Again, this is just the bare bones and examples, as some of this was elaborated on in person. The presentation itself isnāt that impressive, but I hope people can get some good info out of it, especially since no one was able to see this one in person.
This was a panel meant for people are are beginner or low intermediate cosplayers who want to up their game. Itās not meant to be a basic intro panel, and itās not meant to give really in-depth information about how to do certain techniques. Itās more about how to create well-made, interesting costumes when you already have some experience but probably havenāt learned or thought of some of these things yet. Itās also not definitive or comprehensive, as there is a LOT that can be put into a panel like this.
I ask that people use this for personal reference only. It can be reblogged and shared, but I ask that people not use this information for other purposes without my permission/credit.
Seam finishing images are from: pinked/zigzagged, serged, hand overcast, French, lined All artwork is official artwork, which is nearly impossible to source exactly in most cases, due to how these images get widely disseminated. Series are noted in the captions. All cosplay images are either of myself ( @fabrickind ) or of @aknightlight, my co-panelist.
Here is a link to the pdf file of the presentation, in case this photoset is difficult to read. Itās slightly confusing but all I could get my computer to do, so hereās how you read it: the 4-slide pictures read left to right, top to bottom. The 2-slide pictures read top to bottom. The 4-slide pictures have to be read across first. I couldnāt get that to switch in the version of Reader Iām using, so sorry for any confusion. The pdf file should read correctly, with one slide per page.
As always, if you have any questions, comments, or corrections, please let me know! I hope someone finds this helpful. :]
BLESS!!!!!
I think this is the first time my own post as shown back up on my dash without it begin reblogged directly from me. @____@ Strange sensation!
TUTORIAL: āEMBOSSINGā FILIāS COAT AND KNEE PADS
This is forĀ canadiancamĀ who wanted to pick my brains about how I got the embossing effect on Filiās costume without an industrial leather press. This is a technique I improvised using what I had on hand. Fair warning: this is a really time-consuming process. Between drawing and scaling the designs digitally, tracing them to the interfacing, cutting the stencils, and sewing the stencils to your pattern pieces, it takes a bloody long time for you to actually get around to putting the coat together.Ā I didnāt take too many photos while putting the coat together,Ā so the example photos are what I took when making the knee pads. Never fear!Ā Same basic method applies to the coat.Ā
its helped me a bunch with my xenoblade propsā accuracy and i dont think many cosplayers know about it. its a really nifty program that converts an image into a poster, any size! you just tape the sheets together bam! perfectly scaled prop.Ā
Okay so first of all this is going to be quite a long post so buckle up
Lets start by going over the stuff that you will need for this:
1. Something to use as the foundation of the sword - Cause lets face it, foam alone isnāt going to cut it. I used a wooden pole that I bought from a hardware store. You can also completely skip this step and simply purchase a cheap toy sword to paint over instead, its cool.
2. A yoga mat - Honestly I found this is the cheapest way to buy large amounts of foam for cosplay.Ā
3. Your finest primers - I canāt stress how important this step is. Without priming your prop before painting what you end up with is a less finished product and find yourself wasting more of your spray paint on trying to cover up the foam. Not a cool move. I used mod podge, a white undercoat paint and gesso primer to prime my sword, all with different finishing results which I will explain below.Ā
4. Spray paint - Yes you can use normal acrylic paint here instead but I found that spray paint gives you a smoother, more even finish free of brush streaks. Again I used a couple different brands here and Iāll explain the differences between them.Ā
Some other necessities:
Hot glue gun
Fabric Scissors or a craft knifeĀ
A saw or just a really good serrated knife (youāll see what I mean)
Window sealant????Ā
Leather stripping/ a nice leather belt
Now lets get started!!!
So first of all I started buy taking away some of the thickness of the wooden pole cause otherwise when I applied the foam the pole would show through underneath. Now guys I dont own a saw so I literally spent about an hour using a knife to saw off little sections of wood until I had a wooden pole that was half as thick as when I had started. I Also left a section at one end of the pole untouched where my handle would be.Ā
Next I cut out 2 generic sword shapes out of the foam and glued them together over the length of the sword. Now if like me you also dont own a good pair of scissors/ craft knife and end up with really uneven/ unsmooth edges which are not very blade like at all then I have a nifty little tip for you.Ā
>>>> Secret tip <<<< Window sealant works really well at filling in all the rough edges along the foams surface. I literally bought this stuff for a Ā£1 at a 99p store and honestly it transformed how it looked instantly.Ā
Seee you can see all the window sealant applied to the outline of the sword, 100x better.Ā
Now that brings us on to priming!
So like I was explaining earlier You. Need. To. Prime. If you skip this step your sword will basically end up looking like exactly what it is, a painted piece of foam. This goes for any cosplay prop (armour, other weapons, whatever) the finished result will look a million times better just trust me.Ā
Here I used about 3 or 4 coats of matte mod podge (great for smoothing out any rough surfaces) and then sprayed it with a white spray paint. Though honestly dont used the brand Iāve got crossed out above, it takes about 5 coats just to produce any coverage and each can only has about 2 coats worth in it. Instead Iād recommend using a better quality white spray paint or mixing some white paint/white gesso primer together with some mod podge (again the mod podge will help here to smooth out any brush stroke lines as it dries.Ā
Time to paint!
Once I left the undercoat to dry (you will need at least a couple hours between each coat and another 24 hours for the sword to dry fully) I applied a line of masking tape where I wanted to protect the section I would be later painting silver and then painted the rest pink.Ā
Now guys let me talk about canbrush spray paint for a sec. This shit is super cheap but still produces the smoothest, most chip proof finishing layer ever like Iām in love with it. In fact the end result is so good that when I went to apply some weathering later on I could barely get a blade to cut through it or the acrylic paint to grip onto its surface so thats why I decided to leave the the pink looking nice and slick and used a different brand for the grey paint which was a little more easy to work with.Ā
Again after allowing long enough to dry (otherwise good luck trying to remove masking tape off a wet layer of paint) I covered up the pink layer with masking tape and plastic bin liners and spray painted the remaining section of the sword with silver spray paint. This is what it looked like before I weathered the silver section ^^^^
And this is what it looked like after weathering. If you donāt know how to weather then heres a really cool tutorial for you. Like I mentioned before, instead of using canbrush here I used hycoat spray paint for the silver section which turned out for be much more easily manipulated and susceptible to weathering.Ā
On to the handle!!
Again I cut out different sections of foam and then hot glued this bad boy together. I didnt follow any template patterns for this I just went with trial and error and whatever I felt looked good but if you want a little more help on this part I can probably whip up some templates for you. The rose on the other hand (again made out of the same foam) I made following this tutorial. Ā
I then once again smoothed out some edges using the window sealant but this time primed the handle using a couple layers of white gesso primer mostly because I wanted the finishing result to be a littleĀ āmessierā as this would help with making it look like real metal once I weathered it.Ā
Get a load of that handle.Ā
So lastly as a finishing touch, again to try a make it look a little more fancy I used an old leather belt I had lying around the house, cut off the end and buckle and wrapped it around the handle, adding a little hot glue in a couple places.
And thats it! Final results: me looking like a straight up badass.Ā
You guys can also add me on snapchat (dormantfig) where I usually post my my cosplay progress. Ā
Beginners Airbrushing Tutorial! Uploading another one of my tutorials here on Facebook to make finding them easier, since people keep messaging me asking for the links. This time basics on airbrushing yourself! I did it in a hotel room at DragonCon so itās not the fanciest tutorial out there, but I hope it takes some of the mystery and intimidation I think a lot of people face when considering trying it. Itās not so hard!
Okay, so we know using a Sharpie/Marker for complicated tattoos day-of for a con is a PAIN, so hereās a quick tutorial on the best way Iāve gotten success for really clean and convincing temporary tattoos for cosplay!
First things first, I would recommend getting this Silhouette tattoo paper. It comes with 2 - 8.5ā³ x 11ā³ sheets that are printable on Ink Jet printers for only $7! It comes with thorough instructions on how to use the paper, but Iāll give a quick summary.
Create your tattoo in the program of your choice. I used Illustrator, but you could also print any PDF or JPG ā just make sure the design is mirrored when you print it!! (Iād also recommend printing extras for multi-day use or mistakes when cutting!)
After the ink dries, add the clear adhesive sheet (comes with the Silhouette kit) over the top and smooth out any air bubbles.
Then (and this is really important!) cut our your tattoo as close to the edges as possible! You donāt want the design to fall apart, but the more white edges you leave, the more shiny adhesive will show up on your skin.
Now youāre ready to apply your temporary tattoo! Peel off the clear sheet, lay the tattoo facedown on your skin, and use a damp rag to wet the entire paper back. Then peel the paper off and the design is left behind!
Use makeup powder (personally I like the colorless powder so not to deaden the brilliance of the tattoo itself) and soften the shiny surface.
Go take pictures of your cosplay and have fun! It should last all day at a con (and then some!)~
OK dinguses, hereās something thatās gonna make your life and the lives of everyone who sees you at the con so much better.
This is called a Menās Dance Belt.
Itās for male ballet dancers to wear under their tights. Its purpose?
TO MAKE SURE NOBODY SEES THEIR BULGE.
when Iām at a con, nothing kills a potential good superhero costume more than seeing the cosplayerās friendly neighborhood spider-cock through the costume.
After making the tutorial for kimchicutie to help her with her Mistress 9, I was motivated to finally write up how I made my four identical Demonās Blood Talismans. They do light up, thanks to Kamui Cosplayās tutorial on light up gems!
The first part of this tutorial could also be used for resin casting, as Oomoo 30 is the mould maker I use for that, too.
Right. Here is it everything you ever wanted to know about fashion cuts, trends, style, all in one post.
Every example of a trend that existed is list in the above post. So get to know your styles, perfect your image and enjoy mixing trends and different eras together. ššš
Alright kids here we go Iām gonna try and explain how I do a thing. Iām going through the entire process so LETāS DO THIS. where MAKING THIS HAPEN
1. Make your horn base out of aluminum foil. Easy peasy lemon squeezy,yeh?
2. Cover with whatever you want. I use paperclay because itās what I like best. Fill in the cracks and start sanding after it dries, and make sure the bottom of your horns are flat and the base of them donāt taper.
(handy dandy guide. I usually put a bit extra on the bottom so I know for sure Iāll have nice bottoms. Also before you paint, hold them up to a wig head and check that the angle of the bottom is right. You might have to cut them at angles to get the horns to stick up how you want. I had to chop off parts of the bottoms of my Captor and Serket horns.)
(Handy schmandy guide.)
3. PAINT PAINT PAINT. I use cheap acrylics because haha Iām poor.
4. I like horns with gradients but do whatever you want yo. After it dries, mod podge them or use some kinda sealer to help protect them.
5. Stick a screw anchor in the foil. I take a screwdriver and poke the hole in then hot glue them in because Iām paranoid, but you shouldnāt have to glue them in.
6. Get some kinda cardboard or stiff material. I have thisā¦ thin, sturdy cardboard crud I ganked from stuff we were throwing away at a craft store I used to work at. Iāve used the cardboard for beer cases and that worked fine, and Iāve also used wonderflex. Just find something sturdy.
7. Cut out a square a lil bigger than your horn and poke the screw through it first, then poke those two things through your wig. Brush out the hair so it lays nicely over the screw and then screw your horn on. Also I suggest you get a washer (those lil metal circles) to put between the screw and cardboard so the screw doesnāt pop through. I didnāt have any at the time when I took this picture but all my wigs have them now. I also trim the corners off the cardboard so they donāt stick through the wig.
For Tav horns I used a hard cardboard tube that I got from a xmas wrapping paper thing. Iām sure normal cardboard tubes will work just fine.
Then I took a ton of aluminum foil and shoved it in one end and shaped it into the horn tip, then took more aluminum foil and covered the tube and got it to the thickness I wanted. Red = aluminum foil. I didnāt take any pictures when I did this, sorry :[ After, I hardcore glued some aluminum foil in the other end so I have something to stick screws in.
Since Tavās horns are still drying, everything beyond this is speculation as to how Iāll mount it. I hate hate hate using headbands so Iām using crud to stick under the wig. The gray is aluminum foil, the blue dots are screw anchors, and the red dot is a hole where wire will go through.
The big loop will probably be wonderflex because thatās the most flexible and sturdy material I have right now. The wonderflex goes underneath the wig and I screw the horns on through the wonderflex just like how I did with the cardboard, except Iām using two screws instead of one. The red/pink is wire. Iām not sure if Iāll need the wire because I donāt think the horns will be heavy enough to require it, but thatās my backup plan.Ā
Unfortunately coletterie.com does not have a tumblr, but this image is so helpful I had to share.Ā So often people ask us what fabric they should use for a certain cosplay, and two things you should always ask yourself are: 1) how much does it need to flow, and 2) how heavy does it need to be.Ā Sheen and texture are obviously important as well, but picking a weight and stiffness is the first thing you should tackle.
There will always be someone that you feel is better than you. Always. Learn to accept that.
What takes you two days now will, with practice, take you two hours later. Keep at it.
There will be people who tell you that youāre too fat, or thin, or black, or white to cosplay a character. For every one of them, there are 10 who love your cosplay. Donāt listen to the hate.
Keep the first cosplay you ever make. Or at least photos. It will remind you of how far youāve come later.
Always map out how much fabric you need and buy a yard more.
When you see a $0.99 pattern sale, buy as many as you can. You never know when theyāll come in handy. (Itās also fun to see the crazy high price under āyou savedā when you buy 30 $20 patterns for 99 cents each).
When you go to a convention in the first costume you ever make yourself, there will be a 100% chance of a more experienced cosplayer in the same cosplay. And you will want to throw yours away. Donāt do it.
Muslin is your friend. Itās $1 a yard and itāll help you figure out if the pattern your using will fit before you cut into your $10 a yard fabric.
There is nothing wrong with starting simple and starting small. Know your skill level when you start. Stay relatively inside it and you will be less frustrated and more proud of your work.
A little later, pick cosplays that have aspects you know how to do and aspects you donāt know how to do.Ā Look up tutorials and try new things.
Donāt be afraid to ask for help, but make sure you try to help yourself first. Keep bookmarks of online tutorial and guide resources.Ā
Donāt be afraid to start over from scratch. If you donāt like what the end product looks like donāt let the hours you spent on it force you to keep it. Rip seams. Re-do hems. Go out and buy more fabric. All the work will be worth it for a cosplay youāre proud of.
Have cosplayers you look up to, but do not try to become them. Become you.
Invest in good materials. Starting with cheap products like $5 scissors means you will have to replace them much more frequently as your experience tells you that they arenāt good enough and you need better. Get better from the start.
Donāt be afraid to cosplay alone.
Get a sewing machine with at least 5 different types of stitches on it. You may not know how to use them now but as you learn you will want them available to you.
There will always be someone who gets more attention than you for the same cosplay. Donāt let that make you bitter. Likewise, donāt let it make you power hungry.
Donāt let notes on tumblr of favorites on deviantart dictate the quality of your cosplay.
Set goals and work to achieve them, like ā5 new cosplays this yearā or āwin something in a costume contest.ā
Finally, there will come a day when you become great at cosplay. You will make all your own cosplays and even win some contests. You work hard on all your costumes and you put great effort and skill into making them detailed and perfect. And you will look at someone in a poorly made costume and a ratty wig and something deep, deep inside you, in a place you didnāt know existed, will twinge with elitism. You will not know where it comes from and you will not know how or when it got there. But fight it back. Remember where you started. Because one day that cosplayer may become great too. And theyāll have looked up to you like you looked up to others. Be a role model. Be the cosplayer you would have liked to know when you were starting out. Give back.
This is my personal technique for appliqueing on stretch fabrics. Itās a little different than what I might recommend for everyoneāI have to workĀ āupside downā or from the back of my pattern because my machine just loves to drag the spandex around if I stitch on the right side of the work. But, I find this way does give nice clean results, so try it out, maybe! The biggest con would be that it does waste a little fabric when your cutting things away, but spandex patterns generally use pretty small yardages anyway.
So first thing is to transfer your design to the interfacing. Iām using Pellon Stick-and-Washaway 542 interfacing and itās pretty much the best thing Iāve discovered recently. Itās water soluble, so youāre not tearing away interfacing and causing ripples in your spandex. Donāt forget to mirror your design!
Roughly cut out the interfacing, then peel of the backing and attach to your base fabric. Now that itās nice and firm with the interfacing, you can cut out the pattern piece more precisely, with none of the shifting that often happens with spandex. Iāve then gone ahead and used temporary spray adhesive to attach a layer of red to the right side of my work (you can see it sticking out in the armhole of the bottom piece. Because there is a lot of red, I just covered the whole piece. The excess will be cut away later.
This is on a different piece, but here me zig-zagging on the wrong side of the work, following the lines drawn on the interfacing. I got pretty good at circles and curves on this one, and the biggest advice I can give is āPivot. A Lot.ā Youāre going to have to put the needle down and pivot every couple of stitches on a circle or other tight curve. Donāt try and just swing the stiching around as you go, it doesnāt work well.Ā
Okay, so I forgot to take a picture of me cutting away the extra fabric on the red layer, but as you can see here, Iāve added and stitched a green layer and am starting to cut it away. Just use sharp little embroidery scissors and gently tug the fabric, getting as close to the zig-zagged edge as you can. It takes a little practice, but Iāve gotten pretty good at getting nice clean edges this way. As you can see with the green fabric, if that colorās design is not all over the piece, you can attach smaller pieces of fabric, just making sure it coversĀ the whole area where it is needed.Ā
Hereās the back after all the green and red stitching is done. Now time for pink! As you can see, I attached the red centers to the pink flowers already. Itās easier to put them on first with the rest of the red, then cut out the pink center of the flower (like reverse applique) then to go back and do another layer of red. Changing the bobbin and thread between each layer is a pain.
Here you can see the pink attached, itās used in small areas so I can get away with using small pieces to reduce waste.
No pictures of this step, but once youāre all trimmed up, go ahead and rinse the work in cold water, and the interfacing will magically dissolve, leaving you with nice smooth applique.
This is all the pieces laid out after being washed out. Before I sewed them all together though, there was one more step.
To reduce bulk (especially where it will be serged together) I cut away the cream base fabric where there was large open areas of the red. In smaller areas I would say itās not worth it. I did cut the center of the flower away too, just because I ended up with three layers of fabric there.Ā
Ta-Da! All sewn up (and lined and what not) More pictures HERE!
