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First Progress of 2024!

Writer's picture: Nichela TraberNichela Traber

Starting off the year with a remake of some garments of cosplays! Specifically this time being Junko, as I seem to never ever be finished with her. But I knew as a gained a little weight in the past few months (Which is not at all bad, it's coping unfortunately and I am working on getting back into a healthy routine), but my body shape and weight changes quite frequently so remaking some articles of clothing is not unusual for me. This being said, it is most definitely not the ONLY reason for remaking her two tops; simply put I did not like the way I made them in the very beginning.


I did not have the resources I have today when I first made Junko, such as a serger or embroidery machine. These things are definitely not necessary in the cosplay world, and I was gifted these items over the years thankfully, but they are helpful when it comes to certain projects. The fabric I originally had for her as well was simply not good, the white top was just a quick botched up job from a shirt I already owned for years, and the black fabric for the over coat was leftover from curtains that I just liked the pattern from. I am all for creativity and thinking outside the box, but looking back on this cosplay, I don't know why I thought it was good to use very thin and very fragile curtain fabric. I apparently even decided to burn the edges since I didn't have a serger at the time. I did what I could back than, but now it's time for an upgrade!




To start out with, I did simply thrift the fabric. There is absolutely no reason that I would need to buy pristine new black and white fabric if the thrift store had exactly what I needed, always check out second hand places first my friends. A quick wash to these, and they were perfectly able to be used. After this, I completely tore apart my previous two shirts to be able to get the patterns I needed, the shapes/patterns of the shirts was still perfectly fine, they just needed to be slightly bigger is all. Once I took a long amount of time to seam rip everything, I took wrapping paper (Again, use what is available to you. I find wrapping paper to be great pattern paper) and drew out each of the pieces so I had the patterns to set aside for later or for future projects! (I do this with all of my home made patterns, I also keep them in manilla yellow big envelopes and write the character or project on the front so I know who or what they are in the future.)








This post will mainly just be a progress update for the first white undershirt, being as how it was the more complicated of the two. I started with the more hard to grasp parts like the top back, the collar and the piece in between that connects the two. If you paid close attention to how it was constructed when you took apart the shirt, it shouldn't be too difficult to grasp; that's why I personally love taking apart clothing that already exists to see how it works. I find it kind of similar to how a lot of computer whizzes find it interesting to take apart a computer or a different type of an electronic to see how it functions and works, it's the same curiosity, just different areas of expertise!


With those pieces started up, the rest is usually a breeze from there. I had to really stop and think sometimes though with how certain pieces would connect with the upper back piece since it was a double sides pattern. In a different term, it was two of the same shaped pieces of fabric that would be hemmed and sewn into the collar and the center back to basically make it look like both sides could be shown on the outside. (Meaning there is no raw edge/serged edge shown anywhere).


The center back was placed and the front two pieces came together onto the shoulder connections, and once those were added, the back and front pieces came together on the sides. I took my time on the sleeves and looked at references to at least make sure they came down to the same point it did on Junko, and even made a faux rolled up sleeve. Making a faux rolled up sleeve is pretty simple, just basically cutting out one big rectangle piece of fabric, sewing the two sides together and folding it in half to let the seams meet so you can sew it to the end of the sleeve connected to the shirt. (I know this sounds like a tutorial, and it's not intended to be, but if people want one I am more than happy to make one!).









After this it was just the battle of hemming the front, adding in the buttons and button holes in the correct places and than doing alterations before hemming the bottom. I always like to make sure I do it in that order, because if I chose to hem before doing alterations it could really ruin the length afterwards. It was nice to alter this too because it showed I still had a figure and it was very apparent, it looked to frumpy and oversized before I curved the sides in to fit my body comfortably.


I than hemmed the bottom while having my dress form wear it, and voila! The white undershirt is now finished! It looked a million times cleaner and better than my first shirt and I couldn't be more proud of it. I am excited to get started on the black shirt since I will be embroidering as few designs on it, instead of painting it like I did years ago.





Again, if anyone wants a more formal tutorial I would be happy to make one, as simple as this shirt was it was fun to deconstruct and reconstruct with different fabric, and see how it all came together in a flat pattern.


I'll be taking Junko to Washington State Anime Con at the end of January, along with my Cassie cosplay from the Ruin DLC in Security Breach. If you see me come say hi, I always enjoy interacting with people and making new friends!

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