Cosplay clothing

[Philomath she/her]

Hey all. I hope this is okay here. I am wanting to try my hand at cosplay for the first time for the con in December. And of course instead of dipping my toes in, I’m going straight for doing a Listener/Singer. My main question though is how does one who has no sewing talent (I’m talking like none, maybe even negative talent. Ha ha.) find places to get clothes for cosplay. Do I just accept something not too book accurate, but would be fun to wear and still feel like fantasy cosplay? Or can I find a good place that does more Asian style cosplay instead of medieval European since that is what Stormlight is more based around. 

[Ookla she/her]

Go to thrift stores! You never know what gems you might find there--stuff that fits perfectly, stuff that fits almost perfectly (and could be adjusted fairly easily, even by someone who can't sew), stuff with a lot of potential that you might want to use for a future project, etc. Keep any weird gems you find.

I went to a panel on cosplaying at the LTUE writing symposium this year, and their main point was that you don't have to have a lot of money or a lot of sewing skills to make a decent cosplay. As long as you can thread a needle and put stitches in fabric in a few small spots (which anyone can do, really), you can probably pull off most of what you need to do with thrift store finds. Just make sure to check the materials, seams, linings, etc. to make sure they're of good quality--so, avoid cheap polyesters or super thin fabrics if you can, seams shouldn't really have any tailing threads hanging out of them, linings should be firmly attached to the outer fabric and not slide around in weird ways.

For example from my own small experience in thrifting, I have a really nice leather backpack I found at my local thrift store for three dollars. If I were ever cosplaying a Medieval-era adventurer, that would be the bag I'd bring.

For you, working with something more Asian, I recommend keeping an eye out for old, retired karate uniforms/gi's/kimonos (they have a few names). The ones I used during my karate career were always made with pretty sturdy canvas-ish fabric, and if you find a white one you can do a bit of Googling and see if there's a simple way to dye it a color you want (on the other hand, you could go to a martial arts supply website and buy a plain one in the color you choose. I'd guess it'd be a bit more expensive that way, but you don't have to dye it yourself and there'd be no school-affiliation patches to remove).

If you do decide to do a lot of cosplaying, though, expect to learn some basic sewing skills. From what I've heard, you don't need a whole lot more than basics for most things, and there are probably online communities where you can do more general research, too.

Good luck!

Edit: Also, if you want a resource for steeping yourself in sewing and learning some basic hand-sewing stitches, I recommend Bernadette Banner on YouTube. She's got quite a few videos and resources on those sorts of things, and if you watch enough of her videos you'll get to see the pattern-drafting process a lot. She'll teach you about common mistakes, and basically just give you a lot of the things you'll need to help repair that negative talent. (If you're like me, though, and absolutely hate sewing with a passion despite the small talent you have... yeah, I don't know how to help you with that.)

Edited March 18, 2024 by Ookla

[Annatar he/him]

Go to Hobby Lobby as well (If you have one where you live)