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)