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Arisha’s Inferno Phoenix dress (Love Live)

This would be nice to do for Smash 2018. I am an idiot, it’s probably going to be cold and windy and here I am thinking IT’D BE GREAT TO NOT BE WARM AT ALL FOR THE ENTIRE DAY!

Update 2018-07-15: well I made it, skip down for photos. It’s not 100% complete with all the bling I want on it, but it’s in a satisfactory state. I’ll fix it up for the next Love Live concert viewing event, it’ll be nice.

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Arisha spinnnnnnnn

💖YASSSSS QUEEEN 💖

This is gonna be troublesome if I can’t get all the trimming and stuff locally. Kinda reminds me of the Arabian Dancer set from Love Live.

It’s worth noting that I see the title “Manatsu wa Dare no Mono” popping up in some places, and also a costume very similar to this but much racier – what’s going on there eh??

This looks to be a clip of Manatsu wa Dare no Mono, but it’s the Inferno Phoenix costume and you can see it in motion with all the necessary details: https://streamable.com/vxnrf

Build notes

This was kind of ridiculous to say the least. I spent the leadup to Smash lining up all the stuff I’d need, and then… made it all the night before, in typical cosplayer fashion. Bought the last of what I needed on Friday, went home and sewed all night, decided it definitely wouldn’t be finished for use on Saturday.

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Up on the event deck of ICC, it’s pretty good to be honest
Jess is much better at this selfie thing than I am
Here’s to sleep

So I go to Smash anyway, have a pleasant enough time, and attend a visiting friend’s birthday dinner on Saturday night. Then go to AGS, have a full evening, head home and… nope, give up. I slept for 7hrs, having been awake for… 39hrs prior. Wake up, go to church, head home and finish sewing. Make some compromises, because there’s definitely no bead-threading happening today. Finish up and head to Smash in time for the end of Sunday. Have a nice time all the same, feel pleased with the work.

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Measure twice and cut once – I’m a big fan of rapid prototyping, using the cheapest materials you’ve got lying around.
Start cutting for reals once you’re happy with where the seams are, I’m using the black prototype as a pattern piece. Leaving generous seam allowances on your cuts is a good idea.
Pinning my mesh overlap for cutting. In hindsight maybe I shouldn’t have added shaping darts to the bottom piece first, but it was too late by this time. It seemed to work out okay in the end anyway, and darts in the mesh might look weird, I dunno.
The top looks surprisingly okay and neat, if I may say so. It’s stretched a wee bit tight across the bust but that’s easy to fix, I took up tonnes of excess material at the back while adjusting the fit. I love the gold sequin strip, it behaves pretty well and is easy to work with. I unashamedly smashed some pieces of velcro onto it with the sewing machine so I can easily do up the halter neck, works a treat. The jewel thing was probably a fancy button or something, but I got a pack of 20 of them for $2, whatever they are.
Aaaaand finished! At least enough to wear it to Smash, I’m not disappointed in how it looks. The skirt ended up being about a one-third circle instead of a half-circle, as I didn’t have enough material. The half-circle prototype was great though, lemme tell ya.

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