Costume completed - June 13, 2004
Costume worn at Ushicon 4 (2005) - Saturday
Version 2 completed - August 29, 2007

Tohru is the first anime character that I cosplayed as. I remember watching Fruits Basket for the first time at Ninja_Kurai's house. She was a given a demo anime DVD from an employee from FYE. It had the first 2 episodes in English of Fruits Basket. During this time I didn't really know who I wanted to cosplay as next, so when I first saw Tohru in her uniform I said that maybe I would cosplay her. The joke turned into more of a reality after seeing the first season of the series. Fast forward more than 3 years later, and I finished reading the manga of Fruits Basket. That gave me the motivation to redo this costume as well as make the summer uniform.

Top - I made the top using the top part of my Rinoa duster as a guide. This was my first time making a costume with sleeves. It was a challenge trying to put the whole top together. For my 2^nd version, I used Mc Calls 4872 as a pattern. I sewed this top in a cleaner way so that the ribbon could not be seen on the wrong side. I also used a more correct pattern for the sleeve as shown in the progress picture.

Sailor collar - This was basically made the same way for both versions except on my second one, the ribbon was hidden on the wrong side. The seventh picture shoes my first collar being used as a pattern to make the new one.

Skirt - This skirt took quite a long piece of fabric to make since it is a pleated skirt. I used about 82 inches in length of fabric. I made each version the same way. I added the zipper in a neater way for my second version, and ironed the skirt so the pleats would stay in place.

Socks - On my first version, the socks were borrowed, though the color wasn't dark enough, so I dyed the socks a navy blue. When I had done my second version, I used the same socks from Kairi's School uniform.

Shoes - The same shoes were used for both versions. I had these as a pair I owned. They were originally black shoes. I painted them using a burnt umber color (a dark brown) in acrylic paint.

Frame - It took me a little while to find a good resolution picture of Tohru's mother in a frame. I found a 4x6 frame around the house and painted in dark brown to match the frame in the anime.

Total spent - $31.48 on first version. $15.32 was spent on both winter second version and summer uniform because I learned to shop $1 yd fabrics first.

Progress photos

Completed photos

6-13-04

8-10-04

10-20-04

9-8-07

10-1-07

Photo credits - Ninja_Kurai, Chibi Yunie and Angelwing