Charlie Morningstar - Hazbin Hotel
“I can do this, somehow I know it.”
Charlie’s battle design in the final episode of Hazbin Hotel had me flooded with “magical girl” vibes inspired by anime like Madoka Magica and Sailor Moon - so I designed my own little something to give myself a starting point for my cosplay. It’s missing her buttons and cute little cheeks, but I’m really happy with how it turned out for my purposes!
My second biggest inspiration was happening across the red scaled Yaya Han faux leather in a Joann while browsing for another project. Hazbin was fresh in my mind and I was surrounded by great cosplayers that pushed themselves to use exceptional materials to make their designs eye-popping, so I bought the rest of the bolt before I really knew what I was doing as far as execution or practical design went.
Materials
Main Body
Yaya Han Cosplay Red Large & Small Scales Faux Leather Fabric - Joann Stores
Black Skirt & Gloves
Yaya Han Black Cosplay 4 Way Stretch Faux Leather Fabric - Joann Stores
Notable Notions
Wawak
Gold Textured Buttons
4” Stiff Horsehair Braid
Glass Hotfix Rhinestones from Wholesale Rhinestones in
Black Diamond SS16 & SS30
Black SS16
Dark Siam SS20
The only point at which my sewing machine gave me a problem was installing my zipper. I maxxed out the tension settings on a Brother SE400 doing this.
Making Her Dress
I knew that with the material I wanted to use, I’d need to make a mockup or two of similar material and find a good base pattern for how fitted I wanted her dress to be.
This was much more challenging than I anticipated. While I figured the heavy material would be difficult to use, I never realized how not-for-dresses it was until I was half a swear-jar into sewing the final product’s bodice together.
The topstitching on each of the bodice seams really helped the seams lay nicely in the curves of the bodice (and myself when worn!)
Wig Details
I was styling two wigs at the same time after not doing so in almost ten years, so I pulled out all of the stops here - I had the Got2Be, I used my leftover weft thread from back then, a wig stand, 3” pins, a steamer, and a canvas wig head. After several Instagram messages, dozens of hours, two full restyles, and half a can of hairspray, I was content with Charlie’s bangs! I left the rest of the wig long and flowing because I have plans to crimp it later on for her post-battle look. If this section updates, woohoo! You’ll see the full wig and a different description of how I did it!
