Ami Mizuno from Sailor Moon

Character Name: Ami Mizuno (Sailor Mercury)
Series: Sailor Moon
Specifics: original anime winter school uniform
Cost: ~$75
Time: ~120 hours
Started: July 2014
Completed: May 2015
Debuted: Anime North 2015


References




Gallery



Photo credits: Sleepymeow Photography, Elemental, and Bonnie

The Kamen Rider Gaim is maskedriderwolf. The Makoto is goddessofwrithe.


Costume Information

I decided to cosplay Ami for three reasons. First, my friend Becky was cosplaying Usagi in her school uniform and I wanted to cosplay with her. Second, I like this school uniform the most in the show and Ami has the most manageable wig. Third, Ami is a character who I have liked more and more as I've gotten older. She's smart, dedicated, and level-headed in a way I didn't appreciate as much when I was a kid.

In reference images for this school uniform, the top is cut very short, and the skirt is rather long even though it ends above the knee. I wanted to replicate this silhouette, which is why I made the top a crop top.



There's a one-inch pleat in the top of the sleeves that lines up exactly with the shoulder seams. The bottom of the sleeves are gathered into the cuffs. This gives the sleeves the poof they have in the anime, while still keeping the seams looking crisp and clean.



There are small darts in the front of the bodice which help give the top the fitted-but-flaring crop top look I wanted. The top fits on over my head, so I didn't install a zipper in it.

This was my first time making a sailor collar. After a couple of attempts, I finally found this tutorial by fattogami that explained how to draft a sailor collar by using a bodice pattern, and I used that to make my own sailor collar, which worked perfectly.

I carefully sewed double-fold bias tape onto the collar to create the two white lines. I was slow and patient with this process, and often re-sewed parts of it until I got the bias tape to sit straight. I also sewed a white facing to the inside of the collar after I attached it to the bodice so that no raw edges would be visible.



I made and installed the cuffs as if they were large pieces of double-fold bias tape. This had the added bonus of hiding the raw edges inside the sleeves. I used the same technique with the two-inch band at the bottom of the shirt. I hand-sewed the insides of the cuffs and the band and this gave the costume clean edges, even on the inside.



The skirt of this costume was the first pleated skirt I ever made. (Guess who hasn't cosplayed many school girls up to this point?) I wanted the skirt to look long and still end above my knees like it does in the reference images, so I made the skirt rest at my natural waist. I figured this would complement the crop top I made and help me achieve the silhouette I wanted for this costume.

It took a lot of trial and error to get the skirt length right. I figured out a way to install the zipper inside a pleat and under a fold of fabric. The skirt is closed with snaps. For my first pleated skirt, I loooove the way it came out!

I should probably mention that the blue fabric I used is a twill my friend Sakura gave me five metres of about a decade ago. It held the pleats really nicely.

I used SparklePipsi's sailor bows tutorial for the bows. Since I'm tiny, I used her front bow pattern as my back bow pattern, and made a smaller version of her pattern for the front bow. I interfaced the bows, hand-sewed them closed, and used snaps to attach them to my costume. The bows took me way longer than they should've to make, but I love the way they came out!



The wig is an Arda Magnum in Midnight Blue. I bought this wig from my friend Elemental, who used it for her own Sailor Mercury costume. She helped me trim the back of the wig. She also trimmed the bangs when she originally used it. I re-styled bang into the 90s poof bangs, but otherwise did very little to it. I'm thankful for Elemental's help with the wig as I think it brought this costume together.

I wore a pair of shoes already owned, and bought a simple pair of white socks to wear with them. As for the school bag, my friend Sakura and I bought 90s anime school bags about a decade ago for cosplay reasons, and this was my first time getting to actually use it.

For a simple-looking costume, this costume took me a very long time. Including patterning, I figure this costume took me at least 120 hours to put together! I'm very pleased by the way it came out! Along with my Robin costume, this is one of the costumes I am the most proud of when it comes to craftsmanship.

At Anime North 2015, two of my friends convinced me to enter craftsmanship judging for the first time with this costume. I ended up winning best in my class! Whoo!





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