Plan Your Cosplay Like A Costume Shop Pro!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2024
- Actors get to feel comfortable, unencumbered, clean and safe in their costumes. You should, too! Here's how costume shops stay on schedule, plan for practicalities and try to idiot-proof everything that goes onstage. Because you don't want to spend your con worrying about your costume.
Download an example of a costume care pieces list
jenniferschottstaedt.com/resources/exampleCostumeCarePiecesList.xlsx
Download my Sansa Stark pieces progress chart
jenniferschottstaedt.com/resources/sansaStarkProgressPiecesList.xlsx
Don't forget to plan ahead how you are going to use the toilet in costume. 😉 Thank you for this gerat video!
😂 You’re so right. Snap-crotch bodysuits have saved the day more than once.
This is your third video I've watched (actually watched your power mesh video right before this), and I'm blown away by your knowledge and delivery. Thank you for this channel, I'm so excited to learn more from you! Seriously, you're a genius
So helpful I would love to see a video on a costume bible flip through where you talk about all the different ways you keep track of costumes in industry
oof tbh they're usually a bit of a mess. 😂 But it's usually an overall pieces list, broken down by character, then sometimes the script, then design and/or construction meeting notes, then a budget/receipt/accounting section, then overall research, then different labeled tabs for each character, which include the rendering with fabric swatches, the actor's measurements, specific research for that costume/character, copies of receipts for their specific items, fitting notes, etc. Maybe even stuff like dye formulas.
A lot of this, especially the budgeting/accounting, has migrated to the computer and shared servers since my college days, and often everything is recorded on the computer in show-specific folders, but I'll never stop using a folder of physical measurement sheets and research photos. SO MUCH EASIER to flip open and use right there when you're patterning, cutting, fitting, etc., and paper never goes black on you like screens do.
Thank you for inviting me into your thespian sewers charming mind .
No doubt an effective cosplayer needs to be a lateral thinker and problem solver like you.
Thank you again and such fun and humour in you discourse.
I just wanted to say, watching this video has given me a lot of insight that what im already doing now for my cosplays such as list and ways to keep track of progress and sketches. I want to be a props master or a Art designer for films and Tv and my step into that was cosplay and doing short films. At the end of this i just wanted to say thank you, with out you realsing it you showed me that im doing what a job un this field would ask of me. Your videos are great so thank you!
That's awesome; I'm really glad this has helped you! You're 1000% on the right track; so much of this job is lists, organizing, budgets, checklists, scheduling…probably because we’re artists; we’re not naturally good at all that, so we need structure to keep us on track. 😂 I know I’d get lost in a billion fascinating rabbit holes if I didn’t have a checklist & deadlines smacking me upside the head. Can’t get rehired as an artist if you can’t meet deadlines for the shoot.
So I'm sewing for several years now, self taught of course. And I always was pazzled by this small pleats in the lining of jakets etc, cos you see these instructions in historical sewing books as well. Ans now I know, THANK YOU 😊
You are so welcome! Yes, it’s for ease of movement. Glad I could help!
Something about the way the importance of externalizing your lists was said, had the "this person has ADHD" recognition bells just clanging.
Not exactly surprising if you've been able to learn, and thrive in a theatrical work environment for years...
But hearing that you identify as having an ADHD brain, was very much appreciated.
Me thinking "uhhh... that sounds like a neurodivergent person's lived experience" isn't the same as knowing the individual has chosen to publicly share that label of themselves.
This person absolutely has ADHD and thrives in an environment with fixed, immovable deadlines and externalized lists, lol. It has helped a LOT to live/work in an environment in which opening nights are such sacrosanct deadlines that not meeting them is never even a consideration in anyone's brain. It cements the habit of "GET IT DONE" into your head so. freaking. effectively.
Moving the deadline being "impossible" is definitely an advantage. When it's possible, but difficult, I can waste so much mental energy trying to decide how or if I should try to ask for another deadline.
When it's so incredibly immovable I can focus on "what's going to give us 1. Something at least functional 2. As much of what we're hoping for as possible given the rest of the constraints.
And in discussing budget, or whether you'll accept the job at all... knowing they almost definitely can't move the date on you - other than a postpone due to disaster... Definitely helps in making those decisions.
@lynn858 Exactly!
My college shop had two sayings for anyone who was still hopelessly mired in perfectionism right before opening:
"It's done, and done is beautiful"
and
"Can anyone see that problem from the stage? Then it's done, and done is beautiful."
Thank you! This is very good information.
I should really start planning lol, in february it'll be a year since I started my strawberry x miku project and I still am nowhere near finishing it completely.... I just get discouraged seeing how much I still need to do and then I always end up taking huge breaks, sometimes even months
This was insanely helpful. Thank you so much for posting it. Off to binge watch the rest of your videos now.
I found your videos today and subscribed by the end of the first one. I’m seriously loving everything you’ve talked about. I like a lunatic jumped into cosplay helping my friend build their dream werewolf costume. I’d done a bit of seeing, but most of my knowledge was theoretical second hand from my mom taking a tailoring class when I was four. Now I’m looking at doing my own first involved cosplay and I’d love any recommendations you could give on fabric. Because I don’t know how not to jump in way over my head I’m making a dwarf costume based on a combination of Joseon period commander’s armor using a combination of scales and brigandine. I tore my cornea twice hyper focusing staying up too late and up too early researching something not well known outside Korea and translating various documents. looking at using wool to give the support and body. There’s fur trim, decorative lining, the Worbla armor elements and the under layer shirt. I have no idea how I’m going to wear that and not die of heat stroke. Any recommendations? My friend’s a great cosplayer, but they’re mostly focused on leather armor.
Very impressed with your Sansa costume! Cheers from another Endless Checklist Adder!
Thank you! I literally wore down the cushion foam on one side of my couch during the pandemic while doing all that embroidery. 😂 Overachieving for the low low price of new upholstery foam.
Checklist adders are the most awesome people. I say this with, obviously, no bias at all.
Since you mentioned distressing: do you have any tricks how to keep (heavily) distressed outfits easily washable? Whenever I'm handling stuff with stains and frayed seams and stuff like that, I get anxious about messing it up 😅
Yes! For stains/dirt/dust, use textile paint! Jacquard textile paint (the earth tones set is great for just about all kinds of distressing) is my favorite, but you can also mix acrylic with a textile medium in a 1:1 ratio. You have to heat-set it, which I do with a hairdryer or I cover the garment with a press cloth (piece of scrap cotton or muslin) and heat-set with the iron. The paint then remains flexible and you can wash/dry clean it.
Dye-Na-Flow also works well for stains/blood, as it’s formulated to “sink in” to the fabric similar to a dye.
I have also been very pleased with the results of painted sweat stains onto linen and cotton with fiber reactive dye from Dharma Trading.
Anything frayed: I secure it with thread that’s just a shade darker than the fabric (looks more invisible) and machine-stitch with a 2 length stitch about 1/4” away from the fraying. A slight zigzag or wobbliness can help it look more organic and unnoticeable; test out a few stitch options on a piece of scrap fabric if you can.
Gosh.... Life was lifin' and I ended up only having a bit under a month to build a full suit of armor from scratch for a con (mock-ups, weapon, helmet, undersuit, armor covering every part of the body, boot covers). If I didn't have my schedule laying out exactly when I had to finish each step, there is ZERO way I would have finished it on time. I had something similar happen with just a *single* arm this year, but no matter what I did, I couldn't make myself follow the schedule I laid out (even though it was *significantly* more manageable than the one i made for the suit of armor). The result and my mental state at the end of each project was night and day. I wish i could force myself to follow a schedule every time, it helped so MUCH. Here's hoping I can manhandle my brain into weaving it into the rest of my process if I just keep trying 😭😭
This is great! This is the first video of yours I've seen, but I've already subscribed!
A good episode would be adding visuals for the amateur of what parts are and what they are called. So, as a dude... I'm not fully aware of what a bustle is or what bustling does. While you realize you are teaching to people that dont know as much as you do, you should always assume we viewers don't know the terms you use. Basics of costume creation with you at the sewing machine would be nice. What are patterns and how to use them.
Also, being inside a Joanne's and showing what is there and why this is fabric is good and this one bad could make for a good episode.
Glad to have been introduced to your channel. My desiger wannabe daughter will enjoy your efforts.
Noted. Thank you! I agree; there should be more images to illustrate concepts, and I need to get better at recognizing what terms need more explanation. Bustles and armor definitely should have had illustrations; you're right.
I don't really want to flood TH-cam with even more "beginner how-to" videos, because there are so many great ones, especially by Threads and similar channels, but I do have a list of how-tos that I DON'T see other channels teaching properly - like how to efficiently and neatly put an invisible zipper into a garment with a lining, so that the lining doesn't get caught on the zipper. Things like that.
Fabric choice is definitely a good idea to tackle. I have another video in editing right now about where to buy quality, inexpensive notions like safety pins and thread.
Comments definitely noted, thank you, and I hope your daughter finds something useful and has fun sewing!
@@jenniferschottstaedt Yeah, seconding the request for an image here and there. Even just a still image with a circle/arrow explaining what you were talking about with the lining of the coat would've helped me a lot. Would've liked to have seen one of your "large, very surreal structures" too! :)
Thanks for another great video! Looking forward to more!
this is fantastic