Those Cosplay Gals

Three pretty normal girls who happen to enjoy cosplay and have learned a few things along the way. Wigs, sewing, you name it! We... sorta know what we're doing. ^^;

[thosecosplaygals]

Amber’s Squirtle wig is almost completely finished!  The bangs need help yet, but I’m so excited to get it done!!  Wig styling is not my forte, and I’ve never taken on a project like this before, so I’m so proud of the work I put into this!

[cosplayblog]

I am a female and the cosplay that I am working on right now doesn't really need it but I know that in the future I might want to cosplay a male character and I have rather big boobs that are really noticeable do you have any tips

Disclaimer! The advice I’m gonna give you is not from my personal experience. It’s always better to ask someone who knows more about it. I hope that if I’ll be wrong at some points blog’s followers will correct me.

Okay, thing you’re gonna need is called binding (to bind). It’s the technique that people with breasts use when they need to (or have to) hide them [breasts]. I didn’t have a personal binding experience, but I can link you to these pretty good (imo) tutorials:

Cosplay Tutorial: Binding I by Abessinier (author’s Dante crossplay is amazing)

7 Ways To Bind Your Chest by Michael McLeish (great guide with safety tips!)

Technique - Female to Male Crossplay by Annette W

How do I flatten my breasts for a crossplay by Cosplay Tutorial (with important comment from personal experience about ace bandages)

Breast binding safety

That’s it. Good luck with your cosplay and be careful. :)

P.S. Dear followers (not only cosplayers!), if you had a binding experience feel free to comment under this post, reblog with facts fixes or send me an ask or fanmail. I’ll be happy to fix the mistakes or add useful stuff and links.

[niccosplays]

The number one thing I have to say is whatever you do, do NOT bind with ace bandages, ducktape, or any thing of the like, even making your own out of elastic is a big no-no. And this is for your own safety, ace bandages are designed to constrict and support, and even on like a swollen ankle if applied properly can cause damage. Your ribs are not designed to support this and can crack, break, and cause difficulty breathing. 

Secondly, especially since you are of larger chest size, a professional binder will both look the best and be the safest. I personally recommend gc2b or Underworks  both of which I or a friend have worn, are the most commonly used binders, and the cheapest. There are a couple other sites people used to go to before these came up but are more expensive and/or I have not personally used. Mansculpture, Loveboat, T-kingdom.

Lastly a note on the tape tutorial in the links above, open chest binding should really only be done if you need an open shirt. If not please use a proper binder as you will have better support, compression, and will overall be more comfortable. Additionally I’m not sure how well open-chest binding works for larger chests.

General binding safety - what to and not to do’s while binding.

And a post about  binding with sports bras.

[atticus-the-porg]

^^^ Yes. I’m a transgender person. I’ve made the mistake of binding with duct tape before. It was very uncomfortable. Does not move with your body at all. Also when I went to remove it it was a nightmare. My skin was raw, red and almost tore in certain places. People have ended up with scarring from this.

[cosplayblog]

Updating the binding ask with these extremely useful comments and the one from replies:

reachingforstardust: The safest way to bind is to use a Binder. Always make sure you can take deep breaths when you have any binding on and stretch your back and arms to encourage circulation. Binding can be dangerous so always be careful.

Thank you pennys-cosplay, wesker-is-hot and reachingforstardust!

[thosecosplaygals]

Part 1 of Amber’s wig “tutorial” for Squirtle.  Keep an eye out for part 2!

[thosecosplaygals]

Amber is working on a wig for a “traditional” Japanese take on Squirtle!  This is a totally different kind of project from what I’m used to, but it will be done!  I may just post a progress video when it’s all said and done... >.>

[cosplaying-on-a-budget]

How to Make Homemade Worbla

Obsessive Creative Disorder figured out the recipe and ingredient ratio for Worbla! Mostly  good for making small batches, but he does show where he improved on the recipe by using flour for a smoother texture. Go forth and make awesome stuff for cheap!

Here is a photo from his FB page showing some of the test samples he made using different fillers. I believe he is still working on improving the method so be sure to follow his page for more updates.

For the full video go here:

https://www.facebook.com/OCDcreations/videos/469141979917577/?fref=nf

[thosecosplaygals]

cosplay

me: *hears something crack somewhere*

me: please let it be my body or soul and not the costume

[thosecosplaygals]

Con Survival

Hello there! So every year my school club goes to Detour, and we usually put together a little con survival lecture beforehand for the first-timers. Now this got me thinking, if you were going to give someone a couple pieces of either critical advice or maybe just useful tricks you’ve picked up along the way that maybe others might not think of, what would you say? 

[thosecosplaygals]

Quick and Dirty Wig Head Re-Size

Hello there! So as I’m working on my Mr. H wig, I thought,maybe I should throw together a tutorial to show an easy way to reshape a wig head. If you weren't aware, most wig heads aren't actually shaped like, or incorrect proportion too, a human head. Generally speaking they are smaller. Mine is about 1-2 inches smaller around and top to bottom . 

Now, when you are styling a wig for spikes or adding in extra wefts it is important to have the wig sit on something about the size ofyour head. This is because if you don’t it is a lot easier to sew the wefts intoo tightly and then effectively shrink the wig, and with spikes they may endup too small around the base and either pull funny when you put it on, or if you used a ton of product, also shrink the wig. 

So! How I quickly made my wig heads larger for my Axel and Mr. H wigs is as follows! (Foreword, if your head happens to be smaller than your wig head, a sharp box cutter/exacto knife/saw/sharp utensil of some kind will be your new best friend!) I like this method because it costs basically nothing and it will also leave your wig head unchanged minus pin holes! 

Supplies

1 wig head

Plastic bags (from Walmart, Target, or the like)

Pins

Scissors

Optional: wig head stand (not necessary for the tutorial, but in general is a helpful styling aid ^.^)

So the first thing you want to do is set the wig head somewhere it isn't going to be trying to escape from you so that you can have your hands free. If you don’t have a wig head stand you could maybe sandwich it between some books or get a friend to hold it. Otherwise just be careful later :)

You will also probably want to measure your wig head and your head so you have an idea about how much larger it needs to be I measured mine along the green lines, but you can take as many or however you feel necessary

Next grab one of the plastic bags and crumple it up. How doesn’t really matter, though if you get it so a smooth side is out, less will try to escape because next you want to place that bag on your wig head in a place that needs to grow bigger, and then pin it down. 

Remember when I mentioned smooth side out? If the crumply side is out you may need more pins to get it to stay there. Now repeat as needed! If you pin near the edges of the bags you can usually get away with using fewer pins.

An alternative to having the smooth side out, or something you can do anyways, is at the end take one more bag and place it over the other bags. You can also then kind of pull it down over the un modified parts of the head if you don’t want to get like hairspray or sharpie all over your head while styling ^.^

Now before you start using the modified head you would probably check that the head is the right size. Too small? Go back and more bags! Too lage? Grab those scissors and chop of a few pieces and check again. (this is also then nice if you use the last layer bag because you can just cover up the chopped edges to smooth it out again)

And walla! You have a closer to accurate wig head!

Couple things to keep in mind, this doesn’t change the face of the wig head so you still will want to be careful when cutting it so that everything is the right length, as the eyes might not match up with yours. But you could always take a sharpie and mark where yours are. And if you are sewing wefts and happen to catch some bag don’t worry (I know I sure grabbed a chunk!). Just carefully cut around the area and then snip and pull out the small pieces, the thread should be stronger than the plastic ^.^ bags can just be re-positioned to stay again, and then its ready for next time! Have fun with your wigs!

[thosecosplaygals]

Welcome to another tutorial with Amber where she shares those not so graceful moments in cosplay with new wig stylists (since I myself am new to wig styling).  I've been really excited to get to work on my Ashura cosplay, and when I went to work on the wig, well...  It's obvious something went wrong.

Let's start with the planning for Ashura's wig.  They always have their hair up in a ponytail, long bits staying down in the front.  While Arda has wonderful ponytail clips, I wanted to add length in parts of a Lulu.  For those of you who are new to wig styling, wefts are amazing!  You can hand sew them right in and get the exact look you want!  Arda has 8 ft lengths of wig fibers in all kinds of colors to match your base wig, so all you gotta do is take them out, cut off pieces, and sew right in.  Easy right?

Long wefts require the same kind of care as long wigs in general.  If you think you can just easily pull apart the string of wefts out of the bag without being careful, you'll get the lovely rat's nest like that in the first image.  Not fun, but easy to fix if you have the time and patience for it!  Like full wigs, wefts need to be separated into smaller pieces in order to effectively detangle.  Which explains the Gollum-looking set-up I have in the second image.  

When detangling a wig, even if it's just the wefts in small chunks like in the second image, please use a wide-toothed comb!  Hair brushes are extremely likely to pull out fibers and don't really help with knots.  Start from the bottom and work your way up.  It will take a while, so be prepared.  Sometimes, the ends will get a little frizzy.  If you have a heat-resistant wig, you can easily run a straightening iron through small pieces to fix this.

Once your small sections are all tangle-free and not so frizzy, you can set them aside (like my lovely pieces so beautifully pinned to the back of an armchair) so you can take each small piece one at a time and sew them into your wig!

If you look at the inside of your wig, you will see tons of lace and small strings like that on your wefts running across the lace.  These strings hold the fibers in place and will be the perfect guidelines for sewing in your wefts.  Decide where you want the first small row of wefts to go (smaller than the Gollum strands, I cut those up into fourths to sew in) and push the fibers above out of the way so you can see the string.  I suggest starting from the bottom that way you aren't fighting your previous layers.  Pin the excess fibers out of your way, and now you can sew the wefts in with a hand needle and thread that closely matches the fibers' color (I haven't used the machine sewing approach personally, as I think this works fairly easily).  You can use a straight needle, but a curved needle may be easier.  Make sure that the width between the lace pieces remain the same with every new weft you sew in, otherwise you will end up with a snugger wig.

Just keep working your way up until you have all the wefts in that you like (I ended up with a lot extra but I'll keep it in case I need it for a future project).  Finally you'll end up with something like the last image.  I still have to blend in the wefts by cutting some of the front-most fibers, but that's a tutorial for another day.

From disgusting rat's nest to decently styled wig.  Yes, it can be done!  Go forth, new stylists, and create amazing wigs!

[logicalnic]

So kei-chick did a bit of editing to one of the photos we took at Anime Iowa this summer, I think I might have a new favorite photo of my Three Musketeer!Axel cosplay!

[thenewagegroup]

We love the photo, decided to add flames to Axel’s chakrams.

[logicalnic]

That looks so awesome!! Thanks! :D

[thosecosplaygals]

Keimi is a demon god of closet cosplay and I cannot be convinced otherwise. Look what she just sent me a picture of. - Penny

[thosecosplaygals]

We are the CONVENGERS! Penny is Captain Crossplay, Amber is the Black Afirmer, and I, Keimi, am the Iron Consent!!! Combined we band together to spread awesome sauce at cons

[harocat]

Naka-Kon 2014- Isaac and Miria (Baccano!)

Let me know if this is you and I’ll add credit!

[johndiscolights]

I’m Isaac, thelogicalpenny is Miria c:

[thosecosplaygals]

Hehehe!  This was so much fun!

[cp-archive-deactivated20200625]

heres my: im dumb and forgot to upload my pictures from naka kon post

[thosecosplaygals]

Hey its a picture of us from Naka-kon! We are the Fiona (Amber), Marceline (Keimi), and Roy Mustang (Penny) in the top left.

[thenewagegroup]

animenebraskon #BBQ 2013! … #StudioGhibli . Howl’s Moving Castle #Cosplay.

[thosecosplaygals]

Would you look at that! It's Keimi's boyfriend RamenPirate! 

[thosecosplaygals]

Hi everyone! So we had a blast at Nak-kon this weekend! I (Penny) just wanted to give a shoutout to Amber for winning Runner-up in Intermediate at the cosplay contest! Her dress Is so pretty o.o

Awesome photos taken by New Age Photography!

tumblr - thenewagegroup

[learning-to-sew]

Cosplay Tumblr Links

If you run a cosplay-help-related-ish blog (aka you post almost exclusively cosplay and tutorials or cosplay support or something :) ), send an ask and we’ll add you to our list! 

Also you should follow these blogs because they’re awesome.

[thosecosplaygals]

We may not post much, but here is a friendly reminder to you guys that if you ever need help with ANYTHING, we are more than happy to try and help you! We are simply lurkers until provoked otherwise ^_^