Costume Notes: Homura Akemi

Hey everyone! Space Cadet here!
I’m pretty pumped to share with all of you what I did to make my Homura costume! Hopefully, it inspires others to make this costume as well.

Materials I used:
Kaufman Stretch Vera Sateen Wide in Lilac, Black, and White
JoAnn Peachskin Solid in white
Polyester Spandex in black and purple
Polyester Satin (matte) in purple
1/2″ double fold bias tape in black and white
1/4″ double fold bias tape in black
SF101 Shape-Flex interfacing by Pellon
Invisible zippers in black, white, and lilac
Black iron on vinyl
Wonder Tape
Wonder-Under Pellon 805R
Stabilizer
1″ elastic
Fray Check
Matching thread

Accessories:
Soul gem by UniqueCosplayProps
Wig is a Venus Silky in Thistle by Arda Wigs and dyed gray using iDye Poly (dyed and cut by Victoria Bane)
Time Shield 3D print file by Subzerofusion, printed by Shapeways

Skirt:
The skirt is a basic box pleated skirt with 2″ pleats. I didn’t use a pattern or a tutorial for the skirt but there are a bunch out there on the internet to reference if needed.

Skirt Ruffles:
I used the peachskin here and did a rolled hem with a lilac thread to tie in with the other characters in our group. All of us used the same white peachskin fabric and a rolled hem in our respective character colors to have something to bring the costumes together in a simple way. I created the ruffles by first making continuous bias tape using this method. I then serged one end with the rolled hem with lilac thread. After that I made my life difficult and pleated the ruffles with 1″ box pleats.

In retrospect the pleated ruffles added a bunch of bulk in the skirt hem so I should have done regular gathering with the serger like the other girls did. LESSON LEARNED!

(unpressed skirt with ruffles)

Black Shirt:
For this shirt I used McCall’s 6124 and made alterations such as making a swayback alteration, nixing the buttons for an invisible zipper, drafting a different collar stand to attach the black collar to, and altering the sleeves. The black collar that I attached was a pattern I traced from Kiya’s old Homura costume collar (THANK YOU!!!).

The mitered corners on the bias binding and the diamond on the back of the collar was the learning curve for me and I used this tutorial for the inset mitered corners on the white shirt sleeves and reversed the technique for the regular mitered corners. I interfaced the top of the black collar and then added the diamond

(black shirt with practice collar and unpressed skirt)

(black collar)

White Shirt:
This shirt was created by using and altering the Simplicity 1779 pattern. I added a swayback alteration, altered the neckline, altered the sleeves, and removed the button closing in the front. I was going to add an invisible zipper in the front of this shirt but it was giving me a hard time with puckering and I was running out of time. I ended up stitching the front closed. I highly recommend using a zipper though since it is much easier to get on and off with one!

The bias binding on this shirt was the most difficult part with all of the mitered corners. The link to the tutorial I used for mitered corners is linked above in the black shirt section. On each sleeve, I added the diamond above the sleeve V by folding the edges of the diamond under, securing to the sleeve with Wonder Tape, and topstitched them down.

(white shirt sleeve bias binding detail)

Lilac Collar:
For the lilac collar, I drafted a pattern and cut two pieces from the lilac fabric. I interfaced one of the pieces and stitched the stripes to the right side of that piece. I used Wonder Tape to hold down the bias tape stripes while I stitched. I then sewed the right sides together of the two lilac collar pieces leaving a large opening in the neck, graded the corners, and turned it right-side out. Then it was attached to the collar of the white shirt. The approach was very similar to the black collar, minus the bias binding and no collar stand.

(top piece of lilac collar)

Leggings (aka “poots”/pant boots):
For the leggings, I used Kwik Sew’s K3636 pattern with a single seam on the inside of the legs. I extended the pattern down to my ankles and drafted a shoe cover pattern by wrapping the spandex around my base heel and getting it to where I had a single seam on the inside of the ankle and on the bottom of the shoe. I connected the shoe and legging patterns at the ankle and traced the mockup for a final pattern. I also marked the mockup where I wanted the diamonds to lay on the outside of the legs and transferred this in chalk to the leggings. Once each leg was cut out, I cut out diamonds in the same fabric as the leggings but in purple to place on the outside of each leg. I made sure to Fray Check the edges of each diamond. I used Wonder-Under to hold the diamonds down as I stitched using a stretch stitch and used stabilizer so my machine wouldn’t birds nest from the stretch fabric.

Once the diamonds were stitched down, I removed the stabilizer from the back, sewed the two legs together, and The Geeky Seamstress added the elastic waistband for me (THANK YOU!!!) while I worked on the bows.

(poots mockup with scrap spandex)

(stitching down the diamonds)

(stabilizer underneath the diamonds)

(poots leggie)

Bows:
The last piece was the neck bow and back bow. I made the neck bow by making a 1″ tube and interfacing it with a 1″ strip in the bow loops. The tails were not interfaced so that they would move more freely. The neck bow tails were made by making a 1″ tube, sewing one end shut, and turning it right-side out. The back bow used 2″ bow loops that were also interfaced. The back bow tails were 2″ wide with a point at the end. I did not create a tube for the back bow tails but instead cut out 4 tail pieces, sewed right sides together, trimmed seam allowance, graded corners, and turned them inside out. The black designs on the back bow tails were added using iron-on vinyl once the tails were turned right-side out. I attached the tails to the bow loops by hand-stitching them to the back of the loops.

The bows were attached to the costume using a pin backing.