Mother and Daughter

I have been making clothing as a hobby since my Teenage years and have moved on since I discovered the wonderful world of Cosplay. I love Anime movies and Manga - with all the gorgeous clothing that goes with this genre.

The first ever costume I made was a fancy dress for a fun-run in the 1980s which was a black cat. I was hooked from then, though I look back and see just how basic it was. Having made clothing for so long I am able to draft a basic pattern just from measurements which is useful when it comes to Cosplay as these patterns are unavailable or uninspiring.

On all three outfits you can see here I also made or radically altered the three wigs used - as again Anime hair is not readily available (though if you only want a basic wig you will find thousands on Ebay!!)

Tokyo Mew-Mew

The most important skill you need (apart from the ability to use a sewing machine) is the need for visualisation. You will need to come up with some ingenious strategies and perhaps use some unexpected materials to get the look you want.

Use wires and/or funky foam to make some huge collars or to make parts of your costume stand out. Need a larger piece of foam? How about a basic cheap camping mat?

How about kite struts for wings?

If you need a strange shape take a look what is around and think how you could use it - a plastic bowl or seive makes a great dome shape (I used two on either end of a roll of upholstery foam to form the basic shape of the red wig above)

Check out the modelling/craft sections of ebay for wire forms, papier mache and even basic polystyrene shapes.

Wool can make excellent hair if you find extensions too expensive to use on a wig - infact chunky wool looks fantastic as dreadlocks.

The more outlandish your creation the more exposure you will get

And just have fun!!

Please feel free to check out my AOL blog which has an up-to-date account of projects I am working on including sources and how they are made. Hope it gives you inspiration to try it yourself