Costume completed - April 24, 2004
Costume worn at Ushicon 5 (2006) on Saturday
Version 2 completed - January 21, 2006
Version 3 completed - December 18, 2007

Yuna is the lead female character in Final Fantasy X. I was really excited when FFX came out because the game was on a new platform which meant greatly improved graphics from the previous Final Fantasy, and voiceacting. It took a bit of time after the US release before I had gotten my hands on a PS2 to play the game. Without a memory card, I played the first ten hours straight through before getting stuck. It was Yuna's character that captivated me the most, and she remains my second favorite FF heroine.

Wig - I went through using three different wigs for this costume. The first two were human hair wigs bought off E-bay and the last one was synthetic and bought from Cosworx. It is the Angela 750 wig in color 12. I chose to buy a human hair wig instead of a synthetic wig for Yuna at first because I figured that I would use the wig repeatedly for different Yuna costumes and wanted something nicer than synthetic. In the end this proved to be a bad idea. The only problem I had with human hair wig was the repetitive dying I had to do to try and match Yuna's color since it faded over time. The process seemed to be more and more expensive. My first wig ended up being all messed up two days before a con. The second one was sold off e-bay and my third is shown in the latest photos..

Contacts - I bought a box of blue and green contacts in my own prescription to fit for Yuna's eyes and other future characters that have blue or green eye colors.

Earrings - The earring set that Yuna wears was made from using beads from Hobby Lobby, acrylic paint, clear stretchy cord, the cardboard from a clothes hanger as pictured, and ear clasps. I used turquoise Rit dye on the tassel on the bigger earring and on the two tassels for the obi beads.

Bra - The bra was a black bra/halter top I bought second hand. I covered this with black fabric and used black elastic to make the upside down "T" in the back.

Top - The top was made mostly from guessing the pattern after studying the top at different angles from the videogame. I redid the top again using a different white material for my second version.

Obi - This was quite the challenge of the costume. Since I knew there was no way I could do this by tying the obi like they do in real life, I decided to make it into two different pieces. The first would be the part to fit around the waist and the second would be the bow in the back. It made it a lot simpler for me to understand it this way. I made the width of the obi about 7 inches wide and used washable markers to draw the pattern using references. I used fabric paint on the obi. For the bow, I drew a pattern by using game references. I decided to do this by making 3 bows as pictured in the third prgoress pic. The bow closest to the back would be two connected together as pictured in the second progress pic. I stuck a thin piece of foam in each part to give volume. I used only cardboard and a very thin foam for the single piece in the middle back of the bow. For attaching the two parts, my first just involved tape and pinning. On my 2nd attmept, I sewed two long strips of velcro to the back the cardboard and hand sewed the bows to the top part of the middle back of the bow. This would go between the long piece that goes around the waist. I would zip the long obi part from the back and then proceed to move the bow in the right position to my back side. It is a pain putting this on due to all the maneuvering with the velcro and the bow, but this method was way more secure than my first and in the end I was happy with it.  

Obi accessories - The hibiscus flower that is on the obi was made by painting vinyl using fabric paint. I used a white cord to go around the obi and through holes I punched on the hibiscus. I also stuck a piece of stick on velcro behind the hibiscus so that it would stay in place on the obi. I hand sewed the each of the two white cords to the two long beads and secured it with clear tape.

Skirt - My first version of this costume used a skirt that was borrowed from Chibi Yunie. On my second version of Yuna, I took the task of doing my own skirt. I luckily found a skirt at a thrift store in a color similar to Yuna's. I first started by using pictures and math to divide the skirt in the reference into lines and sections so I can more easily draw the design on the skirt. I used a white prismacolor (which washed off) to draw on the actual skirt and then started the painting using fabric paint. I added the slit on the left side after the painting was finished.

Boots - These were simple black one-inch heel knee boots.

Armwarmers - I made a pattern after studying references and sewed it together before dyeing. I used a fuchsia color in the Rit-dye brand after trying other brands and methods. On the top part of each arm warmer, I made five little straps around the circumference and added the purple cord and beads on the end. I redid my armwarmers again for my second version using the same material for my top.

Staffs - These were made from craftfoam, foamboard, paperclay, and acrylic paint. See progress pics below.

Total spent - $82.17. This includes the two staffs I made and all the money I spent on my three versions. This doesn't include the wigs I went through or contacts.

Progress photos

Completed photos

4-25-04

7-15-04

9-30-04

1-28-06 (Ushicon 2006)

8-8-06

3-21-09

Photo credits - Ninja_Kurai and Chibi Yunie