Dragon*Con 2015: Crochet Cosplay WIP...Sailor Saturn Pleated Skirt + More!

UPDATE 2/5/23: This is a good post except I didn't include any links to, you know, my money-making shop.

I've wanted to do some sort of Sailor Moon cosplay since before I knew what cosplay was. I thought about being Sailor Mercury for Halloween some years ago, but then I didn't. I kept getting sidetracked by other ideas, running out of time and all that good stuff that makes for nice excuses to put shit off until the next year and the next.

I've also wanted to make some sort of ridiculous costume completely out of yarn for many, many years as well. Crochet cosplay would be the epitome of my yarncrafting - my yarncraft magnum opus. I dabbled for a while with the idea of crochet armor and making an old school WoW armor set. I wanted to make big, absurd, stuffed crochet shoulder pieces mostly. I was leaning toward the Lawbringer set, which is hilarious and stupid-looking and yellow AKA my least favorite color in the world.

I do still want to, one day, crochet Lawbringer armor, but the project is just too large for my first crochet costume. I reeled myself back in, scaled down the scope and started considering Theresa from Fable. I quickly scrapped that idea because holy shit I would be walking around in a blanket. I don't want to walk around in a blanket, especially for Dragon*Con. Because Atlanta. Heat stroke. Death.

In a rare moment of brilliance it occurred to me that a Sailor suit would be an excellent crochet cosplay. It wouldn't be a whole lot of pieces, not too complex, not a lot of yarn, etc. It would also allow me to cosplay a character closer to my actual body type because, let's face it, I'm built like a child - I've finally accepted this and I may as well embrace it. I'm never going to have giant boobers or be 6' tall. My diminutive stature immediately eliminated my actual favorite Sailor Scout, Pluto, from the crochet cosplay running. Coming in at a close second in my Sailor Scout rankings is Saturn. I immediately realized she would be perfect AND I'd get to make the Silence Glaive too. I love carrying around props and the bigger, the better.

But enough of my pointless musings, here's some pictures of what I've done so far. As work progresses I'll do more detailed posts about each component.

The Silence Glaive

The Silence Glaive is made of two wrapping paper rolls, some scrap cardboard and a generous helping of duct tape. If you know me, you know I like to use trash to make props and this is no exception. The glaive is about 6.5' tall, which is a foot and some change taller than I am.

I didn't spend a great deal of time smoothing the duct tape and I mostly used it to create stability and flesh out the larger details.

I'll basically be yarn bombing it and I've already started work on the crochet cover for the shaft. I've only got a few inches and it's not worth sharing a picture yet.

The smaller details are going to be created with contrasting yarn.

The Pleated Skirt

The skirt is hanging out at about 98% completion. I ran out of the lighter purple yarn. I keep fluctuating between being happy with the purples I chose and having mixed feelings about them. These two purples went together well and I couldn't find a more purple-colored purple yarn with a matching darker shade.

I'm working with Caron Simply Soft. It's cheap and soft and not really dense. The skirt is still pretty heavy. It's basically a sweater. It's made completely of single crochet with a size F hook and I made the individual pleat "panels" then joined them using sc in the front and sl for the concave folds. I need to bring up the waist a fair bit higher.

The butt bow is done and I'm not having any mixed feelings about my chosen reds. I haven't attached it to the skirt yet because, again, the skirt isn't done. I also want to figure out what I'm going to do with the bodice where it meets the skirt.

Preliminary wearing of the skirt has been successful. It's fairly comfortable and flexible, but it's heavy - since it's basically a sweater. I'm pleased with the volume and fit.

I recently did a whole write-up on my Dragon*Con costume from last year, which was Zer0 from Borderlands 2 for anyone curious about that feat. It's a lot of words, but also a lot of progress pictures. Check it out here.

I'm going to shoot for weekly updates on the progress of this project so my blog doesn't seem so neglected.