{"id":32,"date":"2014-02-22T22:36:11","date_gmt":"2014-02-22T22:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goofycaca.com\/?p=32"},"modified":"2014-02-23T16:21:12","modified_gmt":"2014-02-23T16:21:12","slug":"first-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goofycaca.com\/?p=32","title":{"rendered":"First post"},"content":{"rendered":"

We will start by making it clear that this blog is going to be oriented towards cosplayers and beginning cosplayers at that.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because I’m a beginning cosplayer myself and hopefully some of these insights will help other beginners avoid some of the frustrations that I have enjoyed.\u00a0 Why have I been frustrated about some things?\u00a0 Because nobody created a blog to help me with shit that I didn’t know already.<\/p>\n

Like most of you (beginning cosplayers) I’ve been following several well established cosplayers like Abbey Darkstar<\/a>, Nicole Marie Jean<\/a>,\u00a0Cara Nicole<\/a>, Ani-Mia<\/a>, Jessica Nigri<\/a>, Yaya Han <\/a>and Rosanna Rocha<\/a>.\u00a0 All great people and worth following.\u00a0 Additionally, they all make this shit look easy.\u00a0 Why do I bring this up?\u00a0 Because the last thing a new cosplayer needs is a false sense of simplicity.\u00a0 As I am finding out, and hopefully will be imparting to you rapidly, this shit takes some work and can be frustrating as hell.\u00a0 By posting my misadventures here, hopefully, we can minimize your misadventures and frustration.\u00a0 This means more fun, more cosplays and more winning lottery tickets.<\/p>\n

One thing to remember is that all of the cosplayers that I mentioned above, while great people, will not be of much help to you. Don’t get me wrong, they would love to help you out.\u00a0 But the fact is there are just not enough hours in the day for them to respond to every email, instant message, or facebook poke they receive.\u00a0 Remember, for every honest question about how to sew this, dye that or paint X, they receive 1000 messages about their boobs.\u00a0 How big are they, can I see them, are they real, etc.\u00a0 Plus, and this may come as a shock to some of you, they have lives of their own.\u00a0 This is not the ONLY thing they do, hell, for some it’s not even their real job!\u00a0 Because of this they don’t have the time to get back to your questions or give you pointers or google something for you.\u00a0 They learned all of this the same way that I am, trial and error.\u00a0 While you see some progress pics, you’re not likely to see posts about what to do and how to do it to minimize frustration.\u00a0 They don’t have time for that.\u00a0 I’ve read some of them mention putting together cosplays in a single day!\u00a0 Most of them can open their closets and put together costumes that would not embarrass them at a convention.\u00a0 Like something right out of The Professional.\u00a0 Since they have a life and I don’t, I’m going to help you out with this shit.<\/p>\n

One of the first things you will need to wrap your head around is that this is going to be fucking expensive.\u00a0 One way of keeping those costs down is by doing as much of the shit as you can by yourself.\u00a0 But that comes with its own set of shit to deal with.\u00a0 For example, sewing costumes.\u00a0 Just like anything else that involves skill or technique, it also requires practice.\u00a0 Additionally there are start up costs.\u00a0 These are never mentioned by those that are established because, they’re already established.\u00a0 I thought we had established that.\u00a0 Establish.\u00a0 What does this mean to you?\u00a0 Unless you’re going to sew all of your costumes by hand you’ll need a sewing machine.\u00a0 I’d been toying with the idea of buying one for years so that I could mend and sew my own shit, cosplay is just a convenient excuse.\u00a0 The Singer sewing machine that I bought was hardly the most expensive, in fact, it’s probably pretty close to the bottom of the list.\u00a0 And it still cost $140.\u00a0 Plus thread, bobbins, pins, replacement needles, fabric, and so on and fucking so on.\u00a0 There are also other little things you need to take into consideration with these start up costs.\u00a0 You’ll need a stable desk or table for the sewing machine.\u00a0 The folding card table I put mine on to begin with bounced around so much that I couldn’t get a straight seem to save my life.\u00a0 All I wanted was a straight line sewing two pieces of fabric together, no such luck.\u00a0 So I had to go out and BUY a new desk.\u00a0 Since I wanted to save some money I decided to dye the pants and shirts the right colors.\u00a0 Dyes, start up cost.\u00a0 Large fucking pot to dye the clothes in, start up costs.\u00a0 Pants and shirts, start up costs.\u00a0 Of course next time I won’t have to buy the pot, sewing machine or the desk but it still cost more than a couple of bucks to begin with.<\/p>\n

First\u00a0tip, learn to love Goodwill.\u00a0 This is one of the few tips you could get from the Big Wigs.\u00a0 I, having a good job, wanted quality materials for my first cosplay.\u00a0 I am trying to get some of the more established cosplayers to do a shoot with me so I want a debut costume that will stand up next to them.\u00a0 Because of this I purchased online.\u00a0 Because, you know, cheaper.\u00a0 Even so I have spent over $400 on pants and I STILL have not gotten far enough to start working on that part of the costume!\u00a0 That’s right, still not far enough along to consider that ready.<\/p>\n

Another reason to love Goodwill that ties directly into saving money and one of the items I mentioned earlier, practice.\u00a0 Sewing requires skill, dying fabric requires the right technique, not stabbing yourself with a needle requires a bit of both.\u00a0 Going back to why I have spent so much on pants, no practice.\u00a0 Technique comes directly from practice.\u00a0 The first set of pants I dyed were mottled and streaked because I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing (a dedicated post coming on that later).\u00a0 Buy some cheap shit from Goodwill and practice on that before you try it on your limited resources.\u00a0 The same goes for sewing.\u00a0 Rather than start with sewing costume parts I sewed myself a simple convention bag.\u00a0 Something to hold my photo sleeves, purchased items and whatever general shit I happen upon.\u00a0 An incredibly simple design that gave me some confidence that I won’t run my hand through the machine like every shop teacher you’ve ever hand in high school.<\/p>\n

Next tip, give yourself time to do all of this.\u00a0 And I mean practice, buy what you need, design the costume and put it together.\u00a0 As I mentioned, the people who have been doing it for years\u00a0can slap shit together and look fantastic.\u00a0 You can’t do that!\u00a0 Figure out what you need, how you’re going to do it, whether it’s feasible, then think about buying and practicing.\u00a0 Remember, time flows like water.\u00a0 It’s incredibly difficult to hold on to and before you know it, it’s gone.\u00a0 Not being rushed is going to be one of the best defenses against frustration.<\/p>\n

I’m going to wrap this long ass post up by reminding you that you have a couple of choices.\u00a0 Take your time and learn to do this right or you can pick up that playstation controller and do something meaningful with your life.\u00a0 If I can help you out I will certainly try.\u00a0 At the very least I hope to keep you pointing and laughing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We will start by making it clear that this blog is going to be oriented towards cosplayers and beginning cosplayers at that.  Why?  Because I’m a beginning cosplayer myself and hopefully some of these insights will help other beginners avoid some of the frustrations that I have enjoyed.  Why have I been frustrated about some … Continue reading “First post”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cosplay"],"yoast_head":"\nFirst post - goofycaca<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"beginner cosplay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.goofycaca.com\/?p=32\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"First post - 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