DIY: Sailor Saturn

I knew creating a sailor scout would be tricky as it looked like a fiddly costume to work with. As there’s a few components involved also the nature of one piece costumes are challenging. I’d never sewn a body suit before so that was also going to present difficulties.

Step one:

Gather reference images and break down the pieces that I'd need to put the whole thing together.

*Black Wig, above shoulder cut, full bangs.

*Elbow length white gloves, 3 purple rolls

*Maroon bows, on chest and butt

*Purple pleated skirt

*White bodysuit, capped sleeves, tummy roll

*Sailor collar (purple, single white stripe)

*Purple choker

*Purple boots

*Gold tiara with purple gem accent.

*Earrings

Step Two:

Work out what to buy, what I can make and what things I can just make alterations to.

I didn’t notice right away that the idea of what I wanted to construct actually had components from each of the three ‘evolutions’ of sailor scout. Being namely the petaled sleeves from the basic scout, the double tiered skirt of the Eternal sailor scout and the star choker, sailor collar and chest bow of the Super sailor scout.

I opted to do majority of Super Sailor scout variant as it looked easier than basic scout, but to keep the double tiered skirt of the eternal scout as it potentially offered more coverage of the derriere.

I Also took into consideration that press studs would need to be used in the crotch region to allow easy access for bathroom trips. (best idea I’ve had in a while saved having to take the whole thing off and risk it getting on a dirty bathroom floor)

Things to buy:

*White elbow length gloves.

*Black wig

*Pattern for bodysuit (Mcalls yaya han patten)

*Materials

Purple Satin, 2 shades

Maroon Satin

White Spandex material

Interfacing

Horsehair braid

White Zipper

Press studs

Worbla

Resin/ Polymer clay

Step Three:

Construction,

So firstly read pattern instructions three times to ensure I have an idea of what I’m doing.

*Trace pattern onto tissue paper (way cheaper than regular tracing paper, and I can use different colours for different materials to save confusion for what needed to be satin and what needed to be spandex.)

*Cut out pattern and pin to material, use ample pins. Cut out material and lament about how expensive material was and that this is first time creating something so complex from a pattern.

*Read instructions again and start sewing, googeling terms that I’ve never heard of and watching youtube videos just to make sure I’ve got it right. Stuff like understitching and basting may seem like basic sewing skills but I’ve never done them before.

*Construct most of bodice, underpants and yoke (midriff section), then get scared of cutting satin the wrong way so switch to making bows for awhile.

*Measure 12x10 inches on a sheet of paper. Then find center and measure 1.5inch from top and bottom adding diagonal lines. To create basic bow shape

> Trace pattern onto interfacing.

> Fold Satin with right (shiny) side facing each other.

> Pin interfacing onto satin. >Cut around interfacing l leaving a slight border.

>Sew both 10inch sides and one of the 12 inch sides.

> Sew remaining portion leaving a space in the middle wide enough to fit a hand through.

>Flip so right side (shiny side) is on outside. Use fingers to smooth out interfacing, use butt of a teaspoon to gently ease out corners. Sew up remaining gap then iron flat so that it’s nice and crisp.

*Finally cut satin for top skirt (darker shade of purple, same shade as sailor colour) and wonder about the fraying of material, Discover the lighter trick to melt the edges of the satin so that the edges no longer fray.

* Fold and iron pleats. (Forget that I needed to sew in the horsehair braid) attach to yoke.

* Cut satin for lower layer of skirt (lighter shade of purple). Also melt edges and sew into the skirt under the top layer.

*Remember that I need to add horsehair braid to hems.

*Lament and then fold the hems up and sew the horsehair braid in to the hem wondering why I forgot this step before attaching to yoke.

*Attach layers of Skirts and yoke to underpants part.

Sew Yoke and Bodice together and install zipper. Realize that zipper is uneven but will be covered by sailor collar so shrug it off and move on.

*Attach underpants and skirt to fully formed bodice piece and rejoice that the base is mostly done.

*Create tubes and fill with stuffing from a pair of cushions you had lying around the house because you forgot to buy stuffing for the sleeve rolls (and the rolls on the gloves)

*Finagle these stuffed tubes into the arm holes of your Fuku and rejoice that it’s mostly completed.

Step Four:

*To make the collar. Find a tutorial online that uses some paper and measures the back collar, how long you want the back of the collar to be and the neckline to where you want the front bow to be. I’m terrible at explaining this part but the youtube tutorials should be more helpful.

*Cut your fabric and interfacing, pin together with shiny sides facing in and the layer of interfacing on top.

*It should be Interfacing, material , material. Then sew around all three of the straighter edges and most of the inside of the collar leaving enough space so you can turn it inside out. *Clip the corners off the bottom straight then flip inside out and smooth your edges. Once smooth hand stitch up the remaining hole and iron so it’s flat.

*Make sure your collar fits around the collar of your fuku. Now with some white tailor chalk and a ruler measure and lightly mark where you want your lines to go on the collar.

*I used some thin white ribbon for my collar accents. Now I’m also bad at keeping a straight line so I got some strong double sided fabric tape attached it to the ribbon (got lucky that they were the same width) and then carefully ran the ribbon along my marked lines to create the collar accent.

*Now to attach to the fuku I put in 4 pieces of Velcro. On the front just in line with the top of the collar bone, one piece on each side and at the bottom one inch from the bottom another on either side where it would attach to the fuku.

*The large bows on the chest and butt will be attached with press studs to make removable and thus easier to transport and to iron out creases as needed.

Step Five:

For the boots I bought a cheap pair of boots from Ebay and then painted them with purple acrylic paint. (forgot to prime so over time the paint did flake off a bit). Before painting Remove laces. Took two coats of purple paint to get decent coverage.

Replaced laces with Silver/White cord for vertical blinds. melt the ends slightly with a lighter to ensure they don't fray.

Step Six:

The accessories.

The Gloves. Initially I was going to use the full length gloves but when it turned out the purple bands I made were a little too snug I opted for wrist length gloves. which made it easier to put them on and off through the day.

So measure around your arm then cut fabric that's a little bigger then that measurement lengthwise and about a 4 inches wide. Sew it along both top and bottom seams (long edges).leaving a little space at either end (short edges). Fold the unsewn short edges and press with a sewing machine.Turn you're tube inside out and sew a line down teh center of your tube. You should now have two tubes instead of one big one.Stuff said tubes with stuffing. Sew the opened edges closed. Then attach to the top of your gloves.

Tiara. cut out a shape from thin eva foam *6mm. then cut thin strip and glue them to the edges of the fist piece to get that lipped look. Then cut out two pieces of Worbla. shape the worbla around the foam with a heat gun making sure to smooth out edge joints. Paint the tiara gold then glue a resin or polished purple cabochon to the center of the tiara. Attach to forehead with spirit gum. Eyelash glue can work in a pinch but it's not going to work as well as spirit gum.

For the choker I used purple satin ribbon with Velcro attached to fasten at the back. I used double sided tape initially but it din't hold as well as I'd like so I resorted to hand sewing it down. for the star I bought a pack of resin stars off etsy after failing to make my own. (Resin is tricky to get the ratios right). it's just glued down with regular super glue.

The Earrings, I used tigertail wire. and ran it through a 38mm crystal point that I have a bunch of from making suncatchers. Then it goes up into a white tigerseye coloured bead and attaches to a shepherds hook style earring. I can't really wear posts as my earlobes are a little fat.

And that's how I created my Sailor Saturn look. It was a bit involved and I was a little overwhelmed at times. but as with any cosplay blood, sweat and tears went into it all for the love of the character.

Not the best effort and there's a few things I'd do differently if I remade this costume again. Which I'm likely to do as I'm also planning to do a Sailor Mercury and a Sailor Jupiter at a later date. But overall I was happy with the result.

#costumedesign #cosplay #Sailormoon #Sailorsaturn