Series: Fushigi Yuugi
Characters: Nuriko (left) and Hotohori (right)
Made for: Shoujocon 2001
Worn at: Shoujocon 2001, Shoujocon 2002 (both hall costumes)
Construction details (general): It had long been a dream of Matt's to cosplay Nuriko; and I was rather fond of Hotohori, so these were our first serious attempts at cosplay. I think they would have been less difficult if we had given ourselves more than two weeks to work on them.
For our first set of complete costumes, I don't think we did half bad. That said, this was during our "Wigs are eeeeeevil!" phase, so every time we want to wear these costumes, Matt will need to dye his hair purple. And magically grow it long, too, since now he has short hair again. Other unfinished details include Hotohori's sword, bindings on the leggings, and a few other small details we have no intention of fixing, since we have no intention of WEARING these costumes ever again.
Construction details (Hotohori): We used for the Hotohori costume, as well as the Nuriko, a Simplicity pattern which looked to replicate a cheongsam pattern fairly well. The surcoat was made out of a red peachskin, a soft, almost silky polyester fabric. It seemed fairly lush, and thus, a nice choice for Hotohori.
The surcoat was a pain in the ass, let me tell you. Instead of it having a vaguely bathrobe shape, where there are two front pieces of almost the same size that fold over each other, the pattern was made in such a way that there was a short piece on one shoulder, and a longer piece from the other shoulder that matched up with the shorter shoulder piece at mid-chest level. That was a seam we sewed at least four times. And I did all the seam-ripping, oh, joy.
The pants were easier, at least. We used bargain fabric, and I made Matt do most of the sewing on these. His first piece of clothing, oh joy.
The undershirt was a shirt we bought at a discount clothing store, and modified by sewing on filmy purple fabric (also from the bargain bin) at collar and wrist.
Other random bits were done with scrap fabric as well, such as the sash (scrap blue fabric), and the trim at the collar (scrap orange fabric), which was sewn on, and the rough edges folded under and sewed down by hand. I bought a pair of mid-length boots at Payless to wear with this costume.... which have come in handy for other costumes, as well.
Construction details (Nuriko): We had had enough of the damn Simplicity pattern by the time it came to make the Nuriko costume, and so to get a better shape, we decided to alter the pattern to make two long pieces, which would meet in front sort of like a bathrobe.
So we did, and that was largely successful, though the pieces tend to droop because they're heavy and unsupported. We used a soft pink poly blend for the fabric, which came from the bargain bin of the lovely Fabric Place, in Woburn, MA.
The fun part was doing the collar. Since it appears, by FY art book pictures, that Nuriko has one color on the inside of the collar, and another on the outside, we used a scrap light blue satin (turned inside out to get rid of the satiny glare) for the outside of the collar.