This isn’t really an FAQ Friday today, but just some fun memories & stories I wanted to share.
So earlier this week, I read this really great article, “15 Cosplay Mistakes You Will Inevitably Make“ by Jenbae. Go read it, it’s great.
As I was reading it, I was checking off things in my mind where I’d made that mistake. I thought it would be fun to make my personal responses to their list of mistakes — I’m just going to paraphrase the mistakes they list, because you really ought to go read it!
1. Picking a too-complicated costume.
BEATRIX
It was my first anime con, 2001. I thought EVERYBODY made three costumes, one for each day. I made Card Captor Sakura (in the wrong colour because our fabric store didn’t carry green knit), Selphie (FF8), and… Beatrix from FF9.
My grandma and mom helped me with all the sewing, but Beatrix also has armor. I thought, I can figure this out!
My arm armor was made of painted cardboard tubes. It was velcroed onto gloves I made out of cotton because I didn’t know how else to make them. My ornate belt buckle was cardboard covered in gold fabric. My elaborate boot covers were white vinyl with a blue dot painted on the front.
I remember clearly, sitting at breakfast Saturday morning of the con, all by myself (waiting on my friend to come downstairs) and feeling very foolish. I knew it didn’t look right. I wore it for a little while then went and took it off and never wore it again. It was just beyond my skillset at the time. It was a learning experience and I’m glad I did it; but I wish I’d built up to it a bit more before tackling something so complicated.
2. Buying offbrand materials to save money
My early costume days are filled with a myriad of shiny Halloween wigs (or just a step above). There wasn’t a lot to choose from in the way of odd-coloured wigs back then.
But my thing is fabric. If I’m trying to do something quick, or cheap, I’m probably not going to order fabric online. I’ll just pop by the fabric store and see if they have anything close enough. I think my Sleeping Beauty is the best example of this – it was just a fun Halloween costume, so I used a bunch of satin from Hancock’s. I did try to dull it down with some chiffon, but I wish I’d at least gone another direction with the bodice. Live and learn!
3. Shoes that don’t fit ’cause you bought them online
Uh yeah too-small Romana II shoes that gave me blisters on the Thursday night of Dragoncon, I’m looking right at you. Jerkwads.
4. Stepping on pins
And then having to get surgery to get it removed.
5. Getting blood on your costume
I think the worst one of these is UNFORTUNATELY my cousin’s Cinderella bodice. I sliced my finger open while setting the grommets. It all came out but I felt terrible about bleeding on somebody ELSE’S costume.
6. Hot gluing your hand to something
I’m totally cool with hot glue on my skin. It hurts but it’s ok.
IT’S WHEN IT GETS ON YOUR FINGERNAILS WTF WHY DOES THAT HURT SO MUCH?!?!?!
7. You realize you don’t have time to finish your costume
I refuse to take no for an answer. The only version I have of this is “It’s two months til the con and I have all this other stuff. I’m going to have to drop this other costume.”
Right before the con? Hell no. That thing is getting done come hell or high water.
8. Trying to style a wig and destroying it
I once had this ugly brown crimped wig attached to a headband – I think it was like a $15 halloween wig (see #2), and I was going to use at for – god help me – a Jack Sparrow costume. That never happened, so one day I decided, I’m going to straighten this wig and curl it and make it a wig for my Selphie costume. Yeah that thing melted everywhere. It was just like a giant clump of melted plastic. Haha.
9. Finding a back reference once you’re already half done
Ruby Moon and Yuuko. Dang CLAMP designs and having all kinds of crazy stuff on the back.
10. Surviving on coffee and sugar
I hate coffee and I don’t really rely on sugar…. so I keep myself going on sweet, pure hatred.
11. Having to sew by hand
KNOCK ON WOOD I have not had to do this. I’ve always just borrowed somebody else’s machine.
12. Running out of thread and having to use what you have on hand
If you ever see my costume and it has mismatched (or “contrast stitching” as I call it) thread, this is exactly why. Like hell I’m going all the way back to the fabric store for a thing of thread. Green is close enough to blue, dammit.
13. Forget to put in a zipper
It’s not the zipper for me. In my case, it’s anything that needs a piece of velcro or a hook-and-eye. Just those last little closures, often at a waistband or a collar. It’s those “That’ll only take a second, I’ll do that later” things I forget. And then I get to the convention and that’s why I have a giant bag of safety pins in my repair kit.
14. Believing duct tape fixes everything
No way man. Gaffer’s Tape all the way.
15. You sew yourself into your costume
I had to sew myself into Utena, and also into when I rewore Starfire without the chest piece. I had HAD a clear bra strap attached to the bra cups for Starfire, and once I got there and put it all on, I felt too self-conscious about it and grabbed a needle and thread and sewed the bra cups shut.
16. You can’t sit down
I can’t sit down in my two armor costumes – Magik and Stormtrooper. But I think that’s really about it. Kingdom Come Wonder Woman I need to a very small chair that will fit between the wings (no couches).
That’s all for today, check back next week for more mistakes since I’m still constantly making them. LOL.