Juvia Loxar ~ Fantasia Parade Gown
Fairy Tail

Inspiration: I love Fairy Tail and I even manged to pull a friend into it to cosplay with me! Samu-chan made Erza’s sword dancer outfit from the parade to go along with my gown. I chose the costumes from the Fantasia parade because I think they’re beautiful and unique and as far as I know, no one has done this variant yet. I really wanted to challenge myself by making a ball gown this year and I learned a lot by doing it! More Juvia costumes to come in the future!

Materials/Construction Details: The majority of this costume was made out of casa satin from JoAnn Fabrics in various shades of blue and gold. I used a ballgown pattern for the skirt, shortening the pattern to make the second tier. I bought two new sewing feet for this costume: an overcast foot to finish the seams inside the skirt and a roll hem foot so that I could have a tightly folded hem at the bottom of each tier.

To make the bodice I used muslin and created my own pattern by draping it on my dress form. I used interfacing throughout the bodice as a stabilizer and to help keep the petals from turning up. I made my own gold bias tape out of satin to trim the petals and the other gold details were done in appliqué.

The collar was one of the bigger challenges for me, especially since I wasn’t able to find a good pattern for it. I decided to wing it and after much trial and error I finally got it looking the way I wanted. The basic idea was starting with a long, half oval of the thickest interfacing available and adding many darts until it curved into the desired shape. I then added some boning for support and covered it in white and blue satin. The collar was then hand sewn into the bodice.

The crown was made out of plexiglass, which was heat formed over the oven to give it a curved shape. The colors and patterns were printed on a transparent piece of sticker paper and then stuck on. I then finished it by attaching it to a tiara base and painting on gold accents. The finished result looked to me like frosted glass.

Wig: I saw this wig on ebay and had to have it. I love the two-toned blues. Juvia’s hair was a lighter blue in the manga and a darker blue in the anime, so I thought it was a nice in-between wig. I also thought the two blues would add a little flair to the overall costume.