Hoshizora Rin Love Live No Brand Girls Cosplay Breakdown and Progress Shots

Not exactly a complete tutorial but made a costume breakdown of my recent Love Live cosplay. I'm still a complete amateur when it comes to the sewing department so most of them are a result of multiple trial and errors but hopefully it will inspire ideas for other cosplayers who are thinking of cosplaying the same character or something similar. 

PATTERN

Since I want the top to conform to my shape, I used four pieces for the pattern and attached the gold satin-type bias tape on the edge of patterns A & D towards the center before sewing them together. I left the center open and detachable using a sew-on snap buttons.

For the back part, I had two options. I could've opted for the darts method since it was easier but I've already cut up the patterns before I realized I could've done that *creys*. Not wanting to waste any more fabrics, I just decided to push through. It doesn't make much difference anyway. Option A just fits more to your body shape than B,

The white fabric I used for the center piece was spandex because it doesn't fray when I cut it into continuous scallops and used bias tape along the middle.

The sleeves and ruffles at the bottom was pleated because I don't want it to end up bulky by gathering. To make the sleeves shorter towards the armpit, I used the same method as I did with the outer black piece of the skirt below.

SKIRT

I used two separate pieces for the skirt. For the inner white, I used gathering. I loved how fluffy and bouncy it turned out. The outer black piece was made using side pleats and one box pleat on the center back. To make the front part shorter, fold the entire fabric first in half before pleating. Then fold it in half again to find the center. Draw a curve from the upper corner to the lower corner of the half side that is away from the center and cut along those lines. When laid out completely, it should look something like below.

Just make sure the fabric you will use for both is light and flowy to have that nice fluffy and bouncy effect.

The belt was just a strip of fabric attached to the black outer skirt for convenience and locked with snap buttons.

raw look

GLOVES & SOCKS

You can always buy thigh high socks on any available stores you can find but they have always been too tight on my legs that I couldn't pull it all the way up so I had to DIY. The method I used was inspired by the boot cover technique.

Even with adding a garter on top, it still doesn't stay up most of the time especially if you walk around too much so I suggest using something to hold it up like sewing it over a pantyhose or make one of those garterbelts with transparent straps.

The gloves were also made of spandex. Pattern was traced from my own hands and flared outwards from the wrist. Since spandex is flowy and doesn't really stay up, I also interfaced a stiffer fabric inside for support so it doesn't look too flimsy.

ACCESSORIES

• The ribbons were made of bows and strips of fabric.
• The head piece was a bow hot-glued to a hair clip.

• The neck piece was also a strip of fabric and a custom scalloped lace...and when I meant custom, I really had to customize because I couldn't find any scalloped laces in any sewing/fabric store around. Also detachable with snap buttons.

• I used a double sided tape to stick the green strip accent to my boots.
• The buckle for the belt was made with rubber sheet + cardboard for sturdiness. I covered the entire thing with yellow colored-paper(fabric won't look very nice on the pointy parts of the crescent because I have no idea how I would have sealed it then). It would have looked fine already as it is but when I started to paint transparent nail polish over it for protection coating, the black from the cardboard started showing through so I had no choice but to use my gold-colored nail polish to cover everything. It took 5+ layers to completely cover the entire thing. I hot glued a short green strip the same width as the belt on the back of the buckle and sewn some snap buttons so it can be detachable from the belt as well.

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That's about it. It wasn't much... the entire costume wasn't really complicated but it involves a lot of pieces and takes a lot more patience to put together. I apologize if I can't explain some parts properly because I'm not really good with words but if there are any questions or stuff I missed, feel free to comment them and I'll answer as much as I can. :)