Sailor Senshi Tiara Tutorial

Punk Sailor Neptune Cosplay — Photo by Christina Grande

Sailor Moon has been such a huge part of my life since I was a little girl. I actually recently found my sticker book from when I was 8 and it had a whole bunch of Sailor Moon stickers. Any chance I get I try to cosplay a Sailor Senshi.

The senshi tiara isn’t as complicated as most think – you just need a few materials and a great template.

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Materials:

Both JOANN and Michael’s frequently have 40%-50% off coupons. (JOANN has the better deals right now during Covid and you can stack coupons on different items if they’re of different values) Check both to maximize savings!

Optional: Cricut Maker, JOANN ($412)
Optional: Cricut Knife, JOANN ($34.49)
Optional: Cricut Strong Grip Mat, JOANN ($14.99)
Optional: Painters tape
Black Worbla, Manhattan Wardrobe Supply ($18.00-$110.00)
X-acto Knife, Michael’s ($5.39)
Scissors
Heat gun, Amazon ($19.88)
Heat resistant gloves
Gold Spray Paint, Amazon ($5.30) – Also suggest getting it in-person at JOANN or Michael’s they don’t always have the shades I want, but when I do I use my 40%-50% off coupon.
Resin, Amazon ($32) Alumlite makes my favorite resin
Resin gem mold, Amazon ($8.39)
Food Dye in your desired color, I used ‘Teal’ for Neptune Michael’s ($2.39) OR Alcohol Inks, Amazon ($28.99)
Gorilla Clear Grip Contact Adhesive, Amazon ($4.84)
Stretchy Cord, JOANN, ($3.99)

Tutorial

There are two ways to cut out this tiara. One is with the Cricut Maker and another is using scissors and an X-acto knife. I’ll walk through both ways. For both I used cosplayer Kapalaka’s Sailor Senshi Tiara template.

The Cricut way

NOTE: Worbla is best cut on a Cricut Maker and not Cricut Explore Air.

Bring in the tiara template into photoshop to thicken the lines and merge the two halves.
Then, upload your image to the Cricut Design Studio. Get rid of the white around the tiara, but make sure to leave the white inside the tiara. This is so the Cricut knows where to cut.
Measure your head to see how long and tall you want the tiara to be. Then, adjust the size in the Cricut Design Studio.
Place the worbla on the Cricut strong grip mat and tape around the edges with painters tape to give it extra security.
Load up the Cricut knife into the Cricut Maker and put the settings for Balsa 1/16″ setting. You will need about 4 more passes after the initial setting passes. This took about 8-10 minutes to cut.
Use an X-acto to pop out the holes on the side of the tiara.
To make the raised portion of the tiara, take the template back into the Cricut Design Studio and get rid of the white inside and around the tiara, this way the machine knows to only cut the outline.
Repeat step 5

The scissors and X-acto knife way

Print out the tiara template and cut out it. Attach both sides of the template using regular tape.
Place the template onto the worbla and trace around it using a maker. (I used a silver one)
With the scissors cut out around the lines – you can do this with your X-acto knife, but you will need to add a lot of pressure to cut through.
To make the raised portion of the tiara, just retrace the top and bottom of the template on the worbla and cut it out using the scissors.

Now that you have your pieces cut out it’s time for assembling the base of the tiara.

Prepping the cut pieces

Using your X-acto knife poke the two holes on both sides of the tiara.
Use your heat gun to prime and flatten the tiara.
Place the raised portion of the tiara on top of the tiara and use your heat gun to fuse the two pieces. Lightly touch to make sure it’s secured. If you need extra help keeping it on there, I suggest Gorilla Contact Adhesive.
Once it’s cool enough to touch, but still warm enough to mold form it on a mannequin head. I generally use heat resistant gloves for this. Use your heat gun when needed to mold on to the head, but use extra caution as you might melt your mannequin head.

Once it’s completely cooled down, take it out side for some spray paint. Give it a nice layer of spray paint and continue layering on paint until you get your desired coverage – remember to let each layer dry before adding another. ALSO USE GLOVES – I obviously did not and it took forever to get it off my skin.
Set the tiara aside for at least 12 hours to fully dry.

Now onto the gem.

This part is my favorite because I love working with resin. I chose to do Neptune because she’s #1 favorite senshi and I had been dying to cosplay her.

Start by mixing your resin by following the instructions on the bottles/box, my favorite is by Alumlite and available at JOANN and Michael’s.
Mix in your dye, for this I used gel based food coloring, but I recommend using alcohol based ink. The more dye you put in the darker the color will be, so add a little and keep adding until you achieve your desired color.
After the dye has been mixed well pour the resin into your gem molds. I got mine on Amazon and it’s been super useful. I like to pour the resin into different sizes to see which size looked the best. I also did two of each just in case.
Make sure to tap the mold to get rid of any air bubbles.
Set aside for 8-12 hours to let it cure to the touch.
Once it’s cured, it’s ready to demold. The reason we aren’t waiting the full 24 hours for curing is so the resin is still a little bit flexible to attach to the tiara.

After waiting what seems like forever we can finish the tiara.

Choose the right sized gem to glue onto the tiara. I used Gorilla Contact Adhesive to attach the gem.
Let it completely dry.
Once dried you can add the stretchy cord through the holes on the side and tie a knot.

We’re done and you are ready to wear your tiara with your cosplay. Below are some photos of my Punk Sailor Neptune cosplay where I wore the tiara from this tutorial.

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Neptune Photos: