#fabrickindfriday

Hello there!

There are a few things you can do to change the hairline or to help mitigate the issue of the edge of the wig showing.

Perhaps the most time-consuming and expensive, but also the most realistic, would be to ventilate the wig and turn it into a lace front. This involves adding a strip of wig lace to the front and typing the hairs on yourself. Here is a tutorial, but there are many many more out there. The advantage of this is that you can get the natural-looking hairline that a lace front wig provides, but keep in mind that there is a high startup cost (though once you have a supply of wig lace and the needles, the cost per wig goes down drastically) and that it takes a lot of time.

Another option would be to do a glued hairline. This involves gluing a bit of loose wig fiber to the front of the wig in a way that imitates hair growing out of the scalp. For a wig like Victor’s, this might be overkill, as it tends to look best with heavily styled wigs rather than natural-looking styles, but it is much cheaper than ventilating a lace front, and may take you less time. This is also something that needs to be fit exactly to your own hairline and head shape, or else it won’t sit right. Here is a tutorial, but again, there are many more out there.

If the wig is constructed in a way that doesn’t have the front wefts wrapping up and around the front beige strip, you can also sew a weft or two underneath the front of the wig, hanging downward, so that when the hair is pushed up and back, it covers the edge a little better.

Your third option would be to leave the wig as-is, but to make it so that the strip is less visible. You can do this with a bit of styling -- making sure that when you style the front of the wig, you don’t pull the wig fibers up too far in the front, and adding volume further back instead, and making sure that the bang in the front hangs down over the hairline if possible -- but mostly this is done in the wearing of the wig. If you use a little spirit gum or lacefront tape on the hairline, it will help hold that area down to your forehead, and will make the beige strip less likely to pull up and show. This is the least realistic of your options, as you aren’t changing the hairline at all, but it requires little to no extra effort or cost on your part, and will help in a pinch.

Regardless of method you use, make sure that you glue or tape the wig’s hairline to your skin so that it stays in place without lifting away or shifting, which will also ruin the illusion of the wig.

I hope that helps! Good luck. :]

Hello there!

For armor on limited resources, craft foam/EVA foam (same material, but usually in the cosplay community we refer to the thinner stuff as “craft foam” and the thicker stuff as “EVA foam) is going to be your best friend. You can make a decent armor build for fairly cheap with some skill in shaping and painting.

Here’s our list of craft foam armor tutorials, and if you scroll down a little, EVA foam armor. I would also recommend checking out The Evil Ted for a wealth of foamsmithing information.

If you’re really strapped for cash, you can also use cardboard! Here’s our list of cardboard tutorials.

I would recommend investing in an inexpensive heat gun and some good cutting implements and appropriate glues at the very least. With these types of materials, you can do everything from very simple armor to very complex armor, though it does take time and practice to do the more complex shapes. I would recommend doing something with simple shapes for your first armor build (bracers are a popular choice) before jumping into full body suits and wacky or oversized JRPG shapes that defy physics.

I hope that helps! Good luck :]

Hello there!

For a cosplay with lots of small details, I find that what helps most it to really break it down into its component parts before starting.You can do this in several ways, or combine ways.

One way is to draw everything out. Make a quick sketch of the character and outfit and make sure that you copy every single detail over from the art. This way, you are forced to think about what each item is and where it belongs. This can be especially useful in some outfits where things like attachment points are ambiguous, or where there might be partially-hidden details.

Another way to go about this is to label a reference image. I like to print out images and do this by hand, though you can do it digitally as well. Draw an arrow to each piece and label what it is, what the color is, and what material you think it is. If you have ideas on how to make the items, you can write that down, as well.

You can also make a list of all the items, which is helpful once you’ve broken it all down visually. Some people also make collages of different reference images so that they can see the items from different angles. It might also be helpful to compile tutorial or purchase links in with your collages or lists, if that seems useful.

As for actually tackling the details, do it one part at a time. Give yourself plenty of time to work on the costume, and take it slowly if you have to. It helps to see things not as a daunting whole, but as small parts – for example, not a large and complex garment, but a set of sleeves, and a torso, and some embroidery on the sleeves, and this trim sewn to the neck, and that trim sewn to the center front, etc.– so that you know that you can tackle the costume one piece at a time. I find that making detailed to-do lists helps with this, and the more I break down the steps, the more it helps (and the more satisfying it is when I work on the costume for an hour and can check off 3 things from the list!). Don’t think of it as “I need to make Mei’s prop,” but instead take it slowly and think “I need to make this one specific part of Mei’s prop.” It may seem daunting to look at that long list of things to do, but even then, you can break it down further and only make a list for the prop, or only for the top, etc., as you go. 

It also helps to take a break, even if it’s just taking a break from one part to work on another part. Sewing can happen while paint is drying, for example. Looking at things with fresh eyes can also help if you start to become frustrated with a piece.

I hope that helps! Good luck :]

Hello there!

Cosplay can seem pretty daunting before you start, but if you break it into smaller bits or start with small things, you’ll be able to start before you know it.

As with anything, learning to craft your own cosplays takes time and practice. Almost no one is able to whip out amazing and complicated cosplays on their first try. There’s two components to this: practicing and working your way up to more complex costumes, and having patience with your own learning.

I would start small. Is there a costume you want to do where you can make some components and buy or modify others? Or a cosplay with a relatively simple garment that you can make, like a shift dress? If you have someone who can teach you to sew, or a way to take sewing lessons (look at fabric stores, local parks districts and libraries, and local community colleges for classes), that will get you started a lot faster and easier than learning on your own. If you don’t have anyone to teach you, start with a beginner-level pattern and watch video tutorials on how to operate your sewing machine.

As for starting a cosplay, it helps to break down all of the components and figure out what they are before you begin. A lot of costumes aren’t practical for daily wear and have a lot of unusual detailing, so making a list or sketching out all of the pieces can help you with not only keeping track of each item, but also so that you can look at the costume not as a big, daunting entire Thing, but instead as “pleated skirt” and “button-up blouse,” etc. You can then take it slowly and tackle each item one at a time rather than getting overwhelmed by the whole.

Once you gain more experience, you’ll start to figure out a good workflow and order of operations for each costume you do, as well. Since this varies by costume and personal working style, I can’t help you much with that,  but it’s something that will come with experience. 

As for the steps of starting on a costume, I give panels on this subject! Here is the powerpoint.

Mostly, it’s about hanging in there, choosing a costume that will teach you skills but also not be too difficult as to frustrate you, and starting small. I believe in you! We all have to start somewhere, after all.

I hope that helps! Good luck :]

Hello there!

When making anything that needs to have perfect fit, I will always recommend making a mockup. Or several mockups, because you might need them. When doing your mockups, be sure to mark any fit issues, correct for them, transfer them to your pattern, and then do another mockup before doing the final outfit. This will ensure a good fit. Check for any signs that it is too large (gapping, fabric standing away from the body, etc.) or too small (fabric pulling in horizontal wrinkles, etc.), or the wrong shape (this is harder to determine, but make sure that the bust curve is correct and sits at your bust curve, make sure the neckline shape is correct, etc.), and correct these when possible.You can also practice with your structure on a mockup, which will help with both technique and with making sure that it fits once the structure is inside.

For something like this, most of your work is going to be in the tailoring, not in the interior, though some interior structure will help. If you look at the worn photo, the dress appears to be structured through the torso, underneath the breasts and above the waist. You can use a firmer interlining to help keep that shape (something like a silk organza or a hair canvas will get the structure without a lot of bulk). Using a fusible interfacing on the fashion fabric would also create more structure in that area, though I would recommend the interlining.

There is quite possibly boning in the dress underneath the darts, starting at the waist and ending at the underbust. I would do spiral steel boning there, at the side seams, and in the same location in the back. Attach your boning channels to an interior layer so that they hide better. You can do a mockup with cheap plastic boning or with plastic cable ties to make sure you have the placement and fit right before proceeding.

I would guess that this has bra cups built in, though I can’t see the inside to know for sure.

Mostly, this is going to be a project that requires practice. Be sure to cut your pieces well with sharp scissors, and be sure to sew your seams nice and straight, and to press them when you are done. It may help to have a dressform that you can drape this on in the patterning phase, or have a friend help you pin it while worn, so that you can get the fit just right. 

Also, if you can find notes from the costumers or photographs of the inside of the dress, that will help quite a bit. Look around for GoT-specific costuming sites to see if that is available.

I hope that helps! Good luck :]

This is a quick update on the status of your Q&A staff member on this blog. As you may have noticed, the 'Fridays with Fabrickind' feature has lapsed somewhat in recent months. This is not due to a lack of interest, or not wanting to answer your questions, but rather an inability on my part to have time and energy to answer.

Over the past few months, I've had some major life changes, including a changing work situation that leaves me with less time on Fridays to answer questions, and some chronic illness issues, which has left me with little energy for answering cosplay help questions, as much as I would love to be able to.

Know that this is not me stepping down as staff -- I love this blog and I love helping everyone -- but rather an apology for my inactivity, as well as an official notice of the reasons why so that all of you lovely cosplayers don't think that you've been abandoned. Know that I'm trying my best to answer the questions I can, but often, I simply can't answer any.

I'll be back to regular question answering once I'm able to get the issues preventing me from doing so currently under control.

Thank you for your understanding, and happy costuming!!

Hello there!

Resin tutorials are this way!

Hope that helps! Good luck :]

Hello there!

Nice!

When trying to decide between regular spiking and foamcore spiking, there’s a few things you can keep in mind. I’ll break down the differences, and hopefully that can help you decide.

Foamcore:This is good for outlandish, gravity-defying styles. If it is something that is very clean-looking or cartoony, you can get smoother shapes and more complex shapes with foamcore. Foamcore is also a more permanent method, so if you want the wig to stay in place for a long period with minimal touchup, it’s a good method. I personally find it harder to do than traditional spiking, but that depends on your particular set of skills.

Spiking:This would be the traditional method of using some type of glue or heavy-duty hairspray, some light teasing, and a hairdryer to spike wig fibers without internal support. This provides a more realistic look, since you are using the wig’s own fiber for support and not a smooth interior piece. You can also do more realistic spiking on the rest of the wig to match, but it is much harder to get good-looking absurd anime spikes with this method. This is best with a wig with grippy fibers, rather than smooth and silky fibers. The other part of this is that if the hair can’t support itself when you try traditional spiking, you will need a support. this is also less permanent, which means that you can possibly wash and reuse the wig, but you may have to do more touchup down the road.

With both methods, you may have to do some dewefting and/or rewefting, depending on the arrangement and density of wefts in your base wig, so that the netting doesn’t show.

For this particular costume, I’d say that you can go either way. If you are amping up the cartoony elements, that will be easier to do with foamcore, and if you are going for a more realistic hair look, that will be easier with traditional spiking. 

I hope that helps! Good luck :]