Recently someone asked for help on Sakura’s gloves in the Cosplay forums, so I put together something real quick. I was hoping to put better pictures on here, but then I realized that I didn’t take any step by step progress pictures while I was working on the gloves XD;; So… here is my quick tutorial!
Materials:
- Sheets of thin craft foam
- Thin stretchy fabric (I used spandex)
- Velcro
(Click for larger pictures!)
Hand part
1. Cut out identical pieces of craft foam (however thick you want it) that is the shape of the back of your hand. Glue them together.
2. Cut out a cover for them that extends past the bottom part (pointing at the wrist).
3. Before sewing the cover together, I take a strip of fabric, form a circular band with it, and sew it to one side of the cover, which will be the part that your hand goes through.
4. Sew the cover together, leaving the long side open.
5. Stuff the craft foam in. Sew the cover close as close to the craft foam as you can.
Wrist part
1. Cut strips of craft foam that can wrap around your wrist. Leave extra room so they can overlap.
2. Create a cover for the craft foam.
3. Sew on pieces of velcro where it comes together.
Then, I just sewed the long end of the hand part to the wrist part, leaving a little room between them.
Hope that all made sense!
I’m almost done with Sakura’s shirt! The sleeves are giving me trouble though. I’m at my 3rd attempt now to get them on correctly ^^;; But, in the mean time, here’s how I made her sailor collar.
I started by drafting a pattern…
Then tracing it on two layers of fabric.
Cut it out, leaving seam allowance. Took the 2 layers and sewed them together where the line is drawn. (I didn’t sew the inner part though. You need to leave an opening.)
Flipped the collar inside out and added white bias tape.
Sewed it to the shirt, and that was it! I still need to add the yellow scarf, but I’ll worry about that last.
Looking back on my progress pictures of the shoes, I’ve realized I didn’t take as many as I had planned to, so I will do my best in explaining! Half of the materials used were just chosen because I happen to have them around.
The materials!
- flip flops
- fabric: dark blue and purple (or blue)
- bias tape: yellow (double fold), white, dark blue, black
- 8 yellow buttons
- craft foam
- glue: hot glue and fabric glue
- heat n bond (or interfacing)
Yes, I know hot glue and fabric glue aren’t the best adhesives for footwear, but… they worked and the shoes haven’t fallen apart yet!
I started by putting craft foam on the flip flops as support for the fabric to lay on. I did leave the flip flop straps in for extra support. I just cut the craft foam into the shape I wanted and hot glued them on.
Next was attaching the purple part. The fabric is double layered, stuck together with heat n bond. I only did that because I needed it to be stiff, and heat n bond happened to be stiffer than the interfacing I had at the time. I just hot glued it to the front of the shoe and on top of the craft foam.
I drafted a pattern for the dark blue parts and duplicated it. (These also are double layered with heat n bond.) I sewed the 2 parts together in the back, and then glued them to the flip flop and the 2 craft foam pieces. Please note that the dark blue parts do not cover the front completely. The purple part still needs to show.
Next I used fabric glue to attach the dark blue and purple part together. If you have problems curving the fabric, try cutting slits into it.
Now for the bias tape explanations, which all use fabric glue:
1. I glued yellow bias tape to cover where the dark blue and purple parts meet and traced it all the way up to the top of the shoe. I then used it to outline the opening of the shoe at the top (this is why yellow needed to be double fold).
2. Dark blue bias tape, the same color as the fabric, is used to cover the very bottom part of the shoe. If you look at Neku’s shoes, you’ll see the yellow and purple parts do not reach the bottom of the shoe. So, this dark blue bias tape covers that.
3. I just wanted to make a visual separation, so I added a thin black bias tape above the dark blue one.
4. White bias tape is used for the laces. It’s not glued to the purple part at all. It just has glue at each end.
The last part is getting the rest of the shoe laces on. I used white bias tape and glued them to make a loop. I then sewed a yellow button onto it, and glued that whole part to the end of one lace. Do this 4 times per shoe.
That’s it! These shoes have already survived a long day at one con, and I’m hoping it’ll survive a few more.
