#fabrickindfridays

Hello there!

Thankfully, Sweeny Todd is a popular enough film that people have compiled large galleries of reference images and written up information about the costumes. This seems like a good resource.

What I would recommend is breaking down the costume into more manageable, individual parts. Don’t get lost in all the details, and instead look at what the basic garments are, and then figure out the detailing from there. The shapes themselves are relatively simple for this kind of costuming; it’s the patterns and trims that make it look complex. For this basic breakdown, I’m going to work off of the posted reference, but you may see more details come forth in the gallery I linked.

Start with what undergarments are needed, and work your way out from there. I’m seeing a skirt with a bustle and a self ruffle at the bottom, a bodice (can be constructed as a dress or as a separate shirt) with a square neckline that isn’t fully buttoned so it becomes a V shape and some kind of pleated or ruched sleeves, and an exterior corset. In terms of detailing, you will want to look at what trims and fabric patterns are used – I’m seeing an orange or red tulle underneath the bodice neckline, some kind of distressed and possibly foiled or sequined lace. The exterior corset has some sort of lace trimming as well. The ruffle on the skirt is trimmed in some type or orange or red trim at the bottom. Based on the way the skirt falls, it is likely a quarter circle skirt.

After you get all the trimmings and such figured out, I would recommend looking at the other detailing and accessories. Gloves, shoes, jewelry, etc. Also look at the fabrics used, now that you have all the parts figured out – the dress material is patterned, and clearly distressed and aged, so you will likely need to experiment a bit on your own with dye to get that effect.

The most important thing to do is to have detailed knowledge of what you are making, and breaking down all the parts will get you there. From there, I would recommend making a list of what is needed and/or labeling a photo so you can be sure you don’t miss or forget anything. A complex costume is much more manageable once you know what you need to do to get it all done!

As always, here are some resources on where to start when you don’t know where to start: 1 2

I hope that helps! Good luck :]

Hello there!

Thankfully, since distressed jeans are fashionable, there are TONS of guides out there on how to do it! Here’s a few methods you may find helpful:

Creating patches of horizontal white threading

Fraying with a razor

Light bleach wash and sandpaper

You can also use heavier grits of sandpaper (lower numbers) and elbow grease to not just soften, but to actually wear holes through the jeans.

Make sure you concentrate the distressing on areas that jeans would naturally get distressed – the fronts of the thighs, the knees, around areas that are on the tops of folds and creases (rather than inside the folds and creases) when worn, around the pocket openings and the bottom hems, etc.

Have fun with it! I hope that helps :]

Hello there!

[reference image]

One lucky thing about cosplaying such an iconic outfit is that a lot of fans have already done breakdowns of the outfit, and the original costume has been on display at museums, leading to high-quality reference images. 

This one is very detailed, and breaks down the fabrics used quite nicely.

If you didn’t mind not being completely accurate to the original materials, but wanted something easier to work with and less delicate, I would replace the plastic film with iridescent mirror organza. It would have a very similar appearance, but it won’t tear or shred as easily as the original plastic material.

I hope that helps! Good luck :]

Hello there!

This is going to be a generic response to “how do I begin on a cosplay” type questions. Normally I don’t answer these, but this allows for a guide that other cosplayers can follow.

The first thing I would do is take a look at the slides for my Planning Your Cosplay panel, which was developed to answer this exact question. It should, at the very least, give you a starting point.

The next step is to start researching! This can be time-intensive even if you generally know what you are looking for, but even more so if you don’t, so here’s a few pointers. Often, research and costume breakdowns (as described both in the panel linked above and in the section below) go hand-in-hand, since you may need to research what something is before you can come up with any sort of plan for it.

- Get your references in order. If the costume is from a live-action property, you may get lucky and find information from the costumers or from other fans who have seen the costumes in person (or spent the hours watching the series or movie so you don’t have to). If the costume is from a video game, see if models of the character have been released or ripped. Some game companies also put out cosplay guides these days with breakdowns in them! If the costume is from a 2D animated property, see if character reference sheets have been released. These should show all angles of the character in order to keep the artists on model as they draw.

-  Look for tutorials or WIPs posted by other cosplayers of the same outfit. This doesn’t always exist, but you may get lucky and see someone else’s breakdown of the outfit, how they made specific pieces, or if you get extra lucky, you might find a tutorial or other instruction on how to make specific pieces. Don’t count on finding this, but it’s a good thing to just see if it exists. 

- Use other cosplayers as a guide. This doesn’t mean that you should copy everything they did, but rather to look and see what others cosplayers did and whether it works for you or not. What fabrics did they use? What other materials? How does it appear to wear? How did they interpret tricky bits of the design? Seeing how others turned something from an image into real life may spark some inspiration, and can give you ideas on what works (and doesn’t) in real life.

- Determine who this character is. What culture are they from? Era? If their garments are inspired by historical and cultural garments, looking up information about how to make garments of that culture and era can help you gain pattern and tutorials for those garments. It helps to first find out the name of the garment if it is something you are unfamiliar with, and then look for how-tos from there. You may not end up making something entirely culturally accurate, since it’s a cosplay, but it can get you much closer to modify the types of garments that the costume design is based on. If the setting is purely fictional, is it based on any particular culture and era? For example, many fantasy series are loosely based on medieval Europe, and looking at clothing from that culture can help you figure out what you are looking at and how to make it, even if it will almost certainly require modifications.

- Once you have determined who the character is, you can use that for more editorial decisions about the costume as well. What fabrics would this character wear? Would it be mostly natural or synthetic fibers, or does it not matter? Is the outfit more formal or casual? What textures would make the most sense? How can you make the colors and textures cohesive in real life? What kind of weathering and other details would this costume have? Much of this will be determined by the nature of the costume itself (such as requiring a stretch fabric for a bodysuit), but you will always have at least some leeway to make these decisions.

- Once you have your breakdown done, how are you going to make each piece? Are you doing sewing with fabrics? Armor? How are you going to attach pieces together? What is the order of the layers of the costume? How are you going to finish items on the surface (such as painting vs. using vinyl on armor pieces)? Even if you have some ideas, I would recommend combing through as many tutorials as you can get your hands on for more ideas on construction methods, especially on specialty sewing techniques you may not find in commercial patterns or sewing books and on cosplay-specific crafting methods like armor.

- Combing through the sections for what you are making on our master tutorial list, as well as doing research on your own on the google, can give you many ideas on how to go about construction. Choose a method that fits your skill level, time budget, money budget, and the effect you want for the costume. You can place any level of importance you want on those individual categories, and even take into consideration other things, such as comfort. Even if you don’t know the specifics of what you want to do and are just looking through, say, the armor section or the horns section generally, you can apply the principles of those tutorials to the specific costume you are making, and even combine techniques if you find something that seems like it would work.

- If you find a tutorial or advice on a technique but it’s not for the specific outfit you are doing, keep in mind that shapes and colors can always be changed to adapt to what you need.

While you are doing your research, it helps to also be simultaneously working on a breakdown. This is a listing of everything in the costume that you will need, and can range from very basic to very complex. This will help you to know what you are looking at when you are looking at a complex costume, will help break down the costume into manageable pieces, and will give you a starting place to work from.

- Get your references in order. Clear images that show are angles are best, but not always possible to find, depending on the design (I’ve personally done a lot of weird old JRPG cosplay where there is only one image of the outfit…). If there are multiple conflicting references, combine them for the effect you like best, or choose one and stick with it. If you are to be competing with the costume, be sure to include all references and explain your rationale for choosing from one ref or another.

- Start labeling each part of the costume. It can help to print out a physical copy of a full body shot or character reference sheet so that you can label each piece of the costume and sketch out parts that may be unclear or that you want to fully understand how they work. You can also sketch out things like the layering of parts of how pieces attach to each other, or any modifications you are making or parts you have to make up (such as if there is no back shot of the outfit).

- I like to make an Excel spreadsheet that lists each material I need, how much I need, and the estimated cost, since it helps to see each material clearly laid out and helps with budgeting. Some people prefer to use an app like Cosplanner. Do your breakdowns however fit you best.

- Start with the most general and move into more specific. For example, first label “skirt” and “blouse,” and then go into more specific things such as “circle skirt” or “knife pleated skirt,” and then even more specific, such as listing out potential materials, tutorials you might use, patterns you might use, etc. This is why a lot of your research and breakdown work will happen simultaneously!

- Figure out material choices, as discussed above. If you are stuck on materials, look at the backs of pattern envelopes for similar garment types and see what they suggest. I also recommend simply going to a fabric store and looking at and touching fabrics (and taking flash photos) in order to find materials that have the properties you need. Does the material on the reference look thick or thin? Does it drape stiffly or fluidly? Does it have any particular shine to it, and if so, what is the quality of that shine? Does the fabric need to stretch in order to encapsulate the body?

- While choosing materials, also keep in mind things like who the character is/the the world they come from, your skill level, your budget, and your personal comfort. If you are going to be wearing something covering in a warm climate, for example, be sure to choose natural fibers so the costume breathes.

- Start gathering things like tutorials and patterns. If you don’t know where to start on sewing something, look at the shapes of the garment compared to real-life garments, including what other cosplayers have done. Look at sewing patterns and see what types of garments are similar to the garments you are trying to make, and start thinking about how to modify the shapes into what you need. If you are doing historical costuming, do the same, only with historical or culturally-specific garments. If doing armor, see how others have patterned armor in similar shapes.

- Start figuring out how to make things! Once you know what everything is in the costume and you have some ideas of techniques, you can start deciding on techniques to use. You may find it helpful to create a document that you write out your breakdown in (so listing out each piece) and then creating a written description of the item, adding reference images, and compiling links to tutorials. This way, you can always go back and reference this document later when you are working on the costume, ensuring that you don’t lose any of your important references or tutorials. If you are competing, you have the added bonus of being able to adapt this document into one where you record what you ended up doing to present to the judges.

This may seem like a lot of steps, and it is, but once you gain experience with cosplay, a lot of this becomes quick decisions that you can make based on your experience. It can be very helpful to look at something as overwhelming as an entire character design and break it down into smaller, manageable components, especially if you are just starting out on your cosplay crafting journey and don’t know where to begin. By following a step-by-step road map such as this, you can get over that initial hurdle and start making!

I hope that helps! Good luck :]

Hello there!

Ah yes, the old not caring about gravity when making a character design issue.

Mostly for this kind of outfit, you are going to need to add a lot of extra structure. This can come in the form of boning, interfacing, horsehair braid, wire, or any other item that can be inserted into the fabric to make it stiffer and behave more to your will.

The sleeves are going to be a bit tricky in how they are patterned, since they don’t have visible gathers. You can either add gathers to the bottom where they will attach to a separate piece for the lower arm, or you can leave it ungathered and add a panel in order to bridge the two, much like how lantern sleeves are constructed.

As for keeping them off your shoulders, I would recommend a heavy interfacing and some sort of still material in the open edge. It would be even sturdier if you continued that stiff material in through the top neckline edge of the jacket. Horsehair braid is a good option, but if that ends up not being sturdy enough for your tastes, soft plastic boning (the cheap stuff, not anything like German plastic or synthetic whalebone) inserted into the edge would work quite well. If you have issues keeping the sleeves up, they can be attached, either permanently or with hidden snaps on the inside, to the pink undershirt.

The skirt is also tricky, but the main issue you will have will likely be keeping the petal shape, not keeping the poof. There are going to be at least two parts to the structure of the skirt: an underlayer that holds the petals out away from your body, and structure within the petals that keep their curved shape and allow them to fall in that lovely egg shape around your body.

For the underlayer, I would recommend a small petticoat. Be sure to get or make one with more of a bell shape than an A-line shape, because this will help support the top of the skirt as well as the bottom. Thankfully, the front of the skirt is closed above the knee or mid thigh (depending on how you are proportioning this to yourself), so you can easily hide a support garment underneath. 

For the shape of the petals, you will need to do a few things. First is to make sure you pattern them so that they retain a curved shape on their own – the inside of the petal is going to be larger than the outside edge. This is simple enough on the petals that are split between the two shades of pink down the center, since you can simply make the two pieces curved, sew them together, and have a curved shape. The pattern will look roughly like this, though be sure to do some tests at small scale to ensure the proper curvature:

(ignore that my handwriting is terrible!)

You can see here that the middle seam is curved to allow more space inside of there than a simple straight seam would allow – this is what creates the curve of the petal. It’s the same principle as a princess seam or any other curved seam that creates fullness.

For the front petals with asymmetrical seamlines, you will need to play with the patterns a LOT to create fullness in the top portion without adding too much fullness near the sides. On these, I would recommend also creating a vertical seam on the light pink portions, running from the tip of the petal to the seam that attaches it to the dark pink (so about halfway up the petal), so that you can shape it with the fullness that you need. These petals would then be three pieces (two light, one dark) rather than two. I would personally pattern the symmetrical petals first and then modify a copy of that pattern by slicing along the curve where the dark meets the light and adding seam allowance to that edge. This will ensure the same shape as the other petals and save you a bit of time on trying to get those curves correct!

The petals themselves are also going to need some structure in order to keep their shape. Interfacing will help quite a bit. You can also experiment with a few things, which will give you a few different effects: running a length of plastic boning down the center, running a length of wire down the center, running a length of wire around the outside edge.

The boning would be the most “bouncy” of the structures, and would be the first thing I would go with. Wire down the center would be a hybrid. Wire around the edges would be stiffest, but would also be the most posable. Be sure to get a wire that won’t discolor your fabric over time, like a millinery wire, which is intended for use next to fabric. If you are finding that the petals tend to collapse with only a center support, you can also try a center support and a V-shaped support, with the lines of the V running from the point, through the centers of the panels, and then to the waist.

This skirt is going to be heavy and cumbersome pretty much no matter what you do, so be sure to give the waistband good support!

I hope that helps! Good luck :]

Hello there!

Looking at images of this, there’s a couple of ways to go about it: the more expensive way and the “oh god, why” time-intensive way.

The dress appears to be made of a sequin fabric. This is why doing the sequin tape doesn’t seem feasible on the skirt – that pattern of sequins was likely already built into the fabric. If it wasn’t, it was custom applied in that pattern. The more expensive way to do things would be this: buy a base dress, and then use a sequin lace as an overlay. You probably won’t be able to get an exact match in materials, but you can likely come close, especially if you use a plainer sequin fabric for the upper portions and then splice a patterned fabric to the bottom of the skirt. 

The second option would be to create the pattern yourself, or something that approximates it. You probably won’t want to apply individual sequins, but you can cut up sequin fabric (hint: the popularity of a certain animated film makes finding blue allover sequin fabric VERY easy these days) and applique the pieces individually. This would get your closer in accuracy, but it would take a LONG time.

Personally, I’d go with method 1, but it’s up to you.

Based on this image, the cris-cross pattern continues all the way around the skirt, not just in the center, so that really makes it appear to be a full sequin fabric. It won’t be exact in most cases, but you can easily find blue sequin lace fabric with a grid pattern, so all you would need to do is turn that diagonally and then splice another material to the bottom, using the shape of the pattern to hide the seam (the shape of the seam would follow the pattern).

For the chiffon side bits, these appear to just be an overlay sewn onto the sides of the dress. You can see where they would attach – the bottom row of rhinestone trim on the sides hides the seam. I’m not sure if the overlay continues to the backside, but from the way they sit, I would say that they are either full or half circles, which is how you get all those lovely wavy bits at the bottom.

I hope that helps! Good luck :]

Hello there!

For her vest, I would recommend basing it off of a pattern for a button-down shirt with a collar. You would be able to crop the pattern to the correct length and simply leave off any sleeves included in the pattern. The buttons can be replaced with snaps – look for some with pearlized backs to them for the same effect as her vest. You will likely need a pair of eyelet/snap pliers in order to apply these, and may need to cut tiny holes in the p/leather for the prongs to go through before crimping.

You can use either a real leather or a faux leather for this project, depending on what you have access to and are comfortable working with. Be sure the material is soft and pliable enough to drape around your body, but not so thin that it doesn’t have the same effect as the render – it needs to plausibly look like a jacket material. Either way, be sure to stock up on some leather needles for your sewing machine to ensure the material can be punched through, and if possible, get a teflon/nonstick foot for your machine so you can do all the required topstitching without the material sticking to the foot. Note that with both of these materials, any holes or marks you make will not self heal with with regular fabrics, meaning that the holes will be permanent. Be sure to make a mockup or two and then mark your stitching lines on the actual material with something easy to remove (such as tailor’s chalk – test anything you use on a scrap first).

I would also recommend creating a bit of weathering on your material in order to get the worn-in look her jacket has. On real leather, this can be done with dye that is lightly dabbed on with a large-hole sponge or a balled-up rag. Be sure to not saturate the sponge very much! On pleather, you can use similar techniques but with paint. Use a brownish yellow base material and then use a reddish brown and a greyish brown in layers (once the previous layer dries) in order to get a similar effect to her vest. You can also add a bit of dye or paint dry brushed into the seams and along areas of wear once the vest is sewn to add a bit more depth.

For her tool pouch,I would look at how actual tool pouches are constructed. Here is a good example. They are generally a rectangle of leather with pockets sewn on the inside and then folded up at the bottom and sewn to create a larger bottom pocket. Experiment with some paper models or pieces of fabric to make sure you have the correct proportions and fully grasp the concept – I have a feeling that once you get it in your hands, it’ll be easier to understand how one goes together. You can then simply sew loops to the top that the belt would thread through.

I hope that helps! Good luck :]

Hello there!

There’s a few ways I can think of to go about this.

First, take a look at a search of the tutorials on our site for “feather,” since there are some good feather tutorials there.

There seem to be two major options here – one is to use real feathers, and one is to make faux feathers. I would personally go with a hybrid, but the decision is up to you.

If you go with real feathers, you will need to combine multiple feathers in order to get the length that you need. I would recommend taking turkey quill/wing feathers and, making sure you are matching up right to right and left to left, trim off the bottom portions of feathers and glue them to the tops of another feather until you have the elongated shape you desire. Many feathered wing tutorials use this method for large and unusually-shaped feathers. These newly-created long feathers can then be attached to the sides of the coat.

There are several methods for creating fake feathers. I have seen them cut from everything from foam (thin EVA foam/craft foam, packing foam, etc.) to fabric. I would personally go with a synthetic fabric that you melt the edges of to seal it (if you have hot cutting tools, even better) that has a stiffer material, such as foam or plastic, glued or sewn down the middle to give it the effect of a center shaft. If you go with fabric, the feathers will be lighter in weight, probably cheaper, and have more flow to them than real feathers, though they will take a bit more work to create.

Personally, I would do both. I would create faux feathers for the longest and largest of the feathers and then mix in some real feathers to create a more feathery effect and to vary the textures.

I would also recommend that no matter which method you use, you should attach the (faux) feathers to a separate piece of fabric that attaches to the coat with snaps, hooks, or magnets. This way, you can remove the delicate parts you don’t want to wash when it comes time to do laundry.

I hope that helps! Good luck :]