Anise is my favourite character from Tales of the Abyss, and her design is adorable! I’m a sucker for plushies so carrying around Tokunaga all day was a nice bonus, too!

This costume was one of the first I used satin-stitch applique on for the cape detailing – now one of my favourite techniques! Looking at the costume now it’s a bit of a mess, but we all have to start somewhere!

I originally made a Tokunaga plush but gifted it to Hideo Baba in 2012. I replaced him with the official plush that you see in the gallery below in time for a photo shoot with __Jaeger in 2014!

I also made Yukata Anise in 2015, based on the design from Tales of Card Evolve. I’ve included some of the photos in this gallery rather than making a separate entry for a throwaway costume. Yukata was made for a stage performance with Bandai Namco at Japan Expo 2015!

Materials Used:

• Cotton • Dress, Trims, Cape Lining
• Gabardine • Cape
• Faux Leather • Boot Covers
• Wig • Brown Twin Clip Curl Wig from CosplayWig

Cosplayers Featured (“Yukata”):

• Anise Tatlin • Exelia
• Tear Grants • Lex

Construction Notes:
These notes refer to the original Anise costume.

This costume is one of those where if I look at it now I cringe.. the edging was awful and the applique is a bit janky to say the least. But when it was worn it looked good and it was a very important costume for me, where I learned a lot of new techniques.

I messed up the dress a few times due to rookie mistakes but always managed to fix it, where normally I’d have given up completely. This costume is a good reminder for me to be patient and persistent, and also a reminder that sometimes the small things don’t matter as long as it looks good together!

The wig is one of my favourites, a Brown Twin Clip Curl Wig from CosplayWig. I thinned the fringe and trimmed around the face a little, but that’s it. The clips were pre-curled and were perfect out of the bag. The bows are ribbon tied around bobby pins slid into the wig.

The cape is made from a beautiful off-white gabardine, lined with burgundy cotton and interfaced. The edging is made from purple cotton which matches the applique and dress. The front closes with a zipper and hook and eye fastenings.

The applique was done by copying a paper pattern on to fabric backed with bondaweb, gluing the fabric together, then satin stitching the edges. I had done this on some projects before, but this was the first project where it wasn’t all straight lines (and where I didn’t have any assistance). As a result it is a bit messy, but it was a lot cleaner than painting the design.

The dress is made from pink cotton with cream bias edging and purple cuffs. When I originally made the dress, I cut it far too small at the bottom and had to add triangular inserts up the sides. The sleeves are attached to the bottom of the armhole so the dress is all one piece.

The gloves are bought. In some references Anise has a belt, but I chose not to make this.

The socks are plain white socks from eBay with tops made from the same purple cotton as the rest of the costume, with a contrast stripe. They attach to the socks with safety pins so they’re easily removed.

The shoes are the same shoes I used for Raven with small covers attached to them, made from faux leather.