aicosu:

dangerous-ladies:

Look: these boots are very, very simple. Actually sewing them together is no problem once you’ve got it drafted. 

It is, essentially, a sock. A sock with a fancy cuff, with a sole glued to the bottom. It is also zipper-free. You are going to make a sock that fits over a shoe, and you are going to use a knife to peel off the edges of the sole, tuck the fabric under, and then glue the soles back in place so you have a nice, clean edge.

You will need:

• Spandex fabric in whatever color you need.
• Extra spandex fabric with the same amount of stretch for drafting your pattern.
• Pattern paper.
• A pair of ballet flats (or whatever shoe type you need.) Make sure you get the right “shape”; Supergirl’s boots, for example, have a pointed toe, and look out for sole color; we usually just go with black because anything else will get dirty/paint will chip. You also want to find one with an easily removed sole; as a general rule, the cheaper the shoe, the easier time you’ll have with it. We usually spend about $5 tops on our flats, haha. If you’re trying to do heels, be very, very cautious; if you damage the structural integrity of the shoe, you might be in some trouble when you need to walk on them. You also want to make sure they are as basic as possible; remove any bows and whatever possible.
• An exacto knife.
• Hot glue
• Usual sewing implements; pins, scissors, rulers, whatever. 

You can draft it yourself easily: take your scrap fabric and wrap it around your leg as I’ve pictured above in the pink, and pin it along the back. You want to make it snug, but not so snug that you can’t get your foot out of it either. POINT YOUR TOE WHILE YOU DO THIS. Additionally, wear the shoe while you pin it around your foot; it’ll need to fit over the shoe in the end anyway. Don’t worry about the bottom of your foot; it’s easier if you make the curve under your heel snug, and the front of your toes, but you’re not going to be closing off the bottom.

When you have it pinned neatly and evenly, trim the edges down. Leave enough excess for seam allowance along the back, and enough for tucking on the bottom. (Tucking into the sole, that is.) Take it off your foot and you should have some weird shape (like a mirrored version of the pattern I have pictured above.)

Now: if you trace that onto pattern paper and smooth out any raggedness you may have made in cutting, you have your basic pattern. Then all you have to do is alter the top of the pattern: a /\ point for Wonder Woman, a V for Supergirl, etc. Because we’re making Supergirl, here, you’ll want it to be in two pieces, as shown in the pattern above. Wherever you cut to change the design, be sure that you add seam allowance (as you can see on our bottom pattern.) Also make sure that the top edge of your sock is snug enough to your calf that you won’t have to constantly bend to fix them.

I’ve taken pictures of my and Christine’s patterns. Obviously, if you don’t want a seam down the front, you need to cut the fabric on a fold. You will need four of the top cuff and two of the “sock”; the top cuff is two-layered so it’s got a clean top!

Sew all the cuffs: in the last picture, that’s what they should look like. First, sew them all at the back seam. Then layer them together to sew the top seam, so that when you fold them right-side out, you have finished cuffs as pictured. Topstitch whatever you want.

Sew the sock’s back seam.

Sew the cuff to the sock. Be very careful about the corners, so that they are sharp. Again, topstitch whatever works.

Use the exacto-knife to separate the shoe from the sole. Don’t take the whole sole off — you don’t want to pop it out of alignment, or compromise TOO much of the shoe’s integrity. You just need enough opened that you can tuck the bottom edge of your sock into the space between.

Once your whole sock is finished, it’s time for the crazy part: put it on, with your shoe. Then, with the help of a friend or with the acknowledgement that your spine will hurt trying to do it to yourself, start putting the bottom edge of the sock under the edge of the sole, and gluing in place. We have found hot glue works best because it hardens/sets fast: anything else and you may be stuck sitting there wearing your shoes for HOURS trying not to ruin your work.

Now you have boots.

Go kick some supervillain ass, girl.

Probably the cleanest boot covers and simplest tutorial I’ve seen!

thetacriterion:

dinospy:

jtgunner:

Best cosplay.

MATT

gfd

(Source: y0l.blog.fc2.com)

noitemsfoxonlyfinaldestination:

why is cosplay treated so differently as an art form jfc

shut the fuck up

do you know how hard it is to sew and pick out the right colours, right makeup, apply the right makeup, dye your hair or buy a wig, make sure you’re doing everything correctly so far, then throw it all together while maintaining a busy lifestyle?

no seriously shut the fuck up

why is it that people are just suddenly “expected” to be great at cosplay the moment they pick it up

i haven’t seen this attitude toward any other  art form in this fandom

what the fuck

(Source: unpopular-hs-opinions)

nerdglory:

Steampunk Princess Peach

Artists: Skirtz (model) & Kindra Nikole (photographer)

via Geek × Girls

Fact sheet/thought process for pricing in art and cosplay commissions! (For Common Reference)

damaramegido:

vintage-aerith:

Some stuff my friends and I have been talking about, led to me feeling the need to make this post. My customers have always been really chill about this, I’ve found! This is mostly listing facts for reference or if other artists want to use it to show their thought process in coming up with price quotes! And for general information to the consumer community to have a little more background before you commission artists on Tumblr.

Art Commissions

• this is one case where people usually actually undercharge you
• average professional illustration rate: $25-35 per hour
• average nice two-character colored commission: $25-35 total
• it’s pretty uncommon for a nice tumblr commission to have only taken one hour—thus, undercharging
• see this post for more on how to treat your friendly neighborhood tumblr artist

Cosplay Commissions

• this is one case where people generally actually charge about what they should, but people get sticker shock and question why it’s so expensive
• average JoAnn’s receipt runs between $30 and $50 for one costume’s materials
• patterns cost about $10-12—a cost you have to sacrifice if you don’t already own an appropriate one to use
• thread, zippers, elastic, other closures add up fast
• skilled labor generally merits about $10-15/hr
• something as simple as a quick, unlined, unhemmed elastic skirt and a quick t-shirt eats up 2-4 hours of labor for a point of reference
• An example of an elaborate cosplay on commission pricing: Neophyte Redglare, 30 hours including initial custom patterning, boot covers, etc., using $32 worth of spandex would be about $400 total if you’re paying someone 12.50/hr
• 30 hours is a lot of time—roughly 4/5ths of your average 40-hour workweek

Commissioned artists/seamstresses are not machines. If you are a robotic factory lathe who can mass-produce things at a ridiculous rate per hour, obviously you can charge less. Be prepared for a rather large number depending on the complexity of your costume!

You are essentially paying for elaborate handmade works and handmade works have a lot of intrinsic value! No two are quite the same, and everything is done from scratch! Treasure your commissioned works! :)

thank you for making this post. i can’t even count the number of times i’ve experienced or witnessed huge frustration when people fail to understand just how costly custom art and cosplay can be. 

someone once offered me 70 dollars for a costume that came out to $700+ with materials and labor. it was not only insulting, i was aghast that not only that person, but so many other people seem to think that individual commissioners can operate like their own eBay cosplay factory or something. when i quote someone for a costume, more than half the time the person asking drops out of the deal because they were expecting to be able to pay $50 for something worth $300.

if you are an artist or costumer, do not be afraid- don’t sell yourself short just to get work. i only take commissions on the side as they are not at all necessary to supplement my income (i am fortunate enough to be able to do it for fun), but if you rely more on commissions to earn money, it’s even more reason to wait until a buyer who understands how much your work is worth comes along. there are plenty of people out there who get how custom pieces break down money-wise, even amongst the sea of people who don’t. don’t agree to the buyer who’s offering you less than half of what it really should be worth.

narusesayaka:

Shaytan (聖戦のイベリア)

damaramegido:

atopfourthwall:

thebirdandthebat:

Wow, I’m never buying anything Tony Harris does again. Disgusting.

(Ex Machina, Starman artist: his wikipedia page. Click the image to be taken to the Facebook thread where he posted this.)

Is this a thing now? I keep seeing people saying really stupid, horrible things about cosplayers and challenging their status as geeks or nerds.

For the record, I don’t give a rat’s ass if you don’t read comics but still dress up like Deadpool or Catwoman. The fact that you’re deciding to dress up in a costume and hang out at a convention is proof enough of geek cred… but then again, there is no litmus test for geekdom, nor should there be, and it’s no one else’s job to authenticate one’s status as a geek or nerd.

Tony Harris, your remarks are nothing less than disgusting and you ought to be ashamed of yourself. I expect better not just from a professional artist, but for someone who has worked on so many great project before. Simply despicable.

supertaunt is by far one of the most beautiful cosplayers i know. she’s got the look of a supermodel, which can make it surprising to see her in cosplay, and pursuing it so heartily. of course, it shouldn’t be surprising to see a beautiful girl in a non-mainstream hobby, but attitudes like the one displayed in the above image have created a real bias against supertaunt and cosplayers like her. i have stood by while watching a man at a con condescend at her, talk down at her, and attempt to mock her with a smile on his face. i was so angry i went right up to them both and parried his comments until he was out of things to say and walked away. 

i am very, very tired of people discrediting women in the con scene just because of how they look. i am tired of the awful “all cosplay girls must be attention-starved and completely uneducated on what they’re cosplaying!!!!” attitude.  i am really tired of my friends and i going to cons and having guys come up to us and ask in the world’s haughtiest voice, “do you even know what you’re cosplaying?” (to which several ladies i know have been happy to reply with the character’s name, series, facts about them, reasons why they love them, and input on their role in the plot— this has never failed to instantaneously shut the man in question up.)

i am not going to pretend that some people (and i say people, not women, because this applies to men too) truly don’t go and google a popular character and construct the costume without experiencing the series. it happens. it happens a lot! but i am tired of this tony harris-esque attitude, where the default assumption has become “every woman does that.” why is that the default assumption? why conclude that every woman is out there to get you, and that her goal is to personally insult your nerd cred?

i really have to wonder what is wrong with tony harris, and what is wrong with men like him, if they are so afraid and insecure that they feel that every woman who dares to cosplay is a personal attack on them and their nerd culture.  

what a sad, sad way to be.

I’m laughing at this dude. I wonder how often he (and everyone else who thinks like that) has talked with these “attention starving girls” which obviously threaten his ~*comic scene*~. You surely must be overly paranoid if your mind is dead set on “everyone dressing up like that is just here to deceive us and hurt our lusty feelings!!!!111”.