Making a mock up for Sailor Galaxia

Sometimes it's difficult to find patterns that are close to what you need for a cosplay. So it's best to make a "mock up." What's a mock up? It's basically a fake outfit made out of cheap material (usually muslin or other cheaper cottons or cotton/polyester blends). Making a mock up is great for multiple reasons:

• Easier to get a custom fit to your body
• Help create a custom pattern for your design
• Can alter pre-existing patterns to make new ones
• Saves you from wasting your good fabric

I am currently working on making a Sailor Galaxia cosplay. There really aren't to many tutorials out there for her. So I'll be blogging my progress. You can always check out my facebook, instagram, or twitter for progress shots as well (along with other silly things and updates on other cosplays/commissions I work on!). Detailed step by step of the progress will be posted here in my blog. But I will also be doing some streaming on twitch once I get everything set up.

Here's a list of things you'll need to do this (or at least things I used):

• Pins
• Scissors
• Pen/sharpie
• Muslin or other cheap fabric
• Dress form/dummy (or you can have a friend help do the mock up directly onto you)
• Thread (optional)

We start with wrapping the fabric somewhat loosely around the dress form. With Galaxia, she seems to have a sorta "paneled" looked to her outfit versus the usual solid body suit that most sailor scouts have (which is why I didn't just use a leotard pattern from the start. Plus the fabric I'm using for her outfit doesn't stretch at all). Because of this, I tried to make my seams match up to look like her outfit. I pinned the extra fabric to make darts and seams. I started with the side, then did the front, then did the back.

After I have everything pinned the way I want it, I used a sharpie to mark the darts and other seams that have been pinned. This is a good time to also mark everything else like neckline, arm holes, etc.

Once I've got everything marked out, I took it off the dress form and took out the pins. I only did it to half the outfit for the front and back so you can see how it'll look when it's laid out.

To make sure your pattern will be symmetrical, cut half of the front and back off. Since I'll be making each piece separately, then resewing it all together, I cut where each seam will be (as you can see in the picture below). Since these are some odd shapes, it's a good idea to also label what is what and mark which pieces connect to which so you don't get confused.
 

Now you have a custom pattern made! If you are feeling super confident, you can transfer this straight to your good fabric. **Just make sure you add your seam allowance to everything!!!** If you don't, your outfit will end up being to small and you'll have to redo it! What I personally like to do, is make one more mock up. Cut new pieces with your seam allowance and sew it together like it's the real deal. If you used a dress form or other kind of dummy to make the mock up, make sure you try it on yourself! Unless you're shaped exactly like the dress form (which most people aren't), then you'll definitely want to try it on (I had to make some adjustments 'cause I am not like my dress form). And there you have it! The final results (for the main part of the body):

This method can be used for almost any type of cosplay you want to do. It's also really good to do this when altering a pre-existing pattern. You can make changes to the pattern, make a mock up, and see how it fits! Better to waste $5-10 on some cheap fabric than $50-100 on the nice stuff! You'll thank yourself in the future. Another good thing about mock ups is you can see exactly how much fabric you're going to need. Then you wont have to worry about buying too much or too little!

I hope you found this useful! Take care and see you next week!

~Serenity

Sewing Gloves with Stretchy Fabric

Sewing gloves can be a real pain. I hated doing it (still do actually, but not so much anymore). Gloves need to have a very narrow seam allowance; otherwise you're glove will be lumpy due to the extra fabric. Gloves are typically sewn with a 1/8th seam allowance. It's a nightmare to try to sew that close to the edge without the fabric getting stuck in your machine. So, I'm going to go over a simple way to make a pair of gloves using stretchy fabric. I suggest you use a 4 way stretch fabric when doing gloves but if you have the absolute perfect color fabric and it's only a two way (or even one way) stretch, it'll still work. You might just have to adjust your pattern a bit.

Step one:
Make the pattern! Lay your hand/arm down on paper and spread your fingers slightly (but not to much). Trace an outline of your hand and arm (to your desired length).

Step two:
Transfer to your fabric. Cut a general shape of the whole glove out of your fabric. Instead of cutting each finger and attempting to do a narrow seam, you're going to mark your fabric with chalk, pen, or whatever you use to mark your fabric with (I personally use the disappearing ink pens). Sorry, I forgot to get a picture of this step but you can see my lines in the photos for the next step!

Step three:
Sew!! Sew the glove together by sewing directly on your markings (adjusting where needed). Make sure you leave a very small gap between each finger so you can cut it safely. I also use a smaller stitch length for this. You're fingers will have much nicer curves this way. Take your time and stitch slowly! You want to make sure your stitches are straight and smooth since gloves are form fitting. Otherwise you'll see any imperfections on the outside.

 

 

Step Four:

Try it on! I always put the glove on and wiggle my fingers as much as I can to see if I need to adjust any seams at all.

 

Step Five:

Cut the glove out! Trim the extra fabric down as closely (and safely) to the seam as possible.



Step Six:
Depending on the type of fabric you used, you can choose to hem the end of your glove. Most knits/stretchy fabrics don't fray so its not necessary but it does give it a more professional touch. All that's left is to turn it inside out and have fun!

 

 

I hope this helps some of you with making gloves for your cosplays! I know how hard it is to find the right colored gloves to match your outfit. Thanks for stopping by!

 

~Serenity