At the end of convention season many cosplayers are already looking ahead toward their 2015 (or 2016!) costumes. Case in point, at a recent Halloween gathering our conversations lingered on costume construction and our cosplay plans for the Emerald City Comicon and Sakura-Con.
My winter months will be a flurry of concept art and screen shots, watching video clips, and wandering the aisles of my local fabric stores in order to design my next two costumes.
This is undoubtedly my favorite part of cosplay – aside from wearing the costume. I am a history geek who loves doing detailed, investigative research. I take great pleasure in finding a fabric that not only looks but feels and moves like the character’s garment would. I could talk for hours with you about turning a 2D animated cartoon or video game character into a real 3D textured costume. And thanks to my friends at Zeita Studios, I will have the opportunity.
I am very excited to announce that I will be leading a workshop about Fabric Choice for your cosplay or costuming project!!
Using some of my cosplay projects (Elizabeth, Leliana, Korra, and Ezio) I will share my strategies for dissecting your favorite character’s garments and choosing fabrics to meet your costume goals. We’ll also talk about budgeting and a variety of fabric sources (local brick and mortars and online).
This will be the first in a workshop series hosted at Zeita Studios in Seattle, WA timed to help you prepare for the conventions of Spring 2015. You can take one or all three.
If you are a cosplayer or someone who wants to get the a head start on next year’s Halloween costume, visit Zeita Studios’s website to sign up.
We look forward to seeing you there!
The Fabric Alchemist 
Congratulations, Meris! Your future students are lucky to have you as a teacher. 🙂
Hello! I wanted to know if this workshop is beginner friendly or if you need any previous experiences making costumes. I love to go but I never made a costume before and I always wanted to make my own cosplay instead of buying them online but I barely know where to start. Please! & Thank you!
<3nemo
Hi! Yes, this workshop is beginner friendly. Particularly the fabric workshop. I’ll be talking about researching character costumes, selecting fabrics, and also selecting patterns to help you.
For the construction techniques/sewing with unique materials class, we do recommend having a basic familiarity with using a sewing machine. For example the instructors will be showing how sewing with silk or faux leather is different than sewing with cotton fabric. This workshop is more hands on.
The final fitting workshop assumes some experience sewing garments, but the purpose of the workshop is to show you how to adjust a pattern to fit you better and look more customized.