Ranka Lee Costume Process

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.

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.

front of skirt

back of skirt

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.

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.

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.