Thank you so much for sticking with us through thick and thin!  

As always, we try to give you the best answers we can, and that can take a bit of time, so just until we get caught up on all of your questions, we'll be closing the Ask box temporarily.  

We love you all, and we love helping you all.  Thank you so much for understanding,

Hi there, anon!

I can see where you’re coming from, being unsure about the fullness of her skirt.  Of course, this is just personal opinion, but I think 2 circle skirts would be too much fullness, and would drape almost like a gathered skirt.  Rather than focusing on the amount of fabric to give your skirt fullness, you might want to focus instead on what’s underneath the skirt.  In order to get that nice cupcake shape that Mami has, you’re probably going to need a petticoat.  Not a knee length, lolita style petti, or an even longer 50’s styled one, but a super short, super poofy petticoat, kind of like these:

Granted, that petticoat might not be the best petti in the world, but it gets the length and shape across.  That said, you might not be able to find a petticoat in the particular size and shape that you need.  Fortunately with petticoats like this, all you need is to gather a whole bunch of tulle (preferable with a finished edge,much like the satin bias tape finish in the two pictures), and attach it to a stretchy waist band.  We’ve also linked a number of good petticoat tutorials for another Madoka Magica cosplayer in the past (although they were for much longer pettis), so give them a look if you’re feeling a bit stuck.

That said, if you still don’t feel like a plain circle skirt is going to be full enough for you, you may want to add a few inches to your waist measurement when calculating the circle skirt, and add four not ironed box pleats , two in the front and two in the back, to give some fullness right where Mami has those beautiful kind of rolls in her skirt.

As for adding something in the hem to make the skirt stay kind of ruffley, wire isn’t going to do what you want it to (I’ve tried it, it just doesn’t work, gets bent out of shape, and is a pain to deal with).  Instead, what you probably want is horsehair braid (don’t worry, it’s not real horse hair). You can find it at most craft and sewing stores next to the boning.  Here are a couple of wonderful tutorials for adding horsehair braid into skirt hems.

Hope this helps!  And if you need any more help, or some clarification on the advice we gave, don’t hesitate to ask!

Dear Sweet Anon,

Honestly, reading your ask made me quite sad and I want you to know that you are not dumb. I feel terrible that you've given up on cosplay, and it breaks my heart that it sounds like circumstances beyond your control have forced you to give up on the hobby. But the important thing here is, that cosplay is a hobby, and if you are no longer having fun, that is perfectly okay, in fact, that is what is most important! Go find something else! Go spend your time, money, and passion on something you're actually passionate about! If ever in the future you decide you want to come back to cosplay, you are more than welcome! Who knows, maybe you can find a new pasttime that you enjoy even more. I hope you continue to find happiness in any way that you can!

Lots of love and support from,

Hello Anon,

You're in luck!

There are tons of reputable sites for buying cosplay wigs, nowadays.  Below you'll find a link to a masterpost for wig sellers, and some of our favorites include: Arda Wigs, Epic Cosplay, and Five Wits.  While Arda no longer sells short pigtail clips, they do sell a pigtail wig that you might be interested in.  It is wefted to be styled that way, and your wig cap will not show through.

MASTERPOST LINK! 

I hope this helps you find exactly what you're hoping for, but if you do need some more help, feel free to send us another ask!

Happy Cosplaying!

Howdy there, Simplelittleartist!

First of all, our sincerest apologies for failing to make the deadline for your convention and question, however this is a fantastic question and would probably help to be answered nonetheless.Here's the thing, you don't need to cosplay if you go to a con!  It's not a requirement or even an expectation of attendees.  In fact, a majority of people who attend conventions still do not don costumes.  It's a great opportunity to deck yourself out in your favorite comfy clothes, or your perfect "Geek Pride" attire and maybe even perhaps some quirky accessories that might be a little too ostentatious for everyday wear.

On the other hand, if you have your heart set on cosplaying to conventions, and have little to no money to spend on costumes, there are some things you can do as well!

Borrow A Costume:  Exactly what it says on the tin!  See if a friend or a family member might be able to lend you some costume or clothing pieces for you to wear!

Closet Cosplay:  See if any characters you like that have articles of clothing you already own, with a hairstyle that is similar to yours, and try to style yourself as closely to them as you can.  In this same vein, if you prefer, you can also extrapolate with the clothing pieces you already have and design an outfit that you believe your character might wear, something that maybe has the same color scheme, feeling, or style.

Get Crafty:  With a little bit more effort but still minimal expense, you can raid your home for newspaper, miscellaneous craft supplies, cardboard pizza/cereal/laundry detergent boxes, etc. and make yourself a pretty nifty costume.  You get some brownie points for doing something creative and original!  Some successful costumes that have been made in this way include but are certainly not limited to: Tetris Piece, Cerealbox Samurai, and Cardboard Gundam.

Thrifting!:  While this is a fairly similar solution to the closet cosplay option, you have an expanded wardrobe this way, and many times you can find clothing items secondhand that will work for what you need either in their existing forms, or with some minor alterations.

No matter what you choose to do, or how you choose to do it, people go to conventions in order to have fun, so you should try to have the best time you can!

Once again, I apologize for being unable to answer your question before your convention, but hope you had a great time!

Sincerely,

Hey there, Leonkuwatafetish!

Birds of a feather we are, Anijess is currently working on a Nagito cosplay for Fanime! XD

• Buying a wig! If you’d like to find some wigs that’ll work for you here is a wigs masterpost we reblogged a while ago that has many great sources.  We personally have bought most of our wigs from Arda, Epic Cosplay, or from miscellaneous ebay sellers.  For Nagito, I personally am repurposing the wig I originally used for my Soul (Soul Eater) cosplay and I found it on ebay.

• Styling! As for styling your wig!  The thing with white wigs is that the fibers they’re made of are different than regular wigs.  I suppose it must be something similar to issues with pigment vs no pigment, but whatever it is, white fibers are generally much slicker than others.  Slick fibers are the natural enemy to intense styling, so when I was styling it originally for Soul, I roughed them up by prestyling and running a hotter heat tool over it (straightener, curling iron, hair dryer, etc.) with the intention of somewhat “destroying” the fibers to make them more coarse so they would accept styling more readily.  Try a few more subtle things with your wig to see how it’s doing before doing anything too drastic, but don’t be afraid, if it seems nothing is working, to use more intense methods.

After the fibers were considerably coarser, for Nagito specifically I shoved it into a cup so it was all scrunchy in there and poured boiling water over it, took it out afterward and let it dry on a paper towel, then set it on a wig head once it was dry and poured boiling water over it to calm it down a bit.  I’m personally going for a more natural look, so while I want to go back in and create a few more stylized “spikes/wavy bits,” I still want a poofy look to it.  If you want a more stylized or a more natural look that’s up to your opinion, and both could look awesome, but my aesthetic calls for somewhere in-between, so that’s what I’m going for!

• Eyebrows! If you want to color your eyebrows to match your wig, just remember to keep them 2-3 shades darker than your wig, because when they match exactly it looks weird, and while it might be an unnatural look you’re going for (if your wig/hair is Miku green/blue, purple, pink, etc.) it looks more “natural” and less weird if your eyebrows are darker than your hair in whatever color.

If your eyebrows are darker and you want to make them lighter, you first need to cover your eyebrows with something and then paint them.  There are a number of tutorials out there for covering your eyebrows with gluestick, soap, special eyebrow wax, or vaseline and liquid latex, and also coating the individual hairs with Elmer’s Glue on an empty mascara wand then painting them the same way.  Do plenty of research and choose whichever way that seems most comfortable for you.

Also, you don’t need to color your eyebrows.  I personally don’t think it’s necessary, but there are folks who do and that’s okay.  I think it removes a certain expressiveness that one needs for a theatrical hobby like cosplay, but once again, that can be avoided by keeping them darker even when painting them lighter.  One of my favorite examples is Lucious Malfoy (Jason Isaacs) in the Harry Potter films.  His eyebrows were first lightened to match his light hair, but then dyed dark again when he lost some piece of the character in his face.

• Shirt!  For the shirt you just need a washed, white T-shirt that you cut the neckline out, and then paint the design using fabric paint or acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium.

• Jacket!  The easiest thing to do (and what I’m doing) is find a jacket that is very similar and change the hemline, color (if it needs it), zipper, and paint the designs on it.  If not, find a pattern that is very similar it should probably be for a parka because the way he is drawn the style lines indicate that that coat is most likely one, and just alter the hem and make the zipper appropriately long.  These two patterns from Burda Style seem to be the closest patterns to Nagito's jacket as I could find.  You'll probably want to make it out of canvas or demin.

• Shoes!  Please don’t worry too much about the shoes.  As long as you try to find some that are similar in color/style, it’s better than any old pair of sneakers - especially Converse.  If you want to be the most authentic you can be, try to thrift some shoes or boots and glue two zippers to each shoe.  Since they are drawn closed, just be nice to yourself and don’t make them functional.

I hope this exceedingly long post helped you with your questions, and if you have any more please feel free to send them along!  Good luck with your Nagito Komaeda!  

Best wishes!

Hey there!

Hey there, Beanabalena!

Anijess here!  I’m not sure if you’ve seen the Proto Pak I made for my Brief cosplay but here’s a link so I can at least tell you what I did for mine if that’ll help!

First off, I made my Pak’s structure out of EVA foam.  It’s a type of foam that also exists in the form of those puzzle piece mat things that I happened to find at Wal*Mart, so they’re somewhat easily available as well as inexpensive.  What was nice about using this material is that it made the Pak very light, which after carrying it around all day I was very thankful for.

EVA foam is also heat moldable like bendy foams often are, and that is how I got the top curved piece to retain its shape.  I took a blow dryer on hot and with help from a friend blew on the piece while it was being held in the curved place.

Here’s a photo of the pattern pieces I made for my Pak:

I made it open in the front so I could actually store stuff inside which is why the front is in two pieces, but it could very easily just be one piece like the back and you wouldn’t need to worry about that.  Also there should be a piece for the bottom as well, and either I couldn’t find it or I didn’t have a piece for that since it’s just the width of the side piece and the length of the bottom of the front…

To make it to size, I literally just held a tape measure up against my back and said, “Hey, this looks about right,” and then made the pattern that size.

Once it was all cut out of the foam (the tread-y things on the inside, o’ course), the edges routed (I used a heat knife and this step was an absolute pain and while it isn’t the cleanest, it definitely made putting it together much easier), and glued together (I used hot glue for the foam pieces and super glue for the accessories: hose hook-ups and vaccuum hose attachment thingy), I taped off what I didn’t want painted, and then  spray painted the entire thing with this textured spray paint (it gives it a nice finish that has a very slightly raised like rough texture so it looks very cool and I’ll admit that I was skeptical about it, but I love the finish it gives):

The one I used I think is a little darker than this, though, but the same brand and everything else.

So I just shared how to make the basic Pak, but if you have any more questions about this prop, feel free to send another message our way, and we’ll help you out some more!  Good luck with your Fem Brief cosplay!

Hey there, and thank you!  We're glad to be back!

Short answer: Steam, and lots of it.  Steam is the safest way to get wrinkles out of a finicky or delicate garment, and kills some bacteria as well.  If you don't have a steamer, one of the tricks I've learned is to hang your garment up as high as you can in your bathroom, turn the shower on high heat, and close the door.  depending on the garment, it might take half and hour to get all the wrinkles out, or it might take two hours.  This is perfect to do at in a hotel room (no worrying about hotel irons not working, not worrying about the water bill, no holding up the bathroom from other family members for hours).  Just be wary, as the seam might weaken the glue holding on your gems, depending on what kind of glue you used.  Keep some extra glue with you if you bring this costume to a con, just in case.

If you feel like that isn't enough to really clean it, I would recommend hand washing it with a delicate detergent.  Woolite is a standard, however I prefer Victoria's Secret's lingerie detergent (mostly cause it smells nice).  Get a bucket or a tub or something large enough to hold your dress, and fill it with cool water and a little detergent.  Then soak your costume in the water, gently moving it through the water. Scrub (with your hands! No scrubbing tools needed!) any place where you might be prone to sweat or might have gotten food on, and want to make sure is clean.  If you'd like, you can add some white vinegar to it at this point. Vinegar works wonderfully as a fabric safe cleaner, and restores some sheen to silks.  You don't need to add a lot of vinegar, no more than a half a cup, and it shouldn't give your fabric a vinegar-y smell.  To dry, since it's probably too heavy to hang, just lay out a bunch of towels on the floor, and lay your dress on top.  It might take a while to dry, so make sure that the towels are spares.  As soon as most of the water is evaporated or absorbed into the towels, hang it up gently to dry the rest of the way.

I hope this helps!  If you need any more help or advice, don't hesitate to ask!

Here's a really simple tip for people with bangs that might help make getting ready just a little easier.

If you shower the night before, pin your bangs back when they're wet so they dry out of the way.

This definitely helps tame some wispy little bangs a wee bit more.

Hey there!

Wowee, that was some fast asking, friend!

Have you tried pincurls under your wig cap?  If not then here’s a great tutorial for them.

If pincurls aren’t substantial enough to contain your voluminous hair, you might try styling your hair in twin braids and wrapping them evenly around your head.  Or you can braid your hair in just one braid like kojika’s tutorial here.  

If you’re still worried about the unevenness you think braids will cause, try even more braids.  The more even distribution of hair you create, the more even your wig will look once it’s on.

Here’s a link to a similar ask we answered a while ago, and if that still doesn’t help send us another message!

I hope this helps you out, and if you need more, better, or different help send another ask our way!