So my commissioned cosplay is all done and finished. (If you are wondering, I haven't sorted out how I feel about the whole commissioning cosplay thing.) Honestly, I don't know how people make commissions for people who they never see. There were so many times I needed to remeasure something or make sure the placement was right on the person. I can see how it can go wrong a lot of the time. Anyway, I thought I'd write up a few things I learned on this experience, for posterity, or anyone who's interested.
1) Don't use a wax marking pencil. They suck. Chalk is much better.
2) When sewing stretchy fabric to stretchy fabric, you're probably okay with normal thread tension but half tension is still good.
3) Yes, a zigzag stitch works really well with stretchy fabric but it doesn't look as good (my opinion).
4) Don't worry about having your customer wear the base clothing when trying to place the overlaying stretchy fabric--just measure the distance. (To elaborate, the cosplay I was making was a stretchy based garment that I needed to add some different colored trimming to. Instead of trying to make markers on both pieces of fabric, I could have just cut the length I needed. Stretchy on stretchy, by the way is WAY easier than non-stretchy on stretchy. I wish I had thought of that a year ago....)
5) Cosplay is so expensive....
6) Armor takes a long time to make, especially when there are a lot of steps. I thought it'd only take me four hours. Nope, definitely thirteen hours.
7) Hot glue is your best friend and your worst enemy.
8) When attaching armor to wraps, it's best not to glue the wraps at the middle, but rather at the edges of the armor.
9) DO NOT use bias tape for small rounded edges. It looks terrible.
10) Free-handing fabric paint is going to turn out messy. If it's on a black fabric, outlining the paint in black sharpie works pretty well at cleaning up your lines.
So there you go, ten things I learned while working on a commission.
