#costumehelp

It took me about three or four years into making costumes to really learn how to apply new design and technical skills into the pieces I was making. I went from liking my costumes to loving my costumes. Here are some things I learned along the way! 1. Texturing Think about what you wore today. I wore leather wedge shoes, blue jeans, a silky lightweight tank top, and a suit blazer, for example. Think about how many different textures and fabrics you wear or see others wear! Now think about costumes you buy off of websites and how they’re usually made of one or two fabrics. Incorporating different weaves, blends, weights, and sheens can make a costume look more thought out and give it a unique look that’s all your own. If you’re unsure of when/how to use certain fabrics, research is your friend!

2. Lining Are you tired of floppy costume pieces that hang or hug you awkwardly? Lining is your friend. Look at your closet and see what kinds of linings your own clothes have! Things that benefit from lining include capes, jackets, supporting pieces like corsets, light colored fabric, and thin fabric. Not everything needs to be lined, but lining can make a piece feel more stabilized and just overall... nicer. Like expensive clothes. Linings can also protect your outer fabric from body oils. 3. Defying Gravity & Support Illustrations and designs often have gravity defying costume pieces that look so good on paper, but are hard to translate into real life because they just kind of... hang there. I’m talking about things like seriously poofy skirts, ribbons, hats, bows, and dangly things in general. A great way to put life in your droopy pieces is to add wire into them! Depending on the delicacy of the costume piece, you can use a variety of wires to give you the kind of shape you want. It’s easy to slip in wire into the hem or create a whole under support (Like a hoop skirt or crinoline!) (And like in lettuce hem skirts!) What you wear under the costume makes a whole world of difference. A corset/cincher/Spanx can really help define your silhouette! Want to make a gown full? Make sure you wear a petticoat over your hoop skirt. A hoop skirt should never be worn without some kind of petticoat, otherwise you’ll see hoops through your gown. What you wear under the costume makes a huge difference! 4. Proportions A lot of costumes are generally proportionate to a human body and are easy to visualize. What happens when your costume has exaggerated features? Think Sora from Kingdom Hearts, Iron Maiden Jeanne from Shaman King, or lanky characters with big bulky armor. Don’t forget the characters with giant hair! What makes an outfit look stellar is understanding balance and proportion. Consider adding volume/styling to wigs, adding or subtracting bulk from hands and feet, and changing the scale of weapons and accessories. 5. NO RAW EDGES It took me a long time to get past the quick and dirty raw edge hem that looked decent on the outside, but on the inside, looked like a train wreck. It’s soooo tempting to do to get the job done faster, but taking the time to do a nice rolled hem will make your costumes look much more polished. There’s all kinds of hems! Rolled hems, blind hems, serged hems... there’s many great ways to have a finished hem. Same goes for seams: finishing your seams keeps them from fraying and just looks so nice. Consider techniques like French seams and serged seams. Don’t want to do either? Consider using binding techniques to finish off the edge with ribbon or bias tape! Again, not EVERYTHING needs to be nicely finished, but it depends on the look you’re going for. Rough barbarians probably don’t need nicely rolled 1/4″ seams. 6. The Little Tiny Details When I started focusing on little tiny details in my costumes, I was so much happier that I went the extra mile and felt proud of myself. Things like gradient dying fabric and wig fibers, decorative stitching, using trims and embellishments, unique closures, adding crystals and metallic elements, painting, hair accessories, appliques, and more. Giving the costume creative elements, whether they are in the design or added by you, can change the whole look. These are just little things that I think about when starting new costumes or helping others out with theirs. If it was any bit of help, then I’m happy! As always, feel free to send us any questions you have about costuming. - Marissa

First of all you need to get the fabric. the fabric i got was 8 meters long, 3 meters wide, i love to have more fabric than not enough Fabric. 

So this text post is going to be really long, so the Tutorial us under the read more =] Enjoy. Sorry some of the pictures are really bad, my room is red... so they clashed. 

Jades Godtier hood is pretty hard to make, i used http://mikay-chan.deviantart.com/art/God-Tier-Jade-Hood-Tutorial-294189406 this tutorial and modified it slightly to my own needs, when i made mine, instead of cutting the slits on the side and then sewing the tails over to make the tails, i simply made the whole thing twice, cut off the actual hood bit and then sewed the tails onto eachother  then continued with the tutorial, if you have any troubles making it when it comes to the hood part let me know and i will see if i can make a video tutorial for you on how to make one =] as for the top, i baught one of those dress t-shirts so it came to my knees, then i cut the V shape into the front and back i then used transfere paper to put the logo onto the front. to make the skirt its a good idea to make a circle skirt

 which you can see here

http://whatthecraft.com/circle-skirt-tutorial-new-and-improved/

there is many tutorials for a circle skirt online