Stuck for an idea for cosplay?

Elmidena

Whilst trawling the net trying to find a decent image of who I'll be cosplaying at Eirtakon, I found this website:
http://www.animecharactersdatabase.com/
Though I'm sorted for mine, thought this might be helpful for anyone panicking about who to cosplay as

Butterscotch

That is a great site thanks. Who are you cosplaying as by the way? I plan on being C.C. from Code Geass in the military pilot suit but haven't started on it yet. Will do this weekend!

Elmidena

Oooh, looking forward muchly to seeing your costume, it's pretty kickass (gosh I haven't seen Code Geass in an age though, must remedy that!) If you need a hand with tailoring it or anything drop me a line on facebook and I'll help you out

On Saturday I'm (hopefully!) going as Emily from Corpse Bride, but need to start work on the dress when I can get help with measurements... on Sunday it'll be a surprise for now but I'll be going as a man shall we say

Sieghardt

cool site but it really needs a "build" option or something

Butterscotch

Elmidena wrote: »

On Saturday I'm (hopefully!) going as Emily from Corpse Bride, but need to start work on the dress when I can get help with measurements... on Sunday it'll be a surprise for now but I'll be going as a man shall we say

That sounds fantastic! I say you will look stunning. By the way thanks for the tips, I am looking for advice on boot covers. Here is the picture of the costume and you can see that the trousaurs go into the boots, just wondering would you have advice on how to do that thanks!

Elmidena

Nice costume Will this be the revival of the wig you had a couple of years ago?

As for boot covers, I've a few suggestions but it depends largely on your answers

Do you have the trousers already? Or are you adding the gold piping once you have the boot covers?

--If you do, and if there is enough allowance (ie not ultra skinny jeans) then open up the seam from the knee down, or however high the boots end and either sew a little material to the sides of the split, right sides together, to expand it (this will be largely invisible as most seams are on the side of the legs on trousers)

--What material are the boots made from? If they're not fitting well enough, wrap ductape around it until it forms a snugger fit (I doubt this will work with leather, but latex or whatever will work no problem. Try it out with masking tape, or with paper between tape and boot to protect it from a layer of icky gunk forming ) Then, when you want to take them off again, cut the tape along the zipline and that way it'd be easy to tighten to wear it again the next day if needs be.

If you want/need to make the boot covers if none of the above work

--Get similar coloured material (if not identical) and sew it just below the knee (extra give if you put it there and you can bend them more!) Make sure to have seams tucked under to keep it invisible, and being careful with a scissors, snip the seam on the boot cover up to but NOT through the stitching--this allows for a more natural shape and won't leave you with a boxy tell-tale appearance.

--Again using similar fabric, if you don't want something actually sewn directly to the trousers I recommend sewing hooks and eyes (the catches on the back of bras that are impossible to line up on a cold morning!) along the side seam of your boot covers for security. You can also use rivets and lacing (as in corsetry) but that might be a bit fiddly for you. Zips are generally more hassle than they're worth especially if it's a material likely to tear under pressure, but that's another option for keeping them tight.

Whichever method suits best, get a friend to help while you're wearing them to mark where the seam has to be (allow an extra 2cm for tucking under the zip so it's not visible, and snip as described earlier if it looks very rigid/out of place). This is definitely not a job for forever alone guy, when you bend to measure you'd be kinking the boots and wouldn't get a true measurement. When you have it marked (I use tailor's chalk, but even a pencil or something to mark the fabric; it's going to be hidden anyway, and if you're worried do the measuring with the wrong side of the material facing out and use a light marker or something that won't show through the other side) and it comes to sewing them, turn the covers inside out (making sure the zip is facing outwards!) and stitch it on with the edge tucked under itself where you're sewing it on, so there's a doubled bit of material on the seam. This is so it won't fray or come undone on you, and gives it an extra bit of security. If you measure it right when you're folding the seam over so both sides meet in the centre, you can hide the zip altogether

If all of those are too "argh!" to think about, you can always use snap-ons/poppers. (A pound shop or Tesco will have most of these, bar the hooks and eyes) A bit fiddly to sew on but pretty secure, especially if you put a good few on each cover. Finally, to embellish it if you don't already have some, gold thread is your friend for the stripe

If you want help with any of the above or if it doesn't make sense, let me know and I'll upload a couple of pics of doing them on scrap fabric to help you out. I don't recommend velcro though; that stuff has a mind of its own and you'll probably spend most of the con arguing with it (as I learned the hard way as Lust a couple of years ago!) If you don't have one, try and ask to borrow a friend's sewing machine (or ask them nicely to do it for you!) as this will save a lot of time in any method bar the poppers, I think they HAVE to be sewn by hand unless there's an adequate button foot for the needle.

***If you are sewing by machine, I recommend sewing "before" the fabric you want to sew together, sew down a few centimetres then reverse the needle off it again before zooming to the bottom and repeating that to secure the edges. A zig-zag stitch will also make it a bit more secure as it's tying more fabric together and is less likely to come undone, but a straight stitch is fine either. Keep the tension set to tight stitching if it's leather or normal fabric, but have bigger stitches if it's latex or pleather to avoid straining it and perhaps perforating it.

A machine would also make adding the gold stripe a doddle, but you can always cut corners by using a gold pen or fabric pen or something to apply it with a neat finish. I'm almost finished making a Kamina cape and I short-cutted by painting an old (purple!) hoodie string with gold Windsor&Newton calligraphy ink; gave it a nice realistic but rustic look. Still have a lot left in the bottle if you want to grab a lend, all it takes is a steady hand and it dries very quickly on material (not leather/shiny material or so I'd have thought--not tried it though). If you don't have a steady hand, there's always masking tape to protect the rest of the pants

Failing all this, my partner lives in Dublin so I'll probably be gatecrashing his place before Eirtakon at some point and can meet up with you and do it for you if you'd like Sorry if it's too much of a block of text, tried to break it up though!

K.O.Kiki

Sieghardt wrote: »

cool site but it really needs a "build" option or something

Danbooru.

Butterscotch

Thanks alot Elmidena, I seriously appreciate it your help! I think for now I am just gong to go with heels, then for shooting afterwards I will give the boot covers a try. I would imagine it would be difficult to walk around the convention in the boot cpvers as they might tear, thanks alot anyway.

How are you getting an with your cosplays and Emily's cosplay?