#HrlequinsBlogOfInterests

[hrlequinsblogofinterests]

Book Review: Couture Sewing Techniques, by Claire B. Shaeffer

This book is written specifically for people who want to spend a lot of time making sure their finished garment is runway-worthy. It focuses on which hand stitches to use for what, which seams and hems will give you the specific look you’re going for, and how to painstakingly craft your perfectly-fitted garment (no joke, there’s an entire section on how to use ironing to selectively shrink fabric to mold it to your body, among other things). 

This book is not designed for people who just want to know how to sew and make their own clothes, but if you want to level-up your Cosplay and impress the judges at the next Cosplay Contest, this is the book for you! It covers most of the main techniques used in haute couture (basically "finest high-fashion sewing"), like the stuff that comes out of the fanciest Parisian fashion houses, and goes into excruciating detail about the correct ways to hold fabric and which directions to hand-stitch which seams. If you want your Cosplay to be as fancy and time-consuming as you can possibly make it, this is the book for you.

I’d say this book isn’t for beginners, or anyone just starting out. When I read through it, I found many things I wouldn’t have understood even two years ago, so beginners would have trouble with it. Experienced Cosplayers, on the other hand, should do fine. And if all else fails, you can always turn to Google to look up tutorials if the written instructions don’t work for you (I know I tend to learn visually better than by reading the words, so photos and video tutorials are better for me).

If you want the fanciest hand-sewn seams, and painstakingly hand-beaded designs for your dream Cosplay, this is probably a good place to start. It has sections on basically every hand stitch, seam, and finish you can think of, and more tiny construction details than you knew existed. 

The entire book is basically a love letter to couture sewing, and goes into exacting detail about pretty much everything it mentions. It’s basically a textbook, if textbooks spent half their time waxing poetic about their subjects. All in all, a decent purchase. I got a copy for ~$30 new, which is definitely cheaper than trying to learn any of this from a class.

Tl;dr: If you want to take your Cosplay to the next level, and don’t mind spending an impressive amount of time hand-stitching . . . well, everything, this is the book for you. Cosplay is often all about the little details, and this book is nothing but little details. Probably best for more experienced Cosplayers who are trying to take their next costume contest really seriously.

9/10. Not for beginners, but thorough and useful for experienced sewers.

[hrlequinsblogofinterests]

Building Patterns, by Suzy Furrer

I’m gonna be real with you, this book is the most expensive book I’ve reviewed so far, which means it wouldn’t really work well for anyone on a budget. This textbook was recommended to me by a college acquaintance who used it as part of a fashion design course she took several years ago. And, honestly, aside from the price, I like the book so far. 

This book is designed to teach you how to create your own custom clothing patterns from scratch, tailored to your specific measurements (or someone else’s). It’s written in an approachable way, and gives decently understandable explanations of all the steps involved in creating your own custom patterns. This book offers a more advanced introduction to clothing pattern design than the other pattern drafting books I’ve reviewed, which would be great for those who want to become professional costume makers. (if that’s not your cup of tea, this book would work just as well, and cost half as much.)

This book has the basics, like drafting a custom skirt pattern, figuring out arm holes, and an entire chapter on ways to mess with darts, and covers something I personally haven’t seen before which is creating a Moulage (basically a skin-tight garment which you can then use as a base for all other patterns you create for yourself, similar to a fitted shell). I’d actually never heard of a moulage until I got this book, but it seems like a useful thing to know how to do if you want to take the extra time to make a truly form-fitting costume for your next Cosplay competition, as long as you don’t mind putting in the time.

The instructions in this book are all written in the “using this measurement, place this point on that line” style, and look kinda like word problems from a high school geometry class, but that tends to be the style that works best for me when it comes to learning how to create my own patterns. I need to know the why and the how before I can understand things properly, and “place this point here for this reason” works pretty well for me. It’s not for everyone though, so if geometry isn’t your cup of tea I’d recommend trying a different book (maybe this one).

I got this book for probably . . ~$65? Amazon has it listed for like $150, but if you go directly through the publisher you can get it for less. Unfortunately the publisher just raised the price, so it’s now ~$85 to get a copy. Better than Amazon’s price, but still not great for the Cosplayer on a budget.

Tl;dr: This book does a decent job of explaining and demonstrating how to make custom clothing patterns from scratch, and would be great for anyone who wanted to get into professional costume or clothing design, but the cost is a bit much for the casual Cosplayer. I’d say if you just want to get the basics down and not worry about starting a professional fashion design studio, go for a less expensive option like this one I linked above.

Rating: 8/10. The book is good, but too pricey to be practical.

[hrlequinsblogofinterests]

Book Review: Patternmaking for Fashion Design, by Helen Joseph Armstrong

This pattern making book was recommended by the presenter at a Cosplay workshop I went to. So far I’m not sure I like the book - sure, it has sections on almost literally everything you might want to make, from shirts, to pants, to swim suits, but it reads like it’s written for a classroom setting and seems to assume that the people reading it are getting supplemental information somewhere else.

I’d say that, while this book might be great for fashion design students looking to get a degree, it’s not great for Cosplay unless you already know the basics of designing and making your own clothing. I’ve had some trouble understanding the explanations of the terms and concepts presented, and with figuring out the instructions for how to design different elements of a garment, so I’m not sure how others like me, with little-to-no fashion design experience, would fare.

I’m going to be honest and say I couldn’t really get through the instructionals in this book, and the bits I did try to figure out myself just made me turn to Google for help. 

I’m sure it would be a useful book to have if I knew what it was trying to tell me, but I can’t get much out of it with my current experience level. Maybe in the future when I’ve made a few more costumes myself I’ll be able to decode the secrets this book contains, but that day is not today.

If you already know something about clothing design, or want to try your hand at puzzling out the instructions and explanations, you can get a copy of the book on Amazon for somewhere between $30 - $170 (it is technically a textbook, so some editions come with the textbook price tag. But if you get the paperback edition, which is printed for international use and has the same contents as the official US textbook version, it’s only like ~$30).

Tl;dr: Probably great for fashion design students taking a college course, not so great for Cosplay. The book assumes some kind of supplementary information is being given to you, and making sense of the explanations without that info requires excessive Googling.

Rating: I’d say 6/10. I’m sure it’s great for people who know what they’re doing, but it’s not great for newbies trying to learn, or for people who didn’t major in fashion design.

[hrlequinsblogofinterests]

Book Review Comparison Chart

(click image for better quality)

Below the break is a complete list of reviews for all of the books included in this list, with links.

Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Sewing:

Review

Rating: 10/10

Not Your Grandma’s Sewing Guide, by Kaitlyn Dornbier:

Review

Rating: 10/10

Donna Kooler’s Encyclopedia of Sewing, by Donna Kooler:

Review

Rating: 9/10

Elementary Sewing Skills, by Merchant & Mills:

Review

Rating: 9/10

Make Your Own Patterns, by René Bergh:

Review

Rating: 9/10

Couture Sewing Techniques, by Claire Shaeffer:

Review

Rating: 9/10

The Dressmaking Technique Bible, by Lorna Knight:

Review

Rating: 8/10

Building Patterns, by Suzy Furrer

Review

Rating: 8/10

The Pattern Making Primer, Barnfield & Richards:

Review

Rating: 7/10

Book of Cosplay Sewing, by Svetlana Quindt

Review

Rating: 6/10

Patternmaking for Fashion Design, by Helen Joseph Armstrong

Review

Rating: 6/10

Sewing for Beginners, by Naraku Brock:

Review 

Rating: 3/10

[hrlequinsblogofinterests]

Book Review: The Dressmaking Technique Bible, by Lorna Knight

The Dressmaking Technique Bible is a good go-to for detail-oriented people who want to tailor and modify their own clothing. It’s one of the only sewing books I’ve flipped through that has a section explaining the uses of different types of sewing needles, and has a good section on different types of fabric, complete with suggested sewing techniques for each. It also has instructions for embroidery and beading, which is rare.

Like with all written sewing how-to’s, the text instructions can be a little confusing, since trying to describe how something should be folded and sewn can be hard to do with written words. The pictures included with each step make it pretty easy to puzzle out what the text is trying to tell you, though, so it’s not too bad.

From what I’ve seen, it would mostly be useful for messing around with pre-existing patterns, since it doesn’t really have instructions for making clothing patterns by hand (for that you’d want to try this book or this book), but the tailoring section covers pretty much everything you’d need to customize whatever pattern you happen to be using. 

This book would be great for modifying patterns for Cosplay. The sections on the small custom details would be perfect for making that hard-to-find appliqué, adding hidden pockets to your costume, or getting that tailored fit you can’t usually get from pre-made clothing. 

I haven’t had to use my copy of this book much yet, I haven’t tried to make many truly customized Cosplay as of this posting, but I have a feeling the detail work will be a lot easier with this book as a reference. 

Tl;dr: If you want a relatively comprehensive book on tailoring and detail work, and/or want to have a decent reference book on-hand, you can get this one for relatively cheap - I think mine was probably $30 new. 

Overall, I’d give this book an 8/10.

[hrlequinsblogofinterests]

Book Review: Elementary Sewing Skills, from Merchant & Mills.

The Elementary Sewing Skills book is pretty much exactly what it says on the cover - the basics of sewing and garment construction techniques. It covers how to read a pattern, how sewing machines work, the preferred methods for pressing seams, and the specific ways different pieces of a garment should be attached to get the best results. 

I was actually surprised by this book, I haven’t seen many introductory sewing guides that cover the different techniques used to attach different styles of sleeve, or that include diagrams of the way the thread moves inside a sewing machine. Everything is laid out in a simple, easy-to-follow way, and the only critique I really have is that the explanations of the hand stitches it covers are a bit hard to follow.

Honestly, when I picked this book up at Joann’s I was not expecting it to be as useful as it turned out to be. I figured it was just going to be another of the same old beginner’s guides, more “here are five different kinds of hand stitches and a section reminding you which parts of the sewing machine you actually have to pay attention to” than the practical “okay, here’s what you’re gonna need to know, and this stuff is really handy too” it gave me. Seriously though, the sections about how to attach different parts of a garment properly are one of the most helpful things I’ve seen in a sewing book.

Knowing how to properly sew on a set-in sleeve (a sleeve where you sew a tube to a circular hole, instead of sewing on the sleeve before you sew up the side seam of the garment), how to sew an inseam, or how to attach different types of collars is way more useful for people who want to sew their own clothing than just knowing what a sewing machine is and how many hand stitches you can fit in a chapter before it gets ridiculous.

I’d recommend this book to Cosplayers, beginners and veterans alike. it doesn’t teach you how to make patterns from scratch, but it does teach you how to get the best results you can from pre-made patterns. And no matter how experienced you are, it’s always good to know the techniques that will get you the results you want. I paid probably $12 for this book, because I had a coupon, but according to the price tag it retails for ~$17. 

Tl;dr: I recommend this book. I’ve reviewed a bunch of beginner’s sewing books on this blog, and this one covers some really useful practical things I haven’t seen in other books yet. Beginners will get a lot of great advice out of it, and even experienced Cosplayers will probably learn something new - I know I did.

I’m giving it a 9/10

[hrlequinsblogofinterests]

The Book of Cosplay Sewing, by Svetlana Quindt aka Kamui Cosplay

A quick and easy introduction to the world of Cosplay sewing, for Cosplayers by a Cosplayer. Svetlana Quindt is well known in the Cosplay community for her impressive costumes and her youtube tutorials, and her book on basic Cosplay sewing is a hands-on introduction to making your first costume. Though it would definitely be helpful to have a more comprehensive introductory sewing book on hand for reference, which Quindt herself recommends in the first chapter. (I’d personally recommend this one, this one, or this one. Google and YouTube will probably be your friends).

This book is not written as a teach-all, but as a quick way to get you started on the path to making your own Cosplay as quickly as possible. Less of an “all you need to know” type book, and more of an “it’s 4am, the convention is tomorrow, and you still need gloves” kind of book. It skips most of the stuff covered in more traditional beginners sewing books, and goes right to the “okay, you know what thread is and how to turn on your sewing machine, time to make shit” part. Which is honestly preferable to me, I learn better with my hands than by reading.

I tried one of the easier tutorials included in the book, making a glove from scratch with the ‘trace your hand’ method of pattern drafting. Since the tutorial is designed for stretchy fabric, like spandex (lycra), I used some leftover 4-way stretch fabric from a recent costume.

I think it came out relatively well, all things considered. I’ve never made a glove before, much less from scratch, and I could actually get my hand in it and everything! It’s not perfect of course, there are definitely things I should change before I try to use this pattern for an actual costume, but it’s not bad for a first attempt.

I will say that Quindt seems to assume that everyone reading this book will have access to some fancy equipment, like a Serger (the kind of sewing machine used to do the kinds of seams you see in commercial clothing, like t-shirts), and her explanations for how to do the more complicated stuff, like the dress tutorial, would likely be confusing to anyone who hasn’t had much experience putting garments together, so bear that in mind if you think that would be a problem for you. I should also note that the text in the pdf of the ebook version is kinda small, so if you have trouble with tiny text that’s definitely something to be aware of.

Quindt’s methods of fitting and customizing patterns are definitely handy to know, especially for Cosplay purposes. Knowing how to fit a costume to yourself is one of the most important aspects of learning to make your own costumes, and this book gives a pretty easy example of how to do it. And I liked the demonstration of the ‘cover yourself in tape’ method of custom pattern design, even though the instructions for putting together the actual boot cover were a bit hard to follow in some places. Some of that is wording, it’s hard to explain sewing with words, but some of it was just that it wasn’t explained in a way I could visualize.

The book is available as an ebook (~$5) and as a paperback (~$20), so it’s not particularly expensive (I got the ebook), and it covers most of the important things you’ll encounter when trying to sew a costume, even if it is a bit hard to follow in some places.

Tl;dr: All in all, not a bad introduction to the world of Cosplay. I’d definitely recommend getting other books to go with this one (see links above), if you decide to get it, but this book provides a decent view of what it looks like to actually put together a real Cosplay costume. It acts as a way to dip your toes into things before you jump in the deep end, so to speak. Definitely get other books to go with it though, both to get a better foundation in sewing and to help you better use and understand this book itself.

I’d give this book a 6/10, it’s a good intro to what it looks like to make a Cosplay, but needs supplementary material. 

[hrlequinsblogofinterests]

Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Sewing

If you ever wanted to know everything about everything related to sewing, this is the book for you. I’m not even kidding. This book has 20 pages on the operation and workings of sewing machines, covering everything you could ever need to know about the machine, the thread, and the stitches. It’s like dumping an entire library on your head, and the book weighs about as much. The Complete Guide to Sewing is the most thorough, exhaustive sewing guide I’ve ever seen. 

Info about sewing machines? Check. Guide to different types of fabric? Check. Instructions for fitting and altering pre-made patterns? Check. Tutorial for making a fitted shell out of a pre-made pattern? Check. Instructions for how to assemble every piece of any garment you might want to make, and some pieces you never even knew existed? Check, check, and check.

This book contains more information than I ever thought I would want to know about sewing, and is heavy enough to kill someone with. So if you want to know ALL THE THINGS, but don’t want to buy a bunch of different books that specialize, this is the book you want. It has pretty much everything you could ever think to wonder about, except for drafting patterns from scratch.

Doesn’t matter if you’re a total beginner or an experienced Cosplay veteran, I guarantee you will learn something new from this book. I got mine (the 1997 edition) as a gift, but my copy is old enough you can get one online for like ~$10. The newest edition (circa 2010) is pretty much the same from what I’ve heard, though I did see someone who said it was missing the instructional for invisible zippers for some reason (a quick Google search will bring up a ton of tutorials for how to do it, so it’s not a huge issue), and you can get it for ~$35.

Tl;dr: If you want to know literally everything about sewing, this is the book you want. It has EVERYTHING. Newbie or veteran, this book will teach you everything you ever wanted to know, and you still won’t have have read even half of the book. So if you want to know about sewing, and you never want to have to buy another sewing book again, this is the one for you.

I’m giving it a 10/10 for exhaustive detail, and because it threw so much information at me I was ready to call for help by the end of the second chapter.

[hrlequinsblogofinterests]

Review: Make Your Own Patterns, by René Bergh

René Bergh’s step-by-step patternmaking book gives relatively easy-to-follow instructions for each of the most important aspects of pattern drafting. Her tutorials are designed to help people of all skill levels to create custom fitted clothing patterns for their unique specifications.

The instructions look kind of like high school geometry problems, and a few of the steps aren’t well worded so they can be confusing, but so far this book is the most useful pattern making book I’ve tried to use. 

It was recommended to me by a professional costumer and Cosplayer I met recently. She uses it for all of her custom costuming projects, for everything from off-broadway theatrical costumes, to cosplay commissions, to personal projects.

I’ve gone through a bit of the book myself, and from what I’ve seen it’s pretty thorough. It has the basics, like drafting a fitted shell for a sloper template (the foundation of all your patterns, fitted to your specific measurements), and includes chapters covering everything from sleeves, to necklines, to pockets. It even has a section of quarter-scale basic patterns, which can be copied out, scaled up, and used to create the fitted shells if you don’t want to do all the drafting by hand (drafting can be a time-consuming pain in the ass).

As for the instructionals themselves, they’re pretty straightforward, as far as I can tell. I tried the basic bodice block tutorial, and didn’t have too much trouble with it, although there are a couple places where it says “place X point” but doesn’t say specifically where, which caused a bit of confusion. The tutorial comes with diagrams though, so I could guess.

The basic bodice draft I ended up with seems to be approximately the right size for the mannequin I based it on, so I’d say this book would be pretty useful for people who want to learn to draft their own custom Cosplay patterns, and really for anyone who wants to learn how to make fitted patterns of their own.

The book is also relatively inexpensive, if you get it used. I think I got mine for maybe $30?

Tl;dr: All in all, I’d say this book would be pretty handy for Cosplayers, whether you’re new blood looking to dip your toes into the world of custom Cosplay, or a seasoned veteran looking to spruce up your Cosplay game.

I’d give it a 9/10.

[hrlequinsblogofinterests]

Donna Kooler’s Encyclopedia of Sewing, by Donna Kooler

This sewing encyclopedia is a great place to start learning how to sew, or to brush up on the basics and add a little flair to your projects. I found the book to be both easy to understand, and easy to follow, which is handy in a beginner’s guide. It covers the basics of sewing machines, hand stitching, different styles of garment construction, and practice projects. It even includes a brief history of sewing, which is something I’ve never seen in a sewing instructional before.

This book was recommended to me by a friend who taught herself how to make her own clothing, and looking through this book I can see why she was so good at it. The book does have some flaws, the biggest for me being that the picture examples don’t make sense without the text instructions (I prefer my example pictures to be at least as informative as the instructions, I just learn better looking at things). Sure, the examples are helpful if you’ve read the text that goes with them, but I have trouble focusing on text when there are perfectly good pictures to tell me what I need to be doing.

That being said, this book is surprisingly comprehensive. If I was a sewing newbie, this is probably a book that would have helped me get started, with fewer mistakes and avoidable failures than I flailed through when I was first learning to sew. This book seems to cover basically everything a beginner needs to know, no matter what they’re looking to make - it even covers home decor and quilting!

And I wasn’t kidding about the history of sewing section!

I’d say this would make for a good foundation for any beginner Cosplayer, and a good refresher/reference guide for people who’ve already started but who want a good sewing book on-hand. It’s not perfect, but as far as beginner’s guides go, I’d say it’s a pretty good one. I picked up my copy for . . . I’d say ~$20?

Tl;dr: I’d recommend this book for any aspiring Cosplayer who wants to get started making their own costumes. The photos that go with the instructions only make sense if you read the instructions first, and don’t really work as stand-alone references, but it’s manageable and the patterns for the practice projects will go a long way toward helping you gain experience and confidence. Or you can just use the book as a reference and jump straight into your big first Cosplay project. You do you. 

9/10.

[hrlequinsblogofinterests]

Book Review: Not Your Grandma’s Sewing Guide, by Kaitlyn Dornbier

Not Your Grandma’s Sewing Guide is a surprisingly comprehensive book, despite being just 95 pages long. It has a little bit of almost everything a beginner needs to know to be able to start sewing their own clothes - as long as you don’t mind a lot of swearing and plenty of irreverent humor, which is honestly what drew me to this book in the first place. 

This book leaves out a lot of stuff most beginner’s guides include, like the hand stitching and the standard list of every single tool found in a typical tailor’s shop, so if the fine details are what you’re after I’d recommend a different book. This book is more of a quick and dirty primer for people who want to learn how to do stuff fast, and don’t care much about “proper procedure”. 

Now, while this book does leave off some of the more common sections most beginner’s books have, it does cover some things I rarely see in the beginner’s books I’ve purchased or skimmed: a quick rundown of sewing machine tension adjustments, including photos and tips for which tension works best for different fabric types; shows how to actually use a seam ripper (you’re gonna need to use it a lot, trust me); a tutorial for tracing your own clothes to make new clothing patterns; and a section on calculating your own darts - this one is super useful, and the explanation is really straightforward. 

The book does not include instructions for creating your own custom patterns using your own measurements, so no slopers, blocks, or fitted shells (basically the tailored bases you would use to create all other patterns for yourself, specific to your measurements). For those you’d have to get a different book (like This one, or This one), or look up tutorials online (which are kinda hit-or-miss, from personal experience). 

The book does generalize a lot, but usually not in ways that I found too confusing. Though maybe take that with a grain of salt, since I do have some working knowledge of sewing and costume construction, and I may not be the most reliable viewpoint when it comes to what would or would not be confusing for beginners. 

All-in-all, a really enjoyable read. The humor, straight-talk, and excessive swearing really made my day, and I gotta say, even if you already know everything there is to know about sewing, I’d still recommend picking up a copy of this book just for the writing and the personality behind it.

Tl;dr: This book would make a great jumping-off point for anyone who wants to get into Cosplay, but doesn’t know where to start. It skips all of the bullshit and gets straight to the stuff you’ll actually use most when making a costume. What you learn from this book would make a great working foundation that you could use immediately, and then build off of for future costume projects. I picked up a copy for ~$30.

10/10 would recommend.

[hrlequinsblogofinterests]

Book Review: The Pattern Making Primer, by Barnfield & Richards

The Pattern Making Primer is a basic introduction to making your own clothing patterns. The sections on fitting and customizing basic clothing patterns are decent, but the section on drafting a basic block (the base clothing patterns are based off of) was entirely unhelpful for what I was looking for. It provides pre-drafted generic blocks to work off of, but they’re maybe 1/4 scale, and require sizing-up in order to fit them to people, but the book does not provide instructions for how to to that.

I forget exactly when I got this book, but I think it was right around when I first started thinking about trying to learn how to make my own patterns. Honestly, the book hasn’t been that much help to me. Maybe once I have more of a foundation in pattern drafting it’ll make a good supplement or reference book, but overall it just doesn’t mesh with my learning style. 

I’m more of a hands-on, learning-by-doing type of person, so for me the step-by-step process of drafting my own fitted shell is more helpful than trying to fit a generic pre-made shell to myself, and the lack of instructions for how to re-size the blocks provided makes that section of the book basically useless for me.

This book would be great for anyone who wanted to skip the time-consuming process of drafting their own shell pattern by hand, and just wanted to get straight to fitting fabric to themselves, and people who don’t do well with diagrams, or the “put this line here, place this point on that line, connect those dots” style of tutorial - provided they knew how to scale-up clothing patterns. 

(I didn’t, so I used the slash-and-spread method, found here: https://www.threadsmagazine.com/2008/11/01/quick-reference-for-cut-and-spread-pattern-grading )

My attempt produced with mixed results.

I copied out the pre-made pattern from the book

Cut it into bits for re-sizing

And ended up with a front that was longer than the back (probably my fault, re-sizing it not something I have much experience with), and neither piece met the centers or side seams the way they were supposed to.

Not exactly what I was hoping for, but live and learn.

This book would be an affordable starting point for someone who wants to learn how to make their own patterns, without having to deal with the hassle of drafting their own custom shells by hand, but beware the re-sizing and vague instructions. I picked my copy up for about $25 new, presumably used would be even cheaper. You might also be able to find it at some libraries these days if you wanted to flip through it before shelling out your hard-earned cash.

Tl;dr, A book designed for people who want to learn how to make patterns, but don’t want to deal with drafting a fitted shell from scratch, or people who don’t do well with instructions and diagrams that look like geometry problems.

I’d give it a 7/10. While the actual drafting of the blocks is useless to me, the tailoring of existing blocks seems helpful.

[hrlequinsblogofinterests]

Book Review: Sewing for Beginners, by Naraku Brock

Naraku Brock’s introductory sewing book is meant as both an instructional for those who have never seen, and as a reference for experienced Cosplayers. As a Cosplayer, Brock wrote this book as a way to help aspiring Cosplayers with little or no experience to learn the tricks of the trade. Some of the advice and tips in the book are helpful, but the tutorials are hard to follow, or skip entire lists of steps and jump right to the end. So as a beginner’s guide, it’s not really all that helpful.

I got this ebook online about two years ago, when I was putting together a beginner’s Cosplay course for myself, as a way to get a better foundation than I had at the time. The book really hasn’t been that useful to me, and I wouldn’t have been able to understand any of the tutorials if I hadn’t already made a few costumes for myself. The photos are nice, and useful if you already know what’s going on, but for someone with little or no sewing experience, it’s going to be a waste of money, and most of the helpful advice can be found in Cosplay Help forums.

The only really useful knowledge I got out of this book was the introduction to the tape-yourself and draping methods of Cosplay pattern drafting. Taping being literally wrapping yourself in masking tape and drawing on the design you want, and draping being wrapping yourself in cheap fabric and drawing the design on that.

I tried the tape method on myself (sorta, I didn’t have masking tape handy, so I used strips of paper instead, but it’s basically the same thing), and it seemed to work decently, I ended up with a rough pattern for fingerless gloves in my exact size.

Other than that, I didn’t get much out of the book. I’d like to say the tutorials were helpful, but the instructions for the tutorials were . . . just not great.

Tl;dr: I wouldn’t recommend this book for Cosplay beginners. If I had trouble with the instructions for the tutorials, after making multiple Cosplay costumes from completely from scratch, then a beginner isn’t going to be able to tell what the heck is going on. The book may only be $8, but it’s only worth the price if already know how to make your own costumes.

I’d give this book maybe a 3/10.

[hrlequinsblogofinterests]

Carnivorous Sewing Machines and What To To About Them

Sewing machines like to eat fabric, which can, unsurprisingly, cause a lot of problems.

You may be asking yourself: Why is it happening?, How can I prevent it?, and Is my sewing machine possessed???

The answer to the first is easy: Sewing machines are dicks. They’re very particular about how you do things, and it you don’t do them right then they’ll eat your fabric out of spite.

Which leads us into the second: Preventing Fabric Catching.

Make sure your machine is threaded properly. This is the “Turn it Off and On Again” of the sewing world. If your machine is causing you problems, rethread it and see if that fixes it. 

Make sure you’re using the right thread for the fabric. If the thread is too thick or too thin, or even the wrong material, it can cause problems by jamming or breaking, so make sure you check it before you sew. If you’re using heavy fabric, go for a sturdy thread. Thiner thread for shear fabric, and thread with some give to it for stretch fabrics.

Use the correct needle for the fabric. If you try to use a Stretch needle on a vinyl fabric you’re going to have a lot of trouble. Same with using a leather needle on spandex. It’s not a good time, and the machine will try to eat your expensive fabric at every opportunity.

Make sure the needle is sharp. Sewing machine needles need to be changed every 8 hours or so to ensure the machine performs properly. Blunt needles run the risk of damaging the fabric, and are far more likely to break than sharp needles.

Make sure there’s no dust built up under the bobbin or bobbin case (the thing the bobbin goes in on the machine), and check the feed dogs (they move the fabric forward) for bits of caught fabric. If stuff builds up or gets stuck in those areas it can cause the machine to catch your fabric when you sew, so make sure the machine is clean if you’re having issues.

Make sure the machine is oiled properly. A lack of oil makes stuff stick, and prevents the machine from running smoothly, so oil it regularly.

If you’ve done all that, but the machine is still being a dick, then you may need to do something to the fabric itself to keep it from catching.

Try putting a piece of tearaway or tissue paper under the fabric, then sew it. The paper will stabilize the edge of the fabric a bit and make it harder for the machine to eat it. Just sew as you normally would, then tear off the paper when you’re done.

Use a scrap of fabric to start off. Take a scrap of fabric, preferably of the same type you’re already using, and place it immediately before the fabric you’re trying to sew, so that the two pieces are basically continuous. Start sewing on the scrap, then just keep going right on to the fabric you’re trying to use. Cut them apart when you finish.

Use a Stitch Starter. A stitch starter is basically a folded over piece of scrap, used to help you start off a seam on very thin, or very thick fabrics. It helps prevent shear fabrics from being eaten and destroyed, and makes it easier to start off on thick fabrics that would get stuck under the presser foot otherwise. (more info: https://www.craftsy.com/sewing/article/stitch-starter/?_ct=rbew&_ctp=112389 )

Grab the tail ends of the needle and bobbin thread. Make sure there’s an inch or two of thread from both the bobbin and the needle trailing past the edge of your fabric when you put the presser foot down, grab the ends of the thread and pull a bit as you start off. This prevents the edge of the fabric from falling into the hole around the needle and feed dogs, and thus prevents it from getting caught. This trick is especially useful for starting on the edges of knit and stretch fabrics. (Thank you, Red Barn Sewing and Yarn Center in Merrimack, MA, for that helpful tidbit!)

Now, if NONE of that works for you, and your machine is still trying to eat everything you love, you may need to consider the unpleasant third option:

Ghostly or Demonic Possession.

I recommend seeking professional help with this one. Maybe consult with a sewing machine repair person, or an exorcist. Place a salt circle around the sewing machine while you wait for help to arrive, just to be safe.

~Hrlequin

[hrlequinsblogofinterests]

The Manga Origin Debate

Where did manga come from? It seems like a straightforward question - what historical influences were combined into what is considered to be Japanese comics today? Was it the wood block prints from the great Japanese painter Hokusai? Or the giant picture scrolls of the 12th century? Or maybe it wasn’t a Japanese influence at all, maybe it all started when British cartoonist and army officer Charles Wirgman published the first Western-style newspaper comic in Japan in 1862. It all depends on who you ask.

If you ask Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey, they’ll tell you it was all Wirgman, but maybe the picture scrolls figured into it somewhere. If you ask Paul Gravett you’ll hear about how the old traditional art of Japan probably influenced the Japanese mindset, so that when Wirgman came into the picture and introduced them to Western comics it was only natural that they would make the medium their own. And, if you ask Kinko Ito, it all started with Japanese caricature, possibly as far back as the year 607, and developed over the centuries through Ukiyo-e, Hokusai, and red covered cartoon books called Akahon.

What all the experts seem to agree on is that Charles Wirgman and his illustrated publication The Japan Punch had a profound influence on the evolution of manga. However it seems that just how much of an influence he had is still up for debate.

In The Comic Book History of Comics, Van Lente and Dunlavey make a brief mention of traditional Japanese caricature when they talk about how the great Japanese painter, Katsushika Hokusai, coined the term manga to describe a set of sketchbooks he published between 1814 and 1876, and touch on how Japanese story scrolls were almost like modern comic strips. They then move on directly to the mid-19th century when Japan was forced to re-open its borders, and Europeans started pouring in. One of those Europeans was a British cartoonist and army officer by the name of Charles Wirgman, who moved to Yokohama in 1861. A year later, to amuse and entertain other ex-pats in his area, Wirgman published his own illustrated newspaper, The Japan Punch, named after a British publication of the same name, filled with Western-style comics. The publication caught on, and it wasn’t long before the Japanese were creating their own versions of the comics, called ponchi-e, or punch pictures, and printing their own papers. Van Lente and Dunlavey argue that this was the source of all comics in Japan before World War 2.

In Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics, Gravett makes mention of several types of ‘pre-manga’, that may have helped shape the way Western comics evolved into the manga of today, before going on to argue that Charles Wirgman deserves most of the credit.

Gravett starts with the Chōjū-giga, a series of 12th century story scrolls, painted by the monk Toba Sōjō, to mock the priesthood and the wealthy. The scrolls were read from right to left, and were used to tell stories through a series of progressing images, similar to the comic strips of today. Then moves on to Ukiyo-e, ‘pictures of the floating world’, a style of humorous caricature that was far cheaper and easier to produce than the story scrolls, thanks to woodblock-printing. Followed by Toba-e, a comedic style named after the monk Toba Sōjō, that featured visual humor and few words. And, lastly, kibyoshi, or ‘yellow books’, which were books of woodblock-printed cartoon stories bound in yellow.

Gravett speculates that the way these traditional styles evolved to include text in the image may have led to a mindset that allowed the Japanese to be much more receptive to comics than other countries had been, and that that is why, when Wirgman introduced Western comics to them, they were able to adopt them so well.

While Kinko Ito, in her essay Manga in Japanese History, published in Japanese Visual Culture: Explorations in the World of Manga and Anime, believes that the true roots of manga lie in traditional Japanese caricature art, possibly as far back as the year 607.

Ito starts with the Hōryūji Temple, in Nara Japan. First built in the year 607, then rebuilt in the early 8th century after a fire, the temple was discovered to have caricatures of people, animals, and exaggerated phalli hidden on the backs of tiles in the ceiling. She then turns her attention to the 12th century, where we see more examples of ancient Japanese caricature art, similar to Toba Sōjō’s Chōjū-giga: the two Buddhist scrolls the Gaki Zōshi, scroll of hungry ghosts, and the Jigoku Zōshi, scroll of hell, which were used to teach children the Buddhist concept of transmigration, and thus caricatured the demons found in each realm. Then she talks of  the Akahon, a type of cartoon book based on fairy tales and folk stories, which became popular in the late 17th century.

Ito argues that Wirgman’s cartoons were assimilated more than adopted, and that, while they did have a profound influence on the medium, and the speed with which it developed, it was the Japanese adapting Western influences into what was already there that really paved the way for modern manga.

It seems rather unwise to disregard the influence traditional Japanese art has had on modern manga, as Van Lente, Dunlavey, and Gravett seem to. Such a solid foundation cannot be ignored, and suggesting that all the credit for the beginnings of manga belongs to a Westerner is disrespectful to all of the Japanese artists who spent centuries pioneering and mastering the traditional styles of Japanese caricature and cartoon art that existed before Wirgman set foot on their shores.

Surely we can agree that, when melded together, traditional Japanese art and early Western style comics both deserve credit for modern manga. Western comics introduced speech bubbles and panel borders, traditional art lent its audience and elements of style. Western comics brought new ideas to modernize Japanese caricature and cartoon art, and the Japanese made it flourish in a way it never had before in any other country. Both sides are responsible for different elements that, when combined into together, created what we now know as modern manga.

Sources:

Gravett, Paul. Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics. New York: Harper Design, 2004. Print.

“Japanese Visual Culture : Explorations in the World of Manga and Anime: EBSCOhost.” N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2017.

Lente, Fred Van. Comic Book History of Comics. San Diego, CA: IDW Publishing, 2012. Print.

~Hrlequin

[hrlequinsblogofinterests]

Anime v. Cartoons: What's the Difference?

Anime has long held the interest of viewers across the globe. The question is, why? Western cartoons are usually strictly confined to the realm of children’s television, and viewed as immature and childish by adults. So just what is it that makes anime so different? Is it the big eyes? The detailed animation? Magic?

To understand Japanese anime, we must first understand what it is. The term anime, a contraction of the word Animēshon, or animation, was coined by Taihei Imamura in 1948, though it wasn’t widely used until the late 1960s (Richmond 2009, 2). Anime, to paraphrase from Gilles Poitras, has two definitions. In Japan, anime is used as a blanket term for any and all animation. In the West, it is used to refer to animation specifically from Japan (Poitras 2008, 48). For the sake of clarity, we’ll stick with the Western definition.

Unfortunately, the true history of animation in Japan is somewhat of a mystery, as most early film and animation was lost in the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, and then again when Japan was firebombed in WWII (Richmond 2009, 2). It is speculated that Japanese animation may have begun as early as 1907, with a 50 frame short discovered in 2005 in Kyoto, but so little is known about the animation of the time that it’s impossible to know for sure when the short was created - speculation dates it between 1905 and 1912 (Litten 2014, 15; Richmond 2009, 3).

What we do know is that, as Japanese animation developed, it took inspiration from traditional folk tales, Western animation, and Japanese tradition. (Richmond 2009, 4, 5, 9). We also know that Japan became increasingly militaristic in the lead up to WWII. Japan’s first animated feature-film, Momotarō’s Divine Sea Warriors, released in 1945, was military-funded propaganda intended to entertain Japanese children during the War (Poitras 2008, 49).

The advent of television had a profound effect on the Japanese anime, providing animators with a new platform through which to sell their work. Most early TV anime took inspiration from Western animation and Disney (Drazen 2003, 4; Richmond 2009, 5), and were targeted towards children, much like in the West. Some of those anime were even exported and broadcast in America - albeit in highly edited, Americanized versions, to make them more ‘acceptable’ to US audiences (Drazen 2003, 7).

Unlike Western animation, however, Japanese animators didn’t stop with children’s cartoons. In the early 70s the Japanese anime industry began to branch out and produce anime targeted at middle schoolers, trying to increase their viewership (Poitras 2008, 51). The transition from elementary to middle school was easy enough to make, and met with enough success that, by the 1980s, anime was being marketed to high school and college students as well (Poitras 2008, 53).

One of the reasons anime found success with so many different age groups is that it doesn’t fall into the Western trap of assuming people only want slapstick entertainment and humor from their animation (Poitras 2008, 48). Japanese anime covers a wide variety of extremely diverse genres, and caters to all age groups, genders, and demographics. From the very beginning anime has included deliberate references and similarities to political issues and struggles of the times, with Astro Boy’s mirroring of the Civil Rights Movement (Drazen 2003, 6), and Mobile Suit Gundam’s political upheaval and civil war (Poitras 2008, 52). Even children’s anime has deeper themes than most Western cartoons.

Anime is also filled with emotion. Happiness, love, sadness, anger, depression, drama, joy, all of the emotions we feel throughout our lives are present in anime. When compared side by side, we can see just how far short Western cartoons fall when it comes to emotion. In the West, we shy away from complex issues and darker emotions when making cartoons, we tend to stick with humor, comedy, slapstick, and tame action (Poitras 2008, 48), with very few exceptions.

So what is it that makes anime so different from cartoons? Anime is a way of seeing and commenting on the world we live in, and the struggles we face. It’s a way of looking at life, the things we feel, and the differences between us. Anime allows us to imagine the world as it is, but also how it could be, and lets us live in that world for a time. It’s a way to bring up an issue, to detail the struggles faced by those who have fewer privileges than most, and to talk about how we might move forward as a society. And by not treating the viewers like children and assuming that humor is everything, anime can reach people of all ages, in all walks of life, and show them a different perspective of the world they live in.

Sources:

Drazen, Patrick. Anime Explosion! The What? Why? & Wow! Of Japanese Animation. Stone Bridge Press, 2002.

Litten, Frederick S. Japanese Color Animation from ca. 1907 to 1945. 2014, http://litten.de/fulltext/color.pdf.

Poitras, Gilles. “Contemporary Anime in Japanese Pop Culture.”  Japanese Visual Culture: Explorations in the World of Manga and Anime edited by Mark MacWilliams. Eastgate, 2008.

Richmond, Simon, and Rough Guides. The Rough Guide to Anime 1. Original edition, Rough Guides, 2009.

~Hrlequin