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Aerith Gainsborough, Amano Design

Worn At - Amecon 2008
Difficulty - 3/5
Time Taken - 2 months
Cost - Ł60GBP
Costume Status - Retired
Hardest Task - Attaching the jacket
Easiest Task - Veil

Favourite Aspect - The dress. It was the first time I’d used a pattern to make anything, and I adored how this came out. Its not perfect, but its comfortable and I just remember how proud I was when I made it.

Least Favourite - Shoes. At AmeCon I just wore a pair of white ballet pumps with flowers embroidered onto them. Bad idea. There was no support so I was in agony while wearing these shoes! I’ve since made new shoes that are also more suitable for the costume.

Why? - Its my goal to cosplay all of Aerith's outfits. I was originally going to wear my Kingdom Hearts II Aerith to the AmeCon ball, and get this ready for the ball at October Expo. Thinking this would take me ages, I started very early. I worked flat out for a week and got everything, bar a couple of details
done in time for AmeCon. So I scrapped KHII Aerith and brought this one with me.

Construction Notes

The dress is made out of a lovely pale drill cotton (as I finally learnt that valuable lesson that satin is one letter away from Satan). Making this it was my first time using a pattern. I don't remember which pattern it was, but I know it was a Simplicity. Using just the shapes, and not the instructions, meant the dress came together extremely well, and extremely easily. I fit a zipper up the back and a hook and eye to close it, and that was pretty much the dress done. When i find had it done I was in love. I adored prancing around in it.

Next came the jacket. This is made out of a somewhat matte/textured satin, so its not shiny. I was a bit lost at how to do the jacket at first. I knew I wanted it fitted, but not so fitted that it restricted my movement. So, after careful deliberation and spending meetings at work doodling ideas, I set about the jacket. I made it in three pieces. A back piece, which was attached by snap fasteners which allowed the sleeves to drape, and also meant I could move. The sleeves were just two equal length and widths of material sewn and elasticated on the inside so they stayed on my arms when I wore them. They were surprisingly comfortable. To try and keep in with the art work I added a couple of beads on the edges of the back piece of the jacket.

Attaching the veil was an interested experience. Because the veil was pale mauve, I needed to sew it on with either mauve or red thread. So I sewed in on in three places, the edge, the middle and the edge. Then, ingeniously attached white flowers where I'd sewn the veil to the jacket to hide the different coloured thread!

I didn't wear a wig for this cosplay. I'd bought myself a long hair piece which was much easier to style and no where near as expensive or heavy as my old wig. I'm still working on how to style my bangs. In the artwork, Aerith has bangles, which I also made. Out of craft foam, and painted that using acrylic paint. Then added five gems to the bangles in each colour of the materia in FFVII (oh yes, I'm sad like that). They stay together using split pins.

The hair ornament is just a clear hair clip, with fake rose wound around it, and feathers also wound into it for volume. I decided to make a pair of shoes to be more in keeping with this costume. So I bought a pair of cheap ankle boots to alter. I covered them with pink t-shirting fabric first, and then glued that into place around the sole. Painted the soles pink, and added a pattern to the front (keeping the edges straight using sellotape). Then sewed three big white buttons down the the front of the shoes. Then glued the loose top edges to the insides of the shoes. I love them because they're wonderfully comfortable!

Photographs

Taken by Ailsa-chan

Taken by Zoe Richmond-Smith

Taken by Seraphim Cry of Cosplay Snap