YSN[C]V

Foam Buying Guide for Cosplay Armor by Andrew Makes Things

Hello everyone!!  (*≧▽≦)ﾉｼ))  I’ve been asked about my wigs for the longest time - and instead of replying to each of you individually, I finally decided to sum up my experience with ebay and how things go down from there for me. ♥ 

I’ve always purchased my wigs from ebay, and over the years I’ve came across both good and bad sellers. So, based on my experience, I’ve decided to share this tutorial with you guys. I hope it will be helpful! \o/

— DISCLAIMER: There are many factors that influence my choice of wigs. 

※ Firstly, it’s the character’s reference. I do a lot of research on other cosplayers as well (live reference is great!!), and knowing my face shape I can choose what style to go for. More spiky, more smooth, etc., whether I want to cover my forehead, the side of my face, etc. etc. … ※ It also depends on what effect I want to achieve with my wig - whether I want to go with original anime reference or do an interpretation of my own. 

※ Also, I usually do a lot of styling to my wigs. Important thing is that unless you’re buying a pre-styled wig (i.e. for Nezumi from N.O.6), you might need to style your wig -  shorten it/spike it/brush it because the wigs are usually much longer (either the fringe or the back of the wig) so that they fit all face shapes and sizes. And, they are usually pretty mussed up from aall that traveling they have to go trough before reaching you, hehe. Wigs are meant to be styled!! Don’t be afraid of it - there are plenty tutorials online, and it would be a shame if you bought a great wig and haven’t customized it to fit your face/your character’s hair adequately.

※ My budget is also important, but I often find myself spending a lot on wigs because to me they are the most important part of the costume. So even if I start with the cheapest ones, I may end up with a 30 USD wig! uh-oh ※ I don’t have any specific sellers! My wigs are ALWAYS search & find.  

※ Browsing for wigs can be great fun. ♥ I take my time choosing a good wig, even a month, browsing through pages and pages of ebay to find a perfect fit or compare colour, style, etc. … Don’t make hasty decisions! And ask your friends for their opinion, this always helps! （ﾉ´∀`）

So recently as some of you may know I had to figure out how to make these green arm wraps in the picture below

I wanted them to be one piece so that they wouldn’t have to be adjusted throughout the day if parts decided to slip, especially since the original plan was to tuck the shirt into them. I searched the internet for a while but couldn’t find anything too helpful so I decided to make it up as I went along and took pictures so I could share in the event it worked. (It did) This process should work for just about any wrap you want to create for instance things like this as well…

There isn’t much to it but I took a lot of pictures, so here we go. First things first, you’ll want to wrap what ever part of your body you are making the wrap for in plastic wrap (we use this method frequently). Mine was just the forearm so it looked like this

Then wrap it again in tape, masking tape works nicely.

After that you want to draw where the seam is going to be and cut along it like so

Once you have the piece disconnected from your body you want to flatten it, I placed my piece under a pile of binders for about a day

While you are waiting you can get started on the strips of fabric you’ll be using later. Figure out how thick you want the bands to look and measure them out of the fabric you are using

Don”t forget to add a seam allowance, like I did. The length of the strips doesn’t really matter right now, as long as it’s long enough to wrap around your arm once you should be fine. I cut out 12 to be on the safe side. You should have something like this.

Once I had the strips cut out I folded the seam allowance over on all of them, this made it easier later when I attached them to the main piece.

You can then put the strips to the side and go back to the main pattern piece. For the forearm it should look something like this once flattened

You’ll want to clean up the edges with the plastic hanging off and then transfer the pattern piece onto a piece of paper, again making sure to add seam allowance around the edges.

Once you’ve traced around the whole thing you can cut it out and that will be the pattern for the main piece of your arm wrap. Use the pattern to cut out a piece in the fabric you are using and together with your straps your pieces should look like this.

You want to sew on the strips one at a time, starting from one end then making your way to the other. I started from the bottom. Pin the strip onto the main piece along the hem you already created like this

You then want to sew the strip down along the top and bottom edge. There will be fabric hanging off from the strip, you want your seam to stay in between the edges of the main piece. After that is sewn on cut off any extra material from the strip.

It should look something like this

Continue with the other strips. I attached mine diagonally for the most part. When I was done attaching my strips (I only used 6) this is what I had.

Sew your side seams together.

And then hem the top and bottom.

Viola! You should have an arm (body) wrap that you won’t have to wrap!