While making my own costumes for cosplaying Kagetora, I've done a bit of research on traditional Japanese clothing. I'll share the best tutorials and other recourses I've found so far here for anyone who might be interested in trying their own hand at cosplay.
I only have experience of cosplaying from the prequel novels until now. There are both good and bad sides to working with them:
Pros:
- traditional Japanese clothes are quite easy to sew, with mostly straight lines
- they are also loose so you don't have to worry about doing anything form fitting, which also makes crossplaying easier
- natural materials are easy to sew, you don't need to deal with stretchy materials
- the traditional clothing is comfortable to wear
Cons:
- there will generally only be one picture of any outfit, so you won't see it from other angles, as is the case with outfits in the anime
- it might be difficult to make out what kind of garment exactly the artist was going for in their illustration
To work through the cons you may need to come up with some things on your own, but that can be fun too! It helps to do some reading on traditional clothing in general so it will be easier to guess what the illustrated garment is supposed to be like.
Anyway, here are some useful tutorials!
Hakama: andsewingishalfthebattle.com/how-to-make-historically-accurate-authentic-hakama/
Kosode: www.wodefordhall.com/kosode.htm
Haori & yukata: www3.sympatico.ca/shibata/Kimono.html
Japanese textile patterns: www.demoivre.org/Japan/textiles/patterns/
Crossplay makeup (F t M): http://vilya0.deviantart.com/art/Female-to-Male-Crossplay-Makeup-Tutorial-409457154
Open chest binding (for the rare occasion where they wear their kosodes loosely): http://kaokoneko.deviantart.com/art/Open-Chest-Binding-249391649
Things like tabi, geta and zori should be easy to find in Ebay and other online shops if you don't want to make them yourself.
I think those were the most important recources I've used so far. If anyone ever needs any help with these topics, please ask! I'd also love to hear about other people's experiences, if you've cosplayed from Mirage. I'm thinking of making some winter gear next, so I'll add links to more resources as I find and test them.
Imperfekti, would it be okay with you if I moved this post to a topic under "Miscellaneous"? I'm pondering how to clean up the main forum page a little bit, and this is the only cosplay post--and a very good one with lots of meat to it.
I would love to see more of your cosplay. You look awesome as Kagetora!