Quick Doodles: Swatch it Out

Sometimes, you can’t buy all of your fabric at once. Or you didn’t buy enough the first time around. Maybe you found an old remnant that will work perfectly for your new costume, but you need to match the color.

Because these things happen, it’s incredibly important to bring swatches with you not only when you go fabric shopping, but even when shopping for clothes to alter, beads, and accessories.

What is a swatch? A swatch is a ‘little’ sample of fabric used to facilitate the exhausting process of matching color, pattern, or texture. They also help out with testing fabric quality and more.

How big should a swatch be? I like for my swatches to be big enough to cover a not insignificant portion of my palm. Sometimes the swatches that fabric stores provide (do not be afraid to ask for a swatch!) are not big enough for my liking, but when you’re cutting swatches from your own fabric, do your eyes a favor and cut the swatch on the larger size. This will make it easier to compare color, fabric composition, etc.

If you are buying fabric online, be sure to plan ahead enough to allow time to order swatches. No computer screen can substitute for feeling and seeing the fabric in front of you (and you can’t throw your monitor in the washing machine to see if the dye bleeds!)

Quick Doodles: Getting Your Seam Allowance Right

When I was a little girl and I absolutely hated to sew, my mom taught me how to sew on the Singer that eventually became such a pain that we traded it in for an Elna.

But while I was learning to sew, my mom made me use a seam gauge. In my experience with sewing, I have run into two kinds: one that screws onto the machine itself, and one with a very powerful magnet that is placed up against whatever seam allowance is called for.

Being tight-budgeted cosplayers, I know that everyone is asking the same question: is it worth the money? If you’re a beginner, maybe.

The magnet seam guide that I talked about is made by Dritz and costs maybe five bucks at the most. Like the screw-in seam gauge, it works by providing a physical barrier that keeps the fabric, ideally from moving past a certain point. But what I’ve noticed is that if a beginner (I did this too) has a tendency to press fabric too far to the right of the seam allowance, the fabric nestles up against the barrier that seam gauges and guides create, sometimes allowing a situation in which the needle sews this second layer over the first. And when I was a beginner, I remember that ripping out my seams and starting over from scratch ticked me off more than anything.

If you’re learning how to sew and you do the same thing I did, use the guides marked on the plate or, if necessary, place the edge of a piece of tape along the desired seam allowance. Don’t get too crazy with the pedal, and go slow. There’s plenty of time to go fast when you have more control over your machine.

Quick Doodles: Cosplayer’s Eye

This is not a disease that can spread from person to person with direct contact or ‘exchanging bodily fluids’, and some people find it easier to embrace this and call it a ‘condition’ rather than a disease.

If you find yourself immediately mentally drafting a piece list for any character art you lay eyes on, even if you have no intention of ever cosplaying that character, then you’re one of the infected. There is no cure.

Other symptoms include, but are not limited to:

1. On sight, matching a garment in a store with a random character from the last manga you read.
2. After looking at a piece of fabric, you can immediately think of at least two different characters that you could use it for.
3. Instantly dismissing an innocent bolt of fabric you aren’t even interested in because it would look terrible photographed.
4. Judging the quality of hairpieces on MTV and VH1.

Even if you are infected, you can find comfort in the knowledge that many cosplayers who have contracted ‘cosplayer’s eye’ continue to experience long, fulfilled and enriched lives, even if they do take longer to go shopping for shoes than ordinary because they are so easily distracted, or... 'focused'.

Quick Doodles: Washing and Steaming

Please wash or steam. I’m thinking about you. If you think that your fabric feels gross when you run your hands over it, your rash is going to feel disgusting when you spend an entire air conditioning-deprived convention with the preservatives, over-saturated dye, and sizing that kept your fabric company on the lonely, bug-infested cruise from China.

Quick Doodles: What Do I Do Now?

Now is a dangerous time for me. My costume for both San Japan and Nan Desu Kan is done. I have nothing to do. And I can’t do anything right now, for the sake of a) my wallet and b) the fact that I’m moving back up to school in a week (which is why I’m using the same costume for two conventions.)

This is dangerous because I really, really want to make a costume right now. So I’ll tell myself, ‘okay, maybe I’ll feel better if I do something like put together a supplies list and leave it at that.’ Which never works.

So next, I’ll latch onto some other character and start seriously considering cosplaying him or her. And I’ll tell myself, okay, give it three days. If you still feel this way in three days, then maybe…

And of course, I do. So I’ll tell myself, ‘well, we’re just going to read the entire series, watch the anime and the OVA, until you stumble across something you hate about this character so you can get this out of your system.’

Because there’s no way that works, I then go off in search of another series to fixate on, one specifically chosen with the idea that I won’t find someone I want to cosplay in it. And surprise, not only have I found my New Favorite Series (OMG optional), I’ve found someone I want to cosplay.

Can the English version of Dissidia please come out already?

Quick Doodles: I Heart Ribbon

I do. Bias and hem tape from the package can only get so bland, and making your own can only get so tedious, before you give up on both. Ribbon, if wide enough, is awesome because it can step in and function perfectly well as tape as long as you do a little bit of ironing beforehand to get the sharp crease. And everyone loves a sharp, finished hem.

Wire ribbon can get a little fussy, though. If the fabric isn’t heavy enough, the ribbon tends to one-up the laws of gravity and make that hem stick out and up. But if that’s what you’re going for, then the wire will help nicely.

Quick Doodles: Don’t Glomp Me

Please. Don’t look at me like that. Can’t you see all the hand-beading on my sleeves, or for that matter, the fact that I have more skin than fabric going on, especially in an essential area below my waist?

No, I thought I said—

Okay. Ohhh-kay. Um… uh, yeah. I’m glad that Kuja’s your favorite character too.

Don’t glomp me. The fact that you made me feel violated really puts a damper on conversation.

Quick Doodles: Emergency Wig Maintenance

Don’t do it. I see you there, sitting on the floor in front of panel room #2: your wig’s all tangled and your out-of-costume friend has one of those awful hairbrushes with the plastic bubbles on each bristle. Just once, you think. Just once can’t hurt it too bad.

Please, just use your fingers. If you really feel like some combing apparatus is necessary, go steal a plastic fork from the food set-up. Use a pair of chopsticks for all I care. Just don’t—

*sigh*

Quick Doodles: The Mysteries of Staystitching, Unveiled!

Or, why staystitching isn’t a waste of your life. I spent about two years of my cosplay life in the dark before I figured this out, because prior to my costuming class, I was self-taught and knew nothing about fabric other than woven/knit/doesn’t fray.

When you cut out your fabric, you free it from the selvage edge. This is somewhat less than cool, because it allows the potential for the weave of the fibers to slip this way and that, particularly at the bias or any curves. Staystitching rocks because it keeps this from happening.

So even if you have two days to finish the costume, staystitch where you’re supposed to (in general, that’s along the collar, sleeve, and the hem). It only takes an extra two minutes and you don’t even have to backstitch, I promise.

Quick Doodles: But it’s 50% off!!

I hate, more than anything, going into stores like Hobby Lobby or Michaels. Because I see something that reminds me of, say, Yuuko Ichihara or a bauble on an Amano design, and it makes me want to divorce Kuja and spend $300+ dollars on some random costume that I don’t even really like. But it’s sooo perfect, and it’s on saaaallleeeeee….

It’s okay, I tell myself. Do what your D.A.R.E. officer taught you in elementary school. Just say no.