Getting Started with Costumes

Where do I start?

That's a difficult question to answer because where you start is going to depend on where you want to be by the end of your project. There are so many aspects to making a costume that yes, it is difficult to figure out where to start. And as someone trying to write a tutorial blog, it's especially hard to figure out how to encompass all the different ways you COULD start. 

So, let's start with a question: Who or what do you want to be? 

Costume A, B, Cs

Costume Design, like any type of design, is creative problem solving. I'm not claiming to be a pro at costume design, but I have dabbled. And so can you! Once you decide on the who or what you're going to be, the next question is HOW. How do I achieve the outcome I want?

 

Motive, attitude, and resources play a part in how you want to design the costume. 

By motive I mean a desire and reason you are making the costume. It doesn't have to be all that complicated. It could be "I want to be Superman for Halloween." Why? Well, because it's Halloween and I want to dress up. Or I need to make costumes for a play or film production. Or if you're like me, you just like making costumes. If it looks cool, I want to recreate it. I'll find an event later. (I plan Halloween a year in advance!) 

It's the attitude toward the costume or event that drives creative decisions about HOW to make a costume. Because feelings drive most of our decisions in a sense. If you're not enthused about the event, then you're likely not going to want to put in a lot of effort or use expensive materials. But if you want to make your co-workers laugh or look attractive at a party, then you'll make certain design decisions.

Finally, RESOURCES are basically the tools you have on hand. Both time and talent are resources, along with funds, supplies, and tools. If you only have a week before the event, you can't finish a 12 week course on leather crafting (you could start it obviously). Oddly enough, I think the most valuable resource you have is your skill and experience. Developing these resources will help you save on the other resources of time, funds and supplies. Experience will tell you best methods, tools, and materials for YOU and your project. Knowing what you are doing will mean less time needed to learn a new skill or research how to do something.

Practical Advice

This is all well and good but really, for real, HOW DO I GET STARTED? 

Well, for me at least, all my costume projects start with planning and pre-production. So, that's a good place to start. 

Costume plans are key to helping you save on resources and get close to your desired goal. I have a whole process of analyzing a character I want to cosplay as well as one for creating a character of my own that I then dress up as. It starts with research, includes some indecipherable doodles, and in my case journaling. Because I like to share my process I take this extra step of journaling my process when I can. (Sometimes there's no time!)

Okay, I will definitely go more into detail about my process in another post. Most of this blog I intend to fill with costume plans and analysis to kind of help you along. (It's like providing cheat sheets.) 

Watching a video of someone's process or reading their journal gives you insight as to what you can expect and what you might need. 

Skills to Develop

Costume making is a multi-disciplined art. A single costume could require sculpting, sewing, carving, woodwork, casting molds, and electronics. My suggestion is to start with sewing or armor crafting as these tend to be the basis of most costumes depending on the genre. Other skills seem to branch off from there. 

Here are a few skills I've used and what they can help with in costume making: 

• Hand Sewing - touching up a costume, making a plush prop, affixing things to the costume
• Machine Sewing - constructing a cloth portion of a costume quickly, creating cloth props or accessories, understanding sewing patterns/clothing patterns
• Sculpting - creating details, props and accessories
• Carving - same as above but from other material
• Carpentry/Construction - experience with power tools, woodcraft
• Painting - adding color or illusion to the costume
• Airbrushing - quickly applying color or detail to a costume, prop or accessory
• Foamcraft - cutting and gluing foam patterns together
• 3D Printing - manipulate or create 3D digital models to print out in resin or plastic
• Jewelry Making - casting resin, utilizing beads
• Leatherworking - understanding leather (and foam) and constructing costumes or accessories from it 
• Papercraft - oragami turns out to be very helpful, but usually the software Pepakura is what this refers to 
• Yarn craft - knitting or crochet to create garments or props. 
• Hair Styling - to make the wigs look good
• Makeup Art - adjusting the look of your face with the magic of color!

I will say that everyone will find different levels of comfort with crafting methods. I'm pretty confident in my machine sewing but not so much in my sculpting or hair styling. 

How do you learn such things? Most of the time you can teach yourself via tutorials. I'm self taught in crochet, sculpting and 3D Printing. However, for Leatherworking and sewing, I've taken courses or had a mentor. (Thanks Mom!) I find taking a sewing class is the best way to learn, but then again, my Dad is a self-taught blacksmith. So, you'll have to discover what kind of learner you are and how best to do it. 

The easiest way to start learning is to give something a try. You can determine from there if you need an in-person mentor, a guided online course, or pick up an in-person class. 

Getting Started

So where do you start? Start with a plan. By planning you'll come up with a bunch of questions about how you're going to make that costume. Then you'll have to go find answers for those questions. 

I hope that this blog will become such a resource for you to answer some of those question or creative problems that arise when planning a costume.

So...let's get started!

(It's me at my start! LOL! I don't have the picture but I was a Banana for my first Halloween. Literally just a yellow onesie and cap. It only got more complicated from there.)