Cosplay: Sakura Kinomoto (Card Captor Sakura - 3rd Opening Version)
Costume Status: 100% complete
Costume Backstory:
Once in a while, I try to clean out my garage. We have so much stuff stored out there! Some of it is stuff that we don't use much, like seasonal items e.g. Christmas decorations. Some of it is stuff that's been replaced, but that I don't want to just throw away. For example, when we replaced our rice cooker, the old one - still in excellent working condition - was stored in the garage for 2 years before I freecycled it.
In February 2012, I went to clean out the garage again. In the process, I discovered this: a Card Captor Sakura wand
Years ago, I considered cosplaying Sakura from Card Captor Sakura. I purchased the wand and the book of Clow Cards on a whim. They were on sale, so why not? They make good cosplay props. The book sat around gathering dust in my closet. The wand was eventually shuffled out to the garage and stored in a box of old toys that the kids outgrew.
I donated the other old toys to Goodwill, but for sentimental reasons, I brought the wand back inside the house. I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but I didn't want to throw it out. I had this vague idea of maybe selling it on eBay or giving it away to someone who would appreciate it.
Then Talia - who loves all things pink - saw it.
"What's this, Mommy?"
"It's the wand from a show called Card Captor Sakura."
Talia picked up the wand and played with it for a bit. Then... "Can I see that show?"
"You want to see it? I don't know if... hmm... Hang on... I think I might be able to find something for you."
I went back into the garage and dug up an old box of fansubs on VHS tapes. Sure enough, I still had the first 3 volumes (episodes 1-12) of Card Captor Sakura. I brought those inside.
Then I realized, we didn't have a VCR inside the house. Our old VCR broke down years ago and was replaced with a DVD player. I went back out into the garage and found the old Toshiba 13" TV/VCR combo from my college days. This little champ has been chugging along for over 15 years - and it still works!
I set up the TV/VCR combo and dusted off the VHS tapes. Then I had another thought.
"Um... This is in Japanese with English subtitles, okay? So all the sound is in Japanese, but there are English words at the bottom of the screen that tell you what they're saying, okay? Do you still want to watch this?"
At the time, Talia was in 2nd grade and just starting to read chapter books. Ethan was in kindergarten and even though he could read very well for his age... he was still in kindergarten. Both kids insisted that they wanted to watch the video. (Ethan wanted to watch it because his big sister was going to watch it and he didn't want to be left out.)
"Um... the words are going to go by pretty fast. You might not understand it. Are you sure you want to watch this?"
"YES!"
I popped the tape into the player and...
My kids were watching subtitled anime and following along! They understood over 85% of the dialogue! To prove it to me, they read some of the subtitles aloud. Of course, they didn't understand a few of the more complicated words (like "expansion"), but they understood enough. I'd been pretty sure that Talia could read well enough, I just didn't expect her to read fast enough. Subtitles go by pretty quickly after all. But I did not expect Ethan, my kindergartener, to read well enough nor fast enough.
I was amazed and impressed.
Talia and Ethan loved Card Captor Sakura. They blew through those first 12 episodes in two days. Then they asked for more. Unfortunately, the Card Captor Sakura DVDs have been out of print in the U.S. since 2006 when the license expired. Over the next few months, I bought used copies of the DVDs from eBay and Amazon Marketplace. Every time a new DVD arrived in the mail, they immediately sat down to watch and rewatch the episodes. ^_^
I also gave Talia the first 6 volumes of the Card Captor Sakura graphic comics published by Tokyopop. (The books were a gift from Little Sister many, many years ago.)
Ethan loves the anime just as much as Talia does.
For Talia's birthday that year, I gave her the Clow Book with the Clow Cards. (She didn't know I had it.) ^_^
When October 2012 came around, guess what they wanted to be for Halloween?
Talia wanted to be Sakura. But Sakura wears a different battle costume in nearly every episode. There are so many outfits to choose from that Talia had a very hard time picking just one. She finally decided on Sakura's dress from the 3rd season opening.
Reference Pictures:
WIP photos and details:
Drafting a pattern for the 3-tier skirt...
Drafting a pattern for the dress bodice and puff sleeves...
One finished puff sleeve...
The finished (and lined) bodice...
After hemming each of the 3 tiers, I'm ready to sew the 3 tiers of the full circle skirt together...
Back zipper...
The finished dress! To give the skirt poof and fullness, Talia is wearing a purchased pink petticoat under the dress.
Next, the costume accessories: ruffled choker, ruffled "garter" on left thigh, ruffled band on the lower right leg... I used wide pink satin ribbon for all the ruffles.
The ruffled choker... For the stars, I used glitter foam stars. I only needed 3 large glitter foam stars, but I had to buy the entire package because the stars aren't sold individually.
Working on the ruffles for the left leg...
The finished leg ruffles are sewn to one short sock and one thigh high sock...
Talia as Card Captor Sakura (3rd opening version):
Since Halloween, Talia has worn this dress many times. She wore it to a piano recital and to school on her birthday, too. Any excuse she can find to wear it... ^_^
Next time: Ethan as Syaoran Li (from Card Captor Sakura - battle outfit version)