Amewarashi - Summer Frilly Dress #1

CHARACTER Amewarashi 

SOURCE xxxHOLiC Rei (manga - vol.; ch.)

COSTUME frilly summer dress

COSTUME BREAKDOWN

• small black (?) crown
• styled twin tails light blue wig
• lolita style high-low boned JSK, with floating collar with tie, white gathered bust and front laces
• white high-low double layered frilly skirt
• white puffy bloomers
• white frilly short gloves
• white frilly socks
• black mary-janes [have] or black ghillie shoes [have]
• black frilly umbrella [have]

This isn't for now, just adding this costume to the cosplans. I'll definitely finish Chocolat, finish Candy, and probably make Saki first.

Besides Yuuko, Amewarashi is one of my favourite xxxHOLiC characters, love her grumpy character, and it's been in the back of my mind to cosplay her. But, instead of her default black lolita dress, which is pretty basic, I wanted something a bit more interesting. Then she visits Watanuki in this dress, which immediately makes me think it looks comfortable enough to wear in the summer, and I love the design.

I guess I'm diving deep into twin tails wig styling... That's maybe a decision factor, as I'll see how it goes with Candy's wig first, as large drill curls are much harder to style.

Anyway, the rest of the costume, although not the simplest, should be quite easy to achieve. Since the Mad Hatter's scalloped collar, I've been enjoying drafting and making collars, and this one is quite cute. maybe I'll sew it to the back of the JSK, maybe not... Since the artwork is only in black & white, I thought about making the JSK in a dark colour, but now, breaking the costume apart, I started thinking black would work fine. But I'm also leaning towards dark red, in a nice sophisticated fabric.

The whites shall remain white, and I'm thinking about voile, which is stiff enough cotton, looks nice, as it's translucent, and is very affordable. I may have to make a short crinoline for the skirt to add the volume, as this time we can see a hollow under the skirt. Those stripey details in the chest and bloomers, can be white thin satin ribbon, and the necktie's crown will naturally be embroidered.

I can make the gloves out of cotton-like jersey, and, since one can't see the feet, similar socks, and I own a choice of lolita passing shoes, like my mary-janes, or the ghillies, which I have in flat and with a short heel. The umbrella will be my black frilly umbrella, even though the one in the illustration is white, but I already have it, and never saw a cheap white one for sale anyway.

The next time I have time and budget to browse the fabric shops, I'll look for a nice fabric for the JSK, and go on from there. As I said, voile is cheap and usually available, I have plenty of plastic boning to make the crinoline, I even have enough stiff interfacing for the collar, maybe I'll make the tie in satin scraps, and I'll decide later how I'll make the crown (probably using PVC scraps).

+ this looks like a really nice and fairly comfortable costume for warmer days. 

- oh no, another cosplan; oh no, another twin tails wig...

THE CUNNING PLAN 

Just browse the fabric shops in the near future.