Cosplay Tutorial Hoard

A collection of cosplay tutorials, tips, and tricks collected by FirebrandPhlox. Everything from armor, fursuits, sewing and electronics can be found here. Not seeing a tutorial that you need? Send me a message and I'll do my best to find one! Have a question or concern about your current or upcoming projects? Send in an ask and I'll do my best to help or open up the floor for followers to help out!

[cosplaytutorialhoard]

Sorry if you've sent an ask and I haven't reaponded. I just moved to Japan a few weeks ago, so I do not have proper internet. I will answer the asks as soon as I have a stable enough connection to. Thanks for your understanding.

[cosplaytutorialhoard]

any tips, tutorials, and advice on making monokuma and monomi fursuit heads from dangan ronpa?

The best advice I can give you is to look through fursuit-tutorials. They have a whole bunch of great tutorials about making fursuits, and everything is tagged. Try searching “head” on the blog and you should get a wide variety of tutorials that can help you depending on your budget and skill set.

Personally, I would probably make the head using an upholstery foam base. It’s an easy way to work if you’ve never made a fursuit head before, and is relatively forgiving. As for the fur, I’d go with something like minky. Just make sure to draw all the markings as you pattern out the fur.

[cosplaytutorial]

How to Stain or “Wood-Grain” PVC Pipe 

View the full tutorial here: http://www.pvcworkshop.com/staining.htm

[cosplaytutorialhoard]

Hi. I have about 2 weeks until a convention where I plan to cosplay a gjinka eevee, but my ears won't stand up straight. They are made of faux fur and cardboard and I also put wire in them for support but they still fall over when I put them on. How can I fix this?

How stiff is your cardboard? If it’s a single sheet, that’s why the weight isn’t being supported. If you can, try adding some more layers to the cardboard to give it more strength. I’d also recommend coating your cardboard in wood glue to stiffen it up. My friend who made ears for a while recommends that you coat the cardboard in hot glue. That will basically give it a plastic coating, so it should be much stronger.

Hopefully these ideas help!

[silvericedragon]

Another tutorial!  This one tells you how to make articulated shoulder armor that bends with your arm.  The shoulders were probably the most difficult piece for my Tyrael cosplay, so hopefully this will make things a bit simpler for others.

[baamf-cosplay]

HOW TO TRACE A PATTERN ONTO CRAFTFOAM THE LESS HASSLE WAY + MAKE YOUR OWN CUSTOM STAMP! 

So this is just a small tutorial with a couple of tricks I’ve learned throughout the years :) I see a lot of people when tracing on craftfoam do an extra step that I think is unnecessary. You don’t need to out out your paper pattern, trace around that, and then cut it out anymore, especially if you have small details or tight corners (like that’s a bitch to cut out once, I don’t wanna do it twice!)

Materials:

craft foam (preferably the thicker kind)

pattern printed on paper

pencil/ballpoint pen

a solid block of some kind (wooden block, leftover eva foam/insulation foam, styrofoam block, anything really you can find it doesn’t have to be fancy!)

glue gun+glue sticks

scissors

x-acto knife/box knife

Steps (can follow along with pictures):

Print out your pattern/stamp

Using a light source, place your pattern up toward the window. Scribble over your pattern so it covers the outline of it. You don’t have to be neat about it at all, just make sure your pattern is covered thoroughly! This will help transfer the pencil to your craftfoam in the next step :) (if you need more info on this, this is basically carbon transferring/carbon tracing without buying stupid “carbon transfer paper” lol)

Trace your pattern onto the craft foam with a ballpoint pen or your pencil again. Apply pressure but not so much that it rips through the paper. You’re just trying to transfer the pencil markings from the back.

This step is optional, but I like to do it just for neatness. After lifting up your paper you’ll see your imprint. Sometimes if you didn’t scribble hard enough on the back, the pencil imprint won’t be that dark. I go over it again with a pencil just to make the outlines clearer. But if your outline looks solid too you and you know where to cut, then you can skip this step by all means :)

Cut out your pattern! I like using scissors for bigger areas and and x-acto for smaller, more precise things. Place your pattern on your solid block and glue it. I had a bunch of insulation foam scraps and used that. Honestly look around your house, I’m sure you have something you can glue your foam to. Then just cut down your block so your pattern is isolated. 

And there you have it! Your own stamp to make whatever you wish! I showed a few examples of how it looked like on felt, fabric, and paper. They each give a different kind of texture so just play with it. Just remember craft foam is porous, so you might not get a solid stamp all the time. I feel like thats the beauty of a stamp tho, that it’ll look different every time you stamp it, but feel free to experiment! I just used acrylic paint and used a paint brush to put the paint on the stamp. If you have a stamp pad that works too. or if your pattern is smaller than my stuff just pound it into the paint itself. Just remember to blot off the excess paint on a scrap paper/fabric! Have fun :) If you have any questions you can msg me! 

[theoraclecosplay]

How I Made Isabela’s Boots

Welcome to the second installment of the “Isabela Cosplay? How?!” series. Today I will be breaking down the BEASTS that are Isabela’s boots. I say beasts because these bad boys ate up the majority of the cosplay construction time. That’s ok though because once again I want to stress how absolutely important her boots are. Whenever I run across an Isabela cosplayer the first thing I look at are how they did the boots. I don’t think two people have ever done them the exactly same way and I think that’s really neat. They all have different buckles, the cuffs are made out of different materials, some are real leather, some are faux, and now I’m rambling. The point is don’t stress too much about getting them exact!

BEFORE I GET STARTED!! I am by know means claiming to know what I am talking about! I am completely self taught in all things sewing related, so I guarantee there is probably a much better way to do all of this. I just wanted to explain how I did mine.

Anyway I will start with the reference pictures I used most while working on the beasts.

The top images are from Tumblr user thedosianimports  who has just a ton of high res reference pictures for dragon age! I can’t stress how important these pictures were to me during the construction process.

Immediately I knew when looking at these images that the best way to go with these beasts were not to make actual boots, but make them more like a pair of spats that went over a pair of base boots.

The first thing I do when working on any cosplay is determine what type of material would work best for this project. If I had the funds and tools I would have loved to have made these boots out of actual leather. Unfortunately when buying for this cosplay I was trying to recover from an expensive semester in college. So I took a trip to the local Joanns and browsed for a while. My search took me to a giant roll of dark brown upholstery vinyl that I immediately fell in love with. It was thick enough to support itself for the most part. I’ve noticed that a lot of Isabela cosplayers have a tough time keeping their boots up. Some use garters, some use tape, and some just let them do what they want. The main goal here is to be able to just put your boots on and be able to leave them. I hope that kind of makes sense.

Once I had my base material I started working on the pattern. I just made it out of some old white sheets I had lying around. It kind of ended up looking like this:

I measured the circumference of my legs at the top of where I wanted the boots to lie, around the knee, around the largest point of my calf, and my ankles with the base boots on. I put the mock up pieces together and sort of measured how big I wanted the knee hole to be. Sorry I can’t think of a better way to explain that. Don’t forget to add the seam allowance when your cutting out your spat pieces!!! 

I started by sewing the two horizontal parts so that instead of four pieces I had two. After that I joined the pieces at the top thigh. At this point I put on the first invisible zipper. NOT THE THIGH ONE but the one going down the length of the shin. I sewed it in upside down.

I marked here where the invisible zippers were sewn in during construction.

IMPORTANT: THE THIGH ZIPPER DID NOT GO ON UNTIL MUCH LATER I WILL SPECIFY WHEN!!!!!

Once the shin zipper was on I cut out a circular piece of the vinyl and just sort of pinned it into the knee whole till I thought it looked alright. This is probably the sloppiest part of my boots and I praise anyone who does it well.

Once I sewed the knee piece in, I topstitched everything I had with a thick white upholstery thread.

At this point I sewed up the back to right behind the knee and just pinned up the back of the thigh to make sure the fit was right.

I made adjustments where I thought they were needed, seam ripped the back and started on the dreaded buckles.

For the buckles I knew I personally wanted to go a little larger than what is strictly accurate. Just a personal preference sort of thing. I ended up buying 10 of these:

I liked the antiquey look and size. I also bought 10 matching “D” rings in the correct size.

At this point I was completely stumped and actually ended up walking away from the project for a couple weeks. I HATE BELTS!!!!! Once I calmed down and de-stressed, I sat down with my materials and just started playing. I came up with a weird solution that worked really well for me.

I sewed pieces of vinyl to brown craft foam. Each belt is two pieces: the one with the “D” rings, and the one with the buckles. The buckles are not in any way important to the fit of the boots. They are just there for show.

Breaking it down specifically I cut out the craft foam, spray glued the vinyl strips to the foam, and sewed them on with the white upholstery thread. All the belts were hand sewn to the boots because my machine couldn’t handle it. This is the part that took the longest BY FAR.

Once all the belts were on I sewed up the back, FINALLY INSTALLED THE LAST ZIPPER, and started patterning out the cuff. I don’t have a picture of the cuff pattern so it kind of looked like this:

Use your imaginations I suppose. Anyways I cut out two of those for each cuff, sewed them right sides together, turned them right sides out, and top stitched with my upholstery thread.

Once those were on I just hemmed the bottoms and they were done in time for the con.

They aren’t done at this point. I still need to add the buckles and belts to the base boots. I’m going to use the same method as the belts on the spats but instead of sewing them to the boots I’m just going to glue the belts on with Barge Cement.

And that’s all folks. If there is anything I forgot to mention or anyone has any questions PLEASE ASK ME! I loooove answering questions about my cosplays. I promise you can do it little Izzies! It’s easier than it looks.  If anyone uses any of my methods to make their Isabela boots PLEASE SEND ME PICTURES! I wanna see your awesome work guys!!!!

[galegallerie]

HAVE YOU GUYS HEARD OF POSTERAZOR

THIS SHITS AWESOME

its helped me a bunch with my xenoblade props’ 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. 

the website is http://posterazor.sourceforge.net/ . its got a virus-free download. 

[cosplaytutorialhoard]

Hello! Thanks for asking my question, but I have another one to ask. Is there another way to seal foam without Plastidip but still keep the flexibility of the foam? Or just white glue and water will work?

White glue and water will work well! Just make sure to do it in thin coats and allow each coat to dry fully before you put the next one on. Mod Podge also works pretty well for this.

[cosplaytutorialhoard]

Hi^^ I'm planning to make Madara's armor from Naruto but I only have access to craft foam. Is there a way to make the craft foam sturdier? Thanks for taking the time to read this :)

There are a number of ways to make craft foam sturdier! I mostly use craft foam for my own armor, so I combat the the flimsiness in a few different ways.

1) Double-up the foam. When I make armor, especially with only thin craft foam, I make a base that is the shape of a large segment of armor, then put another layer on top of it to create the detail and make the piece sturdier.

This is a picture from my Zant cosplay. I made a base out of a thicker foam, then started to build up shapes with the thinner craft foam. This will also work if you only have the thinner stuff.

2) Back the foam with gauze or another fabric. If you use white or wood glue, you can attach fabric to the back of armor to make it really secure. Here’s the tutorial I used for this method when I did it for my Volibear armor. My only warning is to get that gauze as flat as possible and work slowly with it. If you rush and get little bumps in the fabric, they can be really stiff and scratch you. I’d recommend only doing this for armor not directly attached yo your person, but based on your costume, you’ll have fabric between your body and the armor and should be fine.

3) My personal favorite way to make foam extra durable is to coat it in a casting plastic. Here’s a good video tutorial about that. You can buy the plastic for it on Amazon. It’s a little pricy, but gives your armor a really nice finish that makes your paint job really durable. This method needs to be done with one of the others though, as the craft foam by itself is still thin enough to bend and break. If you combine it with one of the above methods though, your armor will be really hard to break.

Best of luck making your armor!

[cosplaytutorialhoard]

Hey there! Found your blog through a link list and just wanted to shoot you a question, you seem really knowledgeable. I'm trying to make a large hammer, specifically the hammer King Dedede uses in the Kirby/Smash Bros. game series. I'm a big guy, so I'd like it to be equally true to size if I can. I've never worked with materials like this before, and I want to make it look authentic if possible(wooden). I know you're probably busy, but thanks either way!

Sorry it took me so long to answer this! I didn’t have internet for a few days because I was at Anime Central.

First off, let’s look at Dedede.

My first inclination is to make the hammer out of something very lightweight, like insulation foam. I would make the head by gluing a bunch of squares together, then shaving a block down to get the shape you want.I would use a PVC pipe or some other kind of durable, lightweight object to make the handle. Here’s a tutorial for a Thor hammer and here’s another for the Warhammer of Zillyhoo which is more along the scale you’ll want. Here’s one for a Harley Quinn hammer that might also be helpful to you. I’d look for more Harley Quinn tutorials and see if there’s any that you think are in your skill set because plenty of people have done Harley hammers.

As for getting that nice wood-like texture and finish on your hammer, you’ll want to just make sure you do a careful paint job, possibly do some etching beforehand. Here’s two tutorials about making foam board look like foam: 1 and 2

Best of luck making your prop!

[undead-bat]

TUTORIAL HERE: X

Those who asked me about it: supersecretmenu | just-a-driver | and the third one is: kittenishley or najaralas (sorry I couldn’t find your message so sorry for the one who not asked for the tutorial ><)

[cosplaytutorialhoard]

Hi there! I've just published a book on being able to better afford conventions and cosplay. I was wondering if you would considering sharing it? it's available on Amazon and storenvy and it's called Concraze: How to Convention on Budget. I wrote this book to help the people who love this hobby and the hobby of going to conventions because it is so expensive! I hope you'll share my story so I can help others. Thanks- KR

If any followers are interested in reading this book, here’s the purchase link. It seems like a good read that goes really in depth about how to save money and budget well.

[cosplaytutorialhoard]

So I'm making some armor pieces for the ren fest and I'm having a bit of trouble patterning them out. I was trying to go for a similar look for the shoulder pads like this cosplay (lenleg(.)tumblr(.)com/post/86911966675) but instead of 5 pieces I was going to make just 3. Could you happen to give me any advice on how to pattern the pieces out? I've been having the problem of pieces not lining up very well. (I'm not the best at explaining things I hope that makes sense.)

For those who don’t want to get that link going, here’s the page this badger is referring to.

Basically you’re looking to make some nifty looking scale-like shoulder pads and need some help patterning this out.

Personally, I’m not the greatest at making patterns and a lot of my work ends up being trial and error, but I can provide some tips and ideas.

I personally make all of my patterns using whatever paper I have laying around, a sharpie, and my trusty duct tape dummy, Major Tom. I start by holding the paper up to the dummy and manipulating it with my hands to see what general shape I want. I then lightly trace the sharpie in the general outline of what I want.

After I do this, I make a darker, cleaner line on the paper using a flat surface. Then I cut out the piece and repeat the process until I have all the patterns for the particular pieces I need, this way I can test that the paper fits together and not waste any foam.

For symmetrical pieces, I recommend folding the paper in half before cutting it so you get a pattern that is exactly the same on bot sides.

For curved pieces, I tend to make my patterns slightly larger so I can cut darts to shape the foam, then trim the excess after I’ve achieved the shape I need.

The most important part of patterning is making sure the pieces fit together and modifying them before using your actual material. I find this is easiest when you have a duct tape dummy and masking tape so you can display things and take a step back.

This is nowhere near the most effective way to do things, and I will be sure to take pictures during my next patterning session for cosplay so I can make a tutorial with better visuals.

If you need more help, here’s a good tutorial about making more form fitting patterns, this one is how I do it and shows making darts, and this one that has a similar shape to what you’re looking for.

Hopefully that helps! If you have more questions or want some clarification, feel free to use the ask box again!

[cosplaytutorialhoard]

I have now added a submit page to this blog! If you have a tutorial you would like to share about anything related to costuming, please put it there! I have final approval of all submissions, but would love to see the wonderful tips and tricks you all have learned while costuming.

[ohicosplay]

Cata: The Brusher’s Pike is finished! Total length is 7′ 4/14″ long and weighs just under two pounds.

Spearhead

The spearhead is two layers of EVA foam glued together with contact cement, cut out with a utility knife, and shaped with a dremel and sanding drum. For tutorials on how to bevel EVA foam, WM Armory has two excellent tutorials.

How to Bevel EVA Foam

Making a Blade Edge with EVA Foam

After I finished shaping the foam, I used a heat gun to shrink down any rough edges and seal up the foam. To smooth out and fill in any gaps and rough spots, I used air-dry FIMO, more on that in this post. Since the clay sealed the foam, I didn’t have to do any sealing with mod podge or anything else. I was able to go straight to priming (though I did put down a layer of plastidip) and painting. 

For the green, I used Montpelier Palmetto Green in gloss by Valspar (spray paint) and Splendid Gold Dazzling Metallics by DecoArt (acrylic paint). The gold edges were masked out with painter’s tape, the design was made with a stencil, traced on with sharpie, then painted over by hand.

(I realize Pyth’s horns curve inward in the concept art. However, in the game his horns curve outward so I decided to go with that design.)

Shaft

There’s a post on the spear shaft here. Queadlunn helped with assembly. He drilled a hole into the shaft and inserted a metal rod to fit the cabochon fitting and spearhead onto. He also added AquaMend to the top  of the PVC fittings to create a snug and curved setting for the cabochon. 

Cabochon fitting

The cabochon fitting base was made by Queadlunn. He used a circle cutter on the drill press to cut out three discs from sintra and two pieces to create a lip around the cabochon. I glued all the pieces together, used wood filler to patch up any gaps and rough spots, then sanded everything smooth. The lip pieces were covered with clay to make them rounder. 

The cabochons are 1 1/2″ arcylic cabochons from Tap Plastic. They were painted with several layers of red DecoArt Glass Stain. The base of the cabochons were glued to aluminium tape with contact cement, then the adhesive side was pressed onto the base. Depending on how smooth your surface is, the adhesive on the aluminium tape might be good enough. However, if the surface is a bit rough or it’s not holding, you can add glue. One gem had to be glued down with CA glue.

[tumblingmagpie]

I’ve put all of the fabric painting tutorials into one big photo post.

Includes silk painting with resist (Elven Banner), free-hand painting on stretch fabrics (Jareth from Labyrinth), fake embroidery with puffy paint (Peter of Narnia), graphite transfer paper with fabric paint pens (Tali from Mass Effect) and regular Tulip fabric paint (TARDIS lab coat).

Maybe this format is better?