{"id":34,"date":"2014-02-23T16:17:29","date_gmt":"2014-02-23T16:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goofycaca.com\/?p=34"},"modified":"2014-02-23T19:43:17","modified_gmt":"2014-02-23T19:43:17","slug":"lets-start-something-pretty-straight-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goofycaca.com\/?p=34","title":{"rendered":"Let’s start with something pretty straight forward."},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the biggest decisions a beginning cosplayer makes is their first costume.\u00a0 At first blush it makes sense.\u00a0 You pick something that you love.\u00a0 Something that would impress.\u00a0 Something amazing!\u00a0 BUT!\u00a0 You also have to pick something you can actually make.\u00a0 I had been thinking of doing a costume for some time and only recently decided to jump in with both feet.\u00a0 Once I decided to make a costume I started thinking about what costume I was going to make.<\/p>\n

Since this is my first I want to be one of those people that make a huge splash from the moment they appear.\u00a0 You know those people like Stacy Rebecca <\/a>who don one costume and suddenly they’re all over the internet?\u00a0 THAT is who I wanted to be.\u00a0 I wanted a big, amazing, impressive cosplay and so I looked for big, amazing, impressive subjects.\u00a0 What I settled on was Songbird from Bioshock Infinite.<\/p>\n

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Tell me that wouldn’t be fucking badass!\u00a0 You want to make an entrance, there it is!<\/p>\n

And then I started looking for images to work from.\u00a0 The more I found the more excited I got about the idea.\u00a0 And then I started looking for\u00a0 materials and techniques I would need to use.\u00a0 That’s where it all fell down.\u00a0 First of all, leather is fucking expensive.\u00a0 I don’t know why, it’s just dead cow.\u00a0 Given how much beef we eat and waste in this country, there should be a leather surplus.\u00a0 They should be giving you your Big Mac in a leather bag.\u00a0 To paraphrase the comedian Bill Kirchenbauer;<\/p>\n

They’re not even that hard to kill.\u00a0 They run around in a pen.\u00a0 Moo, moo, oh moo.\u00a0 BANG!\u00a0 You’re a hat.<\/em><\/p>\n

But it is.\u00a0 It’s also a huge pain in the ass to work with.\u00a0 That’s the real reason that leather products are so expensive.\u00a0 Just looking at what was going to be required in terms of the amount of leather, special tools to cut, sew and mold the leather, I was already getting frustrated.\u00a0 Not to mention rethinking the notion of even doing a cosplay.<\/p>\n

Another thing to keep in mind when making the decision on what to create is your own skill level.\u00a0 For example, I learned to sew in middle school so I’ve got at least a little experience in sewing.\u00a0 Unfortunately middle school was about 30 fucking years ago so that little experience is probably more of a liability because I can delude myself into thinking I can do anything because I already know how to sew.\u00a0 Yeah, right.\u00a0 Realize that some of the things you will have to do to create this costume\u00a0 is going to require learning new skills and just like any skill, when you start things are going to look like shit.\u00a0 Practice and things will get better.\u00a0 All of the established cosplayers have been honing their skills for years and it shows in the quality of the work they produce.\u00a0 There is only one way to get 25 years of experience.\u00a0 Keep working on it and you’ll get there as well, just don’t expect it to happen over night.\u00a0 With that in mind pick early costumes that will cater to the skills you have and minimize the skills you need to improve.\u00a0 Another example is the fact that I have settled on a costume that has minimal props.\u00a0 Some of the cosplays you see are heavy on props like armor and weapons.\u00a0 While I am incredibly imaginative, my dexterity is not even a distant second skill wise.\u00a0 I know that props are going to take incredibly time, effort and patience for me.\u00a0 So I am starting out accordingly.\u00a0 My first costume is sewing intensive but prop light.\u00a0 Giving me the opportunity to revive a skill I already have, improve it and create something that will keep me interested in cosplaying in the future.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned previously, this is not the kind of thing you see on the Big Wigs pages because they’ve moved past all of this.\u00a0 If you get the chance to talk to them, undoubtedly, this is the kind of advice they’ll give.\u00a0 But on their pages the have the skill sets and experience to take any suggestion and make it reality.\u00a0 We’ll get to that point but for now lets work on what we can do and worry about what we’ll eventually do later.<\/p>\n

Be honest with yourself and your skill sets when making the decision on what to cosplay first.\u00a0 If you’re one hell of a painter then perhaps a prop heavy costume will very little sewing is a good idea.\u00a0 If you’re in amazing shape, something with less fabric might be in order, just try not to be the guy who picks a cosplay just so that he can show off his physique.\u00a0 Sewing is a skill I actually have so I am working on a cosplay that requires more than a little sewing.\u00a0 Play to your strengths and keep your enthusiasm alive.\u00a0 This is supposed to be about having fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the biggest decisions a beginning cosplayer makes is their first costume.  At first blush it makes sense.  You pick something that you love.  Something that would impress.  Something amazing!  BUT!  You also have to pick something you can actually make.  I had been thinking of doing a costume for some time and only … Continue reading “Let’s start with something pretty straight forward.”<\/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-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cosplay"],"yoast_head":"\nLet's start with something pretty straight forward. - goofycaca<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"cosplay sewing\" \/>\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=34\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Let's start with something pretty straight forward. - 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