Character: Riamu Yumemi
Series: Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls
Version: Nurse Dress
Debut: Dreamhack Dallas 2025
I chose to make this costume as a stash bust project at the beginning of the year. It started with some leftover teal satin, but as I looked through my fabrics I realized I could make most of this costume using supplies I already had on hand. With that in mind I tried to make choices to use what I had on hand over buying new supplies.
This costume presented a couple of key challenges in the construction. The first was using real zippers for the accents on the costume. In most places the zippers are just in straight lines, so it was no issue, but getting a zipper to curve around her oversized peter pan collar was a major challenge. I ended up having to cut a ton of darts into the zipper tape and baste all of it down by hand to capture that curve. I also had to add some running stitches to the trim and slightly gather it to ease it into the correct shape. The other major challenge was constructing the dress with a long front placket. This meant that I could do no fitting until the dress was basically done, so making sure I have a good fit on my mock up was crucial. I went through a couple of mockups to get the fit right.
Aside from these big construction challenges the rest of the costume was fairly straight forward. I patterned and created the apron and hat. Both feature more of the zipper detailing and freezer paper stencil painted details. I chose the stencil method over vinyl because I had right colors of paint to do it. I did use my cricut to cut the stencils. I made the wings using some foam interfacing, stiff felt interfacing and plastic boning. They just snap into the apron. I also painted some shoes with Angelus leather paint and added some stretch HTV details to a pair of OTK socks.
I won’t lie, I felt like this costume fought me every step of the way. It was more challenging than I thought it would be and I wasn’t confident in the construction of it, but once it was done and I got to wear it all together I was really happy with how it all came together.
Photo credit: Dreamhack