Any cosplayers out there?

[Tomato]

So long story short I've wanted to give cosplay a go for ages, especially around halloween when everybody is running around showing off their Halloween costumes and I usually end up stuck with whatever overpriced garbage I manage to pick up at the holiday-specific stores that crop up around that time of year, if I get anything at all. I just never seem to find the time to get things moving on making something that is truly my own.

The problem is that, inevitably, I don't know where to start. I know in my brain what I want it to be, but I have absolutely zero experience with actually making a costume. My mom sews (she's where I get my creativity from, she does all kinds of quilting and stuff) so I'm not as worried about that, the issue is in actually finding A. Good patterns to work from, and B. making sure everything looks good AND actually functions.

For example, the costume I'm most interested in creating is the one for my avatar (without the head, obvsly). The way I want the costume, the reds are a darker metallic color, essentially the "hot rod red" from Iron Man's film armor. I refuse to make/use those silly shoe covers they have for cheap Halloween costumes, but I can't find anything close to the style in that color for an actual boot. As far as I know, I can't actually sew my own boot, so I don't know exactly where to go with it.

Just so we're clear, I'm not on any rush with this. I'm more interested in something durable and amazing looking than something I can whip up in an afternoon. If this costume takes me until next year to fully assemble, I couldn't care less.

[Cyber Burn]

Isn't GG into this?

[deano_ue]

its something i'd love to dip my toe in, just not in the cosplay aspect

i'd love to try my hand at the photography. i see all these studio based cosplay shoots and wonder how they go about it, where do they get the costumes etc

[BWPS]

I know that if you want to cosplay the greatest superhero, Boy With Pointy Stick, you need a pointy stick. Just.

[Tomato]

I know that if you want to cosplay the greatest superhero, Boy With Pointy Stick, you need a pointy stick. Just.

Honestly, I feel like if I'm gonna go out of my way to dress up as a character, I'm gonna dress up as myself, if that makes any sense.

Anyway, I've been drawing up some ideas to make the costume a bit more practical, but I'm a bit conflicted on one of the design elements as a result. See, instead of awkwardly trying to hide a zipper in the back of the bodysuit, I'm putting it in the front of the suit and adding a collar to help incorporate it into the design. The "armor" (which in my mind is more just a thick fabric, such as a leather or a vinyl) will then fit over the top of the suit as a separate piece.

The concern I have is making sure the armor stays in place... the easiest method would be to use Velcro, but again, I want this thing to last me, and Velcro only works for so long. I'd rather find a way to zipper it in place like a jacket, but I have no earthly idea how I would even do that.

[Reepicheep]

I know that if you want to cosplay the greatest superhero, Boy With Pointy Stick, you need a pointy stick. Just.

Tried this. Nobody gets it.



So I poked their eye out.

[Deaths Jester]

I know that if you want to cosplay the greatest superhero, Boy With Pointy Stick, you need a pointy stick. Just.

Honestly, I feel like if I'm gonna go out of my way to dress up as a character, I'm gonna dress up as myself, if that makes any sense.

Anyway, I've been drawing up some ideas to make the costume a bit more practical, but I'm a bit conflicted on one of the design elements as a result. See, instead of awkwardly trying to hide a zipper in the back of the bodysuit, I'm putting it in the front of the suit and adding a collar to help incorporate it into the design. The "armor" (which in my mind is more just a thick fabric, such as a leather or a vinyl) will then fit over the top of the suit as a separate piece.

The concern I have is making sure the armor stays in place... the easiest method would be to use Velcro, but again, I want this thing to last me, and Velcro only works for so long. I'd rather find a way to zipper it in place like a jacket, but I have no earthly idea how I would even do that.

If you show a bit of the pics I might...and I mean, might...look it over and come up with a useful way to fit everything together so that it lasts.  Of course, that doesn't mean I will but I might...and no, I don't cosplay...I'm just a bit of a jack-of-trades on somethings.

[Reepicheep]

I know that if you want to cosplay the greatest superhero, Boy With Pointy Stick, you need a pointy stick. Just.

Honestly, I feel like if I'm gonna go out of my way to dress up as a character, I'm gonna dress up as myself, if that makes any sense.

Anyway, I've been drawing up some ideas to make the costume a bit more practical, but I'm a bit conflicted on one of the design elements as a result. See, instead of awkwardly trying to hide a zipper in the back of the bodysuit, I'm putting it in the front of the suit and adding a collar to help incorporate it into the design. The "armor" (which in my mind is more just a thick fabric, such as a leather or a vinyl) will then fit over the top of the suit as a separate piece.

The concern I have is making sure the armor stays in place... the easiest method would be to use Velcro, but again, I want this thing to last me, and Velcro only works for so long. I'd rather find a way to zipper it in place like a jacket, but I have no earthly idea how I would even do that.

If you show a bit of the pics I might...and I mean, might...look it over and come up with a useful way to fit everything together so that it lasts.  Of course, that doesn't mean I will but I might...and no, I don't cosplay...I'm just a bit of a jack-of-trades on somethings.

jack-of-some-trades?

[Panther_Gunn]

I know that if you want to cosplay the greatest superhero, Boy With Pointy Stick, you need a pointy stick. Just.

Honestly, I feel like if I'm gonna go out of my way to dress up as a character, I'm gonna dress up as myself, if that makes any sense.

Anyway, I've been drawing up some ideas to make the costume a bit more practical, but I'm a bit conflicted on one of the design elements as a result. See, instead of awkwardly trying to hide a zipper in the back of the bodysuit, I'm putting it in the front of the suit and adding a collar to help incorporate it into the design. The "armor" (which in my mind is more just a thick fabric, such as a leather or a vinyl) will then fit over the top of the suit as a separate piece.

The concern I have is making sure the armor stays in place... the easiest method would be to use Velcro, but again, I want this thing to last me, and Velcro only works for so long. I'd rather find a way to zipper it in place like a jacket, but I have no earthly idea how I would even do that.

If you show a bit of the pics I might...and I mean, might...look it over and come up with a useful way to fit everything together so that it lasts.  Of course, that doesn't mean I will but I might...and no, I don't cosplay...I'm just a bit of a jack-of-trades on somethings.

jack-of-some-trades?

More like jack-of-useless-trades......unless you're *trying* to kill your liver.

[Deaths Jester]

I'll kill your livers and your kidneys!!!  Just you wait, you internal organs will rebel against you when they see my mighty alcoholic inducted self...and then I shall rule the world!!!  MWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! *cough cough cough* Ack!!! Phlegm...

[Tomato]

Meh... much as I'm normally ok with the trolling that invariably happens on this forum (we're friends and it usually doesn't bother me), I posted because I was looking for some help figuring this all out. I'm really not appreciative of everyone just posting random nonsense: there are plenty of other threads for you to go to if you just want to make fun of DJ.

Anyway, on topic again: DJ, I can't show you pics because I don't HAVE a costume yet, not even the beginnings of one. I'm still planning things out, figuring out what I want to do and what materials I need to get. I have some design sketches, but that's not exactly the same.

Honestly, the biggest thing for me right now is the boot issue: I still have no idea how I'm going to get boots in the color and style I want. My preference would be to find some way to spray paint a set of boots, but I don't even know what boot materials will accept paint or what I need to do to get it a particular color. If I can get that worked out, I should be able to work out the gloves as well.

[JKCarrier]

Your best bet is to hit up one of the cosplay communities and ask for help. I know www.cosplay.com has a whole section of their message board devoted to how-to and advice. Or there's always 4chan's "CGL" board, but if you think the trolling around here is bad... 

[Deaths Jester]

Meh... much as I'm normally ok with the trolling that invariably happens on this forum (we're friends and it usually doesn't bother me), I posted because I was looking for some help figuring this all out. I'm really not appreciative of everyone just posting random nonsense: there are plenty of other threads for you to go to if you just want to make fun of DJ.

Don't encourage them to attack me...encourage them to attack Prem!  It's all part of my plan.

Anyway, on topic again: DJ, I can't show you pics because I don't HAVE a costume yet, not even the beginnings of one. I'm still planning things out, figuring out what I want to do and what materials I need to get. I have some design sketches, but that's not exactly the same.

Honestly, the biggest thing for me right now is the boot issue: I still have no idea how I'm going to get boots in the color and style I want. My preference would be to find some way to spray paint a set of boots, but I don't even know what boot materials will accept paint or what I need to do to get it a particular color. If I can get that worked out, I should be able to work out the gloves as well.

Actually, 'Mato I was referring to the sketches you had, not the actual costume.  If I saw the sketches, I could be able to come up with more suitable ideas on attaching/creating pieces for the costume.

[Panther_Gunn]

Honestly, the biggest thing for me right now is the boot issue: I still have no idea how I'm going to get boots in the color and style I want. My preference would be to find some way to spray paint a set of boots, but I don't even know what boot materials will accept paint or what I need to do to get it a particular color. If I can get that worked out, I should be able to work out the gloves as well.

I can't recommend spray painting boots in general, if just for the cracking & flaking that happens once you actually wear them.  If you can find a leather boot style that you like in a light shade (white, beige, etc.), you might be able to strip it down to the leather, and then use an appropriate shade of leather dye, followed by the proper color shoe/boot wax, or even just a clear one.  If you wanted some sort of metal flake effect you could probably find some sort of spray to apply before the clear wax.  Perhaps something like a desert camo boot, with a simple dying of the fabric.  Light colored heel material should be able to be covered up with some heel & sole shine liquid (if you don't know what any of this is, I'll just have to mutter something about the younger generation).  Not sure how easy it is to get fabric dye that's color-fast without washing, so you may want to just plan on wearing black socks with any boots that have dyed fabric.

[Tomato]

k, this is gonna be an info dump and progress report ish thing, so forgive me if it's a bit cluttered. Gonna try and separate chunks with spoiler tags, just to keep things tidier.

First, I finally took a picture of my "design sketches" for DJ.

Spoiler

Here's a translation guide for my cruddy handwriting (from top to bottom):

-High collar with red trim. Hides my long neck.
-Zipper in the front of the costume, not in the back. "Armor" will go over most of it anyway. (I plan on making the zipper a similar red to the costume, so it's incorporated into the overall appearance. I've never understood zippers in the back of cosplay costumes)
-Attachment points for "Armor". Velcro if no other option exists.
-Elastic bands, depending on the material (aka, if it's a material that might ride up uncomfortably, I might add some elastic bands to hold it in place.)
-Upper armor as a single piece.

I also finally tracked down some gloves and boots I liked at a reasonable price (I paid less than 100 for both I believe) so pics and details on those in the spoilers.

Spoiler

Found the boots first, since in theory they were the toughest to find in the color I wanted. Ironically, I actually came down between two different Superman boots, but this one looked a bit less generic and honestly, a bit more comfortable.

The gloves... UGH the gloves. I spent a good hour trying to find a set of gloves that came anywhere close to the color of the boots, which is made even tougher since about 90% of gloves in any shade of red, at all, are made for women. I finally found an ebay seller who offered to make gloves at a custom length and arm diameter, and luckily my hands are on the small side anyway.

K, so with all that out of the way, we get to the next step... the bodysuit. It's fairly obvious to me that I almost have to make this myself (I want too many specific details to do otherwise) but first and foremost I have to decide what material to make it out of. If the main intent is that I'm going to wear this thing to conventions and such, I want something that isn't going to kill me within an hour of wearing it... a process which is already difficult since that portion of the costume is supposed to be black (or at least a very deep metallic blue). Any sort of leather is out of the question right off the bat due to its inability to breathe, and I'm reluctant to use any sort of spandex A. because I am not in good enough shape for spandex and B. because I don't want underwear lines showing and I definitely am not wearing this commando.

Any thoughts?

[Tomato]

So I've talked with a bunch of people outside of fr and it's helped me to nail down my thought process on this... In effect, what I'm actually thinking about for the suit isn't like a form fitting spandex bodysuit that I have to sew myself into, but is more in the nature of a nicely tailored dress suit. I don't want it hanging off me like a pair of slacks, but it doesn't have to be skin tight either.

Granted, much is going to depend on what's available on hand (I plan on going to a place like JoAnne fabrics and seeing what's there possibly next weekend) but I'm just trying to narrow down the types of material I don't want... materials that don't breathe very well, materials that are too soft (I'm not making a tee shirt), that are too rigid (I do still have to move in it), etc. A friend suggested a Linen or Kona cotton material, but I don't know enough about either material at this point.

[cmdrkoenig67]

Tomato, I've heard vinyl spray paints are best for pleathers and vinyls (and maybe leather, I'm not sure).  It apparently adheres well and doesn't crack when the leather/pleather is bent or moves.

Dana

[Tomato]

I actually found a solid set of gloves and boots to start with (got the gloves, boots are being shipped now), and I have to make the armor pieces anyway, so that's not as much of a concern.

Speaking of the gloves though...

Spoiler

[Deaths Jester]

A little shiny...was that what you were going for, 'Mato?

[Tomato]

It's actually much darker than the camera depicts, but I couldn't adjust it too much on my phone. It's more a red brown in person, and the shine isn't that glaring.

It's about the same color as the action figure, though a shade or so brighter.

[Tomato]

got the boots in today. this might be all for a bit, the computer kinda bottomed out my budget for a bit. here's the set compared to the figure.

[Podmark]

Looks like a pretty good match between the boots and gloves and compared to the figure.

[detourne_me]

looking great dude!   how will you make the head..... or is that the one part you won't have to cosplay

[Tomato]

If I do anything, it'll be just getting some green hairspray. I have zero intention of trying to do the head in all its tomatoey glory.

[Podmark]

If I do anything, it'll be just getting some green hairspray.

How about a green leaf hat type of thing?

[detourne_me]

Here's an idea!

Spoiler

[Tomato]

Det, you have no idea how awesome that haircut would be, but I could NEVER get away with it and still keep my job.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Might be able to replicate it with a wig, though.

[Tomato]

Well, what I might do is use hairspray to make my hair green for whatever con I manage to go to, that way I can also dye my beard.

This is me btw, so people know what we're dealing with.



To be honest, I kind of wish my character had some sort of domino mask... we have a maskmaker right here on the forum, but practically all my characters require full face masks.

[Deaths Jester]

Ahhh...so now I know who to run from when I see them!  ;P