Extras

Sera Myu Fuku Tutorial

This tutorial is aimed at regular (non-super) myu fuku with uniformity details specifically for members of Salad Time Soldiers.

Materials:

Bows and glove bands should be made of tissue lame
Both skirts, the choker, the sleeves, as well as the collar should be made out of a nice quality cotton weave of the broadcloth variety. Make sure it’s not the super cheap stuff that you can see through, since that doesn’t hang very well. The collar and choker should also be interfaced.
Boot covers, if necessary, should be made of PVC fabric with long invisible zippers up the back. Zippers should be slightly longer than the boots are in the back. You will also want a bit of velcro for fastening the covers beneath your shoe. You can get PVC from here.
There are two ways to handle spankies. First, you could take the easy way and go to a local dance store and buy a pair of the appropriate color. If you want to make your own, you will need about 3/4 yd (depending on your size) of knit bathing suit fabric. You will also need enough elastic of about 1/2” width to go around your waist and about 1/4” width elastic for the leg holes.
For the bodice, you want a white matte cotton knit of a decent weight. You probably want about a yard of this, but you might want to get a little extra just to be safe. You will need a long white invisible zipper to close up the back, plus a hook-and-eye for the top of the closing. For the belt portion, you will want this woven cotton tubing that is usually found in the home decorating section of fabric stores. It should be about as big around as a quarter. Here is an example of what I mean.
For trim, you will need at least 30-25m of holographic mylar braid trim. With the exception of Sailor Moon, whose colors change costume to costume, all of the sailors use entirely gold trim. All of the senshi use gold double-fold bias tape on their chokers, around the bottom of their skirts, except Saturn and Pluto who use silver bias tape on their skirts. (This is true in the later versions of the costume, but during the First Stage, everyone had all gold.) About 3 or 4 packages of this should be necessary. All senshi also use faceted strung beads around the bottom of their skirts and zig-zagged on their belts. Everyone but Saturn and Pluto use gold beads while these two use silver. You will need about 10-15m of beads. You can get all your trim and beads from: Cosplay Supplies.
While sometimes the sleeves are not beaded all the way around, Salad Time Soldiers will be doing so. The beads we like to use look like this. You will need two packages like this to completely bead your sleeves. Also pictures are rhinestones that will be used for the choker charm, brooch, and tiara. You might need various sizes and colors for this. The largest size should be used on the tiara. If you can’t find the color you want, I recommend stained glass paint.
To make tiaras, you will need thin craft foam as well as gold foil or thin brass sheeting, plus two tupet clips for clipping it into your wig.
I made my brooch and choker charm out of silver and gold poster board. I glued Velcro to the back of both pieces to attach it to the bow and choker.
You will also need two large snaps, about the size of a dime, to attach the back bow to the belt over where the zipper runs in the back. The choker should be secured with three small snaps as well.
For gloves, buy shiny opera-style gloves long enough to extend under your glove bands. If you need to, you can get longer gloves and cut them shorter. Gloves like this can be found at Claire’s as well as other places.
You will need some fluffy quilt batting or stuffing for the glove bands and the sleeves. You might want some elastic cording for the glove bands as well.

Trim:

When you sew on your trim, you must sew it by hand. Machine needles will puncture the plastic and make it look gross. You also should sew both sides of it down so it doesn’t flap around on you while dancing. I know this takes a ridiculous amount of time, but it’s well worth it.

Bows:

first: front bow loops - 27x17
back bow loops: 36x21
back bow tie: 7x6
front bow tails: 17x17
front bow tie: 5x7

There are two parts to the back bow and three parts to the front bow. Except for bow tails, the two are made essentially the same way, so I’ll just talk about the front bow and let you figure out the back bow from that. First, you should cut out rectangle for the bow loops, two for the bow tails, and one for the tie. Cut out one rectangle of interfacing for the loops, one for the tails, and one half as wide as the original rectangle for the tie.
Iron the interfacing to the middle of the tie piece and to one of the tail and loop pieces each. Do this with the interfacing piece on top and be sure not to leave your iron resting in one place for too long. Lame tends to melt easily.
Now, with right sides together, sew the two tail pieces together, leaving an opening (preferably near the center on the long sides) large enough for you to turn it right-side out. Once that is done, clip the corners closer to the stitching and turn it right side out. Press it flat, then hand stitch (with a hidden stitch) the opening closed.
With right sides together sew the two loop pieces together along the two long edges. Turn right-side-out and press flat.
Fold the tie piece in half, right sides together, and sew along the edge opposite the fold. Turn and center the seam in the back, then press flat.
Now is the time-consuming part: trim sewing. Sew the trim along all four sides of the tail pieces, and the two longer edges of the bow loops and bow tie pieces.
Fold the tie piece in half to meet the two short edges together, right sides together, and sew. Turn right-side-out. Do the same thing with the bow loop pieces. Press the seam open.
Now lay out the bow loops, with the seam centered in the back, centered on top of the bow tails. Fold them together, back and forth, like a paper fan. It looks nicer if you have the top and bottom edges both pointing towards the back. Sew a few hand stitches up and down in the center to hold this ‘fan’ style in place.
Slide the folded bow ensemble through the bow tie piece and fluff it open. Once you’ve done this, do some hand stitching in the back of the bow to hold the loops and tails to the tie. You may also want to pick the angle you want the ties to hang down at and secure them with some hand stitching as well. Sometimes gravity isn’t enough.

Choker:

Cut out a strip of cotton and of interfacing 1.5” wide and the measurement of your neck plus 1”. Cut two pieces of gold bias tape of the same length.
Iron the interfacing to the cotton.
Pin the bias tape to the choker piece (one side at a time) with the longer side of the fold in the back. Make sure the edge of the cotton piece butts up to the fold inside the bias tape. Sew it down with a moderately long stitch as close as you can to the edge of the bias tape.
Once you have both piece of bias tape on, turn the short edges over twice to hem them and sew them down. Iron the whole thing.
Attach three small snaps to the chocker. You don’t want this to keep you from breathing or swallowing, but you don’t want to give it too much room to slide around either. Make sure it’s comfortably snug.
To attach a choker charm, glue a piece of velcro to the back of the charm and sew a corresponding piece to the center of the choker.

Gloves:

There are plenty of places that you can get white gloves. Buying them will be easier, and probably nicer looking, than making them yourself. If you don't see any in the length you want, buy them longer and cut them off at the length you want.

For the glove bands, I will point you towards the following picture tutorial:

Skirts:

1. pattern a nice big circle and cut it out (see below for patterning details)
2. piece it together as necessary (you probably won't be able to cut a big circle on your fabric because it isn't wide enough, so remember to leave a 1/2" seam allowance at the piecing edges)
3. sew on double-fold gold bias tape along the bottom of each skirt with the shorter side of the tape in front and sewing as close to the top edge as possible.
3. Pleat each layer separately first by ironing then by sewing the pleats down by machine 1/2" from the top
4. sew the two skirts together at the top
5. sew on the trim (by hand)
6. sew on beads on top of the trim

Before you begin to pattern your skirt, you need to know two things, how long your longest skirt will be and how big around you are at the waist. I am 5'6" and 32" around. Based on how long my legs are, I decided to make my skirt 15" long. Since we all are doing full double-pleats, the center circle must be twice the size of your waist. The lower skirt is 3 inches longer than the top skirt, so what I did for my patterns was cut out the lower skirt, then cut off the lower 3 inches of the patterns and cut out the upper skirt with the shortened pattern. See the pictures for closer pictures of the pleats and patterns.

Basically, I put a pin into the carpet in the middle of my bed sheet, measured out a piece of string the radius of my skirt and tied my purple marker to the other end. I used this as a giant compass to trace the huge circle of the skirt. Then I shortened the string by 3 inches to trace the circle that would be the top layer skirt. Finally, I shortened it to draw the circle that would be my waist line. Once I had done that, I drew a line from the waistline to the bottom of the skirt using my hand ruler. I marked this the center front. Then, on the opposite side of the circle, using my yard stick, I drew a similar line for the center back. Coming out from the center, I marked lines with my ruler every two inches around the skirt. When pleating, take one line, (moving towards the center) fold over one line (this is your crease line), and meet the third line with your initial line. See pictures, this was badly described by me.

One thing to note about first stage myu pleats is that, unlike how the skirts are pictured in the anime, these pleats overlap towards the center, where the center most pleat edges meet in the center. It's kind of in-side-out of anime-style.

How you get the pattern to account for the point in the front of the skirt is take your big bed sheet circle that you've cut out and pleat and pin down the pleats. Now you have a circle half the size, which will be how it will look like when you wear it. So draw on the line where you want the V in the front to be and cut it off. When you un-pleat it, you will find you have a nice little zig zag. (see diagram) I cut my pattern in half and used the better half for the pattern that I actually used, making sure to cut two of it. However, since most fabric is not wide enough to handle half of a skirt all at once, you'll probably need to cut the pattern into at least two or three pieces. Don't forget to leave a seam allowance when you do this. Make absolutely sure, however, that the front center winds up on the fold when you cut it because you don't want a seam in the front center.

When have your actual fabric pieces cut out and are ready to start pleating, have your patterns handy so you can compare the pleat markings on them to the skirt.

Bodice:

If you are familiar with altering patterns, use the Green Pepper figure skating pattern for the bodice. You will need to make the sleeve holes slightly larger to adapt for puffy sleeves (even Pluto and Saturn here) and create a V-neck in the front and a high neck-line in the back. The front already has a nice V at the bottom of the bodice, but you will need to take this V out in the back, cutting the pattern straight across. Be careful that this pattern actually matches your measurements. Your knit fabric will stretch, so it can be slightly smaller than you, but you may need to use the ‘lengthen or shorten here’ lines especially if your torso is longer or shorter than the pattern.

With right sides together, sew the shoulder seams together and press the seams open.
Once you do that, the next stage is to sew on the trim. In order that you place things nicely and account for the stretch in your fabric, it is best to pin the trim on while you are wearing your bodice. So get someone to safety-pin it shut in the back for you, and stand in front of a mirror with pins and your trim. If you can’t reach your back set, just marked the top and bottom of where you want it with a fabric pencil. You only need to pin down one strip of trim in this stage to the three (two) locations on one side of your body. If you have a dress form, this process will be much simpler and doesn't involved pricking yourself.
Get your friend to un-pin you so you can work with the bodice off your body. Now use these three locations that you marked to pin trim on symmetrically on the other side of your bodice. Sew these pieces down on one side (the outside edge, not the one where the two pieces of trim will line up together) first before adding the second line of trim next to it for the double-trim effect.
Once you have one strip of trim sewn down on one side, pin a second one down. Make sure that the points of the trim match up with each other to make it look nicer. Sew the thread edge of one piece of the trim on top of the other to make it look like one uniform piece of trim, then sew down the outside edge of the second strip of trim.

Belt:

Get a piece of padded cording long enough to go around your waist and the point on the front of your skirt. Tape around the end where you cut it, otherwise it will fray apart while you are working on it.
To keep the point in the front very sharp, I recommend that you wire the cording. Use a weight of wire that bends fairly easily when you put pressure on it but doesn't loose its shape too quickly. You can wire the whole roll, but at least the middle 15” should be wired. Either bend over the ends or put tape on them so they don't poke through. There are two basic ways to do this. Easier but more frustrating is sliding your wire into the padded roll. Otherwise, you could whip-stitch around it and secure it to the cording that way.
Now cut a rectangle of your bodice fabric long and wide enough to cover the cording with a .5” seam allowance. Cover the cording with this. Don't wrap it, but put the two raw edges together (wrong sides together). Sew the two edges together, keeping your seam as close to the cording roll as possible. Use a zipper foot on your machine if you have one, otherwise move your needle way off to the side.
Fold over the ends of the fabric around the ends of the belt and sew them down nicely by hand so that no raw edges are showing.

Sleeves:

That's a nice little picture tutorial that I whipped up.

Collar:

Why try to replicate a good thing? Love Meeko has a great reference picture up at her web site for the shape for the collar. Using this shape is a little tougher, though. When devising a pattern for yourself, measure your neckline on the bodice, measure your shoulders with the sleeves on (make it a bit wider than that so it can poke out) and draw patterns, try them on, and keep doing so until you have a shape you like. The back should be around 9” from back neckline to the bottom. That scooping shape is a part of a circle, so it's useful to make a large compass out of a piece of string and a marker for working on it. Don't forget a seam allowance when patterning.

1. Pattern and cut out 4 pieces of the fabric and two of interfacing.
2. Iron the interfacing to two of the pieces.
3. Sew right-sides together along the outside edge. Leave the neck and center back edges raw. Turn it right-side-out and press it flat.
4. (hand-) sew on the trim Trim on collar is 1/2 inch apart. The outermost should be right on the edge of the fabric.

Assembly:

Attaching the Collar

First, attach the collar to the bodice. This should be done using facing. For a good tutorial on how to do facing, check out God Save the Queen Fashions.
From there, put a long, white invisible zipper into the back of the bodice. It should hang down below the bottom of the bodice several inches, otherwise you won't be able to get the costume over your hips.
Stitch in a hook and eye at the top of the zipper for a better closure.

Attaching the Sleeves

Right sides together, sew the sleeves onto the bodice. Make sure to sew on or beyond the stitching line on the edge of the sleeves. That way, you shouldn't be able to see it on the finished costume.
From here, you can sew on the beads by hand, in a more-or-less random pattern.

Attaching the Skirts & Belt

Sew the belt to the skirts, right sides together. You want your stitches to be as close to the roll, again, so you don't have a saggy skirt.
Sew this ensemble onto the bottom of the bodice. Again, you want your stitches to be as close to the roll as possible.
Now you can sew the beads onto the belt, whip-stitching around the string after every couple of beads. Wherever there is a stripe of trim on the bodice, the beads should come to a V on the belt. Half way in between, they should come to a ^. The exception being in the center front where they also come to a V.

Attaching the Back Bow

Sew two large snaps, one on either side of the break in the belt in the back. Sew a corresponding set of snaps onto the back of the tie portion of the bow. This will keep the skirt closed in the back and the bow on.

Attaching the Front Bow

Sew this securely onto the bodice by hand in a rectangle around where the tie portion of the bow meets the bodice fabric. To attach the brooch, glue a piece of velcro to the back of the brooch and then sew a corresponding piece to the bow tie.

Spankies:

It is probably easiest to buy spankies from someplace like this.

But if you are set on making your own, here is what I suggest. You will want spandex or some other 4-way-stretch knit. Since your skirt is up around your waist, these should also come all the way up to your waist.

Get a pair of underwear briefs in your size and use them as a pattern. (Taking them apart at the seams or carefully tracing the pieces and adding seam allowance.) You should have a front piece and a back piece.
Sew the front and back together at the side seams and at the crotch seam, if you have one.
Take two lengths of .25” elastic that can comfortably go around your legs and stitch them into loops. Instead of just hemming the leg holes, you will wrap the hem around the elastic loops so that neither the elastic or the raw edges of the spandex are showing. Pin this securely into the leg hole and sew it in with a zig-zag stitch.
Now take some wider elastic (.5”-.75”) and measure a comfortable length to go around your waist. Sew in into a loop, and wrap the top hem around this elastic. Pin it securely and sew it in with a zig-zag stitch.

Shoes & Boot Covers:

First, get yourself a pair of character shoes from a dance supply store like this. Unless you are Pluto, in which case you should get them in black, get the tan version.

To die your shoes, get some shoe spray and spray two or three coats of it onto your shoes. When spraying your shoes, putting wads of newspaper inside the shoe will keep you from coloring the inside as well. I also recommend putting the shoes in a sizable cardboard box. This contains the spray and keeps you from making a colorful mess of your sewing room.

Rather than duplicate a good thing, I will again point you to Love Meeko's site for a boot cover tutorial. This tutorial, however, is meant for standard boot covers, not my ones like we will be making.

When patterning your boots, make sure you give yourself plenty of extra space on the seams so the covers are not too tight. Because pinning PVC leaves permanent holes, definitely make your initial pattern with some other kind of fabric. When sewing it, use tape to hold down edges or pin inside the seam allowance so the holes won't show up. When you put in an invisible zipper, let the bottom go beyond the bottom of the PVC. This will let you get your heel through the boot cover.

The above picture tutorial is for Mercury, Moon, and Pluto boots, but other sailors have different styles. You can follow the basic procedure for the rest of the boot covers. For all of them, make sure you fold over and hem the top of the boots. Saturn and Jupiter will need grommets (eyelets) and shoe laces. Uranus has three strips that go around the boot. Cut them out 1.25” wide and slightly longer than it would take for them to go all the way around the boot cover in their respective areas. Turn over and hem the edges, then secure them to the back (and bottom) edges of the boot cover before sewing in the zipper.

Tiara:

The lightest and most comfortable means I've discovered for making a tiara is using thin craft foam and gold foil. Myu tiaras are unlike tiaras in other genres of Sailor Moon in that there is a smaller top layer rather than ridges on the top and bottom edges. Here is a pattern you can print out and use for your tiara.

Cut out the two layers from craft foam and two pieces of sticky-backed gold foil. The foil pieces need to be bigger than the corresponding tiara pieces.
Carefully remove the backing to the foil pieces and stick them onto foam. As you turn the foil over the edges and onto the back of the foam, clip the foil along the curves so that it can go on smoothly and flatly.
Glue the two layers together.
Cut out a piece of felt the size of the bottom layer, preferably a similar color to your skin tone, and glue it to the back of the tiara. This keeps it from itching your forehead.
Glue on a 1” rhinestone to the center of the tiara.
Add toupee clips to the back near the edges so that you can easily clip it into your wig.

Alternatively, you could use two layers of brass sheeting instead of foam covered in foil.