BASIC PIECES

• short sleeved white T-shirt or bodysuit (preferably with a V-neck)
  
• blue skort (skirt and shorts combination) or blue skirt (preferably navy with pleats, but not essential)
  

HAIR

• red hair ties/ scrunchies
• blonde wig or blonde hair dye [both optional]

THE EARRINGS

• any crescent moon earrings will do (gold is best, light colours are good, try to avoid dark colours)
• or you can try to get pearl studs (fake is fine)
• If you can't find any appropriate earrings, don't worry about it. It's not important.

TIARA

• newspaper
• pipe cleaners/ chenille stems (they're the same thing)
• gold wrapping paper
• flat gold wire ribbon
• red plastic jewel (flat on the back and shiny)
• gold spray paint (only if not using gold paper and wire ribbon)

CHOKER

• red ribbon
• cardboard
• yellow fabric/ felt or gold sparkles
• velcro or fasteners [both optional]

SCARF

• blue scarf (preferably same colour as skirt)
• white ribbon or white fabric paint.

BOWS

• wide, red ribbon or two sheets of red felt

BROOCH

• plain paper
• round makeup compact, cardboard circle, or something else that is the right shape and size
• white glue
• paint
• pencil & eraser

BODICE

• white cloth
• velcro strips
• large, plastic ice cream container (or something else appropriately stiff) cut to appropriate shape
• some stuffing (for bottom border) [optional]

GLOVES

• white gloves
• red ribbon, red felt, or red cloth and stuffing

BOOTS

• real boots
  or
• knee-high red socks and short, red shoes (flat or with heels)

• This is best if you have short hair, as it's really hard to hide long hair under a wig
  (believe me, I tried – and that was with shoulder-length hair).
• Use a long, blonde wig; tied into pigtails.
• Don't worry too much about making the hair buns, as they can be quite difficult (especially with a wig).
  Instead, use red hair ties.

If you have longer hair, you can use your real hair to create the Sailor Moon hairstyle. If you want, you can dye your hair blonde (if it isn't already) but you don't have to.

Put your hair into pigtails with red hair ties
or
If you want to make the hair buns, it's more complicated
(if you get too frustrated, just use pigtails)

The hair buns can be made a few ways:

1. put your hair into pigtails. Create small buns with your pigtails close to your head, and fasten with red hair ties. Leave as much as possible of your pigtails hanging down, behind the buns.
2. split your hair like you would be making pigtails. Take one pigtail, and split it in half. Use the top half to make a bun, and the other half to make the ponytail portion. Be sure to fasten them close together. Use a red hair tie on the bun. Repeat for other side.
3. split your hair like you would be making pigtails. Take one pigtail, and split it in half. Fasten one pigtail in place and use the hair of the other one to wrap around the base of the fastened pigtail. Smooth the pigtail that's sticking up down the back of the bun and fasten with a red hair tie. Repeat for other side.

this is one of the most difficult things to make for a Sailor Moon costume (as a separate piece). I'll outline one method I used that looked good (but wasn't easy to attach).

If you don't want to make this as a separate piece, use makeup or face paint to draw and paint it on your forehead (you may need someone else to do this for you).

1. use a long pipe cleaner (or attach two together) and make a downwards point in the middle.
2. Press the pipe cleaner against your forehead, try to get it in the shape of your head, and keep it centred.
3. Remove the pipe cleaner from your head, carefully maintaining its shape.
4. wrap some strips of dry newspaper around the pipe cleaner (keep it tight, but be careful to maintain your shape), taping them at the ends of the strips to keep them on. Keep the puffed newspaper strips around the pipe cleaner consistent (so it doesn't look lumpy). Have the puff of newspaper go around enough pipe cleaner that when the tiara is on, the ends will be at about your ears.
5. Put the tiara against your forehead again to make sure the shape is still right. Then carefully remove it, maintaining the shape.
6. glue or papier maché strips of newspaper onto the tiara, smoothing out as many wrinkles as possible. Use as many layers as you need to get the desired smoothness. Proceed when dry.
7. if you are spray painting the tiara gold, proceed to step #10
8. put the tiara face down on the back of some gold wrapping paper. Using the tiara as a guideline, trace out the tiara shape on the paper with a little extra space on each side. Cut out the shape from the gold paper and glue (or papier maché) the gold paper to the front of your tiara, folding the edges around the sides, to the back. Smooth out any wrinkles. Proceed when dry.
9. Cut the gold wire ribbon, in two pieces (because of the point), in a shape to fit the tiara along the bottom edge. Where the wire ribbon will meet at the point, remember to cut at an angle so the pieces will fit together smoothly. Hot glue the pieces of wire ribbon along the bottom edge of the tiara, attaching it to the back (make sure it is still partly visible from the front). Also cut and glue pieces of wire ribbon appropriately for the top edge.
10. If you are not spray painting the tiara, proceed to next step. If you are spray painting, be sure that the tiara is completely dry; then spray paint the entire thing (follow directions on spray can, and use in a well-ventillated area). Proceed when dry.
11. hot glue an oval, red, plastic jewel that is flat on the back to the centre of the tiara in the front. Be careful to not use too much glue
    

you can use the pipe cleaners to attach the tiara to your head. Try to weave them through your hair a bit and wrap them behind your ears. Use some bobby pins to help hold it in place.

Alternatively, you could cut the pipe cleaners off at the ends and glue on some combed teeth instead (facing down), and attach the tiara that way. I'm not sure how well that will hold, because I haven't tried it, but it should be fine. Hair clips might also work, but they could be tricky.

If you want, you could use a piece of wire coat hanger instead of pipe cleaners, but it will be quite difficult to get it in the right shape.

• Use a length of red ribbon (slightly wider than 1/2 an inch) that is the right size to tie around your neck. Or buy a red choker that is the right size.
• glue on a crescent moon – made with cardboard and yellow felt, or cardboard and gold sparkles (affixed with glue) – to the centre of the front of the choker.

materials:

• blue scarf (preferably same colour as skirt)
• white ribbon or white fabric paint.

steps:
(add the white stripes by either method)

1. Use fabric paint to draw them on. Be patient and try to maintain a consistent line that is about half an inch from the perimeter (not around entire scarf, only on the top, along the outer edge). Draw a second line up to half an inch from the first one, and try to be consistent
2. sew on two lines of thin white ribbon (using same measurements as previous method)

materials:

• wide, red ribbon. 1.5" - 2" is good.
• You may want to even double up the ribbon to create a larger bow (even though it's already wide ribbon).

steps (two methods):

1. tie into a regular bow. You can sew the middle so that it won't untie.
2. double your use of ribbon. Create two loops of ribbon (glue or sew the ends together, overlap is okay) and place one loop over the other, making an "X" shape. Take two strips of ribbon, side by side, and pinch them together in the middle. Place the middle of the pinched ribbons over the middle of the loops and tie them all together with a smaller piece of ribbon around the middle.

materials:

• 2 sheets of red felt
  (can be bought at a craft store, sheets are usually a little smaller than an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper)
• red ribbon (slightly wider than 1/2 an inch)
• hot glue (and glue gun) [optional]

steps:

1. cut a strip (roughly 2 inches) lengthwise from an edge of the felt (be as neat as possible because you will use all of the felt)
2. Fold the larger piece of felt accordion style, pinching it in the middle (hold in place) hold the smaller piece of felt to the bottom of this by pinching in the middle as well.
3. Use some red ribbon to tie the two pieces together, trimming the edges of the ribbon. You may hot glue the centre to prevent it from coming apart.

materials:

• plain paper
• old round makeup compact (I used a brown Cover Girl one that was the perfect size)
• white glue
• paint
• pencil & eraser

steps:

1. glue the paper to the front of the makeup compact with white glue. With the makeup compact open, tuck the edges of the paper around the edges of the compact, and close the compact. Proceed when dry.
2. Paint the paper yellow/ gold (for season 1 brooch) or pink (for season R brooch). Proceed when dry.
3. Draw on an appropriate design and paint it, or cut out appropriate shapes from coloured paper and glue them on. (you can use plain white glue or podge glue to glaze it)
4. hot glue a brooch pin to the back of the compact. If you don't have a brooch pin, use a safety pin and cloth mesh (looks kind of like white gauze)
   

Design #1 - Sailor Moon (Season 1 - Anime Version)
a 1/4 inch golden border is around the entire circle a circle is in the middle, never closer to the border than 1/2 an inch. In this circle, a crescent moon sits (like a smile) and a small pink circle slightly above the moon (but still contained in the circle, centred between the points of the moon). Make four small coloured circles in the border:. top, bottom, left, and right in the colours red, blue, green, and orange (respectively).	(anime brooch)
Design #1 - Sailor Moon (Season 1 - Manga Version)
a thinly bordered (1/8 inch) crescent moon sits (like a smile) near the bottom of the brooch (about 1/4 inch from the edge, centred horizontally) a thinly bordered small pink circle (1/8 inch) sits slightly above the moon (centred horizontally between the points of the moon), it should be about 1/4 inch away from the top edge. Make four small coloured circles (beads will also work) to attach to the edges: top, bottom, left, and right in the colours red/ pink, blue, green, and orange (respectively).	(manga brooch)

Design #2 - Sailor Moon (Season R - Anime Version)
a 1/4 inch golden border is around the entire circle An outlined star (almost 1/4 inch thickness) is placed within the border, all points touching the border's inner edge. Create a circle in the middle of the star, touching all inner points of the star. Inside the circle, a crescent moon sits (like a smile) about 1/8 inch from the edge of the circle. a small pink circle is about 1/8 inch above the moon (but still contained in the circle, centred between the points of the moon) and about 1/8 inch from the edge of the circle it's directly contained within (the circle inside the star). A red circle goes inside the top point of the star; a green circle on the outside of the star between the two left points; a blue circle on the outside of the circle between the two bottom points; and the orange circle outside the star between the two right points. Each circle can be bordered by about 1/8 inch.
	(anime brooch)
Design #2 - Sailor Moon (Season R - Manga Version)
(coming soon)

other suggestions [optional]:

• add gold sparkles to all the yellow/ gold parts
• use plastic beads/ craft jewels (flat on the back, shiny) for the small circles
• if you want sharp, black lines; use a fine-tipped permanent/ waterproof marker. Staedtler makes great black technical pens in varied widths and the ink is waterproof when dry (it dries fast too). You can also use black paint (with a fine brush) or India ink (with a fine brush or a fine-nibbed calligraphy pen), but you will need lots of patience and a steady hand.
• coat the entire brooch with clear glaze to protect it (glue/ podge will work too, but they are still susceptible to water damage - i.e. if the brooch accidentally gets wet, it looks really bad)

other brooches:

cosmic heart compact (anime) [inside]

crisis moon compact (manga)

If you're good at sewing, try to make an appropriately shaped bodice that could be worn over the shirt. I've seen this done before, and by far, it looks the best.

materials:

• white cloth
• Velcro strips
• large, plastic ice cream container (or something else appropriately stiff) cut to appropriate shape
• some stuffing (for bottom border) [optional]
• thread
• sewing machine

steps:

1. have the bodice peak in the middle at the top and curve a little downward on either side of the top peak (front only)
2. keep the back (top and bottom) straight. The top of the back should be just under chest level, about the place that the band from a bra would wrap around the body. The bottom of the back should end about hip level.
3. use something stiff (like the ice cream container) cut with the upward and downward peaks, place in the middle of the bodice and sew inside. This will help keep the bodice straight when being worn and helps with the sizing.
4. Create a slightly puffed border along the entire bottom edge. You can use stuffing here to add dimension.
5. sew Velcro on the edges so that the bodice will close from the back, with a straight vertical "seam."
6. attach your back bow to the back of the bodice (on the side which will be on top when the bodice is closed).

Or, just work with the shirt a little bit:

• For authenticity, you can attach the middle of the bottom of the shirt (in the front) onto the skirt. This can be done with pins, buttons, or possibly Velcro
• I do not recommend hot glue as this will make it very hard to put the costume on (unless you're unusually flexible)

note: By attaching the front of the shirt down onto the skirt, the skirt may lift somewhat.

materials:

• white gloves
• red ribbon, red felt, or red cloth and stuffing

steps:

1. attach three strips of red ribbon around the open end of one glove with hot glue or by sewing. Repeat for other glove.
2. attach either three strips of felt or one wide strip of felt around the open end of one glove. Repeat for other glove.
3. Measure the appropriate length around your elbow before cutting the length of your cloth. Cut the width of the cloth at a little more than double the desired height for the entire ensemble of the three bands. Fold the cloth in half along its length and put a little stuffing along the inside of the fold, then sew along the length to secure the band. Put some stuffing inside the cloth, next to the seam you just sewed, and sew along the length again to secure the second band. Put some stuffing inside the cloth, next to the seam you just sewed, and sew along the length again to secure the third band. Depending on how you choose to attach the ensemble to your gloves, choose whether or not you should tuck the ends inside. Sew the completed ensemble to your glove. Repeat process for other glove.

There are two ways to make the boots. With socks, or with actual red boots.

note for real boots: They should be about knee high. If your boots are not already red, I do not recommend spray painting them because the paint will chip off, and it looks really terrible. Try to get boots that have a fairly snug fit (not tight), loose boots won't look as good.

1. Use knee-high red socks, and wear short red shoes (flat or with low heels)
2. add border as outlined below

1. use knee-high red boots (try secondhand stores, the Salvation Army, or Goodwill)
2. add border as outlined below

To attach the border to the boots you can either sew them together (sock method), or hot glue them together (both methods). However, if you are worried about ruining your boots, you will need to be more crafty.

example: you can glue thin pieces of cardboard to the inside of the boots, maintaining a consistent border (1 inch probably works fine) for both below (inside the boot) and above (outside the boot) the top edge of the boot. Glue the felt and moon border to the cardboard. Later, you can rip out the cardboard and border. It will likely be easiest to remove if you use hot glue. If there is any discolouration or tearing, hopefully it won't be noticed. If you're worried about discolouration or tearing, just cut the cardboard down to size of the boot when removing, and try to remove the cardboard gently, with warm water. You may need to soak the boots for this.