Cosplay Making : Goddess Madoka - Part Two (The First and Second Skirt)

I put the first and second skirt together in one tutorial because they were extremely similar to make.

-

The second skirt was pretty easy to do, not gonna lie. Just very time consuming. The most frustrating part was the ruffles. In case you forgot, heres the picture that shows what the second skirt is.

 First, I started our by cutting my purple material in half along the crease down the middle. After that, I ruffled the top and then pinned in on my dress form. Then I began to alter it - I cut the section in the front open and cut curves in the front because her skirt doesn't fall straight down, but curves and gets longer in the back. Kinda like a high low skirt but the front is totally open.  Only cut one side of the fabric!! This way, after getting the desired shape on one side, you will be able to fold the fabric in half and be able to replicate the good side instead of just eyeing it up.

This was the shape mine looked like after I cut the other side and it was laid flat on the floor. Ignore the wasit x3 part, the real measurement should be like 2x your waist so its not majorly ruffled, only ruffled till it lays nice. 

Once thats done, take your white fabric and pin the purple fabric onto of the white. Make sure theres so bubbles in the purple while pinning, or else when you cut it out they wont be the same size. Once your fabric is flat agaisnt the other and pinned tightly, cut along the edge of the purple so they will end up being exactly the same size. Once your done cutting, unpin you fabric and just put in somewhere that you'll remember. You won't need it for a while.

Next up you'll be ruffling! Since this costume has a good amount of ruffles, you might wanna invest in a ruffler foot (which I just found out yesterday aren't very expensive). This way, you won't have to worry about breaking your thread while hand ruffling. But its possible to do without one, I didn't use one while making it but I wish had. 

Anyways, cut out long strips of both purple and white fabric keeping them at the same width (Keep a straight width is very important here!!). I think I cut out like 9 yards of both at like a 5 or 6in width. Remember to leave some allowence at all the edges! Since my fabric wasn't 9 yards long, each section was about 3 yards long and then I would just sew then together and the edges to create the long strips. 

After you have two long strips of purple and white fabric, lay one on top on the other and sew them together. Sew the sides you DO NOT want to be seen together. You could spend some extra time here and pin both fabrics together or just take it straight to the machine. Either way is fine, but if you don't pin just constantly make sure that the bottom fabric is being sewed to the top. Try to keep your thread line as straight as possible which is diffficult for 9 yards of fabric but will give you a better result. 

After you finish that, flip it inside-out so the good sides of the fabrics should be seen. I would reccommend to iron them down this way to help the keep their shape. If you don't iron it now, you really can't iron them in the future since you don't wanna iron them once they are ruffled. 

Now on the good sides of the fabrics, sew a line on the top of the fabric, this will be the line you ruffle. Leave the tension on your machine low and longer stitchs so it will be easier to ruffle. Sew the line on not too close to the top or else the fabric could fray and break your stitch and you don't want the to happen. So sew about two centimeters from the top. After that lines sewn, start to ruffle it! I would reccomend ruffling it pretty tightly then if it's too short and doesn't reach end to end of the skirt, unruffle it a bit and spread the ruffles out. This took me like 3 hours to successfully ruffle it and get the thread to not break (use strong thread then you sew it) so get a good show or movie you like to watch or listen to some music, anything you can do to make the time go by quicker. This might sound really stupid, but take some breaks while doing it. It can really start to hurt you back after bending over it for three hours straight. 

Now that you have your fabric ruffled, pin it to the pieces of fabric that you had put to the side. I pinned them inside the fabrics so there would be no visible seam but thats suprisingly time consuming and meticulous so you can do it but if you don't, I think it would still look fine (*If you don't sew them inside, remember to lock your edges so they won't fray!!). Heres what mine looked like pinned -

It was very thick so I was really afraid it wouldn't be sewn by my machine but thankfully it took it like a champ B). But anyways, sew them together and then flip it inside out and it should look really nice! I remember I was really proud of it because it looked so nice and I showed my mom and she was just kinda like "Okay Lex thats cool. Now go away". Heres what it would look like if you chose to do it so you can't see the seams -

Now you're almost done with this piece for now. The last part is to ruffle the top up so its finally a skirt! 

Then you're done with the second skirt!! Now to the first skirt.

Honestly, you are just going to want to do the same thing that you did for the second skirt. The only difference is that you are going to want the skirt to close in the center, so just cut out a longer piece of fabric than before. And thats really all there is too it! 

^ If this happens to your ruffles, just take some thread and neeedle and (making as little of a stitch as possible), tack it down so you can no longer see the ruffle seams. Or if you want to be a perfectionist, you can take out the seam and resew it down but that just takes longer. 

So that is what the first three pieces of the project ! 

Sorry I don't know why but I didn't take many pictures during this part :/ But I hope you could follow along well and if you need clarification on anything please contact me through my Instagram or on Facebook!

Next Part - Cosplay Making : Goddess Madoka - Part Three (The Bodice)

 

Cosplay Making : Goddess Madoka - Part One (The Third Skirt)

Ah yes, now after that boring prologue, lets get to the sewing! //weak clapping

As you could tell by the title, I'm begining with the skirt. If you want to go out of order, fine with me~

Ok, Godoka's costume is split into 3 skirts - Top(1), middle(2), and bottom(3).

I'll be showing how to do skirt #3 today! As in the picture, you can see the skirt is pink, lined with purple, and has scalloped edges. Prepare the tissues now.

This skirt will be ruffled at the top. Anything you ruffle, you will need x3 of what you need it to fit. Example: Say your waist is 50inches and you want to make a ruffled skirt. You will need x 3 that so 50 x 3 = 150. You will need 150inches to fit your waist. 

So now take you waist measurements and use the same formula as above. 

Keep in mind! You want the fabric to end near the middle of your legs in the front, not so the pieces fully connect. 

Now cut out a piece of the pink and purple fabric, leaving it as long as you desire (remember to not cut off too much as you will need some to make the scallops). Pin these two together (doesn't matter which sides are out) and sew along the top on the loosest your machine can handle. After, begin to ruffle your fabric.

If you want you fabric to cascade in the front -

Leave about 12-17 inches on each side of the fabric unruffled. This will make those pieces fold down and give the desired look. 

(If you do not know how to ruffle, please look it up on youtube, its difficult to explain through text ;;)

Next, place your ruffled fabric around yourself or a mannequin. I recommend a mannequin because its easy to trim.

If you look at Godoka's skirt, it doesn't go straight down, more of an outward angle. So, cut that angle out that you would like onto that fabric only on one side. 

After cutting it, take it off of the mannequin and take out the ruffles you just made and lay you fabric out so you can look over it. Now fold you fabric in half length ways, cut side over the noncut side and pin down making sure there is no bubbles in the fabric. Now cut the other side to match the cut side. 

Now take out the pins and unfold your fabric. It should look like an upsidedown trapezoid (as seen below)

Now that we have that, its time to draw on the scallops! First, make yourself a little pattern. Practice drawing out a scallop on a piece of paper or trace an object of desired size. I used some wierd lid thing to draw mine. Anyways, after you draw it onto a sheet of paper, cut out the top and you should get something that looks like this. (Make sure to measure all the edges of your fabric and find a number that will divide evenly into it. That number should be the length of your scallop so they all fit evenly in the fabric.)

Starting with either end of your fabric, trace these onto your fabric. 

Remember to pin the fabrics securely in place before drawing these on!!

When you trace them on, make sure the scallops are facing the edges of your fabric, not the inside.

Trace with anything that comes out with water or (even better) doesn't go through the fabric but dark enough you can still see. You should get a little something that looks like this

Continue this all the way around to the other side of your fabric! Its time consuming but sadly, it has to be done. When thats all done, its finally time to actually sew something that will stay! This may take a few trys to get these damn things right so be patient! I had to redo mine twice ;;

Take your time while sewing, its better you go slow to make sure everything is nice then to have to take it all out and redo it. Sew along the black line starting at one end until you reach the other.

REMEMBER THAT THE GOOD SIDE OF YOUR FABRIC MUST BE FACING THE INSIDE!!! Or else when you flip it inside-out, you won't get the pretty side of the fabric. 

You're done! But don't celebrate yet. Sadly, you'll be doing plenty more in the future. (Like I said, tissues, many of them, will be needed). These were the most frustrating part of the whole costume in my opinion. Now, cut along the black line but not too close! You don't want your material to fray and have the scallop break! Cut leaving a few cms next to your seam. Then cut little virtical cuts in them going close, but not touching your seams. (I really don't know how to describe this ugh.) This gives the fabric enough room to stretch so it doesn't look all nasty clumped up. 

(This picture doesn't show the vertical lines cut it in sadly. If you're confused, just google how to make scalloped edging lay nice, they'll explain it better ;;)  

Next, flip it inside out so the good sides are on the outside and will be seen. Iron down the scallops so they will stay in and won't loose there shape. 

Now you can celebrate, take a break, and eat something. This next part is pretty tedious. 

After ironing, lay out your fabric on the floor and fire up your hot glue gun, and pull out your rhinestones and if you want, a pair of tweezers (very helpful for the smaller gems). These gems/rhinestones are going to become your stars! Sure you can buy pregemed fabric at the store but thats taking the easy (and smarter tbh) way! 

I got three different sizes for my gems, not needed, but gives it some variation. I bought about 400 gems totally and do have a good amount still left over. 

What I did was put a bit in hot glue on a piece of cardboard and quickly (before the glue dried) picked up the gems with the tweezers and stuck them on there using a toothpick it help get it off the tweezer if it was stuck. 

Then I repeated the process. I normally got about 2-3 gems on per hot glue dot before it got too cold. 

This took me about seven hours in total. This is also when its a good time to play that kick ass music I was talking about before. Remember to stretch your back during this period, I felt like an old women when I stood up my back hurt so badly. 

I actually ended up getting so bored, I look up constellations and made contellations in this. If you can find any, I give you major props.

Now! Almost done! 

Ruffle the top once again. This time, the ruffles will be staying in the fabric and not coming out (unless you messed something up inside you need to fix). Once again, make sure it fits around wear you want it to! If its too small, let some of the ruffles out, if its too large, pull the ruffles tighter. 

This is what mine ended up looking like! (Ignore the white piece over top of it, thats the next part whoops.)

Ok ok, its not the best, I know. But later down the road, I added another pink panel onto the top to make it trail more, so if you want to make it long, just add the desired length needed to the top.

Sure, this piece takes a hell of a long time but it is worth it. Now, I really like this because I know all the work I put into it. The only thing I was to do/do better (actually two things) is to add lights and make the scallops a bit smaller but other than that I'm happy with it!

Sorry that this was a tad unclear, its very difficult to write all this out and explain it without having any pictures >~<

If you have any questions, please contact me through instagram (vocime_cosplay), facebook (VocimeCosplay) or email me at vocimecosplay@gmail.com.

Thank you for reading!

Next part - Cosplay Making : Goddess Madoka - Part Two (The First and Second Skirt)

Cosplay Making : Goddess Madoka (Prologue)

This first part is just for a basic over view of the costume, reference pictures, time required, etc. If you choose to skip this, you'll be fine. This is more of an extra piece that explains the costume. You'll be able to follow along just fine in the tutorial with or without reading this ^_^

--------♡☆-------

Aha, long time no talk~~

So before I get into the making portion, I'm just going to give you a basic over view of the costume. 

Since you clicked on this tutorial/making thingy, that means you (may) have an interest in cosplaying Godoka! Let me tell you one thing- Good luck. This costume, wasn't that difficult, but was no piece of cake. As for myself - I have only made a few other costumes before making this, and had some help on them. So this was basically my first project going solo (but shoutout to my mom for helping keep me mentally intact through out all this). Of course, no costume is complete without its set of difficulties! So if you are just beginning at sewing and want to take on this costume, hey power to ya but personally, I would recommend having made a costume or two in the past. 

I'd give this costume about a 7.5 (personally, this is gonna differ from person to person) on a scale of one to ten. One being like Ib, ten being like a Sakizou design. Here is the finished project of Godoka! (Shitty quality, I'm sorry ;~;)

                                               

Also, before I get going I want to say -

This is NOT a tutorial for the bow and/or wings. Strictly sewing this time, but maybe in the future I will create one. Dunno yet.

Now as I stated before, you could be interested in making Godoka, or just like reading tutorials on making shiz (Hehe I enjoy reading them greatly :3). Godoka (Goddess Madoka) is from the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Hence the name, this is her Goddess form. Don't worry, if you haven't finished the show I won't put in too many spoliers! Anyways, I'm going to show you guys the reference pictures I used! 

This picture is a screencap from the anime itself; however, not much detail was on this photo, so while pretty, not as helpful as the next ones.

Ah yes, this is the photoset that my costume was mainly based on. You can see more detail in these. This is a figure (which I am just dying to purchase tbh) that I believe was made by the GoodSmile Company! These pictures mainly show everything, but some is obstructed due to the bow and such sooooooo~

Now we can see the gems, jacket, and choker more clearly. 

Lemme tell you, if you didn't hate scalloping edges before, you will surely hate them now. Approximatly 23 hours (total) was purely spent on these edges and making them lay correctly (took me about three days).

This costume took me around a bit over a month to complete, but I would allot yourself maybe like 2 or 3 months. I did rush this a bit and this is NOT a costume you want to rush. Even though theres not much detail, I would say the costume is very time consuming and (if you want to get everything perfect) you could possibly spend hours just pinning fabric. 

Now here are the questions I'm most frequently asked when posting this kinda stuff:

Q: How much did this costume cost you to make?

A: Oh my Godoka (heheh I'm so tricky wow), I really lost track. During the costume, I bought the wrong fabric multiple times. I'm pretty sure I spent a total of $250-$400 on everything.

-

Q: Where did you buy your fabric?

A: For this costume, Joann Fabrics. Always remember to check for coupons online for Joann Fabrics. I saved like $60 one transaction because of coupons. Use them.

-

Q: What kind of material did you use?

A: I'm really bad with naming material types but I wanna say this is a silk or satin of some kind. 

-

Q: Besides fabric, what other things will I need to use?

A: For this costume in particular: a zipper, velcro, pins, thread, seam ripper, hot glue gun, rhinestones, pins, some kick ass music to rock out to, boning, did I mention pins?,  scissors, a sewing machine (I mean, hand sewings cool but about impossible with this much), so so many pins, bandaid (don't get blood on this costume ok) and tissues. If you are like me, you'll need more than a few tissues.  And remember, if you drop a pin, pick it up. You don't want to step on it and land yourself in the hospital of whatever. But if you have some crazy luck of never stepping on pins and wanna live that 'never pick up pins' life, power to ya.

-

And the most most most asked one

Q: How much material would I need?

A: I wish I could give you a good answer on this, but it really depends on your own body type. My body is normally an XS or a S. But I'll tell you how much I proximately bought.

White (thin): 2yards

White (thick): 4 yards

Purple: 8 yards

Pink: 4 yards

I did not use all of this fabric though, but it is always better to have extra then not enough!

-

Ok ok enough of me and lets get to the tutorial! 

Next Part : Cosplay Making: Goddess Madoka - Part 1 (The First Skirt)