Costuming: Before You Begin

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At it's most basic, costume making involves sewing up a pattern. However this is only the beginning of costume creation. Other skills you may need will include metal casting, fiberglass sculpting, foam modeling, jewelry making, embroidery, bead work, wig making, face painting, hair styling, and more. What skills you need to know or need to learn, will depend upon the costume you are making and how authentic you plan to make it.

Let's look at a Medieval Knight for an example.

What do you see when you think of making a Medieval Knight costume? Here a few examples of different versions, seen by different people:

1) A grey body suit, worn under a cardboard suit of armor, spray painted silver. A shield and sword cut from cardboard.

2) A grey body suit worn under a grey sculpted felt suit of armor. A plastic shield and sword for your local dollar store.

3.) A tunic and leggings made of red velvet, and trimmed out in gold braid. A suit of armor that looks like real metal, but is light weight and easy to wear because you crafted it out of foam and fiberglass.

4.) Wool under linings, linked metal chain main, metal smythed armor, real shield and real sword, and a costume that weighs some 200lbs but is 100% historically accurate.

What you have on that list is two Halloween costumes, one stage or CosPlay Hall costume, and one SCA battle worthy historically accurate costume. Each came out looking like a Medieval Knight in the end, but each varied in the skills required, by the costumer. The first two were fairly simple and could be made by most beginners, while the third and forth were fairly advanced and required a bit of prior training and some pretty advanced skills.

Before you can determine what skills you will need to learn to become a costumer, you will first need to know what types of costumes you plan to make.

Are you dealing with mostly gowns, suits, and robes? Than you will want to learn some sewing and fashion design skills.

Are you planning to create a lot of Greek and Roman battle armor? Than you will want to learn either metal or fiberglass crafting, as well as leather tooling.

Do you plan to make a lot of furries? Than you'll need to learn specialized sewing skills required to sew fur body suites, scuplt full head facial masks, and make such items as ears, tails, and wings.

Are you planning to do only historically accurate garb from pre-1600 Japan? Than you will want to do a massive study of Japanese history, fashion, and culture, and than learn how to work with handwoven silks, and learn to hand sew, hand dye, and hand embroider said silks, as well as how to graft patterns.

Well you use your own hair style, buy a pre made wig, or make your own wigs? Will you need helmets or crowns or veils? Hats? Gloves? Will you be making such specialized items as shoes or corsets?

Carefully think out what it is you plan to do, and how often you plan to do it, and than take your time and learn each skill required for the type of costumes you plan to make.

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What can you make in three days? Pretty much a t-tunic and a circle cape is all you've got time for.

This is one of the biggest mistakes made by a first time costumer maker: assuming that they can make a good costume in less than 2 months time. It is not possible.

Many of the costumes you see at a Con, took more than a year to make.

Cast and tooled metal armor takes about 3 months to build, while fiberglass fantasy armor can take up to 9 months to build.

Want an embroidered Noh Theater Kosode? The embroidery on the outer robe alone can take 8 to 10 months to do.

Ever build a hood skirt before? No? It could take you a few months just to locate someone who sells wooden hoops big enough, and than another week or two just to wrap cotton strips around the wood to pad it, before you even start working on attaching the skirt itself. Don't even try to be historically accurate on this one, because making it out of whale bone could land you in prison for using the body parts of an endangered species. Of course once you have got the hoop skirt finished, your next step will be to gather the 12 - 15 yards of cloth needed to make your dress' skirt so it will fit over the hoop. And remember, you are going to want to spend a week or two learn how to walk in a hoop skirt before you plan on wearing it to the Ren Faire.

There is a reason why cheaper materials and tools are cheaper: You get what you pay for and lower price usually means lower quality and in the end a costume with low durability and high upkeep.

It is important that you understand that costume making is among the most expensive hobbies you can choose to take up. It's right up there with collecting antique furniture.

Even the simplest costume is going to cost in the price range of $300 - $500, and still be of rather poor quality. A really good costume is going to cost your closer to $1,000 - $2,000 for materials, while the really accurate and highly detailed ones can cost in the range of $7,000 - $20,000 per costume.

How much your costume costs you, depends on the quality you want to make. Using the qualities I mentioned above, let's take a popular costume: Robin Hood.

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A Comprehensive Guide to Materials and Applications

You can make a $30 Halloween costume for your 5 year old out of green felt for a tunic and hat, worn over green sweat pants. Since it's a Halloween costume, you won't worry about shoes, because it'll be safer for your child to wear his every day sneakers. This costume is likely to be worn day in and day out for several weeks of dress up play, after Halloween has passed.

For a high school play, you are going to want something a bit more detailed and durable, so you'll spend a little extra and make the tunic out of stretch panne velvet, and trim it out with some gold braid. This costume needs to be seen from a great distance away, so the colors will be brighter, and the embellishments bigger, bolder, and most colorful, than they would be otherwise. You may even want to add a short cape. You'll likely buy a pair of brown leggings, and suede boots as well. A stage version of Robin Hood, will cost you in the $80 - $200 range, depending on how detailed you get with it. This is likely to be worn each night of the play, and for several years worth of plays.

Do you want to play Zelda's Link had the next Con? For this one you'll be indoors, in a big hall full of lots of people: people who will be up close and will see all the little details you put into it: all the embroidery, all the bead work, your fiber glass quiver and bow... You will want to do your best handy work on a Hall Costume because you are going to be up close and personal with a lot of people and if you made any mistakes, they are going to see them. A Hall Costume will likely be the most expensive type you could make. These are the ones that often cost several thousand dollars. You will likely only wear this costume once, and for a period of less than 3 hours total.

But what if you wanted to create an SCA persona, based on the Robin Hood myth? You'll be going to ren faires This costume will get a workout as you are likely to use it in a few archery tournaments. You will want to make it durable, and out of cotton, wool, or linen. You will not be too worried about decorative details, like you were with the stage version. You will want to flat fell and double stitch the seams. For the SCA you will want to sew this using extreme historical accuracy: hand sewing, using the same type of cloth that would have been used in the 1300's, using 14th century paintings to make your patterns with. Living history costumes, focus on historical accuracy and long wearing durability, because these are made to be worn during fairs and tournaments and will often be worn 2 or 3 weeks a year for 4 or 5 years or more. These are mid range prices garb, costing $400 - $700 on average.

If you working on multiple costumes (like I often find myself doing) are not making your costumes for a specific date, and you are working with no or very little money (another thing I often find myself doing), than I'd recommend that you set aside the costumes that are likely to need the most money to finish, and focus all of your energy just on the one that can be done with the least money. If you try focusing on too many projects all at once, you are more likely to make mistakes or forget to do something. Also by putting aside two of them, that gives you a chance to have enough time to save up some money so that you can have money to spend on them and thus make them even better, than if you did a 0 budget version.

Costumes can be made on a low budget. I have about 5 or 6 that I did for under $50 each, and they all came out pretty good. For each of them, I did not require a wig, and I bought my fabric at WalMart, plus I went prop-less (no swords, etc). So that is a great way to save on cash. However, more advanced costume with wigs and prop and better quality fabric are gonna cost quite a bit more. Also, keep in mind that the average costume takes 3 to 4 months to make, while a really advanced one can take up to 3 years to make. Another thing to consider is that the average cost of making a costume is $400 - $700, with ranges as high as $10,000, though rare, are not completely unheard of. The ones done really accurate to character can cost a fortune. So you need to consider how accurate a costume you want to make, and ways to get your materials at a discount.

A lot of costumers, save out money each week, just for their "costume fund". You may want to consider doing something like this.

I like to work on a very limited budget, so if I REALLY want something, it may take me several months to save up the money needed to buy it. Usually I work on a $20 per month limit, (I save out $20 per month towards my costume) because I'm really cheap and hate to spend a lot of money, even if I did have the money. By keeping my budget low, I force myself to be creative in finding ways to cut corners without cutting on quality.

For most of my costumes this $20 per month savings works out. For my current costume however, I've raised it to $70 per month, and now looking at the cost of some of the supplies I need (fur and leather) I may need to raise it to $200 a month. A rough estimate is that by the time I get done, my Lord Sesshomaru costume is going to cost me roughly $4,000, with most of that cost going for the tail and armor. (Real fur and leather are not cheap, I've found.) Well, to come up with this kind of cash, is not something I can do overnight, so it could take me 2 or 3 years to get the costume finished. My goal here is to be accurate to SCA standards, and I have no set time for finishing, so I save up and save some more, and when I've got enough saved, than I buy the next part I need, this takes forever, but in the long run, I'll end up with the ultimate costume of my dreams, rather than one I threw together in one weekend.

When setting a budgeting goal, what you need to do is figure out what your overall goals are for your costume(s). Ask yourself:

Why are you making them?

When will you need them?

How accurate do you want to be?

Where can you cut corners?

Where will you be wearing this?

How many times do you plan to wear it?

It is something to throw on when you hang out at the mall with your friends (and thus can blend with your daily wear) or is it something you plan to enter in craftsmanship contests?

How much money can you save out each week/month?

What sewing/prop making skills do you have that will help you make it at less costs?

You can cut costs dramatically by going to second hand stores (Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc) and also flea markets, and yard sales. I do all of these things. I have found old necklaces to take apart and use for various trim elements, and once I found this huge skirted prom dress for $5 which I took apart and used the skirt to cut up and make into something else, .50c scarves make great belts and headbands. When I was making my Tom Baker Doctor Who costume, I actually found a 9 foot long red-burgundy-gold striped scarf for .50c at Goodwill! OMG! I still wear it as part of my daily wardrobe, I love that scarf, and I bought it for under a dollar!

Also... ask your friends and relatives if they have any boxes of old clothes in the closets-attics-cellars, that you could search through. I found an old fedora hat of my mom's to use for my Doctor Who costume that way. And an elderly lady down the street gave me a 1920's travel chest full of old cloths, most of it was junk, but I kept the trunk and the amazing 1940's German military trench coat that was in it.

If you live in an area that has a lot of antique shops, check those out too. Old table cloths, bedsheets, clothes, leather jackets, fur coats, etc, abound in places like that and often for under $10! Just because it's an antique doesn't mean it's expensive or that you can't cut it up and turn it into something else either. I get a lot of my supplies and props from a local antique shop. Their stock changes every week so I just go in a browse around a few times a month, and I'm always amazed at the great buys I find. There are times however, when I find just the right item, and it turns out it carries a price tag of several thousand, and so I can not buy it.

You say you need: vest, gloves, headband, jacket, shirts, etc for a certain costume? Have you tried looking on eBay? eBay is my #1 answer to everything. Whenever I need a certain item, I search on ebay, using as many different search terms as I can think of, until I finally find just the right item at just the right price. I find maybe 60% of all my costume making supplies on eBay, and usually for less than $20 an auction. Even if you can't find exactly the right one, you should be able to find something "close enough" and than you can alter it.

Also for wigs: If you search on eBay or Amazon.com, you can usually find some pretty cheap wigs. Not as good quality as the more expensive ones, but still pretty good and great for low budget projects.

Actually, working on a costume with no budget can be quite fun, because it forces you to really open your eyes and look for things you can do for free. It's like taking a big scavenger hunt. Before you know it, you'll be in your mom's kitchen asking things like: "Can I have the curtain you got in that window, it'd be great for the ruffles on my costume!" You'll be surprised how many times people will give you things to help you out too. All you got to do is ask.

I got long winded. Sorry. I just had this on my mind and had to write it all up and share it with some one. Hope some of this helps somebody out. Good luck on all of your projects!

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Becoming a costumer, first and foremost means you will need to learn to sew. As you may have noticed, I have not included any sewing instructions on this lens. The reason for this is because each costume is open to personal interpretation, and will be as unique as it's creator.

Costume Craftwork on a Budget:
Clothing, 3-D Makeup, Wigs, Millinery & Accessories

My goal here is not to teach you how to sew, but rather, guide you through the steps needed to bring your costume from an idea to a reality. I have done this by detailing various aspects needed to complete your costume. Along with studying in detail each item, I have also included links to suppliers who sell the materials necessary to create those items. However, if this is your first time creating a costume from scratch than you may find yourself needing help along the lines of sewing instruction.

Even if you have never threaded a needle before, you have no need to fret, anyone can learn to sew, and before you know it, you will be sewing up your costume.

For those of you new to sewing and costuming, I have provided this section, where I will be listing links to sites to help you learn to sew and items needed to help you reach you goal of becoming a costumer.