Story Time: Sew Geeky Classic Anime Sew-along, Sailor Moon and the Return of the Minor Characters!

My absolute first anime was Sailor Moon in the 5th grade. I made friends with a die-hard fan who would print black and white copies of the character pictures for us to colour over. My favorites were the ones with Rini and her crazy pink hair (I see your lack of surprise at that one) and I was planning on making a dress of her Sailor costume. Sophie of course was having none of it. She did surprise me by insisting on being a princess, and a search gave us a beautiful picture of a Princess Kakyuu cosplay, skirt floating in the breeze. She was sold.

My version is less "Is that an actual princess?" and more t-shirts/dollar store/stash-busting chic, but I am dressing a 4 year old around here. I also had a goal of making as many wearable items as I could without loosing sight of the character. I have to say, I'm pretty freaking pleased with how it turned out! Sophie complains bitterly if I have to measure her or try things on but when I slipped that crown on her head last night I almost didn't get it back!

Here's a side view. It's made of two layers of black felt with the yarn falls sandwiched between. The pearls are a broken dress-up necklace and there are flower sequins down the front. The golden flowers are felt. This is the piece I took the most creative licence with. Small things, like the flowers are in her hair instead of being ornaments, the sequins are the wrong colours, there are no ear flaps on the hat. I had just sewn a tribal fusion belly dance headpiece the night before and was still feeling inspired I, guess, because when I looked back at the drawings of her hat I suddenly pictured a headband and yarn falls.

The sleeves are separate pieces. These will make a great addition to the dress-up bin. They're just bits of old t-shirts; long red rectangle, two yellow triangles and black trim. I put some elastic in the top band to keep them up.

Here's a super special picture of Sophie asking me the 800th question of the morning, I mean of the top I made. I wasn't really pleased with how the tank top turned out so I didn't photograph it separately but I realized that her arms are in front of the design in the full length picture. So here is proof that her outfit actually looks right. The problem is mostly just that the top is too big. I tacked the straps shorter and tucked up the hem for the pictures but the straps were still too wide and slipping off her shoulders. (The hair hides the straps nicely for the pictures though!) To keep the top from looking costume-y (goal of useful shirt if you recall), I made the black stripe as a separate strip that I could just tie on over top. Good thing, it's holding the shirt in place in the pictures!

The skirt is a roll of sheer red "ribbon" that comes on a wide roll at the dollar store. I cut it into strips the length of her pants and tapered the ends. I sewed them in two overlapping layers to the waistband, another bit of t-shirt.

Here are the bloomers underneath. I basically just traced a pair of her pants and then doubled the width, with elastic at the waist and cuffs. Super quick and easy. I may have to make more for under her dresses, she loves them! Of course that's probably because of the super soft t-shirt I made them from and not a style preference, but I'll take it.

So there it is! I don't think I've had this much fun making something in ages, and Sophie was even sort of interested! Good thing I have healthy self-esteem, I'm already not cool. ;)

P.S. This morning's photo shoot was brought to you by marshmallows. I am not above bribery. Here is a peek at what ALL of the pictures would have looked like without them: