Made By A Fabricista: Ghostly School Uniform

When Fabric Mart asked me what fabric I wanted for my first project I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to make, Nene Yashiro from Toilet Bound Hanako kun (a weird but cute anime) but as cute as the design was, I knew I'd need to adjust the colors to a slightly warmer tones to better suit my complexion and undertones.

For the main dress I was so happy to find an off white cotton/Lycra stretch twill that was opaque enough to not need a lining and stretched enough that I could continue avoiding my nemesis; zippers.

I wanted to try out having a seamless center front panel, so I modified one of my existing go-to bodice patterns, and after figuring out what length I wanted for the skirt, was able to have the center front panel incorporated into the center front panel of the skirt. I then had the rest of the bodice as their normal waist length so that I could add an additional panel to the skirt to be able to have enough width to have volume and gather it down evenly around my waist.

The hem has a fun detail of scallops, to accomplish this I had cut my skirt length with an additional 3-4 inches, pinned the excess length to the right side of the fabric, and traced a bowl to get an even scalloped shape. Once it was traced out, I sewed over that line with a simple straight stitch, then with pinking shears trimmed close the the line and flipped each scallop right side out, pressing it smooth, and essentially making a facing in the process! Once the facing was flipped to the back, I did a herring bone stitch by hand so there would be no visible top stitching to finish off the hem.

The original taupe-brown color of the collar and accents is unfortunately not very flattering color on me so I was so happy to find the perfect light mahogany cotton shirting. The collar (as well as the sleeves) was a self drafted pattern specifically for this cosplay and has two sneaky secret pockets to hold my lipstick, that I honestly forgot I included since I had also made larger, more functional pockets on the skirt of the dress using a welted pocket technique that has them been covered by a cover for the pocket to match the ones shown in the characters design. Once the collar was sewn, I hand sewed the neckline of the collar to the neckline of the dress with a quick whip stitch so they wouldn't shift while wearing, and so I couldn't lose the collar as that was my greatest concern.

To finish off the smaller details, I used more of the dress fabric to make fabric buttons on the collar, as well as a cute bow at the center of the collar, and that finished off my Nene Yashiro cosplay! I can't wait to wear this to more events, especially as a comfy and casual cosplay, I know it'll be something I reach for often!

MINA  | @cosplaytology