A Beginner's Guide to Learning to Sew for Cosplay

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If you've ever wanted to learn to sew for your cosplay but weren't sure where to start, hopefully this video will help you understand the basics! I discuss materials, patterns, and how to find resources to help you learn.

Here are a few of the basic sewing products I discuss in this video.

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[MorganScott]

Note: A lot of cosplay fabrics, especially leather look, latex, and vinyl fabrics do not take well to pinning as the pins will leave permanent holes in the finished surface of the fabric. In these cases small office supply binder clips are a decent stand in.

[OhColorMeAmazing]

I love how well you phrased this - I'm someone who's afraid of wasting time and material creating something ugly, but the only way to get any good at sewing is to just do it and make that ugly thing or failed project. I've learned a lot through my sewing failures but I've also had sewing successes in which I've learned a lot. Thanks for passing on this wisdom to future sewists!

[medievalterrence]

Ginny Di: Needles have a hole and pins have balls.
Me (taking notes): "Pins are male needles."

[Julie]

Oh no, I'm a mom sewing matching Easter clothes for my kids 😂

[PavarottiAardvark]

Seam ripper is an absolute MUST, not least because there's a lot of good cosplay/larp stuff to be found in thrift stores. Being able to carefully take parts off of clothes is super helpful.

[KateNyx]

I’m a seamstress as my day job and this is the best beginner sewing guide I’ve ever seen. Going to recommend this video to everyone who asks me “how do I start doing what you do?”

[DragonHeartGamer]

on commercial patterns dont worry if you manage to mess up along the way!! the steps are really confusing!! im at university for costume making, it is literally my job and ive been sewing for more than half my life and i still look at the instructions on commercial patterns and have to figure out how to translate them into english.

[Medliwen]

Me: absolutely took an entire semester of Costuming so have a great handle on sewing clothes.
Also me: clicks on the video anyway bc Ginny deserves the views/support.

[lkmcclellan]

Something to add as someone who just sews clothes: if you plan to work with heavy fabrics often get a vintage machine. I found a 1930 singer model 66 machine for $50 a few years ago that will go through anything assuming I use the right needle, my one year old Brother machine can do lots of interesting things and even useful ones, like buttonholes, but only in a max of 4 layers of quilting cotton... quick note though make sure it's been rewired or go get it rewired, 60 to 90 year old wiring isn't necessarily safe... table machines can even double as end tables :)

[KayDeeKeySull]

I love that mentality! Put in the time now so that future you already knows how. Never heard it worded that way, but it’s great:)

[Whitney_Sews]

I love this video! I've been sewing almost 20 years, but still watched the entire thing :) I get questions often on my channel for tips for ultra beginners and I'll definitely be sharing this video with them!

[pancake]

The thing is. I’m only 12-13 years old and my parents would never buy stuff for cosplay because they think it’s a waste of money

[perfectlyhopeless]

YOUR SEAM RIPPER HAS A GORGEOUS HANDLE OMG I'M SO JEALOUS!

[JohnWilliams-crsz]

Every day I thank the universe that I have a sister who is a professional costumer and was able to teach me the basics of sewing. Super awesome of you to make a video to help people with basics to get started.

[harleyretherford]

I had four sisters growing up, and while I did learn to work doing things like construction, ditch digging, pipe laying and that suck, I also learned the more 'feminine' skills, which often people teased me about, like learning to cook and sew. Now those same people say. "Damn, I wish learned to cook or sew, I wouldn't be eating ramen noodles or have to get new pants every time they rip." 😂

I would suggest embroidering to new sewers, you can get iron-on patterns that you simply put the thread through a flat single piece of fabric, this will help you learn to control the needle better. After your fairly good at that, pillowcases and drawstring pouches are a good thing to follow up with. Once you're comfortable with those it's really your choice where to go. Of course, this is all hand stitching that I do, using a machine may be different.

[lizziethompson]

for sewing machines my favs are the second hand school ones, they are very easy to use, near on indestructible and if they do break then you can fix them quite easy. Mine came from an old teacher who taught me so I don't know how easy they are able to get a hold on in real life.

[ivanushka]

My mom sews and has a sewing machine and most of these supplies. Actually when I was like 7 I wanted to be a fashion designer 😂 I'm not into that stuff anymore and I'm now a huge weeb and I wanna be a cosplayer.. My mom is kind of lazy Tbh and got frustrated trying to help me learn to crochet and that never worked out... But maybe she'll help me or even my grandma could try and help me. Thanks for making this vid it was really helpful to me too 😀

[Shadowclaw]

Hope this video stays without dislikes

[Favilludo]

holy, this video really puts into perspective how lucky i am to have learned all that in school and that my mom has a sewing and a seam sewing machine just standing around

[fullercosplay]

Having just stared sewing for cosplay I literally spent 1 hour reading one step of the first commercial pattern I sewed (a school blazer for an Umbrella Academy cosplay). It took me that long to figure out that the collar band they were talking about was in fact the collar stand and yes it is possible to see two very different lengths of material together to make something that seriously looked impossible to me. So much to learn haha. Great tips!