Marine Amagi and Melodia

Series: Milky Holmes

First worn: Anime North Texas 2015 – Fort Worth, TX

Awards won: Best Craftsmanship, Craftman Division – Otakon Masquerade 2016

This costume is probably one of my more unique costumes, in that it uses a BJD (ball-jointed doll) to complement the costume.  The doll body actually cost me more than the materials for the rest of the costume, and also it got me into the world of making doll clothing and accessories.

Marine’s outfit is an example of how I’ve had to make some modifications that deviate from the reference design to make it work for my body.  The reference pictures have her outfit with a bare midriff, which I cannot do with my body type.  I basically modified it so that the skirt hangs from a bodice piece, and then I extended the vest to cover my midriff.

The BJD was dressed up as one of Marine’s Elements, Melodia.  It’s actually interesting how we have to make doll clothing differently from regular people clothing; due to the scaling issues, certain things we take for granted we no longer can do.

As per my usual practice, 3D printing was used to make some of the accessories.  They were used to make all the hearts that decorate her outfit, plus they were used for Melodia’s headphones.

My most recent revision involves redoing Melodia’s gloves and boots to be actual integrated doll parts, which eliminates a problem with the last set of gloves and boots.