeve, I ended up sewing the fabric tunnel
(no idea what the actual term for it is) over the ribbon to save time.
The orange base of the skirt was the first thing I started
on, actually, before the top and it took 5 hours to make. I did not use enough
fabric for it and it was a little late by the time I realized. I did add
another chunk to the back of the skirt but it didn’t do much except make the
back look more ruffly. I employ the same strategy of overlaying a yellow ribbon
with a sheer off-white one for the stripe on the skirt. While making the yellow
skirt underneath, I realized that I didn’t have enough fabric so I went back to
the store to get some. It was a week before Halloween and there was little
fabric lying around in the store. Lucky for me, a really nice lady working
there went to the back to retrieve more of the yellow that I needed. She was
really awesome because the rest of the employees would just tell me that they
are out and won’t bother to look in the back for more. I didn’t need the sheer
white fabric because it is about a foot longer per yard compare to the yellow
one. After learning my lesson, I used two-times as much fabric for the
underskirt compared to the orange over skirt to give the whole thing more
volume. I tried wearing petticoats with it but I looks like a pumpkin muffin.
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| front of skirt |
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| back of skirt |
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| with petticoat = pumpkin muffin |
The big bow in the back was one of the faster things to
make. It did require more fabric than I had previously estimated but it took a lot
less sewing to get the results. I added some interface inside the bow to make
it more stiff and less flimsy. There was a lot of gluing involved. While
ironing the fabric to make the bow, I accidentally melt the fabric. Maybe the
iron was too hot or I left it on the material for too long. The great thing is
that the mistake did not show through the other (visible) side of the fabric.
For the small bow in the front, I sewed together several strips of ribbon to
get the desired width. The store did not sell the ribbon color I needed wider
than ¾ of an inch. I prefer it this way because it looks kinda cool. The gem in
the middle was sew and glue on at the trip to the convention since I ran out of
time. Both of these bows are pinned on the skirt with safety pins.
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| It melted! |
The stockings were bought awhile back from Leg Avenue. I
just took the bows off and safety pin the orange ribbon on. I got the Oxford
shoes last minute through luck. My sensei had a coupon for 30% off and I was
able to get them for under $20. Before that, I had a totally different idea for
the shoes and it would have been very uncomfortable. The heels are about 1 to
1.5 inch. They were originally black but sensei sprayed them with some red
leather paint she had. The bows were then added to give a finishing touch. The
ribbon cuffs were made in the hotel room at the con. Probably took me 5 minutes
with glue gun and velcro.
Not including the wig, which I borrowed from an awesome,
awesome gal, and the leather paint, the whole outfit cost about $80 to make, with the help of sales and coupons, and
a whole lot of time (I did not count all the time I ended up wasting from
undoing many stupid mistakes). Despite that, I did really enjoy making this
costume.
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| photo by Li Long Xiao |
I had a photo shoot with some of my friends as characters
from Macross Frontier but they are all still being edit by the photographer.
