Average Cosplay

We make average cosplay, and sometimes it turns out to be above average. So we have that.

[chubcakes-blog]

**This method works best with a smart phone!**

So you wanna make cosplay and eat food too huh? Well tough luck kid cosplay is EXPENSIVE so- Oh wait you’re buying from Jo-Anns*? Well then you just might get that tulle AND those tacos. Listen up, there are four main steps to saving money!! 1. Sales

[averagecosplay-blog]

Tutorial: How to Make Elizabeth's Burial at Sea Outfit (Part 1: Tailoring the Shirt)

The good news is that there are a TON of different ways to go about making this costume depending upon 1) how much time you have, 2) how concerned you are about exact accuracy, and 3) your sewing skill level. But - and here's the best part, and one of the main reasons I wanted to make a tutorial - NONE of the methods is very expensive, and none of the methods makes a significant difference in finished costume accuracy! I can't think of any other costumes I've made for which all of that is true. LET US ALL PRAISE IRRATIONAL GAMES.

Option 1

Make the shirt yourself from scratch. Let me take this opportunity to express what a terrible and not-at-all-cost-effective idea this is. Sewing is fun. Sewing can be less expensive than buying, particularly when it comes to cosplay. That said, there are certain things that it behooves you never to attempt to make from scratch, including tailored button-up shirts. Anything that requires such exact measurements and so much time (so, so, so much time) is almost never worth the comparatively little time and effort involved in thrifting a shirt and altering it to fit you. Even you ladies out there who (like me) have trouble getting shirts to button over your boobs, I promise that it is far less trouble to tailor a shirt to fit you than to try to make one from scratch.

If you have chosen Option 1, I can no longer help you. Godspeed, and may the odds be ever in your favor. 

Option 2

Use a white, long-sleeved, button-up shirt that can be cut and sewed on and is only SLIGHTLY larger in the bust than your bust measurement. By SLIGHTLY, I mean no more than 2 extra inches of wiggle room around the boobs. If you're going with this option, you can skip any tailoring directions up until I explain putting the front seams in the shirt.

Option 3

This is the option I'll be walking you through. Thrift a men's white, long-sleeved, button-up shirt WITHOUT POCKETS that is SIGNIFICANTLY larger than you in the bust. By significantly, I mean that you can put on the shirt, button it, gather the excess at the front of the shirt in one hand and have a good three inches of extra material. 

Note: It can be a little difficult to find white shirts without pockets, and they're usually a little pricier because they're more formal. That said, I've never spent more than $10 on one.

I'm not going to walk you through the entire process of tailoring the shirt to fit you, because there is already an amazing tutorial HERE. However, I've got a few notes/changes for you.

I haven't found it necessary to narrow the shoulders (Step 1 in the tutorial linked above) of the shirts I've bought, but I'm also rather broad-shouldered. If you're particularly slim, you might want to consider doing that step.

The darts in the tutorial linked above are lovely, but they're not exactly what we're going for. Elizabeth's shirt doesn't have side darts; instead, there are two seam-like darts that run vertically down the bust. That's what we want to go for. The size of your darts will depend upon how large your bust is, but I've used the following as decent starting measurements:

I did this in MS Paint, so it looks awful. Apologies for that. Here are your steps:

1. Make sure you're wearing the undergarment(s) you plan on wearing with this costume! 2. Put on the shirt, and point to your nipples. Put a light mark (light pencil, tailor's chalk, dressmaker's pen, etc.) on that spot. 3. Most of us have slightly uneven boobs (often held in place weirdly by bras), so don't be alarmed if your nipple dot marks are a little off-kilter. Mine were, so I slapped a straight-edge down and picked an invisible line about in between where my dots ended up. The orange lines above fall on that invisible line. 4. Make sure that the shirt is buttoned when you measure this next part. Find a place that looks to be about the center of one of the buttons (i.e., the dead center of the shirt), and measure from there to one of your nipple-dots. This measurement probably will not be the same for each side/boob, so, again, I would pick a happy medium. Mine was almost exactly 4 inches from the center of the shirt to my nipple-dots. 5. After ensuring that your nipple-dots are of equal height and distance from the center, mark a line that goes through each dot from the top to the bottom of the entire blouse. This is the center of your darts. 6. Returning to your nipple-dots, mark 1/4 to the left and right of each dot. I drew a light pencil line connecting each of these, so I had 1/2-inch wide lines (in BLUE above) for each boob.  7. You want your darts to continue to the top of the shirt, but you don't want to deal with having a pucker in the shoulder seam. I narrowed my dart naturally to a point about 1/8 inch below each shoulder seam (this will be hidden by your collar). 

8. To give your shirt some busty-ness, you'll want to widen your darts below the breast. If you want to be exact about this, measure a straight diagonal from your nipple to your rib (i.e., the first non-boob skin you hit). On the shirt, make a mark that distance below the original nipple-dot. I just eye-balled mine because I figured I could adjust it later. Anyway, mine fell between 3-4 inches below the blue line. If you're bustier, yours will be longer; if you're less busty, it will be shorter. 9. Repeat step 6 above, but this time marking 1/2 inch to each side of the center-dart line. This will give you a 1-inch dart on each side. This 1-inch dart will go down the remaining length of the shirt (ignore that my yellow lines stop; MS Paint mishap). 10. Yay! You've sketched out your darts! Now I'm going to send you to someone far more skilled than I at explaining sewing techniques:

http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2013/10/secrets-to-sewing-perfect-darts/

If you're a beginner at sewing, I would highly recommend looking around YouTube for a couple videos as well. Realize that the darts for this shirt are highly unusual because they continue for almost the entire length of the shirt; that said, the technique is pretty much the same. Here is my final product:

I hope that that wasn't too terribly confusing. This is the first tutorial I've ever written, so it can only get better from here, right?

Stay tuned for Part 2: Making the Cuffs and Collar!

[yaexrae]

"A Strapless That Stays Put" by Kenneth D. King

Featured in Threads magazine, issue #46, pp. 52-56

[yaexrae]

A couple years ago I inherited a bunch of old copies of Threads magazine after my grandmother passed away, and this article is by far one of the most useful discussions of dressmaking technique for strapless bodices that I’ve run across.  I scanned it for my own personal use, but since I’ve been getting a couple questions about a couple of my projects, I figured I would share it with you guys!

[koristarfire]

One of the most important posts on Tumblr for cosplayers and seamstresses ever.

[aicosu]

IMPORTANT!IMPORTANT!

[theyslayedthedragon]

[roberthouse]

well apparently the cats didn’t make it into the finalists for the contest, so here’s what we entered, in case anyone wanted to see it. Thanks for all the likes on the other post everyone, maybe we’ll do more cats some time (:

[roberthouse]

did someone say cats in dragon age costumes? I’m about to submit our entry for the fan contest and I just wanted to show you all these glorious bastards. I’ll put up more photos later when I am back at my pc.

[queenodile]

Please observe my babies, Morrigan and Solas, in their cosplay debut that my bae made (also my friend’s hella Alistair cat) 

[averagecosplay-blog]

Tutorial: How to Make Elizabeth's Burial at Sea Outfit (Intro)

Having now made this costume twice (once for myself and once for a commission), I feel like I've got a whole mess of knowledge. I'm a big believer in sharing the wealth, particularly because all of my cosplay relies, to some extent, on tutorials, videos, photos, etc. from the loads of amazing people who take to the Internet to help their fellows. 

I'm going to use a series of posts to walk you through how to make and gather all of the components for this costume. After I complete each separate part, I'll link all of the posts back to this one. Stay tuned!

[fabrickind]

Fabric Choice for Cosplay panel. This is just the bare bones and the examples, since I talked about and explained things in person.

(One thing I’d like to add right here though, since I was asked about it in person — I don’t go into enough detail about the difference between dupioni and shantung. Dupioni is stiffer and more crinkly [it makes a rustling noise] as well as having a more pronounced surface texture; shantung is softer and suitable for draping [where dupioni isn’t] and has a smoother surface texture.)

Nothing in this panel is definitive, and the examples given (even of the different fabric types) are just that — examples. You will encounter many, many more types of fabric than this out in the wild, but this is meant to give you a general overview so you can hopefully find your way.

This information is for personal reference only, and not meant to be used for your own panel. You can share this/reblog this; just don’t re-present it as your own.

Here is a link to the pdf file of the presentation, in case this photoset is difficult to read. It’s slightly confusing but all I could get my computer to do, so here’s 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 couldn’t get that to switch in the version of Reader I’m using, so sorry for any confusion. The pdf file should read correctly, with one slide per page.

If anyone has any questions, comments, or corrections, please let me know. :]

[nephilitic-deactivated20160303]

Fantastic tutorial on how to make an EVOKER from Persona 3

“I was in charge of making the evokers for our Persona 3 group last year and the method I used ended up being quite simple and inexpensive so why not share it? This isn’t a perfect method, the biggest flaw is that the paint easily cracks if you drop it on a hard surface, but if you value inexpensiveness like me, $15 evokers are hard to beat (even cheaper if you make a batch)!

Start by printing the pattern pieces at 100 % size (no shrink or stretch by printer). The completed evoker will have the following dimensions:”

Thickness: 2.5 cm Length: 18 cm Height: 13.5 cm

It fits my hands (I’m female), but you may want to adjust the size if you wish.

You will need:

Craft foam (4 sheets)

White glue

Paper scraps for paper mache

Spackling paste or gesso

Paint scraper

Oven-bake or air hardening clay (Sculpey, Paperclay, Fimo, etc.)

Sandpaper (220 grit)

Spray primer

Silver spray paint

Acrylic paint (blue, black, silver, bronze)

Painter’s tape

Clear adhesive labels for printers

Transparent protective spray

Click here for the full tutorial

Hai ! (*^。^*) 

This is “persona-cosplay”, a new blog in it’s infancy. By following it you will receive posts on amazing Persona related cosplay, info and tutorials!

Please support us! <3

[deactivated-blog]

can be adapted for guns in general, and foam board is also an option…might be useful to some followers

[cosplayingwhilebald]

Day 1 Frank Fontaine from Bioshock

[elalamein]

Lt. Geordi La Corg

I need this dog in my life

[fem-trek-deactivated20160808]

Its a matching pair (x)

[sttngfashion]

GEORDI LA CORG

[averagecosplay-blog]

I cannae.

[mmn2]

[averagecosplay-blog]

And next on the list of things I have wanted to cosplay since before I knew what cosplay was...

[laylaantagonist]

Just realized I never really posted any pictures of me specifically from the Bioshock stuff at DragonCon…! Here’s my Big Sister, in her much better second rebuild at the DragonCon Aquarium Party this past year (2014)! Photos are credit to Victor Voyeur and an edited shot from a friend!

My Little Sister, Big Daddy, and Jack Ryan are from my lovely teambioshock group! Not sure on the individual names for the others in the big shot, but they were all fantastic

More of my stuff lives here!

[marvel]

As we get ready for Costoberfest to kick-off next week, we’re excited to bring you a special spotlight with Lee Hurley of HurleyFX who created the amazing Groot costume seen at DragonCon. We asked Lee to walk us through the process used to make the costume!

——

My interpretation of GROOT was sculpted in sections over of life cast of my body. The order was Head, Hands, Legs, Torso, then Arms.

Each piece that was to be made in latex had to be sculpted 10% bigger than I needed due to latex shrinking.

Then a 2 part plaster mold was made, trying to keep the seam lines as disguised as possible. The molds varied from approximately 15lb per hand to in excess of 400lbs for the legs, which were in excess of 5ft tall.

For the smaller pieces the molds were dwelled with latex for between 35-45 minutes, for the bigger molds, I had to brush in layers of latex until I had an approximate even thickness, then place the mold halves together and finish brushing latex over the seam line in the mold.

Custom home made mini stilts were made to make the overall height of Groot at his total highest ( little branch on top ) 7’10.

Once the parts were out of the mold and had finished curing, I test fitted them and used foam tubing to flesh out any areas that needed to fit better, and trimmed the rest to where I felt the seams would be less visible.

Then the Silicone head was painted with FUSEFX silicone pigments, and the latex body suit was painted with washes of FWINK’s. Latex was matte clear coated with Liquitex Matte. Then vines and moss were added, along with his little shoulder branch.

Thus the finished Groot!

I like to push what it is possible for me to create, and if I am told something cannot be done, it just makes me try harder to prove that thinking wrong. I am totally self-taught and often do things that are not the norm, as was once said necessity is the mother of invention, and that I find is very true. And it is also fun coming up with unique solutions to problems.

Being someone who loves creature creation, I was immediately drawn to Groot when I found out Guardians was being made, and although he was going to be totally CGI (which he had to be on screen) 3 months prior to Dragon-con I decided I to see what kind of Groot I could come up with using practical effects.

—-

Wow, thanks so Lee for walking us through your process! We certainly agree here at Marvel HQ that seeing Groot come to life was amazing, so thank you!

Interested in seeing more photos of Lee’s Groot, please swing over toMarvel.com DragonCon 2014 Gallery!

[seshiriadesu]

Easy guide on how to make shapes/holes in fabric without fraying in cosplay

Hihihi ^^,

So recently I’ve been doing my atelier ayesha cos and am onto the staff right now ^0^/ only a month to go till the london comic con so ganbare >.<!!! Back to the tutorial, so I have these problematic truangle cuts in in ayesha’s dress and I have kinda found a way to make these without them fraying~ 

Just an important note: I have ONLY tried this technique out on POLYCOTTON and COTTON and found that polycotton had a better result, so you are warned. I have no idea about the effects on other types of fabric. Also I DO NOT know the effects if it is washed, please do tell me if it still works after being washed if you try it out.

—-

What you will need:

*Template (for the shapes you want on the fabric)

*Fabric (I used polycotton and it was good, cotton was okay, NOT sure about other fabric types though)

*Fabric scissors (or thread snips for smaller shapes)

*Clear nail varnish (have also tried this technique with fabric glue and it still works but imo the nail varnish is better)

Method:

1)*IMPORTANT NOTE* I don’t think it will work as well with large shapes or holes, this method is for smaller shapes, you’ve been warned.

Cut out the shapes you want and stick it onto your paper pattern (if you don’t want to cut or ruin your paper pattern then I suggest laying the original paper pattern onto a tissue paper and then trace it out, cut and use that instead) and then cut out the shapes again from the pattern paper.

OR alternatively,

Cut out the shape you want and just lay it onto the fabric and outline straight away and cut if you’re confident about where the shape/hole should be. Skip to step 3 if you are doing this.

2) You should end up with this:

Lay this onto your fabric or garment and pin it down, make sure it is aligned. (You don’t want to ruin your cosplay now >~</!!) outline the shape using your paper pattern and then unpin and cut:

Then cut out the shape.

You should end up with this:

Make sure there are clean cuts, it makes it easier to work with ^0^/ 

3) Right now, the edges would fray if you left it as it is so next, take your CLEAR nail varnish and add some to the sides of the shape…

Make sure to add just enough so that it will cover the sides, DO NOT put too much on as it does make a mark around the shape, so be careful. (I have found that using fabric glue will not cause this problem as it dries clear, but imo nail varnish gives a better finish.)

4) wait for it to dry…and tada! Shapes/holes in your fabric :DD

I hope this is helpful and good luck with cosplaying ☆〜（ゝ。∂）

[averagecosplay-blog]

Quick question about the paper feathers. (Ignore me if you already answered this in the tutorial.) When you finished brushing the makeup on did you seal it again or just leave it?

oh! No, I didn't answer this yet. I didn't seal it, it's actually kind of hard to wipe off the eyeshadow with just the hairspray, but I was ready to use makeup sealer if I needed to. Hairspray turned out to do the job well enough, though!

[averagecosplay-blog]

Genetic Freak Baby Makes: Feathers. Here is, as promised, the tutorial for making fake feathers out of paper. It's surprisingly easy and actually kind of fun.  Enjoy! -Sofa