Honda Tohru & My First Convention-Sakuracon 2002

Costume: Honda Tohru, Fruits Basket
Cons: Sakuracon 2002, A-kon 2002
Pictures: None, sadly.

I cosplayed to my first convention, and a damned good job it was for someone with no access to a sewing machine and too poor to buy much of...anything, really. Hail college! I'm just sad I have no pictures of it and the con was so long ago that any online pictures are long since lost to the interweb.

I decided on Honda Tohru from Fruits Basket. The anime had come out during my freshman year, and it was one of the first series that I watched together with the people who became my best friends in college. It was a good series, and good moments to remember. And Kyou was HAWT let's not forget.

Tohru in her school uniform looks like this:


Now, considering I was a stick-thin 18 year old with waist-length dark brown hair, you can see how this outfit would appeal to me. And actually, making this costume was almost ridiculously easy--but only because I got really lucky at Goodwill.
What I found for the base garments were darker than the source pictures, but when you've found a tennis skirt and blazer the right size and length you just kinda roll with it. They were perfect--except her outfit's got white on it.
This was where one of my good friends who could sew came in. In a stunningly selfless move, she sewed all the white parts out of white fabric by hand and attached them to the blazer just because I asked real nice. Friends are cool.
The blue lines on Tohru's cuffs and whatnot were from the fabric store, I think they're used to bind edges or something but they were the perfect color and length. I think we iron them on.
I got blue ribbon for my hair from Wal-Mart if I recall, and the shoes from Goodwill. Knee-high socks came from my closet.

It was a simple, adorable outfit but it came out great. Only problem was that Fruits Basket was so new, and torrenting so unknown, that almost no one knew who I was! I had maybe 5 or 6 pictures taken, but by then it was too late. I was hooked.

I loved it. Cosplay was like being able to wear a sign that said, "Look how clever I am!" while at the same time advertising for other people with shared interests. Sign me UP.

Moment of Win:
I took this costume to A-kon 2002. I'm from Texas but when to Seattle for college and never came back--except for summers. My parents let me drag them up to Dallas, but I had to get to and from the convention on my own. Fortunately there were shuttles.
After the dance on Saturday night, I tropped back to the shuttle pick-up spot to wait for the one that went to my hotel. I'm still dressed as Tohru, and looked about 12. It's about 11pm.
As I'm sitting there, one of the hotel shuttles--not mine--pulls over. I'm kind of freaked out by this. A man sticks his head out the van's door and calls out, "Are you okay, young lady? Do you have a ride coming?"
I realize he's bought it, hook line and sinker. My first real cosplay.