New costume alert!

I needed a new costume to wear to Anime Boston, so I decided to pull inspiration from the beloved Totoro character from Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro. The challenge was time - I only had a few days to design AND create the costume, which is not something I usually like to do to myself. But with some determination - and my new Beatrice MINI form - I was able to complete the costume in time!

Watch the trailer for My Neighbor Totoro

Meet my Beatrice MINI form!

A very special thanks to Beatrice Forms, who generously sponsored the Beatrice MINI dress form. It’s a gorgeous, incredibly useful asset to my designing tools, and I can’t wait to create even more things with it! I am still blown away by how quickly this Totoro-inspired costume came together. Thank you Beatrice Forms!

I used my half-scale Beatrice Mini form from Beatrice Forms to help me design something that would actually fit my body. This little form has made patterning fun for someone like me who would rather do anything other than sew on a time crunch of only a few days! :)

We’ll get into the weeds of how I made this costume, but before we dive in take a look at the mockup on the Beatrice MINI, and then how the final pieces turned out! I couldn’t possibly be happier!

Designing the Corset Top

I knew I wanted to have a form-fitting top, and that meant a boned corset! I am admittedly new to creating custom corsets, but I knew enough to keep the design simple. Time was NOT on my side, so I had to resist making this overly complicated. You can see the pattern I used as inspiration on the table: Simplicity S9247.

I covered the form with plastic wrap and masking tape before I started defining the pattern pieces in pencil. I love using masking tape because you can easily erase pencil marks. Be sure to label everything!

Designing the Bolero

Using the design from the Simplicity S9247 pattern as an inspiration point, I started the bolero design. I wanted longer sleeves, a different collar, and a slightly different shape though, so I pretty much only used the sleeve pattern (because sleeves are awful).

After installing the CUTE AS HECK arms into my Beatrice MINI, I started applying plastic wrap, foil, and tape to create the bolero silhouette and start sculpting! I was really excited about this part.

The finished Bolero and Corset Design!

I am so happy with how this is turning out so far. The next step was to get the mockup of the skirt on the Mini-me to make sure I’d left enough room for the corset to be placed over it. I wasn’t too worried, but one misstep and I wouldn’t have a costume for Anime Boston!

Making the Skirt Mockup

I liked the skirt pattern for Simplicity S9247 because it was floor length with body and length in the back. I decided to see what it would look like without too many modifications, so I reduced the pattern size by 50% to fit my Mini-Me. To do that, I took a photo of the pattern as it was mounted on the wall, traced it in Illustrator, and reduced the size by 50%. I was immediately very pleased! I only added a few additional pleats in the front to reduce some bulk.

You can see in the photo below that I taped the pattern to a wall along with a measuring tape to help me with sizing once I imported it into Illustrator. My fluffy cat, Priss, is helping me out with this step. :)

Making the Corset and Bolero Mini Patterns

The next step was to create the half-scale patterns from the tape corset and bolero. To do this, I cut the corset and bolero apart using utility scissors after labeling everything. Then I scanned the patterns and traced them in Illustrator to make a scalable vector (SVG) that I then printed. You can also use Inkscape for this step, which is a free software program.

Sewing the Corset and Bolero Mini Mockups

The next step was to trace, cut, and sew the bolero and corset mock-ups together to check my math. The theory is that if it fits the dress form, I should be able to increase the size of the printed pattern by 200% to produce a full-scale pattern set. Fingers crossed!

Creating Full Size Mock-Ups

Time to put my math (and the Beatrice MINI) to the test! Since my time was SO tight, fabric stores were closed, and this was the first time I was creating with the Beatrice MINI, I decided to make a quick mockup of the corset and bolero.

The corset fit was pretty awesome, right from the start! Remember, this was created with the 1/2 scale patterns I created. It was a little large, so I made a few adjustments. I also extended the corset a little lower because I didn’t like where it was sitting above my hips.

I made one last mockup because I extended the length, and I neeed to make sure those measurements were going to be correct. That mockup was awesome, and so I did a little happy dance and got ready to transfer the final pattern to the final fabric.

Sewing the Final Pieces

Now that I had confidence in the corset top and bolero, it was time to make the final pieces! I transferred my patterns to the fabric and began constructing everything together. It was so awesome seeing this come to life! I was running out of time, so I briefly considered omitting the boning - but in the end, I went for it, and I’m so happy I did.

After a few mockups, I was able to assemble this costume right before I needed to pack for my flight to Boston! I am so grateful for having the Beatrice MINI to pattern from. I am not the most confident when it comes to sewing and making my own patterns, but I thought this came together well given my experience and the time I had to spend. This was definitely a "con crunch" project, but I'm looking forward to wearing this again and again to more events!

Final Looks

The final pieces fit me VERY well. I do wish I had more time to noodle with some of the constructed elements. I definitely cut a few corners, but I feel fabulous in this costume so I’m counting this as a success!