Do You Have Any Suggestions On What Fabric To Use For Superhero/villain Cosplays? I Am A Cosplay Noob

Do you have any suggestions on what fabric to use for superhero/villain cosplays? I am a cosplay noob and don't want to just go pick things willy nilly that dont work or work together lol. Any help is greatly appreciated!

hoooo boy do I ever

I assume we’re talking your traditional comic book bodysuit type deal?  Because the answer begins and ends with spandex - but knowing what type of spandex you want is the tricky bit

Thankfully, it’s not actually that tricky, it’s just kind of hard to find info on.

Your typical spandex is also called milliskin, and sometimes you’ll find it in both matte and shiny varieties.  The shiny stuff isn’t actually metallic or anything, it’s just a tiny bit sparkly.  I probably wouldn’t personally use the shiny stuff for large parts of a bodysuit, but for details that need to stand out it’s great.

Milliskin is super useful because it’s very stretchy, not extremely expensive (or at least, it shouldn’t be), and comes in a ton of colors, but if you don’t need something in an odd color, moleskin is the same basic material, but thicker.  If you want to wear a catsuit but are a bit self-conscious about wearing a single layer of stretchy bullshit, this is what you want.  it also comes in matte and shiny, and also something called “rough.”  I’m not exactly sure how rough differs from the others, except that it must be…rougher.  Moleskin is what they use to make football players’ pants; it’s a sturdy material.

There’s also something called “jumbo spandex,” which I haven’t actually used; I think this is even heavier weight than moleskin.  I wouldn’t recommend it, because as the thickness increases it’ll get harder to work with, but it exists.

…so that’s your basic stuff.  That’s what I would recommend for, say, an old-school Superman costume.  But then it gets weird.

There’s also “wet look spandex,” which I think usually compares in weight to milliskin, but has an odd sheen to it…like it’s wet.  It’s hard to explain, except like that.  It’s a little bit shiny, but without the aggressive plasticness of PVC, which can be a really nice effect.

Stretch PVC/stretch vinyl is the devil.  For someone with no experience, I cannot recommend strongly enough against it.  It is very shiny and looks impressive when used well, so people do use it, but it looks very tacky when everything doesn’t lay perfectly flat, and it doesn’t stretch as much as normal spandex, so it’s very hard to make it fit right.  AND it doesn’t breathe AT ALL so it’s even obnoxious to wear.

Matte stretch vinyl is a little bit better, but I may just be saying that because I like how it looks.  I’ve used it for accent pieces, but I definitely would not try to make most of a suit out of it.

Metallic spandex is kind of cool.  It looks almost-but-not-quite like metal when laid flat, and shines beautifully when draped.  Unfortunately, the metallic finish tends to rub off the spandex backing after a while, so I wouldn’t recommend it for anything that’s going to get a lot of wear.  But I used it for the lining of a cape once and it was awesome.  It’s usually much easier to work with than PVC, and it’s also great for gluing over simple foam armor pieces instead of painting. 

Nooooow you probably need to know where to get all of this.  Don’t go to Joann’s; their selection is extremely limited and they have a bizarre range of quality, from disgusting to the touch to diminishing returns levels of niceness.  You don’t need Joann’s $17 spandex; no one does.  I use two websites almost exclusively, spandexworld.com and spandexhouse.com.  You can also find some decent stuff on Ebay, and I did once have to get a specific galaxy pattern custom-printed on Spoonflower, but 90% of what you need is at one of those two sites.

One last reminder is to watch out for whether fabric says two-way or four-way stretch.  Two-way will only stretch across the grain, and four-way stretches both across and along it.  One isn’t necessarily better, but for most superhero stuff, four-way is a safer bet.  It makes the fit a bit more forgiving and it’ll be more comfortable to wear.

….good luck.  That may have been more information that you really needed.

Mini Tutorial: Clay Molds for Worbla

Cosplay Amino, the largest mobile community for Cosplay fans!

This looks useful! I may have to try this with my current armor project.

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Tutorial by: Cathy Hay Tutorial link: http://yourwardrobeunlockd.com/home/65-drafting

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkI_uT5kTp8)

Hey guys! I filmed this footage a very very long time ago (hence the weird lighting and angles) with the intentions of putting it on my youtube and now i finally have! This is my process of building my own personal light up Calcifer prop. This process is great for any kind of fire or ice type prop and is super easy to accomplish so I hope you give it a try!

Intro to Basic Resin Casting

One of the major challenges I faced when I was just getting started in crafting props and accessories was making the massive leap from cutting and gluing things (simple skills we began learning in ...

I was getting so many questions about the casting process in my panels that I wrote this beginner-friendly tutorial. Then we had so much interest from the tutorial that we started teaching a three-hour hands-on workshop on basic resin and silicone casting at conventions. (Currently this is being offered annually at Gen Con, but I’ve recently been asked to do these workshops at a new local venue outside of conventions, so maybe we’ll be offering more of those soon! Stay tuned!)

@cos-tips yes please!

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So I bought a standard white cotton shirt and I cut the neckline and sleeves to match hers. I didn’t find a similar one that I liked and also this was a lot cheaper and easier than finding an exact one to hers.

I started dyeing it with Tea and a bit of coffee. I was scared of how dark it would be so I started out by using 10 bags of white, mint, and chamomile tea.

It came out too light so I decided to dye it again and use those same bags plus black teas of different varieties. Clearly it’s a lot darker even though it’s still soaking and it’s wet.

I’ll post picture when it’s done!