re-Birth of Chizuhuuru

Yes! Chizuhuuru! Rise again from your slumber!

"no I sleep UwU"

One day I decided to pick up my brother's PSP and play Hakuoki: Demon of The Fleeting Blossom, and dang did I get inspired by this once again. (plus got Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms on Steam while it was on sale, fuck yeah!) My bf got interested in it and wanted to check out the anime, so far he has enjoyed it and is considering cosplaying from Hakuouki with me. :D This is giving me such a boost, so I dug my old Chizuru cosplay, took a closer look at it and got to work. I only had the hakama and pink kimono for her (+ wig), everything else donated materials for other projects. 

Hello Chizuru my old friend...

Oof. The was so much that needed to be done, but I started by taking the kimono apart, iron the pieces and take a look at the measurements, cut and zigzag and finally sew together. 

The white under kimono I took from my old Kosuzu cosplay. The kimonos collar had painted design on it, but I have extra fabric for that part, so it was easy to replace. ^^

Testing testing~

The hakama on the other hand... 

Komiat oli! Eiku...

The hakama didn't sit on my body at all. They would always look weird and need adjusting through the day. I was supposed to fix them earlier, but didn't get to that until now (mainly for my own laziness).

I rearranged and fixed the patterns. The crotch was too up, which why it looked so strange. That's where I started. When it came to folds... ugh... After trial and error I am finally happy with the result. This definitely reminded me how annoying it was to sew a hakama! xD I used to make so many and they all would suck so bad, because I'm so impatient!

MUCH better :3

I wanted to add more detail to this cosplay, so I added the dark gradient on the pants. I've done gradient once and that has been a long time ago. This one in particular wasn't that hard. It isn't too large area to dip in the dye.

Before dyeing the pants I tested the thing at first, though the color I tested wasn't correct it still showed me how it would work when I get to the real deal.

 Test piece

I used Nitor textile dye. I took a steel pot and mixed the color and water and salt according to the directions in the package. I then decided on the fabric how far I wanted the ombré to be and put it under cold water. When the dye mix was in 80-90 degrees celsius. Dunked the fabric in first the point I wanted it to be and dipped it back and forth until it started to look right. After I was happy I washed the extra color under cold water and let it air dry.

It's quite uneven, but that should be fixable.

Meanwhile the pants were drying, I made green obi! My fabric was a little on the lighter side, but adding stiffness wasn't a problem at all. For adjustment margin I added velcro on the ends of this flat thicc rectangle, it's all good! (Sorry I forgot to take any progress pics ;__;) I also made tabi socks, though a very simple version.. ^^''

:3

So in conclusion..

Picture taken by Shiro Samurai

Before...

picture taken by my boyfriend

After! :D

The gradient could be little higher so I will dunk the pants in dye again soon. Should be done quick enough. Other than that I'm happy with the result. :)

It has been raining for most of the day, but I managed to take a few selfies of my makeup. ^^ 

I still gotta make the kodachi, but that's in the future when I have materials for it. ^^ I have made the blueprints though! I want to photoshoot this so bad! I need better pictures~ There's still definitely some finishing and fixing to do, but I couldn't contain myself! I just had to get this post out. :D In the actual photoshoot pictures you'll see finished product way better. ^^

Until next time~!