Roller Derby Ninja Costume - Photos!

As hectic as last week was, I miraculously managed to finish my ninja costume for the roller derby mixer event hosted by the Mid-State Sisters of Skate (MS-SOS) of Stevens Point, WI.  The overall design took a different direction than what I originally intended, and it turned out a little rushed and sloppy.  If anything, it was at least good practice for making another, better version.  A girl can never have too many ninja costumes!

Anyway, I thought I'd go ahead and blog about the process of making the costume.  I'm going to try to be as informative as possible without going into too many details, so this is going to be a pretty long entry, I'm sure.  Well, let's get started!

First of all, all of the participating skaters were mixed into different teams (I was on Team Ninja Kittens) and were responsible for providing their own appropriately colored "jerseys."  A plain T-shirt with a skater's derby number written in marker would have been enough, but costumes were encouraged as well.  

Um.  Costumes?  YES, PLEASE!  Being a cosplayer and all, I just couldn't pass up the excuse opportunity to make a ninja costume :P

My team was naturally assigned black as their team color, so I chose to work with black interlock fabric (a knitted T-shirt-like fabric) because it's soft, relatively cheap and offers a decent amount of stretch--an important factor when sewing activewear.  As a nod to my home derby league, The DuPage Derby Dames (whose colors are black and green), I opted to use green as a contrasting color as well.  

In case you're wondering what materials I used...Black and green interlock fabric, interfacing (to stiffen the collar), black and green all-purpose thread, opaque white fabric ink, measuring tape, pins, marking pens, ruler, paintbrush, 30-60-90 triangle, sheet of acetate, ex-acto knife (not pictured) and my trusty singer sewing machine! 

Not having a pattern to work off of, I used this great site as a reference for how to construct a basic kosode (the double-breasted kimono top/robe, whatever you'd like to call it).  I traced, cut out and sewed the pieces as per the directions, though I did modify the measurements a bit.  I just wanted to streamline the design to flatter my body as much as possible (no easy task, let me tell you).  I also didn't bother making the sleeves, and added two little ties to the inside as an extra precaution to ensure that the kosode wouldn't fly open on me.

Seriously, nobody needs to see that... 

The basic kosode left open to show the interior ties

Close-up!

And closed!

The directions on that site were very clear for the most part, but I did have a little bit of trouble figuring out how to cut the neckline.  That particular section was a little bit confusing so I'm not really sure if I ever did it correctly.  Even so, it still looked okay.

While attempting to finish the hem, I accidentally cut the the kosode shorter than I originally intended.  I had wanted it to come down like a skirt or dress, similar to Kurotsuchi Nemu from the anime, BLEACH. Though I wasn't happy with the length I simply finished the hem and moved on to the next step because I had little time to waste.  I hand-cut a stencil of my derby name and number out of acetate sheets and painted them onto a large square of black fabric with opaque, white fabric ink.  Then I loosely stitched the square to the back of the kosode like a big patch so that I could remove it easily enough with a seam ripper if I wanted to.  I just didn't want to paint my name and number directly onto the kosode itself because I wasn't sure if I'd want to keep the costume for other uses as well (like Halloween, cosplay or random ninja missions--you know how it goes).

Cutting out all of those infernal letters with an ex-acto knife was
murder on the fingers, let me tell you...

The patch sewn onto the back of the kosode

For the sake of movement ease, I decided not to make a super wide belt (obi) like Nemu's.  Instead I made a long obi similar to the kinds worn with martial arts uniforms, only just a little bit wider (about 3.5" wide).  Without realizing it, I stretched the obi fabric too much when I was sewing it, resulting in irregular, scalloped edges.  Fortunately, the scalloping wasn't really apparent when the obi was tied taut around my waist.

Folded up obi and two armbands marked with my derby number.

Also, if you know what my number is a reference to, you are awesome.

And by "awesome" I mean you're a ginormous dork like me :P

In addition to the back of their shirts, skaters are also required to display their derby numbers on their arms or sleeves as well.  Again, I could have just written the numbers across my arms with marker, but I wanted a more permanent option.  With some leftover green fabric that I had used for the obi, I threw together 2 very sloppy armbands and stenciled my derby number on top.

Here is a photo of the kosode and the obi on the mannequin.  It hangs a little differently on it than on me because the mannequin is about half my size... but you get the general idea.

To complete the outfit, I wore a pair of black soffe shorts and a fishnet body suit underneath that I had worn years back for my Mitarashi Anko (Naruto) costume.  You can see the complete costume in action in the photos below!  All of the following photos were taken by Bruce "McMoosie" Berna.  He has literally thousands of photos he took at the bout posted on his Flickr account, so go give him some love!

Introducing #N7 - Knuckle Sammich!  (aka "Knuckles")

 

 

The obi was tied extra tight for the bout (skaters can pull on their teammates' bodies--this includes belts--to propel themselves forward), hence why it looks so narrow in the photos. 

 Stoic ninja pose?

I would like this photo better if I didn't have the Mouth Guard Puffy-Face going on, haha...

 As sloppy as the whole costume was, I was pleased with the end result.  It received some compliments, it was comfortable and it didn't unravel or open accidentally despite the rough activity and several falls.  And thank goodness for that because God forbid my name and the phrase "wardrobe malfunction" should ever be in the same sentence...Hahaha :P

Until next time!

P.S.  I'm sure everyone is more or less sick of hearing me go on and on about roller derby, but I do have a couple of other derby-related projects in mind... Just thought I'd give fair warning :)