You should never neglect the home décor section when shopping for costume fabric. You’ll find patterns and colors there appropriate for a surprising swathe of history and some drawn characters too. For instance, when you need emergency princess gear, pintuck taffeta can be a lifesaver. Sheer gauze curtains can provide material for fairy wings. I’ve lost count of… Read More »
This really should be included with the sheers, but what the hell, I’m writing this and decided we should talk about it separately. This is a sheer fabric, as you can see, and what makes it noteworthy is this feathery, opalescent sheen to it. Left to itself, this fabric can attract every little girl under… Read More »
Sequin trims are discussed over here. Indulge me, I’m going to get even more preachy than usual. It used to be that “sequin fabric” meant this. That fabric features thousands and thousands of round sequins machine or hand-sewn onto a fabric base. But in the past decade or so, manufacturers have realized that there are cheaper… Read More »
Vinyl! Ubiquitous, shiny vinyl! Vinyl covers a lot of ground. It can be shiny, semi-shiny or dull. It can be lightweight with a fuzzy backing and easily sewable, all the way through to heavy-weight marine vinyl which, as the name suggests, is used for things like boat covers and which I wouldn’t touch without a… Read More »
Oh, lamé how I love you and hate you. This is one of those fabrics that’s absolutely super for cosplayers but can cause an awful lot of heartbreak, too. But before I get into that, let’s talk about what lamé is. Lamé is a fabric that has been treated with a surface coating to make… Read More »
I want to take a moment to talk about a very nasty, very specific pitfall awaiting new sewists: fusible canvas. Some commercial patterns out there will tell you that you need it for making a jacket and, hey, it makes sense. You use hair canvas interfacing to give a shape to a jacket. There are… Read More »
Fabric For Cosplayers