Outlines & Planning My Cosplays

Right now I'm in the process of 3 cosplays, and with all that comes a LOT of planning and organizing, which isn't ideal for a scatterbrain like me. Luckily though, due to many years of being a scatterbrain I have become a type A personality and I am constantly making to-do lists and outlines in order to get things done. Making lists and being an organizer has been the most helpful thing when it comes to cosplay~ I thought for this blogpost I would show a little insight into how all of my cosplays begin: with an outline.

Every single cosplay of mine has started with a detailed outline of how I am going to make the entire thing, this helps me :

• Know every part of the outfit

• Have a general idea of how I'm going to make said part

• Add notes

Pictured above are my most recent outlines (from left) ANX Idol Uniform, Leafa, Luca, & Gogo Leafa. They all start with a simple title and a reference picture, this helps me match colors, shapes and small pieces.

I then create a small list of every part of the outfit. This is an easy way for me to break down the outfit, so instead of seeing Leafa's green dress, I write down that there's a shirt, a brown cincher, white shorts, green skirt and green jacket.

I usually go straight from top to bottom, starting with hair, makeup/contacts, down to shoes. Having it laid out like this is nice way to be able to see what parts I need to finish and what I have done. Not to mention, few things rival the amazing feeling of crossing something off my list and know that it is done XD After I have that done I then make small sections for each "part" of the outfit in which I go in-depth on how I will actually make that part of the cosplay. As you can see here in Leafa's outline, I continued with "Hair Flower" and wrote:

• Green Netting

• Green Wire/Pipecleaners

(of course, I ended up using neither of those items, but it gave me a starting base and I was able to go from there).

A better example is probably:

Green Puffy Sleeve Jacket

• Find Pattern

• Green Fabric

• White Embellishment

• Green Ribbon

And then a bunch of scribbled notes pertaining the amount of fabric I would need, and "magnets" circled as a AH-HA! note lol

I continue on like that with every "part" of the outfit. Some areas, I have an exact idea of what I need, what patterns and/or links to turorials, even exact links to what I need to buy. Other "parts' might say "Don't Know Yet..."/"Find Tutorial".

As you can see I make a LOT of notes on these outlines, there's writing everywhere! And recently I found out that there's an app called Cosplanner that is basically exactly what I do but on your phone and can include costs of materials and due dates, etc. But I can't seem to wrap my head around the idea of not being able to write all over it with notes, yardage, "ah-ha!" moments, and such. Plus I literally love crossing things off my to-do list, like pen to paper, crossing off. LOVE IT.

What I really love about these outlines is that I print them off, fold them up and keep them in my purse. That way, no matter where I go, I always have my plan with me so incase I have a few extra minutes to stop at a craft store, I can see what I need and therefore have no wasted time.

While this is one of the most satisfying things for me (making a list and crossing it off), I always tend to dread having to make the outlines. I think it's because it takes me out of the "I wanna dress up and somehow it will just happen" and takes me into the "oh wait...I actually have to do all this work" XD But in the end I love it~

So that's how I start a cosplay! Right now I have one for Black Rock Shooter (the paper is almost falling apart at the folds due to it rummaged in my purse all the time) and another for my next cosplay and I need to make one for the one after that.

I hope that helps anyone out and gives you some insight to my processes ^_^

#cosplay #outlines #planning