EVA foam is an excellent material to use for making all kinds of cosplay props. However, when heated or sanded, EVA foam releases toxic fumes and dust, so you need
The needs and demands of cosplay are vast, and you never know what sort of skills you’ll need to learn next. You could have to make extra limbs to wear around your waist. It happens. Cosplaye…
Weathering props adds character and story to them. After all, what fighter will ever have a pristine shield or armor that looks like it’s never seen battle? All of the
Sometimes magic staffs that you need for cosplay are too tall or large to easily transport to an anime convention. In these cases, you’ll need to design your prop in
This is the first prop I built like this I've made since 2018-ish. I stopped cosplaying for a while due to multiple reasons but for the past few months I've been rewatching anime and resparking my love for making things. Something about Dungeon Meshi just really hit that for me. Marcille's design also just spoke out and made me want to make it. I loved making her staff and wanted to share the process I went through to make it. Hopefully I can help out anyone that also wants to make Marciell's s
Creating cosplay costumes with EVA foam is super fun and affordable! This material is just perfect to make amazing projects on a budget!
It’s not uncommon for characters in movies, comics, and anime to walk around barefoot all the time. They don’t have to worry about glass on the ground or rusty nails
Related Tutorial: How to Make Sturdy Shoe Covers With Foam Cosplay shoe covers are your secret weapon for bringing your favorite characters to life without breaking the bank on footwear.
Creating cosplay costumes with EVA foam is super fun and affordable! This material is just perfect to make amazing projects on a budget!
If you enjoy playing D&D and absolutely love your character, it may have crossed your mind to create a costume and role play as them. You can wear your costume
EVA foam is an excellent material to use for making all kinds of cosplay props. However, when heated or sanded, EVA foam releases toxic fumes and dust, so you need
It’s a lot of fun to put together a costume and cosplay at anime and comic conventions. You get to share your creativity and love for your favorite characters with
Related Tutorials: How to Make Jewelry With Resin How to Make Jewelry With Craft Foam It’s pretty common for characters from all sorts of anime, comics, or games to be
Want to start with Cosplay? Learn with Kamui's books, patterns and tutorial videos! We're here for you! Let's have fun together!
A little Cosplay Shopping Guide to find everything you need to get started with creating awesome and props for your next project!
Related Tutorial: How to Make Sturdy Shoe Covers With Foam Cosplay shoe covers are your secret weapon for bringing your favorite characters to life without breaking the bank on footwear.
😃How To Make Steampunk Goggles😃
Hey ! You surely know this, but yesterday it was Halloween ! So here’s a quick post to show...Read More
Photography by George Wong Vanille Cosplay by DanniTee This is basic a tutorial on how to use expanding foam on props for those new to prop making or those who want to try out a new medium. Expandi…
Cosplay: The art of portraying a character through the creative use of costumes. Okay. You've seen a ton of awesome cosplays floating around the internet, at conventions, or you just love all those amazing costumes in movies, video games, etc., and you're dying to get in on the cosplaying action yourself. That's why I'm here: to show you all the ins and outs of getting started in cosplay by making your very first costume! NOTE: If you're looking for a pre-made (or mostly premade) costume, Etsy and Cosplay Sky are two of the best places I've found online to buy high quality, screen-accurate costumes. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Step One: Choose a Costume Probably the easiest part of the entire process, the beginning of every cosplay begins with choosing a character, and then choose a costume worn by said character. You probably already have an idea swimming around in your head -- perfect! Choose that one. One helpful tip regarding this decision: it's best not to choose something *too* challenging or intricate for your first endeavor. Try to let the costume match your skill set. So, let's say you want to cosplay Iron Man... unless you're really ambitious, maybe pare the idea down a little and go for cosplaying Tony Stark instead -- that way, you can just make an arm of the Iron Man suit to complete the look! Here's the thing: no matter how easy your costume is to make, as long as you look good, you will be pleased with the finished product and your audience will be impressed. It's better to do something too easy than too hard -- at least for your first costume. Then, as your costume-making skills and abilities grow, you can begin to stretch them farther and farther to make super duper complex costumes. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Step Two: Begin Planning Though you might want to just jump right in and have at it, making a game plan for your costume will make everything much simpler and faster in the long run. This process should include: - Gathering reference photos. Scour the internet for the best high-resolution photos of the costume that you can find. Posters, movie stills, even toy versions of the character provide invaluable reference to help you in your build. I've found the best way to store these photos is to pin them all to a good ol' Pinterest board, designated for that express purpose. - Making a list of everything you'll need to buy. You might be surprised by just how many things you'll need to buy to create your costume (and how much those things can cost), so it's important to have a pretty good idea of what you'll be needing to purchase. This will also make the next part of the process much easier. - Creating a budget + calculating the cost of the costume. Now, your budget doesn't have to be calculated down to the last cent -- somewhere within $10 of the actual price is a good place to start. And since you've already made your list of things you need to buy, just add up the average cost of all those items and you're all set to go! - Drawing sketches of the costume. This one is optional, but I highly recommend it if you're planning on making any major alterations to the original costume. It also helps you get a better idea of all the different aspects of the costume, since you have to draw each one. - Deciding where you want to wear the finished costume. You might already know this, but if not, start thinking. It's so depressing to have created an awesome costume, only to realize you have no where to wear it. I recommend movie premieres, fandom conventions, or just a photoshoot as the best opportunities to do so. > > > > > > > > > > Step Three: Research + Purchase Materials So, now that you've got a pretty good idea of where you're going with your cosplay, start researching online and in brick-and-mortar stores for the things you'll need to buy -- which you've already made a list of! ;) If you're looking for a few pre-made items, such as boots or weapons (the things that look best when store bought and screen-accurate versions can be easily found), the best places to start your search are Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, and your local thrift stores -- you'd be surprised by how perfect some of the second-hand items are for cosplay, plus they can lower your budget considerably. Here are a few online stores that I've found to be perfect for finding great sewing materials, which will most likely take a large part in making your costume: - Fabric, craft foam, notions, etc: ~ Fabric.com ~ Jo-Ann ~ Hancock Fabrics - Sewing Patterns: ~ Simplicity ~ McCall ~ Butterick > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Step Four: Accessorize This is such a fun and integral part of creating costumes that sometimes can be overlooked. Here are the main accessories that you'll be needing to get to complete your costumed look: - Weapons. Does your character carry a weapon, and the place you're planning on wearing the costume at would accept you carrying that weapon? Definitely consider making or buying one to carry and pose with you while you cosplay -- it'll add a special touch to your costume. Amazon, BUDK and Medieval Collectibles are great places to start your search for these if you want to buy them. - Footwear. Never go with sneakers or flipflops just because they're easy -- they'll ruin everything of the costume that you worked so hard on! Thrift stores are a great place to find shoes that you'll only be wearing a few times, and you won't feel bad altering a pair that only cost you $5. A note about characters that go barefoot: You will probably want to create a pair of "invisible shoes" (tutorial by "...And Sewing is Half the Battle!"). - Wigs. Now, I have a more lenient opinion on wigs than other cosplayers, but that's just because wigs can so often make a costume look worse rather than better, unless you want to fork out the $30-$80 for a high quality, synthetic, lace-front wig. With that in mind, it might be better to completely forego buying a wig and just go with your natural hair, styled like the character's as best you can. But, if you do want to buy a wig, Arda Wigs has rave reviews, and eBay can have some pretty good finds. - Prosthetics. I've found that Aradani Costumes is the absolute best place for high-quality, inexpensive prosthetics, which can add a convincing touch to your cosplay and make people look twice. "Wait, did that girl have pointy ears??" ;) > > > > > > > > > > > > > Step Five: Create Your Costume Now that you've got all the necessary materials necessary to make your intended design, it's time to put your sewing and crafting skills to the test! Here's a few extremely helpful links to get you started in your crafting. - 12 Things You Need to Start Sewing (Fab Grandma) - Craft Foam Armor Tutorial (Penwiper Unlimited) - Foam Board Weapons Tutorial (Fire Lily Cosplay) Let me tell you something crucial for this step: Google is your friend. Don't know how to do something? GOOGLE IT. Chances are pretty good that someone else has made the same costume before you and wrote about their process of doing so. Reading about their build can be extremely helpful for your own, and they may have even made some how-tos for the creation of some of the more difficult parts of the costume. Plus, if you have a question about the costume, they might be able to answer it! Many cosplayers are very open to helping others with their costumes. You can also check out the RPF, which is a great place to find answers from experienced hobbyists. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Step Six: Have fun! You've sewn, crafted and bought everything for your costume, and now it's finally time to put it all together and show it off!! Enjoy literally stepping into your character's shoes for a day. :D And with that, you've completed your very first cosplay. Bravo, and congratulations!!! If you followed my little guide to make your first costume, post a link to it in the comments below so I can see your wonderful handiwork. :) P.S. Let me tell you: if you don't think your cosplay turned out perfectly, don't worry, because I promise that you will only get better from here on out. Also, never compare your cosplays to others -- only compare them to your previous work. That way, you will only see the improvement in costuming, and you'll only be inspired to keep getting better. ^_^
Need a shield to go with your sword? check out my other tutorial (which includes two types of shields) Crafting a cosplay sword can elevate your costume from good to
Related Tutorial: How to Make Boot Covers With Fabric There are countless methods for creating boot covers for your cosplay. For some, you glue (or otherwise attach) the cover to
The starting point for (almost) all cosplay props is a template. This is especially important for any props you’ll be making out of EVA foam or Worbla. The template will
When making cosplay props, one of the most common painting techniques you’ll need to learn is how to paint something that is not wooden to look like wood. There are
Wondering where to buy EVA foam for your cosplay? Bill provides links on where he gets foam for his props and costumes.
EVA foam is a versatile material commonly used in creating costumes and props for cosplay. It’s lightweight, flexible, and can be shaped into complex forms, making it ideal for simulating
Whether you’re cosplaying in public right outside of a convention or in your hometown, there are some common courtesy and safety rules that you’ll want to follow. Overall, cosplay is
As someone who does not have a background in sewing, there was a lot I had to teach myself about how to make costumes look the way they should. One
DIY Steampunk Shoulder Armor / Foam Armor Template: I made a mechanical arm pattern a while ago, and though it looked pretty epic by itself, I felt it would be even better if it was a part of a larger mechanical body armor piece. Those were the roots behind this steampunk shoulder armor, though it ho…
If you’re cosplaying as a Dragon Age character, you can carry around the ultimate prop by making drinkable glowing Lyrium potion. Cosplayer Arkady made the drink and put together a tutorial d…
So I’ve been asked more than a few times how I made the fins for Undyne, and I actually compiled a tutorial to our facebook cosplay page a while ago. Full instructions under the cut, or you can go to...
Creating cosplay costumes with EVA foam is super fun and affordable! This material is just perfect to make amazing projects on a budget!
Anyone who cosplays a lot will tell you that it’s a pretty expensive hobby. If you want to create detailed and accurate costumes, the whole process can easily cost hundreds,
You just got back from a long convention and all you want to do is throw your costumes into the closet and forget about them. But don’t do it! If
I am compiling a tutorial for making mecha/ gundam costumes. Please note that this is not pepakura and that I do not use pepakura and I have no...
