Craft Foam Wing Tutorial

Craft Foam Wing Tutorial

I made these wings for my kenku costume. This tutorial explains how to make wings, to be used in conjunction with my craft foam feather tutorial.

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Workspace Wednesdays:  Fabric Catalog

If you are like most crafters, the longer you have a sewing-related hobby the larger your stash of fabric will get.  (If you sew and you don’t have a fabric stash, I am officially afraid of you and your merciless resolve.)  I’ve been cosplaying for about eight years and sewing for longer than that, so the amount of fabric I want to hold onto because I might use it someday is… really extreme.

What I ended up having to do to get my fabric stash under control was catalog it, put it into bins, and get it out of my actual craft room.  I need to pull something from my stash maybe a couple times a month at most.  It doesn’t make a lot of sense to keep that stuff in my primary working area when it gets used that infrequently, so I keep it my basement. You might not have a basement you can store stuff in, but everyone’s got corners of closets or other less readily accessible areas where stuff for long-term storage is asking to go.  A catalog of what you have allows you to utilize those spaces more effectively. 

This is the binder I made up, which 1) allows me to check what’s in the basement without having to actually go to the basement, and 2) is way easier to flip through than a pile of fabric that I have to re-fold because I messed it up while pawing through it.  

If you’d like to use my templates, they’re over here!  My goal in making them was to not overwhelm myself with information because I had a ton of fabrics to catalog and I didn’t want it to take forever.  The sheets are made to record a few pieces of information:

A fabric swatch. I made two template sheets, one with the swatch space on the left and one with the swatch space on the right, so the stacked pages wouldn’t be super uneven.

A brief description and enough room to note anything special about the fabric.

A super rough ballpark of how much yardage I have.

Did I ever cut anything out of this fabric before, or is it still basically in a rectangle?  Helpful for knowing if your fabric looks like swiss cheese or not.

And that’s it.  You can add more or less information based on what you think is important, but that’s enough for me to go off of.  And here’s the organized stash itself, more or less:

Another tip in organizing your storage bins: if you make it so all the edges of your fabrics are visible when you take the top off your bin, it’ll be easier to find things and take them out.  While I was loading the bins, I set them on one side and stacked my fabric up in a pile.  (The end result is the same thing as Konmari vertical clothes folding!)

@arkadycosplay Arda wigs sells a new thermoplastic called thibra. It's still a little pricey but slightly cheaper than worbla. It's also great for small sculpting and detail work. I've not personally had good experiences with using it to cover large areas (ie. Armor) but for smaller projects and details it's fantastic. Hope this helps your anon!

Question do you know of a good cheap alternative to that warbla stuff you used to make Keyleth's Spire of Conflux?

You can make your own! I’ve personally never tried it but DLShadowwolf knows his stuff so I implicitly trust him on this one. 

Unfortunately, for the type of thin sculpting done over a large area like on Keyleth’s staff, there’s not really many cheaper alternatives than a thermoplastic like worbla, terraflex, or wonderflex. Those 3 brands pretty much have a monopoly on super flexible, sculpt-able, lightweight, durable plastics, so they set the price point. If you’re only looking to sculpt a small detailed area, apoxie clay or paperclay are pretty cheap and easy to use, but I wouldn’t recommend them for large projects because they can be fragile. If you need something large but don’t need it to look as sculpted or detailed, EVA and craft foam are always good cheap alternatives to worbla. Or even just a thick craft wire with painter’s tape sculpted over it. But for something exactly like Keyleth’s staff with the tiny vines and leaves, I honestly can’t think of a material I’d use instead of a thermoplastic because I just don’t know of anything else that can quite mimic that look. 

My wrist hurts!

How to Make a Loki Costume (well, sort of)

All right, this might be pure self-indulgence, but I thought maybe it would help some people. *crosses fingers*

I’ve put together a list of all of the Loki references I’ve posted over the past year. Hopefully someone will find them useful. If I’ve missed anything, or you have any questions, feel free to shoot them my way.

References Coat Tunic Sleeves Pauldron Bracers Scales Pants Boots Hot Toys Sketches I Sketches II

Patterns & Designs Coat “Pattern” - Top Coat “Pattern” - Bottom, Exterior Coat “Pattern” - Bottom, Interior Sleeve Design “Necklace” Pattern Bracer Design Armor Shapes Scale Layout Gaiter Pattern

Construction Bracer Under-Layers Zipper Stops Leather-like Fabric Selection Wrist Guards Weathering Armor in Steps Weathering Bracers Trim Pants! (And cheating with PVC glue…) Making Scales Boots Tacks for the Boots Wearing the Boots and Gaiters

And if you use any of these, please let me know! I’d love to see what you create!!

P.S. Loki cosplayers, add anything you think others might find useful!

The Book of Cosplay Sewing is out now! It’s only 5$! 

https://www.kamuicosplay.com/product/cosplaysewingdownload/

If you always had struggle with fabric and your sewing machine, this is the perfect volume to start! I wrote it especially for cosplayers and guide you from choosing the right material, over pattern making to finishing a complete costume! Hope you like it! :)