Fairy Tail Cosplay

Hey all,

In my very first post, I mentioned that I might be making two costumes in the coming weeks; a little mermaid costume for a fancy dress party and Ciel Phantomhive cosplay for my friend for when we go to a nerd convention. Although both of those ideas have now gone down the toilet, in the wake of their slow deaths, a new idea has arisen.

'Fairy Tail'

This new idea is cosplay for myself when I go to said convention with my friends later in the year. This idea is based around the manga/anime 'Fairy Tail', a story about a magic guild of the same name who are believed to be the strongest guild in their kingdom. If you like anime or manga and have never read or seen it, I really advise you do, it can be intense, exciting and funny and is a really enjoyable watch.

My friend K and I discussed at length whether or not to even cosplay despite the fact that our other friend, J, had her heart set on going as somebody and in the end we decided to join the fun.

'Juvia'

As K's cosplay is going to be of the main female protagonists, 'Lucy Heartfilia' (top right), I had considered the dressing as the other main female character, 'Erza Scarlet' (bottom right), so we were much more of a pair. However, I decided she wasn't for me and opted instead for a less important character, although a more amusing one by far. This character is called Juvia Lockser and although originally an antagonist, sees the error of her ways and joins Fairy Tail. Juvia's magical power is ability with water and hence is called on occasion, 'the rain woman'. Due to this, much of Juvia's clothes, as well as her eyes and hair are style blue.

As with many anime characters, Juvia often sticks to one style, either wearing the same clothes all the time, or similar variations. However, despite this, Juvia's clothes go through three distinct phases. The first is the outfit that can be seen left, with the long navy blue coat thin belt at the hips, fur shawl and cossack hat, with a brooch of the emblem of her previous guild, Phantom Lord.

The second phase is far less modest, and the largest leap from her generic style. It features a fitting white shirt and blue bodice with a full-bodied knee-length skirt in two tones. Her accessories for this include a blue hat with white flaps, white boots and long white gloves, both of which feature blue trim, wearing Fairy Tail's emblem once again as a brooch.

Technically there are four phases, but the 'third' is actually a reversion to her original outfit, with very minor changes, such as the Fairy Tail emblem replacing Phantom Lord's.

Therefore her prefer I view as her 'official' third phase as the one with a dark overcoat with fur at both the neck and sleeves, a thick belt clinching the waist and a dark, fur lined hat with a butterfly embellishment. The third outfit is less reserved than the original, but not nearly as outgoing as the second.

These are the three designs I had to choose between. For me the first option wasn't really a choice, though there isn't really anything wrong with the outfit in itself I personally just didn't favour it as much as the other two and of all three of the hairstyles she wears, I wasn't keen on the one she wears with that outfit, leaving two and three. I liked both although I did think that in measures of 'prettiness' outfit 2 was nicer but in that mindset I would have been happy to wear outfit 3 as well. What decided it for me in the end though was not looks but instead that I was going to be wearing this in a warm convention centre, filled to the rafters with people and I didn't want to be uncomfortable, thus I decided on outfit two. It was the only option of the three that did not have a heavy jacket and it was a plus that in the terms of dressmaking, it would need the most work and therefore be the greatest challenge.

Now I had my inspiration, I just needed to figure out how I was going to wear it. As I was trying to mimic the dress as closely as possible, there was no point in sketches so I moved straight on to finding an appropriate pattern.

The Patterns

Typically when I make a dress I will look at two particular companies in search of a pattern; 'McCall's' and 'Simplicity'. Both have a wide range of patterns and are reasonably priced for the most part. However what I was looking for was far more specific than much of what they had in terms of skirts, shirts and corsets and so this time I had to look further. Which was how I stumbled across Jaycotts, one website that has the patterns from mutltiple companies in the one place, including McCall's and Simplicity, which is far more efficient than jumping back and forth between the two websites as I have been doing in the past.

So now I was able to choose between McCall's, Butterick, Vogue, Kwik Sew, Simplicity, New Look and Burda all in one go. Although the first four can all be accessed via the McCall's website and the latter three on the Simplicity New Look website, it's much nicer being able to see them all at once and I was able to scroll leisurely. Finally I found what I was looking for, and although most of them were in fact McCall's patterns that I had missed on their own website, it was a relief after scrolling for at least thirty six pages.

However they were at actual price on Jaycotts and therefore I returned to McCall's own website to purchase them as they currently have a $3.99 sale on all their patterns. 

The first item is a skirt by McCall's (M6706*) - Intended to be the blue underskirt part of the dress.

• It has the right kind of length I'm looking for, with the option to be longer if necessary.
• It also has the right kind of shape, similar to that of Juvia's own skirt
• It also looks as if it has give for an underskirt if necessary.
• Although both the line drawing and the model have the skirt in two tones, it would be more than easy to simply use one material to create the blue section.

Next is the main body of the dress, also McCall's (M6696) - This will serve as the white sleeveless shirt and the white part of the skirt.

• With buttons only applied from the neckline down to the waistband, a button-up dress will become a shirt with a train and therefore (hopefully) lie open over the blue skirt as is the design of the original, making it into a two-tone skirt.
• Although the collars of pattern and original design are different, I don't think that it will make much difference in the end.
• With the overall dress being made with white material, the wave design on the bottom of the skirt is forgotten. However with a thick paintbrush and blue fabric dye, it is likely that the waves will easily be painted on. If the effect of being painted on adds a watery effect, all the better.

The third pattern necessary to complete this outfit is obviously the bodice. This was the hardest item to find a pattern for because Juvia's particular corset is an unusual shape. In the end I did manage to find something, this one by Butterick (B6196)

Juvia's bodice is quite unique with a form-fitting silhouette and thin straps. In some senses it seems somewhat like a corset and in others more like a waistcoat, or simply a vest top. The open top and bottom of the front create difficulties in trying to design something similar, as does the dropping 'v' in the back. Therefore I have settled for a corset pattern, with the intention to do a little altering.

• The first hoop on the corset ties will be missed out in the design process to give the impression of the open slit, as will one or two of the hoops on the bottom.
• The hem of the corset will be brought lower around the back so the bottom lies in a straight line on the body.
• The straps will be thinned out slightly.
• The back will be changed from a 'u' shape to a 'v'.

The fourth and final pattern is the hat, once again by McCall's (M6450)

• The pattern chosen has a nice downward brim with a slit on either side that can easily be turned upwards and will simply need to be given a rounder shape as is with hers. The only issue with this is that the part in the brim is intended to be on the side and I need it on the front, however as this is a round had this probably isn't an issue.
• The embellishment indicated on the pattern will be left off, as will the second layer of the brim, however, I am as yet unsure how to proceed with the swirl design on the middle of the hat.

For now that's all I have, but I'm extremely proud of what I have done so far.

Although this project is all that my weekend revolved around, it's quite absurd to see it written out all in one place. Despite having already posted on this blog, this one is the first that truly exemplifies the original concept of a 'virtual sketchbook'. Usually these things simply swirl around in my head and it's strangely relieving to have it all written down in an orderly manner, so thank you for reading and I hope you come back, whether it be for the next instalment of this project or to read the next archive projects post that should be posted sometime in the coming week.

See you then.