Cosplay Tip: Storing Patterns

Cosplay tip: Storing patterns

So you’ve been cosplaying for a while, and you’ve accumulated quite a few home-made patterns. Don’t throw them away! They might come in handy for a future cosplay, so keep them in a neat binder with plastic sleeves like this:

I am a librarian so I like to obsessively label things. You could label each sleeve with the character’s name, source material, and list the patterns stored inside:

As I said, storing them this way would come in handy for future cosplays. Say for example you want to make some gauntlets so you can cosplay your latest waifu. Just look through your binder and BOOM you’ve found a pattern for gauntlets you’ve made for a previous cosplay. wow!

Plus it keeps things nice and neat. Also wow!

We must tell girls their voices are important

Malala Yousafzai (via truthfuls)

So everyone in the fucking world needs to see and pass this shit along. Backstory: Josh watches a lot of streamers on Twitch. One of them calls himself professorbroman. He got married last month in St. Louis and he and his fiancee were booked to stay at the Sheraton Plaza hotel in St. Louis. $250 ish per night per room for this hotel. His fiancee walked into this room and started crying she was so upset. The hotel refused to give them a different room or refund their money. The hotel and corporate refuses to make it right at the time or now. They ended up going to a different hotel and paying for their own room plus one of the members of their wedding party at the new hotel out of pocket. How would you feel if the night before your wedding you walked into this shit? Don't ever stay at a #SheratonHotel ever! Repost this shit. Tag your friends. Tweet it. Wtf ever. Just get it out to everyone you know so that Sheraton Corp. knows not to treat people this way!

This is great advice on the surface but the truth is not everyone is comfortable with their bodies. I'm not. There are so many female characters I would love to cosplay as (Wonder Woman, for example) but I'm fat. I would not feel comfortable wearing a skintight spandex outfit or a skirt that barely covers my ass. I'm well aware of how I look and I don't wish that sight on anybody.

So, yes, in theory cosplay whatever you want. But unfortunately in practice it doesn't always end up that way.

Really cool and fast way to cover foam!

Using Chrome Vinyl automobile wrap for Cosplay Armor

It’s called Chrome Vinyl, and it’s a metallic wrap used for automobiles.  

There’s a cosplayer who’s already made a basic tutorial for what it is and how to use it here: http://calgarycosplay.deviantart.com/art/Cosplay-Metallics-SOLVED-FOREVER-464151191

…though she’s not the first one to figure it out.  Chrome wrapping is actually a really popular method used in Asia for covering armored costumes, it just hasn’t really taken hold in western cosplay yet.  

You can look up youtube tutorials for how to apply the vinyl (all the demonstrations will be on cars) to get you started.  

To add to Calgary’s tutorial, I would say that if you buy a cheaper, no-brand-name vinyl wrap, it’s not going to give you the same results as buying a known brand of vinyl wrap.  I have a sample of generic wrap I bought off of eBay, and then a sample of Avery chrome vinyl wrap, that’s advertised to have a nice bit of stretch to it, and the Avery definitely works better because the stretchiness helps go around those curves.  Generic brands tend to be less stretchy, the adhesive less sticky, and more prone to dents and wrinkles when you apply heat.  As with all things, you get what you pay for.

Generic 

Avery

In addition, whether you’re using foam or worbla-coated foam, or wonderflex… it’s a good idea to stiffen it up a bit before applying the vinyl so that it can retain its shape.  Applying heat to the vinyl helps it stick and stretch, and you don’t want the heat un-shaping the foam/worbla/wonderflex underneath.  I find that using a few light coats of wood glue helps a considerable amount (don’t worry, you don’t need to go get yourself a gallon of epsilon or anything).  At the same time, don’t use your most powerful heat gun when applying your vinyl.  A hairdryer works fine, and the lighter heat will also contribute to keeping the shape of the foam/thermoplastic you’re wrapping.  

And of course, the more time you put in, the better the results.  Go slow, experiment on scraps first… if you’re using worbla or wonderflex, I do actually recommend smoothing it out a little bit first.  Stretchier chrome vinyls will hug a little bit to the grooves of the rough exterior.  For the smoothest possible finish, take that wood glue or wood filler or gesso to your worbla and just apply 2-3 coats to help even it out.  Not as much as you would need to if you were painting it, but just enough to give the vinyl a helping hand.  

If the adhesive seems to be losing its stickiness or just isn’t holding well enough (and you’d be learning this through your test scraps that I know you’re taking the time to do), I’ve been using contact cement.  

You can find this and various other brands at Home Depot or Lowe’s, etc… I find that using contact cement also reduces air bubbles and creases, especially as you wrap the vinyl around the edges so you get a nice cleeeeean finish.  

If you don’t know how to use contact cement, google is your friend.  

Obviously armor has a lot of pieces, and the unfortunate bit about vinyl wrapping is that you have to do it with every individual piece BEFORE assembly, as opposed to painting, where you can assemble everything first and then paint.  

The back of Kuvira’s armor has 10 pieces, and I need to wrap each of the ten plates before I can attach the plates.  The inside tends not to look very pretty, but nobody’s looking there anyway.

Worbla scraps are GREAT for assembling those wrapped vinyl pieces btw.  

…aaaaand that’s what I have to share about what I’ve learned in using chrome vinyl to make my shiny Kuvira armor!  Look forward to pictures of the complete armor and cosplay, and hope this helps!