Totoro dress cosplay.

It has been a while since I have updated on here! It’s been quiet for me socially and insanely stressful and busy for me work wise, so all free time as been spent trying to relax and have some me time. Also I have rediscovered my love for Tumblr and a lot of of my free time and passion has been sucked up there. Actually I have found a new fandom that has fueled my inner fan girl and that too has sucked up my time.. I might write about it on here soon.

Work wise (I work as a designer for a publishing company) I have spent the last year redesigning the magazine. Last week we went to press with the first issue and it was really exciting but also a lot of pressure. However it is all done now and we are going back to a more normal pace of life as of this week thank goodness. It will be busy still for a few weeks but it should be ok!

So I am feeling quite proud of myself because I finished my big redesign and I also made a new Cosplay yaaay! Oooh smooth transition to the topic of this post!

My friends are having a fancy dress party in October with an 80’s movie theme. Matt doesn’t like to dress up so I was trying to think of something we could do together that would be subtle for him. I then suddenly remember that Totoro was out in 1988 and we could do that together as it is one of my favourite films.

That was months and months ago but October is fast approaching and I thought, bugger I need to make costume asap! So last weekend I finally started to buy some bits and pieces. I bought lots from hobby craft which included:

• Googly eyes
• Pompoms
• Glue gun
• Felt
• Wire
• Interfacing
• Dress pattern
• 22inch zip
• Plastic leaf

I also got some nice grey fabric and some cream velour type fabric, and then last weekend I set to work. I started by measuring myself and then cutting out the dress pattern and then I cut it straight out of the fabric. I was a little lazy this time and didn’t make a test dress first. I ended up with so much extra fabric I was confident that if it went wrong I had enough to cut new parts. This was my first attempt with using a dress pattern, I decided to go with a pattern to make it easier for me rather than trying to guess as I went along.

I made the bodice first and worked out how to sew on the furry tummy. That took the longest and also making sure the bodice fitted. Once I was happy I hand sewed the ‘beans’ as I kept calling them on to the tummy bit.

It was happy that it fitted so well first off, I just had to edit the darts slightly to fit. The capped sleeves were slightly awkward too but after a lot of head scratching I worked out how to do it! Then came the skirt part and that actually went on quickly and easily.

Then it was time to sew on the zip. Now I have NEVER sewn on a zip before and I found out that I didn’t have an invisible zipper foot but thank goodness for YouTube I found a video showing how you can sew on an invisible zip with a regular zipper foot.

It was tricky but I managed it and then came the moment of truth, I put it on and zipped it up for the first time. I was so happy when it fitted. It is a little snug across the chest and arms when I reach up or move a lot but nothing that is that noticeable. I came running out of the bedroom twirling and jumping with excitement.

It all came together very quickly and I finished the dress on Saturday. I planned on leaving the head band until another weekend but as my sewing machine was still out I ended up starting the ears and then before I knew it I had made the whole thing haha!

I made the ears and then sewed them together and turned them inside out. I then shaped wire to the shape of the ears and pushed them inside. They were a little floppy so I used some cotton wool to pad them out a little and sewed them up at the end. I then used the wire sticking out of the bottom to wrap around the headband to attach them. I had to massively trim done the leaf I had bought to go between the ears that I also attached with the wire. Then with the help of my new glue gun I wrapped some grey fabric around the headband to hide the wire and the headband and then stuck googly eyes to a pompom and stuck that on the leaf to hide the wire.

I am so pleased how it came together and how it looked. I am proud and impressed with myself with the dress I made and also the headband. I now have a wig on its way and MANY sprites to sew onto a t-shirt for Matt. I am also considering making an underskirt to attach pompoms to that too! 

I also have some elastic and netting to make an underskirt so I can attached more pom pom sprites to it. I plan on doing that one weekend soon as I don't think it will take too long. I also need to hand sew a lot of felt sprites onto Matt's t-shirt. There is also a lovely grey wig on its way too so once it is completed I will do a full finished cosplay post.

I am so pleased with how this came out and also how quickly it came together. I cannot wait to get it all finished and to wear it to the party now!