Tried it, Got Overwhelmed: Cosplay

You are never too old to play dressup, and the cosplay community on the internet is stronger than it ever was. From faithful recreations of fictional characters, to more zany crossovers, if you're going to a fan or comic convention of any kind, you are going to see it all. After thinking "how hard can it be?" I decided to jump in and try it for myself. Here's how that went.

I got inspired to make this by the amazingly talented Crescentshay over on Instagram. One of my friends was talking about Marvel again, and I remembered how much I loved the character of Bucky Barnes/The Winter Solider. So I got to work.

Inspiration (courtesy of Cresentshay), and supplies. Let's go!

I sourced a couple pieces of sequinned and metallic fabrics from the discounted scraps bin at a local fabric shop. They were sold by weight and only cost me around $8. I do not have the level of skills that Shay has, so instead of making the rest of the top from scratch, I grabbed an old mesh long sleeved shirt, and thrifted a black corset I could reimagine as a tactical vest.

The first challenge was measuring my arm by myself so I could cut out a sleeve shape. Initially, I tried using another top as a template, but that ended up too big. Most guides and patterns that I could find on the internet either cost money, or involved cutting up another tee's sleeve, and laying that flat on the fabric as a guide. Nether sounded appealing. Then I got lucky and came across a pattern making technique that uses cling film. Now that was doable by myself. I grabbed a roll and got to work.

This part was fidigity, and I still didn't get it quite right, but luckily I could use the corset straps later to hide the hem

On to the next challenge, which was sewing it all together. I have access to an Ikea sewing machine, but I do not trust its endurance with the sequinned fabric I ended up choosing. Sewing on sequinned fabric safely is a process, and not one I wanted to get wrong and break my machine or anything else with. So I opted to hand sew the sleeve to my mesh top. This. Took. AGES.

Put a podcast or a movie on the background for this one! It took HOURS.

By the time we got to turning the corset top into a tatical vest, I gave up. It was 3am, and I was defeated. The webbing straps were thick and near impossible to sew through with my tiny needle. I admitted defeat and safety pinned on the straps for the finished look.

There's around 3 safety pins securing the clipped straps. It held up really well though

It was now ready to go. I grabbed a cheap synthetic brown wig from Amazon, raked an unholy amount of styling clay through it, chopped it in a way that would make a hairdresser cry, and here's the finished look!

Unsure if this is a fail or slay. (Middle picture courtesy of Disney/Marvel)

Try it Once or Twice?

Try it at least once. It is a hard hobby to get into in terms of difficulty, and doing it fully by hand can be incredibly time consuming. Trying it just this one time gave me an incredible amount of respect for costumers and cosplayers- mending and customising your own clothes is one thing, but interpreting a character design so it matches your skillset is a whole other ballgame. I'm genuinely surprised it turned out as good as it did, but I think I might only do this again for very special occasions now.

If it's something you want to try though, I say just go for it. There are plenty of tutorials online, and if you're not in a time crunch, I imagine it'd be an amazing feeling to see eveything slowly come together.

Try it once at least.

Cost: minimal- grab scraps, old clothes, random pillowcases...any fabric is fair game Tries: at least once Recommend: if you really love character and want to put your own spin on it