Cosplay: Level Up!

Following on from Cosplay: Getting Started!, here are my top 10 tips on how to level up in cosplay! These are the little things that will make your costumes look better and help your confidence soar!

No matter how long you’ve been cosplaying, these tips are designed to help anyone of any skill level. A few small changes can make a big difference to how your costume looks!

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Cosplay: Getting Started!

Hello! Welcome to my blog about cosplay! If you’re new to this hobby, cosplay is when people dress up as characters from your favourite comics, movies, games and more!

As far as hobbies go, cosplay is very diverse and has a lot of amazing aspects to it. It’s definitely one of those hobbies where you do you; it can be as casual or as serious as you want it to be. You’re totally in control of how you make the most of it and enjoy it.

Whether you’re a newbie, a curious parent or a seasoned cosplayer, this post aims to highlight some of the basics of cosplay and how to get involved!

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Exelia’s Guide to Applique!

Over on my Facebook page I asked if anyone would be interested in an applique tutorial, and you guys responded! So here it is!

I’ve used applique on costumes for years now, it’s one of my favourite techniques and it’s really satisfying to look at! Even though it’s time consuming I find it much easier than patterning and top-stitching bias for complex designs like those in the Tales of series. It’s easy to sew and when it’s done well it looks really clean, avoiding any fraying or uneven edges.

All of my sewing is self taught; that means if I can learn to do it, you can too! Applique isn’t hard, it just takes practice and patience. Hopefully this tutorial will help you get started!

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Cosplay Makeup

Cosplay is a huge, creative hobby, and cosplay makeup is something I’m really passionate about! Recently I’ve been able to dabble with some more interesting makeup, and figuring out how to style it for different characters is one of my favourite parts of putting a costume together.

I encourage everyone within the cosplay community to learn the basics of makeup – so here’s a short introduction about how it works and why it’s important to use it! All you need is a bit of patience, some basic products and the want to learn!

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WCS: Last-Minute Advice

World Cosplay Summit 2014 starts this weekend in Japan, and most teams will be flying out mid week! It’s a terrifying and exciting time if you’re taking part in the competition, so I figured I’d put together some last-minute advice for anyone taking part and is having a bit of a panic.

When I arrived last year there were a lot of things we were missing and locating them in Japan is tricky, so it’s easiest to make sure you’re well prepared!

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So YOU Want To Enter WCS?

So. The UK Preliminaries for World Cosplay Summit are approaching fast, and in under less than 5 weeks next year’s UK representatives will be chosen!

As one of this year’s representatives I highly recommend and encourage anyone who is interested in competing to enter – it’s an amazing experience and a fun-filled trip in Nagoya with some of the most amazing, talented cosplayers you’ll ever meet! No matter how long you’ve been into the hobby or what your reason to enter may be, as long as you’re enthusiastic enough about cosplay to go for it it’s worth giving it a try. The great thing about WCS is that everyone is there for the same reason: their love of cosplay!

This post is a summary of advice I’m giving as a previous entrant, to show what you should expect from the competition itself. WCS is a huge contest, but a lot of entrants don’t know much about the competition until they get there – myself included! – so it’s worth giving some advice from my personal experiences, not only for future entrants from the UK, but for cosplayers across the world wanting to give it a go.

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