Construction Details:

I couldn't find a double-breasted pattern, so my husband and I heavily modified Simplicity #1558's steampunk pattern for the coat since it had good seam lines. We lengthened the waist, changed the neckline, shortened and removed the poof to the sleeves and added panels to the front to create the double-breasted opening. We also created our own pattern for the tails and lengthened the panels in the back to merge with the tails without a seam. With that groundwork laid out, I made a muslin mockup and then cut the jacket out of black shirting fabric, interfaced the tails, and lined the entire thing with red bottomweight fabric. I routinely asked Sketch when to sew the lining to the outer layer and when to leave it separate since I had never lined such a complex pattern before. Once I was done, I repeated all the steps again with Punzy???s coat, which was awesome since it helped reinforce what I???d just learned.



The circle skirt was comparatively simple; instead of cutting it the hard way via math and a lot of measuring as I had done previously I just used one I already made that fit as a pattern for both the outer black layer and the red lining, leaving one open seam to insert a side zipper. I sewed the sides and top to the red bottomweight lining, flipped the skirt and rolled the hem. Finally, I added cuffs to the sleeves and hand-sewed the gold buttons to the jackets. Neither Sketch nor I had properly made button holes using the buttonhole foot before, so EllyStar gave us a tutorial and they came out great! The rest of the costume is store-bought; Punzy and I got matching red shirts, tights, and petticoats, as well as black gloves. The black ties, which are supposed to be small, are actually ties made for toddlers to wear at weddings, and worked perfectly. The black shoes were bought and I painted the underside red, while the wig and headband I already owned.

Personal Thoughts:

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle has countless beautiful artbook designs, but when several friends of mine did the Red and Black outfits for the main cast years ago, I just couldn't get over how adorable they were. Although Tomoyo isn't in the original artbook image, I'm more of a Tomoyo than Sakura so I decided she would wear a version of the outfit that was similar to Sakura's.

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