Sailor Venus by Dollremi

Sailor Venus outfit and tights were made by Dollremi.

I missed out on the official Sailor Moon characters' Dollfie Dream releases. As a result, I started trying to put together cosplayer versions of the characters. So far I have Mars and Saturn but how far will this go? Dollremi had a new Venus costume available so I bought that.

I still had a problem. Shoes. Where am I going to get appropriate shoes? Venus' shoes aren't just high heeled shoes. They need to have a strap on each shoe. While such shoes are available, they don't come in orange unless you buy the official DD Venus release. Before buying anything, I tried to see if I could put something together with what I already had.

I started with the Volks brand cheap heel pumps in red. I had a few of these pairs around and I even if I ruined them, I wouldn't consider it a huge loss. I sprayed painted pink primer and then painted the shoes orange with acrylic paint.

What the painted pair looks like next to an unpainted pair of the red pumps.

The color looked good but I then realized another problem. Where am I going to attach the straps? Based on how strapped shoes are designed, I needed to attach *something* to the back of the shoe. Meaning, I didn't think this through. I later needed to strip the paint and primer off the heel so there could be a solid adhesion surface.

These straps with the bow came from another pair of shoes. Functionally, they suck in terms of decorating the shoes they came with. With very little adhesion surface, the bow kept falling off from the strap. I decided they'll serve as the straps for Venus' shoes.

Other than painting them, the straps with the buttons didn't need much work. However, there needed to be two additional straps which attached to the pumps themselves. The bow would serve that purpose.

In order to make the strap which would attach to the heel, I took apart the bow itself. I reshaped the bows into straps and used super glue to make them hold shape. I then used super glue to attach the newly formed straps onto the shoes.

After this step, I needed to use the pink spray primer again. Once the primer tried, I applied the orange acrylic paint.

Shoes look good so far. Now time to dress up one of my girls. I named the doll below Cassandra. Cassandra will be cosplaying Sailor Venus.

I tried shooting with and without a flash. You won't always see two versions from the same angle because one them might have sucked.

I'm very happy with how she looks as Venus. :D 

The only negative so far has been some paint chipping off from the straps. That's a problem with how I made them and not a problem with the outfit itself.

I can see myself eventually buying the outfits for Moon, Mercury, and Jupiter. Oh crap. XD

When I have a little more time, I'll take some photos of Venus with Mars and Saturn.