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Puella Magi Madoka Magica is the first anime series I finished. Outside of the classic Pokémon, I watched the odd Naruto or Sonic X episode on TV as a kid, and tried to finish Princess Tutu when I found it on Youtube until I hit the half that wasn't uploaded. When PMMM was released, however, and it started showing up on Tumblr in gifsets, I was intrigued. I found it online, watched it, and got immediately obsessed with it. I didn't really share interests with my sister at that time outside of cosplay (I played video games mostly, and she watched anime), so when I started talking about the anime, we finally had something to bond over for a bit, and she offered to help me make the costume.

We're not as close these days (moving out and living separate lives will do that to you), but Madoka Kaname was huge learning experience. My sister found the pattern at the fabric store and taught me how to read the instructions, follow seam allowances and a lot of the basics of costume making. As I had been mostly modifiying clothes (or in the case of Homestuck, bullshitting a cape and making clay accessories), her mentoring was extremely impactful. She helped me make the bubble skirt with a custom pattern and showed me how to pattern things by myself for the petal skirts. There were so many elements that were new to me, it's hard to name them all: installing invisible zippers, bias tape, making ruffles by hand... We both started cosplaying at the same time, going to our first convention together, but she had been cosplaying magical girls and characters with outfits that required sewing while I was busy with TF2 and Homestuck, so she taught me everything she knew at the time while also learning new things with me on the spot, like Madoka's gloves. The only purchased items were the socks (with added homemade ruffles), the shoes (I spent a lot of time downtown looking for them!) and the petticoat and tutu layers under the skirt.

I remember being particularly proud of being the one to come up with using beads I found at a store to embellish the petal skirt! She had thought to paint them at the time, if I remember correctly, and I thought it was such a cute touch that made me feel regal. I've always been tomboyish, especially so at the time, so wearing Madoka made me feel cute and delicate in a way I'd never seen myself before. While I don't have progress pictures to make a time estimate out of, I had completed God Tier Dave for the previous convention five months prior, so either Madoka was more simple than I remember it, or we busted ass to get it done by con weekend!

My sister was the more competitive one between us in the hobby, and she had already been participating in cosplay masquerades. She convinced me to enter G-Anime 2014's Masquerade, helping me record a skit and sign up. Being on stage was nerve-wracking! I learned cosplay contests weren't really my thing... I could probably make a killer skit today, granted, but all that attention on stage is scary! I'm glad I tried it at least once as it was such a unique experience, so I don't regret it at all. I just vastly prefer walking the con halls and going to panels. My sister had also gotten a photographer to do a photoshoot with me, and made herself a Kyubey costume to immortalize the occasion! It's the reason I have so many nice photos of this costume today and it made me feel like a star.

As of writing this in 2025, I still consider Madoka kind of the moment cosplay started becoming a crafting hobby more than a fandom activity to me. This costume is the one that really started my love for elaborate projects; I liked costuming already, but I hadn't gone as deep in the crafting process before this costume, and afterwards I just kept sewing bigger and cooler projects. I wore it to four conventions in the span of a year and a half before I unfortunately outgrew it.

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