Upgrades that make a big difference for every cosplayer looking to perfect their craft.
Depending on how deep you want to dive into crafting and professional cosplay construction, these upgrades are the best picks for cosplayers. Consider these options when wanting to invest money while getting the most bang for your buck, as these upgrades make creating easier, faster, and more enjoyable.
Thread
Thread is the number one thing to invest in. Many inexperienced sewers may use threads that are donated or bought from non-sewing stores. These can be thinning, weak, or not created for the purpose you need it for. All purpose is best for crafts that won’t get much wear, not for all general sewing. When constructing garments and cosplays, using strong apparel thread, such as polyester thread by Mettler, will ensure your stitches stay together and lay clean. During our own test of a handful of thread brands compared for strength and longevity, Mettler’s metrosene and seracor never needed to be restitched.
Cutting Mat
Cutting mats and rotary cutters are good upgrades for creating cosplays. You can cut large pieces of fabric easily, and avoid the uneven edge that can be caused by cutting with fabric scissors. Cutting mats will protect your sewing table, and have convenient measurements directly on the mat. Rotary cutters will have a rolling blade that can cut your fabric smoothly, and glide through it. These give accurate cuts, and can help to triple check your measurements while cutting if needed. Measure twice, cut once!
Pressing Tools
Proper measuring, fabric piecing, and getting a clean result all require the proper pressing tools for the best result. A good ironing station has multiple settings for different fabrics, and a steady ironing board. Steamers are an iconic tool for cosplayers for many reasons involving wigs, dresses, and capes. For garment making, tailor’s hams are perfect for pressing curved seams, darts, and three-dimensional areas. Special tools like lint shavers, fabric starch, and help care for your fabric, align pieces when pinning, and properly press your seams.
Specialized Scissors
There are more scissors available than strictly fabric scissors. If you don’t already have fabric specific scissors, that’s an essential. Consider these scissors often used for cosplay and often available in kits.
Dressmaking Shears: Long scissors at an angle. They lay flat against the fabric and are more accurate and cleaner.
Thread Snips: Thread snips are an essential. They’re small, and quick to grasp to cut your threads once you pull a piece off a machine.
Curved Embroidery Scissors: Curved embroidery scissors are perfect for cutting loose threads and embroidery. The curve helps you get close to the end of the thread for a convenient cut.
Applique Scissors: These scissors have a disk on one blade, and are designed specifically for applique. They align against the stitching and cut very close while cutting only the fabric for a clean applique.
Pinking Shears: These scissors cut your fabric leaving a small zig zag along the cut. They are often used for raw edges to interrupt common fraying issues.
Presser Feet
Certain stitches are best accomplished with feet that correspond to your machine and it’s stitches. The common feet your machine may come with are zig-zag feet, buttonhole feet, and zipper feet. Some other feet to invest in may be:
Teflon/Non stick/Guide feet: The non-stick coating on these feet make them best for fabrics such as vinyl, suede, faux leather, and more. Perfect for more accurate stitching on the difficult fabrics iconic in cosplay creation.
Hemmer foot: A hemmer foot makes hemming fabric, skirts, capes, and more much faster. It automatically folds your fabric over twice, and aligns your stitch perfectly on top to create a hem. Multiple types are available for different desired hem widths.
Button Sewing Foot: Easily sew buttons onto your garment with your machine. By using this foot you can clearly see through the foot, properly align your stitch, and secure a button much easier and faster than if you did it by hand.
Overedge/Overcast Feet: This foot makes it much easier to use a mock overcast stitch on fabrics such as tweed, gabardine, and linen. The stitch finishes the edge cleanly and accurately with the correct stitch on the machine.
Walking Foot: A walking or even feed foot is a second best addition when dual feed isn’t available. It imitates the function of a dual feed to resist puckering and shifting on your project.
Ruffler Foot: Ruffler feet make ruffling and pleating incredibly simple. You can adjust the desired size and number of pleats, and it will create them for you while you stitch on your machine.
Quality Fabrics
Investing in quality fabric can impact how easy it is to work with, the final appearance, and how well it holds up. A quality fabric lasts, is comfortable, and any patterns or dye are consistent and embedded into the fabric. Feeling and shopping in person is best if you want to feel the texture of the fabric, see how the edge may fray, how it stretches, and check for any inconsistencies in the fabric. Color fastness and how the dye in the fabric acts can affect sewing against light colors or while washing. GSM, or fabric weight, can help you understand the density, weight, and possibly durability of the fabric- but can change between brands.
Vario Creative Tool
The Vario Creative Tool is an essential tool designed to ease adding snaps, grommets, and rivets to garments. Trade hammering or hand sewing for an easy press of a lever, and you’ll find a reason to add grommets and snaps to everything! There are a wide array of sizes and colors for every projects you could possibly need fasteners for. This is the ideal tool to make cosplay sewing professional, quick, and easy.
Serger & Coverstitch Machines
If you sew a lot of cosplays and apparel, investing in these types of machines can improve your finishes and make your result more professional.
Sergers: A serger uses an overlock stitch and a blade to create professional seams. The blade cuts the fabric, stitches the seam with a stretchable stitch, and brings thread over to seal the raw edge of the fabric. This creates long lasting seams for inside garments.
Coverstitch: Coverstitch machines are commonly used for hems and topstitching on apparel. The coverstitch does not cut your fabric to the seam, and instead sew hems perfectly for knit and other garments. It can also attach lace and more with the same, stretchable and secure stitch.
Embroidery Machine
An embroidery machine is an incredible upgrade for cosplayers. They can open a wide range of possibilities into creating more than just simple embroidery. Embroidery machines can create patches, appliques, fringe, in-hoop projects, and has so many capabilities related to cosplay. Embroider logos, icons, trims, accessories, and more. Download embroidery files or create your own with a digitizer. Customize your embroidery with an infinite array of thread colors as well as specialty threads that are metallic or glow in the dark.
Dress Form
Dress forms are a great tool for creating custom fitting cosplays. Especially when working with custom designs that don’t have an easy pattern to follow, draping with a dress form can make creating or altering patterns a visual and tangible process. There are many options for adjustable dress forms, available in a large array of sizes from child sizes to plus size, with multiple inches adjustable in the bust, waist, hips, and more.
Related Resources
Helpful pages to keep learning.