Morning Musume : Abe Natsumi
Abe Natsumi
From Morning Musume (The Peace!)

By Kamui Shirou
With USA Musume

Worn at: Fanime 2002

Awards: Fanime 2002 Technical Achievement Group

General: Morning Musume totally scared me at first, but they're so incredibly addicting and fun! However, I had always listened to them casually and never paid much attention to them, until I volunteered and dropped out and was finally roped in again for good to be apart of USA Musume! Tiffy and Kinki picked out the fabric for us, and they did a wonderful job~ it's so pretty, even if the design of the outfits themselves is very silly. It's SO sparkly~~ you should see this thing glow in the sun!! O_O I totally overdid this dress.. I know I made it a lot more difficult in construction than it had to be. But it was a great learning process! YES, I DID wear a dress to you people who took a picture if ONLY for that fact =P and HAH, cause I was the most covered out of all the girls! XPPP

Dress: Well, here's just about everything. I drafted my own pattern for this- just a simple sundress type of thing with halter straps, darts, and triangle additions grafted onto the sides; the same pattern was again used for the lining. The gold vinyl triangles on the sides were sewn right into the outfit on the sides. The gold vinyl straps were eyeballed and were all lined with the same satin as the dress lining.. unfortunately, the lining didn't stretch so that created quite a problem! But I made do.. I really didn't need to line the straps, as sewing the vinyl onto them reeeeally took patience, but it made them more sturdy as a result. As a result of making my own pattern, the top ended up being too big, so I pulled the dress up and took in the sides.. resulting in a shifting of the top of the dress. The darts go a bit higher than they were supposed to, but that's okay! I put too much work into this dress that should have been really simple. XD I tried hemming the bottom of the dress (the gold confetti dot/gold vinyl to the satin lining) several times, but it shifted around so much that I ended up handsewing it together. I WAS DESTROYED!

Big Bird Ultra Headpiece Chocobo Contraption: Since Nacchi's feathers sit pretty symmetrically on the top of her head, I simply handsewed the feathers to a wire headband! Yay for that! It wasn't as easy as it sounds, cause the feather boa is POOFY as all heck and I couldn't see a thing.. let alone breathe! XD

Choker: In all the pictures I've seen, Nacchi only wears a choker in about one of them. But since I had extra materials and I like chokers, there you go! XD

Group: Being with USA Musume was an amazing and unforgettable experience ~ I had so much fun performing and being apart of an idol group! Posing all genkily and even rehearsing was a total blast! Everyone put such an amazing effort into the project, especially Wayne for helping to arrange things, and Tiffy for fabric, lyrics, and most of all, the DANCE! Getting 9 girls to dance uniformly within only a *few* hours of practice truly takes a talented leader! Thanks to everyone who was in it, supported it, and most importantly.. go check out the page to see the other incredibly talented girls!!




Pictures
Taken by Forever Bishou.
Taken by USA Musume.
Taken by USA Musume.

Taken by USA Musume.
Taken by USA Musume.