G A R N E T " D A G G E R " T I L . A L E X A N D R O S
Final Fantasy IX
S U I S E I S E K I
Rozen Maiden
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The Inspiration
This was not a costume I planned on making, so much as a product of circumstance. When I ordered more green cotton to finish lining some Attack on Titan survey corps cloaks, I threw it into the wash before realizing that JoAnn.com had sent me Forrest Green instead of the Hunter Green I had ordered. Having already washed it, I was stuck with 7 yards of quilters cotton. I had been looking for an excuse to use Michelle Phan's "Gothic Lolita Doll" Makeup tutorial, so I figured, why not try something from Rozen Maiden. I picked Suiseiseki, because I had all that green.
The Build
The wig was a lucky buy on eBay that I made the week before the convention -- it was a US based seller, and I was not picky about it being extremely accurate length, so I was over-all really happy with it. It only required a little trimming and back-combing to fluff the bangs. The head piece is made from white casa satin and a piece of eyelet cotton lace that I removed from a sheet, and bobby-pinned the combination of pieces to my wig.
In order to offset the 'plain' appearance of the forest green quilters cotton, I chose to make all of the accent pieces out of fancier fabrics, like satin and shantung, to make it pop. The bodice is a total façade of layers; the black 'vest' and all the laces, ruffles and bows are made from JoAnn satin-back shantung. The bodice has plastic boning, and the white shirt façade underneath is made of white casa satin with white satin-back-shantung ruffles. The sleeves are sewn directly into the bodice, and the whole thing zips up the back with a separating zipper. The sleeves were drafted by me, and all of the ruffles on them, as well as the layers of the skirt, were gathered by hand. The collar and white sleeves are separate pieces, made of white casa satin with white satin-back-shantung hand-gathered ruffles. The collar is pinned on top of the shirt, and the white sleeves are secured with elastic bands around my upper arms. The black stripes and white stripe on the collar are both made from a simple gimp braid, sewn on by hand. The skirt is 2 layers -- the under-most layer is a 2-tier drawstring skirt, worn over a 2-hoop skirt I got on ebay, and previously used in my Rue costume. The over-skirt is shorter, and the apron is attached directly into the waistband - this piece zips of the back, and secures with hook-and-eyes at the top.
