Fabric shopping can be extremely difficult for some cosplayers. Maybe the color you need isn’t at Joanns, or the fabric you’re looking for isn’t sold at that one quilting store. Maybe it’s a one-hour or more drive to anyplace that sells fabric. Or even worse: there is nothing nearby. This leaves a lot of cosplayer relying on online stores to get fabric.
But you can’t feel the fabric online. How can I tell what color the fabric really is? In sunlight? Indoors? Is it going to drape the way I need? Am I gambling buying online?
Fear not! There is one amazing solution to ensuring the fabric is what you need!
REQUEST OR BUY SWATCHES!
A swatch is a small square, triangle, or rectangle size of fabric that sellers may either send or sell of the fabric you are looking at.
Though these swatches may not be large, they serve the worries you have about your upcoming project. They…
Tell you how the fabric looks and feels
Or even how it drapes if you are looking for a certain fabric stiffness:
Some sellers may actually have a Swatch Collection in which buying the entire collection of colors is at discount then comparing and contrasting a few colors in between. This is especially good if purchases of a particular brand become a recurring thing.
Also be aware that a lack of a button or section to buying swatches does not meant that the seller will not provide them. Contact the store with the exact fabric you would like to get a swatch and see if they are willing to send a swatch directly to your home. This can also be applied to online sellers on large e-commerce sites like Ebay, Etsy, and many more.
Getting swatches can also be a huge help when hunting for a specific kind of fabric for your cosplay. It gives you a compare and contrast between multiple sellers to try and see if it what you’re 100% looking for.
Swatches aren’t reserved for just fabric! Swatch books are also made for threads!
Although slightly harder to find, many thread companies and thread sellers actually sell swatch booklets of threads.
This can be especially useful for buying threads for embroidery and appliqué where the top stitching color and the shine of the thread may actually matter.
Not sure where to start? Here are a few amazing places.
Check our micro fleece! It’s designed to be super thin, for adding insulating and soft layers in garments without adding too much thickness. Just don’t confuse micro fleece with microfiber fleece. If you’re shopping in person, you’ll be able to feel the difference, because micro fleece is slightly thinner than your average sweatshirt and microfiber fleece is dense and thicker than your average fleece. If you’re buying online, though, make sure they specify thin micro fleece, not microfiber.
You can also check out flannelette (which a lot of stores sell as just flannel, but technically if it doesn’t have a wool component and if the fluffy nap was made by weaving the fabric with smooth yarns and then combing the finished fabric instead of by weaving with fluffy wool yarn, it’s flannelette), which usually come in a variety of cute patterns for quilts. I used to have some great bloomers I made of this fabric, which I wore until I tore a hole in the seat. You have to watch out, since this fabric gets dirty faster than regular quilt cottons. No one really stares too much at your bloomers, so it’s easier to get away with using flannel(ette) even though it’s not a traditionally lolita fabric.
If you’re planning on making long bloomers so that you don’t freeze your butt off, they’ll be more visible, and you might want to make them out of more common lolita fabrics on the outside. For that kind of project, I like flat-lining with flannel-back satin, which is slippery enough that it doesn’t stick to your thighs and work its way into wedgie territory, but is still warm and thin enough to look normal from the outside.
If breathability is also a concern (and breathability and warmth are different. It’s the difference between being warm and dry because you’re in a nice coat and being warm and stuffy because you’re in a car with the windows up), see if you can find cotton-blend flannel-back satin, or rayon blend if you’re worried about cotton being too cold. Other blends can work, but they’re hard to find.
I’ve probably forgotten to mention something important here, because I keep feeling like I forgot something, but i can’t think of what it is. If anyone out there can think of something to add, add it in a reblog and I’ll reblog it back to the main blog.
Those were all written by a friend, I just hype them because her spandex book really helped me! I do much more tailored, fitted garments and stretchy bodysuits were a mystery – not really something that gets covered in fashion school xD
Hi hi! I’ve decided to start a little series named “Sewing with Siren”. It’ll cover basic in garment construction and how to start basic patterning. (aka your first year of fashion school so hey if any of you are applying for school I got you covered). I hope this turns out??? Helpful??? To someone? LMFAO I know I ramble on a lot but I always thought that knowing about grainlines and stuff was important even for people who just sew for fun (cosplayers and people making their own lolita stuff) but there wasn’t really a resource for it. Next week we get to go over pattern drafting. OH BOY.
Hello! I completely feel where you’re coming from 🙂 For the pin distortion, you could try alternating the pins, that is place one pin from the top of the fabric and place the next from underneath – so the two kind of cancel each other out. I’ve also heard some people prefer clips to pins, such as these: https://www.amazon.com/Clover-Wonder-Clips-Red-50-Pack/dp/B004ZKPX8A Using a walking foot is another tool that helps control the slipperiness of the minky, but that’s a more expensive solution. Personally, if I’m working on something smallish, I like to just hand-baste the seams before I sew them so I’m absolutely sure they’re going together like I want 🙂 I hope one of those tips help!
Choosing the right kind of fabric and treating it right when sewing can greatly improve the finished look of your cosplay. Here are a few tips on how to decide what fabrics to buy and how to treat and work with it when making your cosplay.
Deciding what fabric to pick
So you have picked a character and decided to make the cosplay yourself and are now ready to buy fabric for it.
The first thing you need to do is to find a couple of good reference picture of your character from different angles and see how many different fabrics you will need.
The next step is to try to decide what kind of fabric you will need, this step can be really tricky if you don’t have any previous experience with fabrics.
A good way to start figuring it out is to think about what qualities you want the fabric to have. Is the character wearing a formfit catsuit? Then the fabric should be stretchy like a four-way stretch spandex or a lycra. Is the character wearing a corset? Then the fabric should be stiff and a bit thicker. Is the character wearing a light and airy skirt? etc etc Write up the qualities you want the different fabrics in your cosplay to have and start doing some research.
Look at what kind of fabrics other people used in a similar garment or what recommendations the sewing patterns of the similar clothes say.
Another tip is to think what kind of person your character is. Is it a princess? Then maybe the fabric she would wear would be a bit more expensive looking and not just a simple cotton. Is it a hobbit? Then maybe the fabric should be natural and not synthetic.
Difference between Synthetic and Natural fabrics:
There is a lot of different kind of fabrics but they all fall under two main types; Synthetic and natural fabrics.
Natural fabrics are made from either the fibers of plants or animals (wool, hair etc). Examples are: Cotton, linen, silk, wool etc.
Synthetic fabrics are made from fibers made in scientific way and are produced from chemicals. Examples are: Polyester, Nylon, Spandex, acrylic etc.
Blend fabrics is as it sounds a mix of the both fibers to create a textile that has properties from both fibers.
Buying fabrics in store vs online:
If you have access to a fabric store that sells more than just curtain fabrics then it’s a great opportunity to get to know how different fabrics feels and works. Don’t be afraid to take help of the employees of the store and ask what kind of fabric would work for the garment. Bring a photo of your character so you can check how the color looks and if you already have a piece of your cosplay ready and you need a fabric in a similar color take a sample with you so you can check so it match.
I highly recommend bringing a camera (or your phone) to the store and take photos of the fabric you are thinking of buying. Most fabric looks different with a flash and can get really shiny or change color. Since you probably want photos of your finished cosplay it is important to check so the fabric looks good both on and off camera.
This is for example photos of the same fabric taken in different lights:
If you don’t have a fabric store close to you or could not find the fabric you were looking for, buying fabrics online is a great second option. Buying fabrics online can be hard since you don’t have the opportunity to touch it, feel it and see how it flows, it can also be hard to see the exact color of it. I therefore recommend that you order some fabric samples of the fabric you are interested in before buying several yards of it. Fabric samples are often not very expensive and it is a great way to get to see how it looks and feel before deciding.
A tip is to save the fabric samples or cut out a piece of your fabric and write on a note what kind of fabric it is and where you bought it and then save it in a folder. This makes it really easy to later when you are going to make another cosplay to just check the folder and see if any of those fabrics would work for that cosplay.
Hi hi! I’ve decided to start a little series named “Sewing with Siren”. It’ll cover basic in garment construction and how to start basic patterning. (aka your first year of fashion school so hey if any of you are applying for school I got you covered). I hope this turns out??? Helpful??? To someone? LMFAO I know I ramble on a lot but I always thought that knowing about grainlines and stuff was important even for people who just sew for fun (cosplayers and people making their own lolita stuff) but there wasn’t really a resource for it. Next week we get to go over pattern drafting. OH BOY.
Truthfully, everything you buy from just about everywhere is being bought for pennies on the dollar. I used to work for a fabric store, and Christine currently works in purchasing. We know exactly what those companies charge, and I can tell you for a fact that a quilting cotton sold for $22/m was purchased for something like $1.13/m. Scissors they sell for $10? Five cents. A yard of fusible web for $14? Thirty cents. That’s just the long and short of it. Once you know that, it’s all in mark-up. What are you comfortable paying in mark-up? These companies have to pay for freight and employees and rent and taxes and all these things, but when they are companies that pay their employees barely over minimum wage (if over at all) sometimes it can get a little dicey to think about how much money they rake in. I’m comfortable paying $3/yard for broadcloth from a family-owned fabric store even if it cost them far less to produce/bring in, but I’d balk at paying $5/yard for the same stuff at some soulless corporate chain. (I’ll use the 50% discount, though.)
It also depends on where you’re shopping. I generally treat online fabric shopping as a last resort because it is, surprise surprise, very difficult to find something as tactile and colourful as fabric when shopping over the internet. But if you live in an area where you have minimal choice in fabric selection, you’re probably going to have to settle for higher prices. (And I’d say, the vast majority of the time, higher prices are worth it to be able to know what you’re buying firsthand.) If you live in an area with lots of competing fabric stores, like Queen West in Toronto, then odds are you’re going to have lower prices, a close relationship with store owners (which translates into off-the-cuff discounts) and the ability to haggle/price match.
My general rule is something like this, all prices in CND, but you might find your numbers more (or less) depending on what kind of area you live in and what you have access to. These are prices I’ve come to expect at Queen West:
Anything from Joann’s/Hancock’s/Fabricland: 50% off is generally my minimum unless impossible to avoid, 75% off or less is ideal. Full price is a rip-off but is sometimes a necessary evil if what you reaaaally want or need is only available or easiest to acquire at full price.
Broadcloth: $3/yard
Satins: $11-14/yard
Zippers: $1 or less for regular, $2 for specialty, $10 for super rare/special kinds
Twills: $8-10/yard
Linings: $3-5/yard
Interfacings: $3-5/yard
Pleathers: $15-18/yard
Linens: $15-20/yard
Cottons: $8-10/yard
Custom printed fabrics: $20+/yard
Spandexes: $10-15/yard, up to $18/yard for specialty/football grade/etc
Trims: $1/yard at absolute most for poly. I get my fancy-schmancy gold pleather tapes for $2/yard when at bulk, so fuck the rest!
Faux wools/suitings: $8-10/yard
But again, that’s just a guideline of what I usually pay in downtown Toronto.
Sometimes fabric gets expensive. Hell, a lot of the time it gets expensive. I think our average for material costs these days runs about $100-150 in fabric per costume, sometimes lower ($85 on Grandmaster), but also sometimes higher ($300 on Lissa). But we also do like a dozen costumes a year, and that’s usually on at least half a dozen people each footing the bill for their own costume, so I don’t mind shelling out for nice fabrics at reasonable prices if I’m only going to be doing one or two costumes a year for myself.
If you’re the kind of person who needs a new costume for every day of a convention and goes to a lot of conventions, well, fabrics get very expensive very fast. (Ugh!)
I prefer Spoonflower over any other printing service. Black can sometimes look more charcoal, but as long as you make sure you’re using their color codes when designing, I’ve had no issues with color accuracy. The fabric quality is very nice too – but I do opt for the pricier sateen than the cheaper kona cottons.
We picked up the sample book and sample colour chart recently and were impressed with the fabric quality, but not so impressed with the fact that the sample fabrics had no print on them at all. It made it difficult to tell how prints looked when manipulated on different fabrics.
Do you happen to know how their prints look when stretched? I’ve been unimpressed with some printing in the past when the colour looks accurate, but the print turns excessively “white” upon being stretched.
– Jenn
I haven’t had an opportunity to work with their stretch fabrics yet, so I can’t speak to the quality of any of their knits or sportswear printing – but I do swear by the sateen for dress shirts, pants, etc. It doesn’t have any stretch to it other than on the bias (so it isn’t quite as versatile as JoAnn’s sateen, for example), but here’s a shot of it stretching on the bias, no white showing through:
I do have some issues with how thin their cheaper cottons are, and certainly the prices make a lovely dent in one’s wallet, but they’re my go-to over any other fabric printing shop! They’re generally very quick on turn-around, too; our Seiyuu Cafe group ordered more plaid fabric over the holidays, and I thought it’d take forever to come in, but it shipped even faster than the quoted timeframe. It was a pleasant surprise!
Ah, perfect! Thanks so much, you’re the best!
I recently got a couple different knit and sportwear fabric samples printed through Spoonflower and I thought I’d give them a stretch and share them with you!
The color on all of them turned out fairly true to my original design, but I did also make a point of using Spoonflower’s color codes when I designed it. The photographs look a little like each swatch is a bit off, but that’s down more to the amount of shine the different fabrics had. In person, they all match nearly perfectly~
I’m planning on making a sweatshirt for Annie from Splatoon, so I went with fabrics that I felt might be nice for that.
1. Organic Cotton Knit Ultra – This fabric is very soft and matte in appearance with a bit of 2-way stretch. It’s initially what I thought I’d most like to use as it feels the most like a sweatshirt~ However, the fabric and print are very unforgiving when sewn and you basically can’t make any mistakes without leaving awful white holes in the fabric.
2. Performance Piqué – This fabric has a bit of a shine to it and a lovely 2-way stretch. It feels a lot like a football (soccer) jersey and might be nice for any sports cosplay. The fabric was a lot more forgiving of mistakes, but if you snag it you will get a hole.
3. Performance Knit – This was the sample that had the most shine to it, but it was otherwise very similar to the performance piqué. It’s got a similar feel and 2-way stretch to it, but the big difference is that you’re missing that textured look that a lot of sports jerseys have. It’s also a lot more prone to snagging than the performance piqué.
4. Modern Jersey – This fabric is soft, matte, and has a 2-way stretch. It’s your typical t-shirt jersey fabric.It was the most forgiving of mistakes and didn’t leave any marks when I ripped out some stitching. This is what I ended up going with for my sweatshirt in the end, despite it being more of a t-shirt material~
5. Cotton Spandex Jersey – This fabric is very similar to the modern jersey, but is a 4-way stretch instead of the 2-way the rest of my samples were. Like the modern jersey it was also very forgiving of mistakes, but it was also the sample that showed the most white when stretched. This fabric would be great for some soft leggings, in lighter colors~
Here are all of my samples side-by-side. As I said before, despite them not looking it, they’re all nearly identical color-wise.
I hope this has been helpful to someone, and good luck with your sewing! And thanks to @mangosirene and @dangerous-ladies for all of the cosplay help and inspiration!
Oh, this is awesome. Thanks so much for weighing in so thoroughly!!
We have an order coming soon and we’ll weigh in on ours when we get it 🙂
Struggling [to be] a[n] artist 