+Anima is a pretty obscure anime here in the states, but it's really fun. It's about people in a different world where some- known as +Anima- have the ability to transform into human/animal hybrids. The main characters are:
Cooro, a crow +Anima
Husky, a fish +Anima
Nana, a bat +Anima
Senri, a bear +Anima
My friend Krissy convinced me and Livvy, another friend, to do a +Anima cosplay group. I was assigned to cosplay Rose, a pretty minor character but I love the costume. It's fun, detailed, and really cute! So here's a bit of a tutorial on how to do a Rose costume.
What I used:
Moleskin suede
Dark brown suede
Yellow/tan suede
Applique paper
White bias tape
White cotton
Light tan leather cord
Asian-style jacket pattern
Basic shirt pattern
Zipper
Wooden fang-shaped toggles
Dark brown leather cord
Pink glass beads
White rose
Silver (not sure what they're really called) discs
As you can more or less see, the outfit consists of several pieces. There is a jacket, undershirt, skirt, leggings, over-legging, gloves, a belt and bag.
We'll start with the skirt, since it's very simple. I took the moleskin fabric and folded it in half. Then cut at an angle to create the curve of the skirt. Make it long enough so the fabric crosses over in the front just below your crotch. The point in the back should come just a little bit lower. Set that aside, we'll come back to it when we're ready for all the details.
For the jacket, grab your Asian jacket pattern. All you have to do for this is make the sleeves pointed, shorten it, and add onto the front so it overlaps just like the skirt. Sew it all together and set that aside as well. I used the moleskin for the jacket.
We'll move onto the gloves.
This is pretty much the pattern that I used. The red indicates where you WON'T sew. I used the moleskin for these as well.
This is what it should look like. I'll admit I took the easy way out- they're kind of supposed to be fingerless gloves, but I just made mittens without the fingers.
Now take your white cotton and make two equal sized bands. Stitch them to the gloves.
It should look something like this.
And here we have both of the gloves.
Now for the over-leggings. The under-leggings for my costume were just store-bought grey leggings.
This is the general pattern for the leggings. This time, the red is where you'll sew. Put the pieces all together before sewing the length of the leggings. Don't forget the light tan leather cord! That'll go halfway on the white cotton.
Here's the top, pre-silver thingies.
And the bottom. Yes, I made them crazy long. I wear heeled boots under these, so it takes a bit of the excess away.
Here you can see the silver thingies with little strips of the moleskin.
Now it's time for all the detail pieces! Iron the applique paper to your dark brown suede and get ready to cut out your triangles! I managed to shave off a lot of time and frustration by doing strips 2-6" long. Try to make the triangles as even as possible. When they're ironed on, stitch your white bias tape on top of that.
Sleeves
Go ahead and put the toggles on the jacket when it's finished. Make sure that you actually wear the jacket when you mark the placement- you don't want wonky toggles!
Here you can see the jacket and skirt and some of the leggings. You can also see the bag, which I'll explain next.
The bag is pretty simple. I used the yellow/tan suede for it. Cut two rectangles for the front and back, and another for the flap. Now cut a long rectangle for the sides and bottom. Cut one more rectangle so you can slide the bag onto a belt, and you're ready to sew! Inside pockets are optional. I made two- one for my cell phone and one for my camera.
You'll want to sew the pockets in first. Then the belt loop. Now the sides and bottom to the back, and then attach the front and flap. Use scissors to cut the flap into strips from about halfway down. Now take your pink beads and slide them onto the strips. This took me a while, since the holes on the beads were very small. It's good, though, because it means it'll be harder for the beads to fall off.
And here's the finished bag!
After that, get a white rose to put in your pink hair and you're good to go!
Ah, more derp face. Love it.
