So let’s talk about what it took to make World’s End Dancehall. I choose this cosplay because I have by far, the most progress of it saved. It has been my most complicated and detailed costume I’ve made to date. I made it in Late 2014 and won 1st place for it in Dokidokon 2017’s Intermediate division.
For those of you who don’t know where this costume comes from, it is from “Hatsune Miku Project Diva F” for the PS3. This is Miku’s “Emerald” Module for the song "World’s End Dancehall". You can watch the Video here.
So here’s a rough breakdown of what she cost:
If you add it all up, supplies cost me around $277, what it would be if I bought everything new but I didn’t so I roughly spent $250, because I had the twisted red cord already and I used left over white fabric from another project.
** Side note - I bought a brand new machine for this project. It was the first completely new machine I’ve ever owned. I bought a CE1100PRW Brother Project Runway 100 stitch
So my project costs were closer to $400
___
I started this project by collecting more reference than I probably needed, by downloading the music video of World’s End Dancehall off of Youtube and print screening crap out of it. I also sourced this image a lot.
So I started with her sleeves, because I had an idea of how I wanted to do it but I wasn’t sure if it would work so I figured if I could get her sleeves to work then I could do the whole dress.
So I patterned out the sleeves and marked on the fabric where each part of the gradient should go with a pencil.
They ended up looking something like this:
I sewed these pieces together and prepared my first dye bath. I got a little bucket I didn’t care about, filled with the hottest water I could and added some salt for brighter colors.
This was the combination I used this time. I wanted everything to come out teal but it wasn’t the right color the first time I dyed them so I ended up making a second batch and dyeing them again.
There were lots of test swatches done in the process of finding the right color. They ended up coming out like this:
I left the bottoms in longer than the middle, I would watch it with a timer and slowly bring it out the water little by little to give it that gradient effect.
(Please always remember to use old towels and wear gloves when dyeing fabric)
With that done I had to wait to do the next step because things needed to dry, but once they were ready I got to work.
I looked for my now almost impossible to see pencil guides and laid down the dark blue fabric I’d bought and pinned it to the bottom of the sleeve after taking them apart so they could lay flat. I drew the design I needed to be on the bottom of the sleeve in with a white colored pencil.
* Please use a dressmaker’s pencil instead. It washes out until colored pencil, I was lazy. Don’t be like me.
After putting in my guidelines I sewed them all in place and removed the pins, once they were sewn down, I carefully pulled the fabrics apart from one another and cut out the pattern:
I ended up putting the gold lines down first so I had a place to match the leaves to, I also used white ribbon for the border at first but I hated it so I took it all off and started over.
I used this stitch for the golden lines:
Of course I didn’t use it in it’s original programming. My Machine is computerized so I made it much tighter together so it would look cleaner. I don’t remember exactly what I sat my machine to, but it was much smaller than it’s standard version.
But since I down right hated the ribbon, I tore it all off and started again. I later ended up putting a white braid on in it’s place.
From there I needed to put the leaves in and I did it one at a time. Basically I used the following stitch. I let it make one full leaf, stopped it and moved it to the next spot to continue the pattern.
Here’s a really terrible video of me trying to show how I did it on my facebook. I didn’t have any way to film at the time other than my phone and the apartment’s lighting was really awful.
*at this point I was working on the dress *
The sleeves with the new white braid and leaves ended up looking like this:
What I was doing was running the braid over the unfinished edge of the blue to cover it. It took a few minutes to sew on because I had to slowly wrap it into place.
Here’s some close up on the detail:
So from there, I lined my sleeves in the same blue fabric I’d used at the bottom of them and I put it around the top in the same way I’d added it to the bottom. A golden line was sewn down the middle of the blue at the top and then I added braid to the top and the bottom pieces. At this point the sleeves were done and I was so proud of myself.
So then came the complicated part.
I had to replicate all the work I just did on the sleeves, on to the dress.
One sleeve was close to 8 hours of work, consider 5 of them were spent just sewing all the golden leaves into it.
I knew this was going to be a lot of work. 4 months went by with having no chance to work on things, but eventually I got back to it.
So I started by patterning out the dress, which took a few fittings to see how it worked since I didn’t own a dress form at the time.
I ended up with something like this, pencil guidelines and all.
I had to pencil in where my bust hit in the dress so I didn’t dye past it and from there I dug out an even bigger tub I didn’t care about and went to trying to replicate the same color in a second batch of dye.
I used this:
to brew this:
I emphasis, please use towels, and wear gloves when dyeing fabric. I can still remember the dripping trail I made when I drug my dress to the sink.
I dyed my dress much in the same way that I dyed my sleeves, in that I slowly brought the dress out of the water little by little to create that gradient effect. It took a lot longer, because I was stupid and dyed a dress in almost cold water so I had to leave it overnight.
PLEASE DYE IN HOT WATER, THE DYE TAKES FASTER AND IT WILL SAVE YOU TROUBLE.
But eventually I got the dress to the correct color and I took it a part at a seem so it could lay flat.
I laid the blue fabric on top of it, pinned it in place, drew the design in with a white colored pencil. (Again, don’t be me, don’t do it.) I had to not only reference the picture I posted at the beginning but I had to turn on the game (Project Diva F) so I could have the model to turn around.
After sewing one side in place, we got here:
Rinse and repeat, it’s on the next side and soon enough after doing it all over again, we were here:
I’d started putting all the gold lines in but they took some time because again, I had to reference the model. I would be spending a lot of time with the model in coming days, little did I know it.
So once I got all the lines in I had to start the process of putting the leave in one at a time, all over again. The problem with doing it this time, is I had to check the model to make sure the leaves were flowing in the correct direction, so I couldn’t just sew them in. I had to make sure all the tips were pointing the correct way.
So it was a very
Slow
process.
Many Mountain Dews and sleepless nights later, I finally got all the leaves sewn into the dress. So from here, section by section I had to wrap the white braid into each section and sew it in place.
This also was a slow
Process.
I stood on many chairs to take these pictures, but after a while the braid was in and I put the dress back together to work on the top.
I had to put in the “boob window” as my husband likes to call it and again it needed a test fit, things got pinned for measurements while on me, because remember no dress form, and then penciled in later. Eventually we got here:
After putting that part into the top of my dress, I put on the blue parts much in the same way as I did the rest of the dress. With placing things where they needed to be an anchoring them as I went along.
The golden designs were put into the top of the dress with the same stitch I’d used to make the gold lines for the leaves. After which I covered all the edges with white braid just like I did everything else. I’d killed about 4 , 5 /yd rolls by now.
After that I placed small grommets at either side of the opening at the top and them four for the closures at the side slant of the dress.
I created a collar for the dress and installed it, complete with blue and gold detail with white braid. After which I added a zipper up the side of the dress.
It was complete! The dress was done! Four months of work and finally she was complete.
From there I styled my wig - which was a chibi in Ocean Green from Arda Wigs + 2 long pony clips in the same color. (Apparently they no longer sell it in that color, but it’s available in teal)
I ended up taking the side ponytails that came in the way out and pulling them up higher, since Miku’s pigtails set higher on her head with this costume.
I did some light styling to the bangs like trimming them and bringing them to tips where they needed it but over all it didn’t need much work.
I bought my stockings from a local adult store, and my hair clips were purchased from a vendor we found at Youmacon 2014’s artist alley. (I wish I could remember their name)
My shoes are just standard plain high heels.
It wasn’t until I realized I’d forgotten at the con, that I made small black wraps for my legs to mimic the straps of Miku’s shoes.
And at last Miku was done!
Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! If you would like me to breakdown more cosplay for you guys, please tell me in the comments!
As Usual, thank you all for your support! It really means the world to me!
All Photography of My Completed Miku was done by Artisticaise Cosplay Photography.
