hello! i really want to cosplay mami at the upcoming anime boston. i was wondering how you made your mami costume, because i think it is so beautiful!
Oh gosh, thank you! Hokay, so here's a sort of run down on errything:The hat began as an oatmeal container that I very lazily covered with similarly colored fabric of the corset (some people say it's supposed to be the same color as her socks, but I personally liked the brown better). I added some little hooks (like the ones on normal pillbox hats) on the inside so I could bobby pin it to my wig. The fluff was made out of two clips bought from JoAnns and sewed together.
Wig: I dunno if you like mine, but it's from Lucaille (which ships to the US.)
Soul Gem: I do not suggest doing what I did. This thing is mostly held together by super glue, and I'm hardcore planning on buying one from people who make them out of resin and all of that fancy stuff.
The top was an altered ruffled blouse from Gap that had the correct collar-ish. I had to do some patternmaking to get it to stand up in the weird way Mami's does.
The corset was made using a Simplicity corset pattern: http://www.simplicity.com/p-2612-costumes.aspx We altered it to make an underbust, and used flexisteel boning instead of plastic, which helps make the really nice and cinched look.
The arm warmers were mostly just a lucky quick and dirty pattern that I cut out of muslin and sewed some elastic bands to.
The skirt was a full circle skirt with bias tape sewn onto the hem. I sewed in a netting underskirt with horsehair braid sewn onto the hem, which gives it the nice accurate poof.
The boots were a pair of plain tan boots that I made a pair of boot covers for.
