"Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand."
- The Stolen Child - by W.B. Yeats



This costume will always hold the most special place in my heart.


Not only was this the costume that won me first place in the 2010 WCS Australian Finals, and along with , the right to represent Australian in the 2011 World Cosplay Summit in Nagoya, it is also the costume with which I felt I had finally found my stride in my sewing. It was the pinnacle of everything I had ever learned combined with many new techniques I hadn't attempted before.
I'm not too humble to say that I'm really, really proud of it! XD

We really wanted to do justice to the beautiful ethereal quality of Kouyu Shurei's work and capture the "otherness" of the Alichino so we chose really rich fabrics and trims, many of which were made from beads, glitter, diamonties, or sequinns which would catch the light.

The jacket, pants and hat are all made from teal silk dupion, the shirt is cream silk crepe, the capes are black velvet and brown silk crepe lined with glitter chiffon layered over orange princess satin. The skirt is a satin cotton blend, with a hand painted gold fade on one side. All the gold pattern detailing was done with this hideous gold tinsel fabric that just looked a phenomenal when it had been ironed as flat as we could get it and secured with heat and bond.

All the gold buttons on the oufit (you can only see the hat ones in the picture, but they were also on the cuffs of the trousers and the jacket and one on the necklace) had green seashell beads sewn over the top of them to be more accurate to the picture.

The pattern and fade on the edges of the hanging hat pieces were hand painted, and the hat is made from foam, cardboard and mostly hand sewn.

There's also over 10 different types of trims and laces used, most of which I had to buy in 5 to 10 meter lots.

I was very poor after making this cosplay. This, tied with my WCS 2011 Championship outfit are the two single most expensive costumes I have ever made. My poor bank balance may never fully recover. XD

I planned this costume for five months, designing all the elements of it my reference image didn't cover, choosing and sourcing all the materials, making mock copies of the things I knew I would find tricky and blowing up the original design so I could hand trace out all the patterns on it out for maximum accuracy. The construction of it probably took another five months of work, on and off.

There is also a sword which matches it not pictured here, that I made with some guidance from the wonderful Barry Bryan, because I absolutely suck at props. However I learned a lot from our workshops, he was a wonderful teacher and it really showed in the final product and I felt comfortable enough to make my championship sword with no second opinions

I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported me during this endeavour and the entire WCS exprience. From judges and family, photographers and local newstations, to fellow cosplayers and close friends. I know Jess and I have thanked everyone multiple times, but the overwhelming amount of support, encouragment, and love we received from everyone was staggering. I feel so blessed to have represented a country filled with the most talented and supportive group of people I've ever had the pleasure to meet.

Thank you all.




Tsugiri -Alichino-

Cosplayer: Myself

Location: Stage Curtains, Derwent Entertaiment Centre, Tasmania

Photography: Jess Casey

Post Processing: Myself

Awards: Winner of Australian World Cosplay Summit Championship, Main Animania 2010.