Rookie

Sailor Venus

By Leanna

Last year I was Sailor Venus, one of Sailor Moon’s fellow scouts, who harnesses the power of love to fight evil! There are a lot of little details in this costume, so I pored over pictures of Sailor Venus on the internet. I made a list of the items I would need, from head to toe. This is how I put it together:

• Bows. For the bright-red hair bow, blue chest bow, and yellow back bow, I used a tutorial created by Lynleigh Sato. The tutorial is no longer available online, but I found it posted here, starting with the top-right-hand image. I attached the bows with clips and pin backs from the craft store. For the heart gem, I used a wooden heart that I painted gold. I attached it with hot glue.
• Crown. I found a scrap of sparkly gold vinyl at a fabric shop. I cut this into a half-inch strip that comes to a slight point. I hot-glued a strip of elastic to the ends to help keep it snug on my head. I hot-glued a yellow plastic gem in the center.
• Earrings. I bought some stud bases at a craft store, and hot-glued yellow plastic gems to them.
• Choker. I measured the circumference of my neck, and I cut a half-inch strip of orange fabric to that length, and sewed a hook and eye at the ends. I hot-glued a star-shaped plastic gem to the center of it.
• Collar. I once again followed Sato’s tutorial, available here.
• Leotard. I bought a white dance leotard from Amazon. However, in hindsight, a leotard with crotch snaps is probably more convenient, since this is not an easy costume to remove when nature calls!
• Gloves. I bought elbow-length white gloves, similar to these, from a costume shop. I made cuffs from orange fabric that I stuffed with pillow stuffing.
• Skirt. If you’re lucky, you can find a great orange tennis skirt at a thrift store. I got tired of waiting for my lucky day, so I sewed mine following a pattern for a simple circle skirt, specifically this one. One word of advice: make sure you write down your waist measurements (or hip, depending on where you want the skirt to sit). I found that the sizes written on the patterns did not correspond with the size I usually wore, so it helped to know my measurements in inches. If, like me, you have little to no experience sewing from a pattern, you will find this to be the hardest but most rewarding part. Just remember to read the directions, and cut your fabric with care!
• Tights. I bought nude tights at a drugstore.
• Shoes. Sailor Venus wears orange heels, which are fairly hard to find, so I made mine by painting an old pair of kitten heels orange with acrylic paint. I then made faux ankle straps with strips of orange fabric and hook-and-eye closures.
• Makeup. I used white eyeliner and false eyelashes to make my eyes look huge and anime-like.