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Step 2Planning and Drafting
1. The first and most important thing you want to do is plan out and draft the costume. Find as many images as possible of the character from different angles. I think well made figurines are especially helpful because you can see the character from every angle. If you don't draft out the patterns well, then as you go on the rest of the costume won't sew together properly and it won't look good when you wear it.
2. Now you want to buy the materials you need. See previous step for list of materials.
3. You can either find patterns that are similar to what you're making and adjust them, or try to draft your own based on proportions of the item you're making to the character (like if the dress hits a little above the knee, then make your dress to be above the knee). For the dress bodice, I took a dress shirt with a princess seam that had a similar cut to Saber Lily's dress and drew out each piece of the shirt from where the seam lines are on sheets of poster paper. Make sure to leave a seam allowance for the places you're going to sew on.
I didn't take any photos of the patterns I drew for the dress, so I uploaded a picture of an early draft I had for a piece of the armor instead to give you an idea.
4. Next, I drew out on cheap fabric (muslin) the pieces I made and pinned them together on my body. You might need someone's help with this part to pin the hard to reach places. Even better would be if you had a dressform of your size that you can work off of. After pinning the seam lines, adjust the pins to make it tighter or looser so the fabric is form fitting. Draw lines on the fabric of the new places where the pins are.
5. Recut your muslin mockup and trace the new muslin pieces onto poster paper. Then, you can either try doing another muslin mock up and repeat as necessary or trace onto the fabric you'll be using for your costume. In the photo, I have my pink and white fabrics for the bodice pinned together, and the pink fabric and interfacing for the petals cut out. The petals are made with interfacing sandwiched between pink fabric to make it a little more stiff.
2. Now you want to buy the materials you need. See previous step for list of materials.
3. You can either find patterns that are similar to what you're making and adjust them, or try to draft your own based on proportions of the item you're making to the character (like if the dress hits a little above the knee, then make your dress to be above the knee). For the dress bodice, I took a dress shirt with a princess seam that had a similar cut to Saber Lily's dress and drew out each piece of the shirt from where the seam lines are on sheets of poster paper. Make sure to leave a seam allowance for the places you're going to sew on.
I didn't take any photos of the patterns I drew for the dress, so I uploaded a picture of an early draft I had for a piece of the armor instead to give you an idea.
4. Next, I drew out on cheap fabric (muslin) the pieces I made and pinned them together on my body. You might need someone's help with this part to pin the hard to reach places. Even better would be if you had a dressform of your size that you can work off of. After pinning the seam lines, adjust the pins to make it tighter or looser so the fabric is form fitting. Draw lines on the fabric of the new places where the pins are.
5. Recut your muslin mockup and trace the new muslin pieces onto poster paper. Then, you can either try doing another muslin mock up and repeat as necessary or trace onto the fabric you'll be using for your costume. In the photo, I have my pink and white fabrics for the bodice pinned together, and the pink fabric and interfacing for the petals cut out. The petals are made with interfacing sandwiched between pink fabric to make it a little more stiff.
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