Considerations in Designing & Planning Hand Embroidery and Embellishment for Cosplay
(This post was made for the Cosplay Tutorial Challenge, 2025. For more information on the Cosplay Tutorial Challenge, please visit https://www.cosplaytutorialchallenge.com/ )
I love adding embroidery to my cosplays, and there's a lot that goes into my planning for embroidery before I ever thread a needle. I have a set of guiding questions that I ask myself for every cosplay to which I add embroidery or embellishment:
What is the character's background?
Does this costume have any real-world equivalents?
What is your own comfort level?
Designing the actual piece
What is the character's background?
In particular, I like to think about the character's occupation and economic status, as well as their upbringing. Occupation and economic status can answer questions like:
Did this character have the ability and access to materials to stitch this themselves? Alternatively, did they have the money to commission someone? Or was this a gift?
What kind of materials could this character afford?
Embroidery materials can range from very cheap (6-strand embroidery floss and scrap fabric) to very expensive (goldwork, crystal beads). In addition, hand embroidery and embellishment is extremely labor-intensive, and while it has historically been performed by people of all social classes, commissioned couture work can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars USD.
If I decide that the character could have stitched the item themselves, I then also ask myself:
What is this character's experience level with handsewing and/or embroidery? Do they know primarily basic stitches, or are they seasoned in a variety of techniques?
For example, here's some cross-stitch I did for Coco (Witch Hat Atelier, on the left) and some surface embroidery for Orym (Critical Role, on the right).
The chatelaine I made for Coco isn't canonical, but her coming from a sewing/tailoring background is. Her mother is canonically a seamstress, and Coco is known to have skill... at drawing straight lines when pattern-drafting. She likely has skill with needlework, but complex shapes may be difficult for her. Therefore, I opted for cross-stitch, with its singular stitch and emphasis on precision.
Orym, meanwhile, has no such canonical connection to sewing. However, he was raised by a single mother in a culture connected to nature and air, so I quickly got the headcanon that he would know some basic handsewing and surface embroidery, typically using more flowing and organic forms - like the "branch" and flowers on his belt! In my headcanon, he mostly uses simple stitches as this is just something to keep his hands busy. But his DEX 18 at level 3 would imply he'd be pretty skilled at what he does know! Therefore, his belt is stitched in surface embroidery using densely packed reverse chain stitch, backstitch, lazy daisy (detached chain) stitch, and French knots. The stitches are all easy to pick up, but the density of the reverse chain stitch that makes up the "branch" shows his eye to detail and dexterity.
Does this costume have any real-world equivalents?
This can range from "yes, baseball uniforms are indeed a real thing" to "this character's culture was inspired by this real-world region." Most character design is not done by people who know how fabric works done with enough detail to see the individual structure of embroidery stitches, so determining a real-world equivalent can help with planning how to actually stitch the embellishments.
You can look at the motifs present in the embroidery for clues to what cultures or garments it may be emulating. Are there primarily floral designs? Geometric? Representational? Hell, text? How is color used - lots of vibrant colors? A select few colors? Tone on tone? All of these can point you to real-life examples for reference.
(above: examples of embroidery styles from around the world. images courtesy of The Smithsonian Institute. in order, ainu, gujarat, qing dynasty china, china, bolivia (probably aymara), germany, japan, nigeria (yoruba))
Of course, that works if you know what the embellishment looks like but don't know what culture it is based off of. But maybe you face the opposite and know the culture but not the design. Sometimes, of course, we're not working with a visual source material...
I'm currently working on this formal outfit for Orym. All I have to go off of is this description! But just knowing it is based off of a sherwani - a real garment from South Asia - already let me figure out that I wanted to use some of the embellishment techniques seen in South Asian formalwear, such as mirror embroidery.
Some resources I use to look at world embroidery styles & stitches, on their own or on extant garments, include:
Embroiderer's Guild of America collections and blog posts
Smithsonian Institute collections
various books (check your local library! for digital library collections, I've found hoopla tends to have more embroidery books than libby.)
Here's another example (photo by Vicky Yoon). For Tajima (Ookiku Furikabutte), everything is satin stitch and a small amount of backstitch. Real-life baseball uniforms are typically machine-embroidered, and machines can really only produce a small number of stitches - primarily satin and straight stitches, plus chainstitch if you have a specialty machine. I don't have access to machine embroidery, so in replicating the style by hand, I went for solely densely-packed satin stitch and backstitch.
What is your own comfort level?
I know it's tempting to read about a new embroidery technique and decide you want to cover yourself in it for the con in less than a month, but please remember that hand embroidery is a labor-intensive skill. Give yourself enough time. Listen to your body. That labor can be difficult on the hands, arms, eyes, and neck in particular (though certain tools are available to help, like stands and magnifiers). Don't give yourself a repetitive strain injury trying to look pretty for a con.
In the same vein, it's great to challenge yourself on a new technique! But it's also great to acknowledge when you may need to practice on a sampler or non-cosplay project before undertaking the costume piece so that you'll be happy with the final result. I'm currently planning two cosplays that use embellishment techniques I've never practiced before, so well before I start on the costume pieces, I'm making samplers and even a blanket using the techniques so I get more comfortable with them.
Designing the Actual Piece
Surprise! Designing the actual piece - the individual stitches and threads you'll use and how it fits on your garment - involves even more guiding questions!!
What is the ground fabric you'll be working on? Some styles of embroidery just can't be worked on some types of fabric, like drawn-thread work on felt. Or you may need to add a stabilizer if you want to stitch on knitwear. Consider also the weight of any possible embellishments versus the weight of your fabric.
How dense will the stitching be? Some styles of embroidery require dense stitching (thread painting) while others are much lighter density (huck weaving). Consider this when choosing your threads/yarns to make sure they are visible from a distance.
How much sheen do you want? This can determine type and even brand of threads. Untwisted silk is shinier than cotton embroidery floss, which is shinier than perle cotton. Metal threads are the shiniest of all, and there's even more options between all those.
Laphicet from Tales of Berseria. Photo by @cephalon-sancti
Laphicet's collar was stitched with rayon threads. They were hell to work with and I don't suggest it, but they provide an "ethereal" kind of sheen that was fitting for a malak.
Are the threads you want available in the colors you need? When it comes to embroidery floss, you can thankfully check a swatch book, like these ones from Lord Libidan for DMC, Anchor, or Kreinik. Or just stand in front of a sales rack of floss for an hour debating between two basically identical colors... But don't despair if you can't find the exact right color! The brown of my Orym sash (see photo above) is actually a combination of two different DMC threads because I wasn't happy with either of them alone. And if all else fails, you can even dye your own threads.
When you're ready to draft your design, many styles can just be drawn onto the fabric with your favorite fabric marking pens. I prefer water-soluble, as marks from heat-erasing pens can sometimes show back up with time. I sometimes even just use a regular ballpoint pen if I know my stitches will cover the marks...
For counted work like cross-stitch, huck weaving, etc., computer programs exist that can help you draft a pattern and print a PDF copy to follow while you stitch. I personally use WinStitch for my cross-stitch charts. You can also use graph paper and your coloring tools of choice.
So now you've designed your embroidery, drafted the pattern, chosen your threads, all that's left is to actually get to stitching! Needle 'N' Thread and RSN Stitchbank (linked above) both have great tutorials for individual stitches. Have fun and please take detail photos when you're done!!!
