I’m planning a Dark Souls cosplay for the near future (for Youmacon/Halloween). The costume itself is mainly composed of leather, but since I haven’t the equipment, skill, or money to do real leatherwork, I’m settling for faux leather, which I have plenty of left over from past cosplays. The main struggle comes from detailing and decorating the leather pieces, as there are a lot of raised details around the collar, trimming, and waist belt. I’m working on simplifying the design on the collar especially, since it seems the most complex.
I’ve tried researching techniques for decorating faux leather specifically, but I haven’t come up with much, so I was wondering if you could offer any techniques that would achieve the same effect. So far, the only alternatives I’ve come up with are embroidering the raised details (which might require a new sewing machine on my part) or using some sort of sandwiched piping technique (can’t quite explain)… I also thought of 3D paint, but it seems very sloppy, both in procedure and outcome.
I’d also like some tips on aging faux leather if you had any, since the areas around the boots and gloves look worn!
As usual, any advice would be of great help!
I’ve done raised edges on faux leather 3 different ways: 3D paint, sandwiching more faux leather, and craft foam.
3D paint does tend to get a bit messy, especially due to air bubbles that can ruin clean lines. Sandwiching works well but you do need to attach the pieces together and clean up the edges. I usually do this by sewing the piece before I add it on or using 3D paint or hot glue around the edges. I like craft foam the best because its so easy to more with, if your leather is thin you could even cover the foam with the leather instead of painting it.
As for aging, I usually mix together a bit of black paint and the color my material is and water it down. Then I take a paper towel and dap it on and off until I like it. For leather I would mostly stick with shades of brown to look more like dirt.
Unfortunately, tooling is really hard to imitate, as it’s such a specific technique for leather. I think I understand what you’re referring to with the sandwiched piping, and I think it’s a cool idea! It would probably get the cleanest result, as anything else would likely be top applied. I’d say lay out your cord on the bottom layer, glue it down nicely in your pattern, and glue and mold the top layer over it. I’d probably use barge (thinned down) to glue the layers together and make sure to use a thinner faux leather so it can mold nicely. I mean, if you decide to go the top application route with this costume it wouldn’t be too obvious because much of the detailing is in different colors. It’s really a personal styling preference.
For the aging, the biggest things are to pick out a color family that looks nice together (do some samples) and to think about what parts of the piece would likely get worn away. Dirt would get stuck in grooves, edges would get dirty/roughed up, etc. Spend some time looking at old things and see how exactly time wears away at different materials, it’s actually a pretty neat thing to look into!
