Project Cosplay

This is a tough one- are there specific parts or questions you have regarding this because in general, we are using craft foam, foamboard, and worbla.

For this part (the back piece), we used foamboard and worbla for the side pieces and craft foam and worbla for the center pieces with screws for decoration. For the boxes, we are using foamboard for the side panels, styrene + cut up peroxide bottles + pipe fittings for the gas tank. For the blades, we are using foamcore & fake wood with bike brakes for part of the handles. I hope this helps!

If you have specific questions, let us know and we can try and answer. It’s hard to dissect this entire contraption in one post because it’s a pretty complicated design. Who knows, we might do a tutorial for this after we get it all done so we’ll see!

-x

So for full disclosure, both your mods are female so this isn’t an area we research often. However, I (xaynie) do frequent male to female youtube channels from time to time because some of them are really good for wigs and body transformation makeup. Therefore, I can only provide so much info to get you started! So here are my tips:

1) Face - Men have broader features in general. Because of this, makeup is essential. A pretty popular makeup tutorial is here on how to do your makeup. At the least get moisturizer, foundation, translucent powder, bronzer, mascara, lipstick, blush, eyeshadow, eyeliner, fake lashes.  If you don’t have the budget, borrow from a friend or raid CVS / Rite Aid / Local Beauty shops that sells products pretty cheap.

2) Body - Although I’m a girl, I am not blessed with boobs. I have had to look up tutorials on how to create cleavage before and this is the best tutorial I have found on how to create cleavage. As for tucking, I’m not familiar with that but if you do a search on youtube for “tuck for drag” you will find lots of help :)

I’m sorry, I wish I could be of more help. Your best bet is to search for “male to female transformation tutorial” on Youtube and Google. It should lead you down the right path! I would just be wary of some of the drag makeup as some of them tend to overemphasize the eyebrows and cheekbones which looks less natural. Good luck!

I’m going to start by saying this is probably at best a poorly worded question. Please, do not go into your costume makeup planning with the intent of replicating an ethnicity that is not your own. There are a lot of reasons this is widely considered to be offensive, largely having to do with the history of racial caricatures, yellowface, and more. An ethnicity is not a costume you can nor should attempt just put on — whether that’s using makeup to alter your skin tone for the purpose of a costume or changing your eye shape via makeup with the intent of looking Asian. It is fine to cosplay a character who is not the same ethnicity as you, but it becomes an issue when you treat their race as a part of the costume. 

Instead of looking for makeup that imitates an ethnicity, look at your character and think about what sort of eye make up that the character would wear. Try to replicate the character’s style, not the race. No amount of makeup will give you the genetic markers of another ethnicity, and there are very real people you may hurt when you attempt to do so.

We obviously do makeup with our costumes, simpler stuff for crossplay as a male but the more glamorous the character, the more glamorous the makeup becomes. Xaynie posted a wonderful collection of eye makeup tutorial videos and I strongly encourage looking through there and picking something that seems to suit your character’s personality and fashion sense. I don’t know what character you are aiming for, so I cannot offer better advice than that.

- EG

Yes, we are still taking asks!

Tip 1: Use a longer, zig-zag stitch. Your assumption was correct! Fleece is a knit and is slightly stretchy. What you would want to use is a universal or ballpoint needle (I prefer ballpoint for knits), set your stitch length longer (3mm to 3.5mm), and use a narrow zigzag stitch. Because it’s stretchy, the zigzag stitch will allow it to give a little. For your bobbin, it will depend on how thick your fleece is. Whenever I work with new fabrics, the first thing I do is cut off a piece of the fabric, set my tension, stitch type, and length of stitches to what I think it should be. Then I sew in a straight line across the test fabric to see if there is puckering or loose bobbin thread. I adjust accordingly based on what I see. I would recommend you do this too before working on your fleece (but I would use a contrasting thread color to make it easier to see the thread)!

Tip 2: Use Wonder Clips to hold the fabric in place while you work. Most people suggest using T-pins or longer glass point pins but I prefer wonder clips. They are basically small binder clips that keep the fabric together. If you use regular pins they will get lost in the fleece and it will be harder to find than Waldo in an Eye-Spy book. Wonder clips also prevent the seams from rolling into themselves when you are sewing so it’s a win-win all around. Plus, you can use them for all your other projects and I prefer them over pins. Seriously, this is a good investment if you can fork over the cash. Or alternatively, you can use binder clips but they might leave a mark on your fabric.

Tip 3: Your stitches will get lost in the fleece. This is good and bad. Good in that if you make mistakes while sewing, the fleece hides the imperfections. Bad in that if you want to use your seam ripper, it’s a nightmare.

Other random tips:

• As with most knits, you don’t have to finish the seams
• Cut using the “with nap” instructions on your pattern
• Trim seam allowances to reduce bulk
• Sewing a zipper into fleece sucks. It gets bulky very quickly and I can never seem to get it to lay flat. And sewing button holes are a pain because the fleece is so bulky. So I would recommend using heavy duty snaps, button and loop, or toggles for fastening fleece.

That’s all I got, good luck!

-x