Decided to come out of my lurking status to post, finally! As the topic's subject implies, I am currently making a Trucy costume for my friend (I'm going as Ema) for a local convention that's coming up in a few months. And, while things had started out smoothly, I ran into a few problems that I didn't think about before starting, and am wondering if anybody would be able to give some advice on how to go about it.

WOE #1: The Cape

Okay, so I've got the base down-pat. It's pretty much done, but the problem I'm having is with the diamond trim. According to her design pages, she has nine diamonds in total around the bottom edge. This is presenting a problem. Nine diamonds will NOT fit on my cape if I use the same shape as her design shows, there's just simply too much room left over. What would you suggest? Is accuracy that important in that if you added more diamonds, would it make that big of a difference? (Aside from possibly messing up the card suit patterns). Or, instead, would increasing the 'girth' of the diamonds to make them bigger/wider so that nine of them WILL fit be a better solution? I'm concerned about doing that, as it may look funny design-wise since her diamonds are rather thin...

I'm just not sure what to do. I also have no clue how to go about making the diamonds in general, and attaching them to the bottom of the cape. ._. I thought I had it all planned out, but apparently not. What fabric would be best to make the diamonds out of? I'm concerned about the edges being unfinished, and the diamonds in general being too flimsy.

WOE #2: The Hat

I was originally going to make the hat from scratch, but that crashed and burned as it didn't really work. At all. So, what would be the best alternative solution? The only other thing I can think of is buying a base top hat and covering it with fabric. If that's possible, any tips I should know about?

WOE #3: The Heart Purse

Vague idea on how to do this, but any suggestions would be AWESOME. <3


Well! Sorry for the mountain of text, and also if this sort of thing has been discussed beforehand. Thanks in advance. :D

Woes begone, woes begone! Never more to bother me... Woes begone, woes begone! Never more to bother me... Woes begone, woes begone! Never more to bother me...

Cape: Don't worry too much about getting all nine onto the cape. That isn't a major, major detail and people won't be stopping your friend and counting the number of diamonds. Even if you were to enter a costume accuracy contest, I doubt the judges would even think to doublecheck that you have the correct number unless it was wholly obvious you didn't. For a cheap cop-out on the diamond fabric, you could try using some iron-on interfacing - y'know, the stuff you usually use for strengthening collars and such. Only problem is that interfacing isn't very solid-looking like fabric (it's sort of net-ish), but if you can find some interfacing that looks suitable go for it. Otherwise, you could just fabric-glue some normal fabric on for another cheap solution I suppose. For the edges, you can buy non-fraying cloth or get this non-fraying solution stuff they sell in little bottles. You just put it on the edges and it acts like a glue.

Hat: You won't believe how impossible it is to find a baby blue top hat. A lot of Trucys I've seen have covered a base hat with fabric. I don't think I can offer much advice here other than try to hug the original shape as much as possible so it stays top hat-ish. I've seen some Trucys use covers that didn't stick to the base hat and ended up making the hat look kind of poofy.

Heart Purse: Maybe find an old Valentine's candy box/random heart-shaped box and work around that? Alternative would be to make the whole thing out of craftfoam/other crafting material. You sound like you know how to work with this anyways.

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