_________Ming Ming
_________Costume Stats
Character Name: Ming Ming
_________Reference
Series: Beyblade G-Revolution
Specifics: main outfit
Cost: $100
Time: 25 hours
Started: April 2005
Completed: May 2005
Worn: Anime North 2005
_________Information
A few months before Anime North 2005, I was approached by someone at YTV to make a costume for Paula. They decided on the character of Ming Ming from Beyblade, since she is voiced by Sugar, another YTV host, in the dub. And so, I got to work.
_________Misc
The main black part of the dress was made by altering a pre-existing black dress. I took in the sides, and did some major alterations to the straps. This made the dress smaller and more form fitting.
The pink hearts on the dress are made out of polar fleece. I cut the hearts out and sewed them on. They didn't look as good as I would've liked them to when I used the sewing machine, so I re-sewed them by hand.
The black collar is a simple strip of black fabric that attaches using velcro. The armband is made out of black elastic and felt. The gloves are red ones I bought downtown and altered to looks like Ming Ming's. I used some left-over black bias tape for the detailing on them.
The pouch on the leg was made out of cardboard covered in red polar fleece. I painted the inside of the box and added snaps so it can be opened and closed. The legband is also attached using velcro and has a little pink heart on it for detail. ^^
I bought the navy socks at a department store and sewed more pink hearts on it to make them look like Ming Ming's. I purposely bought socks that were a shade darker than Ming Ming's so that the colors of the costume wouldn't look as weird as they already did. (Sometimes, you've got to wonder who designs these things? X3)
Paula has smaller feet than. I couldn't find red shoes in her size, so I bought a pair of Hush Puppies and painted them red with fabric paint.
The most challenging part of this costume was the wig. It took me a very long time to find a wig that was the right color and that would work. The one I finally found didn't look a lot like Ming Ming's hair at all, so it needed a lot of work.
Ming Ming's hair is technically split down the middle in the back. Since I can't find hair extensions to match the color of the wig, I couldn't put a split in. Instead, I ignored it and styled the wig another way.
The first thing I did was split the hair into sections: hair for the bangs, hair for the long parts in the front and hair for the back. I got Becky to wear the wig while I played around with it, and she made a great model. Thanks, Becky! ^^
The parts in the front were not long enough to do Ming Ming's hair the way I wanted to, so I ended up cutting two separate sections, and using hairspray to style the hair. I also cut a few bangs in the front of the wig.
I trimmed (and attempted to layer) the back of the wig the best that I could. By this point, the wig was looking a lot like Ming Ming. ^^ All that was needed was her odangos. I made them out of styrofoam balls that I covered in tape and old fabric until I got them to the right shape for the wig. Then I covered them in white fabric and carefully glued them to the wig. The final touch was the ribbons and Ming Ming was complete. ^^
While I don't think Ming Ming has the best character design in the world, she is cute. This costume as fun to make and I was thrilled that Paula liked it, and that it fit her well. ^^
Seeing Paula walking around as Ming Ming at Anime North made it all worth-while. ^^
_________Images
Anime North 2005
If you have any other pictures, please send them my way. ^^