Kotori Snowman Ver. Construction Notes

I met a super cute Kotori cosplayer at Katsucon and was inspired to sew this Kotori Snowbird cos. myself ^^
For those interested, her name is momo, you should all check out her website here! <333

So, before we get into it, this is construction notes since I made this costume about a year ago at a time when I wasn’t really into writing tutorials, so I have limited pictures and it’s really more of a rough overview of what I did.

Top: I made this using the bust of the McCall’s M5619 and cutting off the sleeves. I doubled the front portion onto the back so the poofed gathering would go all the way around. I then attached it to the flared skirt section of the McCall’s M6027 which I trimmed short so it hit around my waist and was longer in the back and shorter in the front. I also attached a gold ribbon to the bottom ruffle and added straps. I lined the top by sewing each piece right side to right side to a lining and then flipping it all rightside out so no seams would show.

Skirts: I made multiple skirts for this cosplay since Kotori is wearing 1 white underskirt, 2 yellow underskirts, and her sparkly blue overskirt. I sewed the underskirts from the Simplicity 4015 (interestingly enough I used the exact same patterns for this cos as I used for my Catbus cos!), and sewed the overskirt by shortening the flared section of the McCall’s M5619. I sewed the sparkly blue layer to a solid blue layer to achieve the nice shimmery look of Kotori’s outfit. There was glitter everywhere omigosh.

Wand: For the staff portion I cut off the end of a wooden flagpole. I made the plush bird by looking up a pattern online, but I can’t remember which pattern I used… For the ribbon I made the ribbon by hand so it would exactly match the sparkly blue layers of the skirt. I made the ribbon by sandwiching trims in between two layers of glitter fabric and then sandwiching the glitter fabric between two layers of blue fabric. I then sewed down the edges and turned the long tube inside out. Next, I sewed two lines near the edge of the ribbon to create narrow channels to insert aluminum wire (yes, I made my own wired ribbon! It was so tedious!). This way when I made my bow I could shape it into a nice twirling shape around the wand as seen in the concept art! Oh, and I also made a mini snowbird for my shoulder! (I attach it with cosmetic tape) I didn’t use any sort of pattern to make it, I just sort of winged it.

Crown: I patterned this out myself by cutting multiple football shapes of sparkly blue and blue fabric and sewing them into a circle (like a pincushion). I then attached some wired gold ribbon, fleur de lis decorations, a lamp finial, and ruffled trim with hot glue. I finished it off with a hair clip attached underneath. I made the blue striped ribbon by hand as well by creating a narrow tube of blue fabric and sewing on rows of white ribbon and white chevrons (making ribbon is so much work… but the end result is really nice and accurate…).

Accessories (Socks, Armbands, Necktie): For the socks I stretched out one sock using a piece of cardboard and painted stripes with fabric paint. I then edged them with ribbons. It’s important to work on socks while they’re stretched out or being worn since they are stretchy and designs could be distorted otherwise. For the armbands I just cut a large rectangle of blue fabric and ruffled the edges to create a poof. I lined it and sandwiched the trims between the lining and outside layer so no seams showed (I use cosmetic tape to hold them in place). I made a ribbon out of my leftover Catbus fabric and attached a pretty button in the middle. For the necktie I made some more ribbon out of the blue fabric and sewed on rows of white ribbons.