Fan Powered Press: Creative Cosplay

By The Cosplay Journal Team

The Cosplay Journal was lucky enough to be sent a collection of cosplay crafting books by Fan Powered Press part of C&T Publishing. Each of the books is written for cosplayers by cosplayers, so we were very excited to give them a look.

There are so many tutorials out there, they are all over YouTube, blogs and Facebook groups and all of them are super helpful but sometimes it can get a bit overwhelming to try and find what you need. Never fear Fan Powered Press have brought together some of these amazing crafters to create books just for you! From how to get started as a beginner all the way up to extreme wig styling and complex armour making, these books can take you the whole journey. We are going to have a little look into them and share our thoughts with you over the next few articles in more detail but let’s start at the beginning with Amanda Haas’s (JediManda) Creative Cosplay: Selecting and Sewing Costumes.

Full of inspiring images and helpful information for cosplayers at any level, though mostly aimed at beginners, Haas puts together a fun and concise guide to jumping into the hobby as a sewer interested in making their own stuff. With a guide to researching and budgeting alongside the crafting elements, as well as thoughts on buying verses crafting, there has obviously been lot of thought put into what new-comers to the hobby will need to know.

The small introduction section that you open up to is full of amazing pictures of cosplays that grab focus straight away, they are the dream of what cosplay can look like and definitely aspirational for anyone starting out on their journey. The intro itself explains what cosplay is and covers a bit more of the social and historical side of things as a way to ease readers into what they are tipping their toes into. It only runs to a few pages but is great to see social media and the reasons why people get into cosplay touched on - though some of the facts are a little lightly skimmed over so if you are interested in the sub-cultural or historic elements of cosplay this book isn’t going to give you that. However, and spoilers for the end, there is a great little guide to conventions, competitions and photoshoots in the last section of the book that neatly brings that introduction back into play. Both these parts are short, and clearly not the main focus of the book, but that’s fine as the moment you go passed the first few pages you dive deep into the detail of crafting. Despite being only a smaller segment of the overall book, both these sections do offer insight into these other topics that give readers a appetising taster of what the community as a whole is.

Getting into the body of the book is a joy for anyone who has tried to teach themselves how to sew, and will be of great help to those embarking on this adventure themselves. There’s a guide to the tools you’ll need, a look at fabric types, terminology lists and a good amount of information about fixings, zippers, and general haberdashery that will set any new cosplayer on the right path. Haas has also included some hints and tips for how to get the perfect finish for your costume with wigs, shoes and accessories, along with a quick look at the ways you can embellish your work. You can see the level of research that has gone into the book, as well as Haas’s own work processes that have helped her through the years and is now passing on to other makers, it feels a bit like a teacher holding your hand as she walks you through the process.

This is most obvious in the guide to sewing tools, it jumped out as something that every sewer should have in their arsenal of information. Well researched, the guide has both the names of the tools listed with descriptions and images of the tools in question, something that will allow for anyone learning about these items to know exactly what they are getting their hands on. Plus there are useful tips and diagrams dotted around the page instruct the reader on the use of some of the more unusual items that they might simply may never have come across, or need a expert eye to get the hang of. The layout is also very fun, making it an enjoyable read without throwing too much information at you. This definitely makes a difference to any new crafter.

This cartoony layout continues into the next section, fabric choices, but it fails to illustrate the text as well as previously. With images of fabric squashed into little boxes it feels little more reliant on the text to explain the fabrics on the whole, lacking the same level of quality as the tools guide. The design choice is clearly meant to replicate fabric swatches next to images of the garment but the effect falls a little flat. It’s a real shame, as with the whole book, this section is incredibly informative and well written. Haas has realised the need for education around fabrics for new sewers, something that often gets missed in online tutorials, or even traditional sewing instructional books. Switching out the larger cosplay images here for images of the fabrics would have made more sense, or, possibly, allowing more pages for the images to stand in their own right to give the reader a better idea of what it is they are looking at. Despite that, this is a very useful guide to fabrics with each one being described quickly and clearly with its make up and use within the craft in a way that will allow readers to progress as a maker with those ideas in mind, and that knowledge is worth its weight in gold!

From Fan Powered Press/C&T Publishing

One thing that does really stand out in this section though is the guide to patterns and their use. Patterns can often seem like a jigsaw with instructions in gibberish when you first start to use them - and even if you’re a old hand from time to time! - so its great to see them talked about here. It is a touch odd that the terminology list for patterns and how to use them is separate to this, but when Haas does bring in these topics they are put together with the same clear instructive nature that flows throughout the book. This later section also includes prepping patterns, something that is so helpful to first time sewers, and those of us who might be a little rusty on some skills, as it introduces the idea of mock-ups for your work to get you a little closer to achieving perfection.

If you are a cosplayer looking to build up your catalogue of skills but don’t really know where to start, the whole section on embellishments is full of exciting ideas on what to include in your next build for hobby newbies as well as those moving from other crafting areas or perhaps learning to add more to their costumes. While still keeping it an entry level, this chapter gives the reader a good idea of where to start with trims, appliques, and embroidery. Again, it isn’t that long, but the ground work is there for skill progression with your costumes.

One of the things that would have been nice to have seen from this book, it being a guide for beginners, would have been a little more detail in each segment. It easily could have been a little longer. It rather stuck out that there are several things that were touched on then moved away from very quickly, to the point that it seemed like a missed opportunity given the obvious level of knowledge that Haas has around her subject. However, it is a clear that Haas has had to balance up what is the most important information throughout the book, something that is no easy task for certain, and considering that it isn’t a long book has done this very well.

That being said, short is not a bad thing by any stretch. My favourite of the whole book, strangely, is the last few pages. A bonus bum-bag pattern and making guide, as well as brilliantly useful little appendix on fabrics and a list for travelling with cosplay are genius inclusions. It literally is only a few pages but it adds so much to the overall read. Its feel like teaching points whilst also pointing the student in the right direction to build on them, themselves. And that is what the book is as a whole.

It’s an excellent starting and reference point to build on whilst being an excellent resource in its own right. It is presented in a way that a beginner will be able to grasp easily and considers the needs of a beginner beyond just the basics of learning to sew, whilst not ignoring the more complex techniques that people may well be keen to include as part of their learning experience. Overall, Creative Cosplay is must get for anyone who is looking to start learning to sew.