[Update: 2/12] I’ve added new photos shot by Stokes Foto for the 2012 Cosplay for a Cause calendar. 

I originally made this costume in 2009, and decided to modify it for my appearance in the 2012 Cosplay for a Cause calendar. It didn’t take long to fix up – I took it in quite a bit (I’d lost 30 pounds since I last wore it), made it a tad shorter, added some lace, found a much higher quality hat, and swapped out the boring flats for some knee socks and heels!

The first part of the shoot was at a local arcade that housed a Mario Bros machine. It was too perfect to pass up. After finishing up that set, photographer Josh Stokes and I went to the basement of his studio for a different, literal approach to portraying gaming’s favorite plumber. We ended up using a shot from this location in the calendar. Enjoy the shots!

[Original Post] This costume started out as a way to get one of my friends to try cosplay for Anime Detour 2008. She loves Nintendo, so we figured Mario girls would be a easy first costume for her. Haha…easy…right.

At first we were going to hit up some thrift stores and try to find denim overalls, but we fell in love with this quilted fabric at the store. We grabbed some blue for Mario and Luigi, and purple for Wario. Making the overall-skirts took an entire day because the pattern I grabbed was really confusing. It was my first time sewing ever and I had never used a pattern before so we had some trouble. I relied on the help of my mom more than I should. On my end there was lots of backtracking and removing stitching. In the end, I don’t think you can tell how much we struggled with the skirts.

 

The three of us got our shirts at American Apparel, so they are really comfortable. We decided to do white tights and matching shoes. The shoes we are wearing are the only ones all three of us could agree on, which sucked because we could not find the right sizes. One of us was wearing shoes a size too big and one a size too small. I picked up three pairs of white gloves at Party City, and got the hats at Target. We took the ribbon that was on the hats off, and ended up using fabric markers to color the hats. That took FOREVER, but it was the best way to match our colors perfectly without mixing dye. We ironed on the white circle and little letter and we were done!

Wario had a plushie coin cube at home a well as a Yoshi, so I brought along my Goomba so we would all have something to pose with. We did a photoshoot before the convention with Heidi of Black Ops Studios. This is where our guy friend Nick joined us. When he found out we were doing female versions of Mario characters, he decided to go as “Prince Peach.” He made a kilt and carried around a golden golf club. When people realized what he was, it was epic. At the shoot we goofed around a ton and took some silly photos. I am happy with the results!

Since the shoot we have made the costumes a bit more flirty. Now the gloves have little white bows, we wear fishnet stockings and high heals. We also added lace on the bottom of the skirts and made them a bit shorter. Hey, if we are going to go feminine why not go sexy right? Since we modified the costumes so heavily we plan on shooting them again. Pics when we do! Enjoy!