King of the Sea - Pokemon

Photographer: David Dunn

I made this costume for a Pokemon Gijinka group at Katsucon. Seaking was the prettiest one that I found, so I decided to go with it.

The hair clip is cardboard, sueded paper, and a hair clip. I used a red cotton for the kimono base, and a white cotton for the sleeves that I dyed red and bleach gradated the ends to a peachy color. I also used white cotton for the bottom of the sleeves and kimono body and satin stitched it onto the red base. The colored circles are cut from cotton and Heat 'n Bonded on.

The obi is ice blue cotton and is wrapped over an obi-ita for support. The bow and tail are separate and slip into the obi using a wire base, much like the pre-tied obi you can buy. I wanted to try and made this costume as close to an authentic kimono as possible, but still keeping it reasonable to put on

I felt very self-conscious while wearing this, mainly because I had to take such small steps while walking!! It's also the first time I've worn a kimono to an anime convention, so I was getting a lot of stares from people - I guess they thought I was not in costume ^.^