My daughter loves the game We Love Katamari for the PS2. (We got her the PS3 Katamari Forever game, and she refuses to play it, even though it’s essentially the same game.) Anyway. When asked which of the cousins was her favorite, she responded after a bit of thought, Ace. (I prompted her with some of the female cousins, but she came back with Ace.)

I thought, since I still have a few days before Free Comic Book Day, maybe I could throw together something really quick for her in time for the weekend. Tim is nearly done, just waiting on something to arrive in the mail for an accessory, my Bitch Planet cosplay is done. Sure, why not start something else with only 5 days to complete it? /headdesk

Here was my thought: I needed an A-line tank dress in gold, with a matching long-sleeved shirt underneath. Red-violet tights or leggings. And some sort of headgear as yet to be engineered on a headband.

I ended up with a tunic that had a pointed center (Butterick 6170) and a hooded long-sleeved shirt from Goodwill. I made cones for the sides of the hood with the same material as the tunic, and an antenna for the top. That will give the idea of Ace without going full-on headgear (which I don’t think my kid would tolerate).

When I got the pattern out of the envelope, what I thought was an off-center point due to a couple of gathers turned out to be an actual asymmetrical pattern piece. I ended up drafting my own pattern pieces* based on the pattern pieces it came with, since I was planning on lengthening the point anyway, I just created a whole new front piece that was symmetrical, cutting it on the fold. Considerably more work than I had intended, but I got what I wanted in the end.

I modified the back first, since it was already symmetrical, being a two-part piece with a seam up the center. All I needed to do there was lengthen the point. I pinned the pattern piece to some craft paper (we have a roll of it), I determined how long I wanted to make it, marked that point and used a straightedge to connect that point to the original corner on the other end of the pattern piece.

Since the front of the garment was asymmetrical, not on the fold, and one large pattern piece, I laid it out on more craft paper, and put the back piece over the top so I could mark the point. I wanted to make sure that the two pieces were the same length!

I cut the front on the fold and I used the pattern piece’s mark “center of garment” line to make my new pattern piece. After I marked the line based on the back piece, I was able to use the straightedge to create the new bottom hem.

To make the cones, I just sewed yellow cones and stuffed them with fiberfill. I used a small coffee can to get the base size, thinking that was a size that would give enough of a suggestion of the character without being too obnoxious for her to wear on the hood. When I painted the stripes on the tunic, I painted the cones, too, because I was mixing the paint (yellow and white) and wanted the colors to match, and it’s nearly impossible to match colors if you don’t do it all at once. The antenna is stiff craft felt as a base, covered with golden yellow felt (the more conventional stuff), with a red pompom glued to the top.

The katamari ball is a “bumpy ball” we lucked into at Michael’s for $5. I painted the nubs, and there it  was! (Or close enough, anyway.)

The yellows do not match. At all. I needed a more golden yellow for the tunic, but I’m on a tight budget and that was the color option in the price range I was comfortable with. This is good enough for now. If she likes the costume and wants to wear it again, when I have more time I can make another tunic in the right color. If not… she has a cute yellow tunic she can wear with leggings, with a couple of random stripes at the bottom.

I’m calling this a “simplified cosplay” because it’s representative of the character without being 100% accurate (like I tried to do with Tim the Enchanter, or the Bitch Planet prison coveralls), but it’s not “stealth cosplay” either. Plus, remove the hooded tee, and the tunic is wearable on its own, not as a costume piece.

*NOTE: This may be obvious, but even if you think you’ll remember later, label your created pattern pieces immediately after you’ve made them. Like, right after you unpin the original tissue from them. Who the pattern maker was, what the pattern number is, what size it is, what pattern piece number (or letter) it is, all the marks/darts/dots/notations, everything that’s on that tissue should be on your created pattern piece. That will also help you know which side is the right side up. That way you won’t come back to the space where you do your sewing later, with miscellaneous pieces of paper that are clearly pattern pieces… but you can’t quite remember which pattern, or which side is the right side, or..? Just do it. You’ll be glad you did later.