Character: Celena Schezar
Anime: Tenkuu no Escaflowne
Worn At: J-Fest
Status: Active

Introduction: Celena was the first costume I made completely by myself. I never even concitered cosplaying her until after I had made a Celena plush to keep Raggedy Dilly company. After making the plush, I fell in love with the colors of her dress and realized making it as a costume would actually be very easy and I already had the wig. From there, I purchused more the same fabric as used on the plush and a week later, I had completed my Celena costume.

How it was Made:
- Dress: I purchused " Simplicity: It's So Easy!" pattern 7152 and altered it to make it shorter. I also used my own pattern for the shoulder straps, sewed them together and from there had them sewn onto the dress.
- Cape: I used the basic skirt pattern from the one used from the dress to make the cape. Because there was a zipper on the back of the dress, the cape is kept on with velcro, rather than being sewn on directly.
- Boot Covers: I had to make my own pattern for these. It was tricky but I did it by laying fabric over my boots and from there drawing in the pattern onto the fabric. Once it was perfected, I made the boots. To keep them in place, elastic lines the top of the boots and holds them onto the shoe with the help of velcro.

Hardest Task:
Sewing on the shoulder straps took forever. First I had to sew 6 of the straps and even that took a while. After that, I had to sew 3 together (making 2 pairs) and had them sewn onto the dress. I had to make sure the measurments were perfect or else the dress would either be too high or too low.

Favorite Aspect: The boot covers! I made the pattern myself so I'm proud of myself for that. Also, just knowing that I made this costume completely by myself makes me happy. ^_^

Flaws:
The only real flaws on the costume is the velcro keeping the cape on. I got it from a dollar Store and it came in small squares that were sticky, so you don't have to sew. It works well and is easy to use, but if you keep the cape on for too long it can fall off. Eventually I'll sew on regular velcro.

Horror Stories:
I had to resew the shoulder straps onto the dress atleast 3 times before I got lazy and used my machine for the job. Originally I didn't want the thread to show on the front so I had to sew by hand. But after that messed up 2 times, I gave up and used the machine. You can see the thread but I don't care. Another horror story included the velcro. While working with it, the side with the small plastic hooks caught the skin around my nail and ripped it off. OW! I got blood on my boot cover pattern because of it. -_-;;