Mimikyu - Gijinka #5

THE SMALL BITS

Sparkly Eyes

the back of the sparkly eyes, with the snaps to attach them

the back of the sparkly eyes glued to the gold vinyl

completed sparkly eyes

attached to the eyeholes

First I traced the sparkly eyes with Affinity Designer and had them printed on paper. I cut the sparkly eyes, and traced them, mirrored, to a piece of glittery golden thin EVA foam, which sheds glitter like there's no tomorrow! I had to lint roll the foam first, and then I roughly cut the same shape in the gold stick on paper. I removed the backing, put the gold paper, sticky side on top, on a flat surface, and glued the foam, glitter side up, to the paper, and pressed hard and evenly. I trimmed the sticker paper, and the visible part is done. Added 4 male press on snaps to two smaller pieces of golden foam, that fit inside the eyeholes, which I glued to the (glitter) back of the foam. I also cut a smaller piece of thin black EVA foam, enough to cover the eye holes, and added 4 female press on snaps to it. This way I can attach the sparkly eyes through the eyeholes.

Wig Twin Tails Ties

Mimikyu is supposed to be black, inside the poncho, so I decided to use my Yuuko first wig, which was also my very first "serious" cosplay wig, which I retired, since I got a longer one for her. I think the hime-cut sort of suits Mimikyu, and decided to make twin tails, to make it cuter, fit better inside the hood and be easier to manage.

black yarn I-cord

finished ties (after blocking)

simple twin tails
(I later changed it for looped braids)

As it's also cute, and looks home made, I decided to make hair ties in I-cord, and put my Clover I-cord maker to good use. I used the same black yarn for the face embroidery, and it definitely looks cute. The second time I wore this costume, I changed the hair a bit, braiding it and looping the braids (milkmaid braids?). Besides fitting better inside the hood, it also looks more childish and cuter than normal twin tails.

Other Items

Under the poncho and the skirt, I'll wear a black turtleneck, black leggings, black gloves and black shoes. My simple short black gloves are still at the Batcave, so I wore it the first times without gloves.

Make-up

Since I went for a kawaii aesthetic for the "human" part of the costume, I also decided to wear heavy Lolita style make-up. Dolly eyes, with pointy fake lashes and heavy coral rosy cheeks. I also opted for coral lipstick.

+ Both accessories were very simple to make, and I'm glad I changed the hairstyle, I definitely prefer the milkmaid braids.

- I should have used a thicker yarn for the ties, but I didn't have any, and didn't want to bother buying some.

THE CUNNING PLAN

Reinforce the back of the sparkly eyes, and check if the snap bits are properly glued, due to the glitter.

Mimikyu - Gijinka #4

THE SKIRT

the tulle petticoat

The first step, before the outer fabric arrived, was to fold the tulle in half, and machine gather it at the fold. I tried to sew it together, in a tube, but this is probably the flimsiest and worst quality tulle I've ever handled in my life! I also unpicked an elastic from old leggings, to use for the waist.

the fabrics

The black fleece were two small blankets, which weren't big enough to make a 1/2 circle skirt, as planned. So I measured the needed length, cut the excess on top, unpicked the side hem, and sewed both pieces together. I planned for two side pockets, in black cotton scraps, but, as acknowledged before, the fabric shifts a lot, and one of the pockets wasn't cooperating, so I ended up just making one pocket (later I added a plastic snap to close it, as it didn't feel safe with the very soft fabric). Then I sewed the elastic on top of the inside of the waist, by stretching it, with a zigzag stitch. I turned it under, shoved the tulle underskirt between the elastic and the skirt, and sewed the elastic again to the waistband. This was when the bobbin ran out, Daruma Don was the next day, I still had to sew the ears to the hood, so I decided to leave it be.

the skirt with untrimmed petticoat

A few weeks later, I refilled the bobbin, finished sewing the waistband elastic, and, using the poncho scallop template, marked the skirt scallops with tailor's chalk, so they would be staggered with the poncho's scallops. Then I zigzagged over that line, and trimmed the excess fabric. Finally I roughly cut some scallops in the tulle, so it's still visible under the skirt.

finished skirt + petticoat

+ This is a very basic skirt, with scallops on the bottom, not much to it
- Running out of bobbin thread was enough to not pick up the skirt to finish it for one month, something I did in a few hours... the one pocket worked, but I would prefer to have two anyway. 

THE CUNNING PLAN
Make the small accessories.

Replace the tulle with something with more structure. As I was wearing it, the tulle bunched up under the skirt, and it got heavily tangled.

Mimikyu - Gijinka #3

THE PONCHO

the finished poncho

I started by drafting the patterns, 1/4 of the poncho (or half a pattern, almost the same, front & back). First, I measured the length, hip length, and cut the paper using that length. I determined the collar opening, both front and back, there is no need to make two patterns where the only difference is the collar, and the shoulder width. Starting at the shoulder point, I traced a line at a 45º angle. As the paper isn't very wide, I had to add a patch to the side. I continued tracing the 45º line, until the bottom of the paper. Then I roughly calculated where both the centre line and the 45º line met, to determine the 45º line length. I roughly hand traced the curved bottom line, and measured it. To have 5 points on each side, 10 in total, I divided the hem length in 4, made a template for the points, and traced them to the pattern. As they turned out a bit shallow, if I have enough fabric, I'll add a few centimeters to them. Then I calculated where the eye holes would be, made a template out of a paper scrap, marked their placement and traced the eye.

the patterns

For the hood, I started with Miss Piggy's hood pattern. As I never manipulated a genuine kigurumi, and wanted to make my hood like that, I scavenged the internet for pictures or patterns, and I think I understood it. It's made of three or four pieces, I opted for three pieces, two for the back, and a rectangle across, for the front. It's a larger hood, but so is Miss Piggy's, so, size-wise, they're the same. I put Miss Piggy's hood on, and determined where the front rectangle piece, which sandwiches the ears with the back hood pieces, would end, and traced the back pieces from Piggy's pattern, subtracting the front part. I didn't make a pattern for the front piece, as it will be a 37x30cm rectangle, folded in half (or two 37x15 rectangles, depending on the fabric). Then I eyeballed the ear length, and started designing them. First, I was very literal to the artwork, by drafting two crooked ears, but then I scrapped them, and drafted normal Pikachu ears, that I will manipulate later.

tracing the face to a piece of cotton, on the light board

In Affinity Designer, I vector traced the face design, for the hood, and the sparkly eyes shape, from the original artwork. I then had it printed, and traced the "face", mirrored, to a piece of white cotton fabric, a scrap I had around, using my new LED tracing board.

two small black fleece blankets and one large cream fleece blanket

The fabric, a cream fleece blanket I ordered from AliExpress (it was cheaper than buying the fabric by the meter), is very soft and a bit stretchy, so I spread it, as evenly as I could, on top of the cutting table and, after determining the pile direction, I traced the pattern (the poncho, the hood parts and the ears) with my thick graphite pencil. I dealt with the poncho first, sewing the side seams. This fabric also sheds a lot, so I zigzagged the seam edges. Then I added a large zigzag stitch on top of the bottom scallop line, and trimmed the excess fabric after.

the poncho pieces

For the eye holes, I traced them to smaller scraps of the fabric, and cut a larger oval seam allowance. I carefully placed them over the poncho, right side to right side, but it was a struggle, the pile would make them budge a lot, so I decided to sew them by hand. I first pinned them in place, as best as I could, using a lot of pins, matching the top and bottom, and then basted them by hand. Then, with a backstitch, I sewed the oval shape. I trimmed the uneven seam allowance, cut the oval out, scoring the curves, turned it inside out, and slip stitched the allowance to the back of the poncho.

the struggle with the eyeholes

Meanwhile I started embroidering the face. I chose coral and black acrylic yarn for it, and I will be embroidering with a chain stitch, so it looks handmade. First I calculated the centre of both the hood rectangle and the cotton face design, and pinned the cotton to the top centre back of the fleece, and basted it. Or so I thought...

the back of the embroidery on the hoop

I made a first attempt to chain stitch it with double thread, but it turned out too thick, so I changed for single thread. I started with the eyes in black yarn, then the cheeks, in coral yarn, and lastly the mouth. I used simple chain stitch for the eyes and cheeks, but for the mouth I started by embroidering the outline, and then filled it with two rows of chain stitch.

eye spy...

the back of the embroidery

embroidered face

I sewed both back hood pieces together, much like the poncho, but this time I hand basted them first, the fabric was shifting A LOT under the machine's foot, and finished with a hand felled seam, for a neat finish. I trimmed the excess cotton fabric at the back of the embroidery and, when I pinned the face piece to the back of the hood, it was when I realized that the face got shifted for about 3cm to one side... I wasn't going to embroider the face again, it took me about 8 hours, and I also didn't have enough fabric left to cut that piece again... So I pinned and basted it as centered as I could, and cut the excess fabric on one of the rectangle sides. Oh well... "a quick and easy project", I thought...

back of the hood and the face piece

I turned the face rectangle inwards, and whip stitched it on top of the machine seam, to encase the raw edges. Finally, I pinned, hand basted and sewed the hood to the poncho, and hand felled the seam towards the bottom, for a neat finish.

unstuffed ears

The last piece were the ears. I first cut the complete ears in the cream fleece, and the tips in the black fleece. I pinned the tips on top of the cream ears, and slip stitched them, with black thread, on top of the cream, cut the excess cream fabric, and hand sewed them shut, with a backstitch, leaving the bottom open. I stuffed them until fluffy, with polyfill, old left overs from my Mokona, and, with double cream polyester thread, I manipulated them until they were bumpy and crooked.

crooked ears

Instead of machine sewing them, sandwiched between the front and back of the hood, I whip stitched the ears near the seam, but making the base oval, so they tend to stand up better.

here it is again, the finished poncho

While wearing it at the event, it was warm and cosy, and very comfortable. It doesn't tend to twist much, but it's hard to keep it in place, while sitting on the bus, and carrying a bag on my shoulder.

+ It was a (sort of) easy project, and I loooved embroidering the face. I think it turned out really cute.
- Unfortunately, the shifting mistake where the face is, turned the hood smaller than planned, loosing the big head with a broken neck effect I was aiming for.

THE CUNNING PLAN

Finish the skirt, the bobbin ran out of thread while I was sewing the waistband, and I wasn't in the mood to fill a new one and finish it. Lighten the tail a bit and seal it, line the wire with the leftover black fleece, and shape it properly.

If I have enough fabric left, I may add a 3 or 4 cm wide patch between the hood and the poncho, as the hood turned out too small, because of the blunder, and fits too tightly, missing the big head effect I was sort of aiming for.