 I wish my scraps were this neatly stored I’ve found that keeping track of my cosplay inventory, as it slowly expands, is a valuable resource to saving money. My situation is little different than most since my workshop is out of town so I don’t have access to my materials all the time.
When it comes time to shop for new materials, knowing what you already have lying around is useful information. Even if you live where your supplies are, sometimes its difficult to remember what you have on hand. Here a list of a few thing I recommend keeping an inventory of. A general inventory template can be found at the bottom of this blog.
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 Anyone who has a fanpage for their cosplay work has probably been approached by another cosplayer to engage in a "share for share" or "like for like." If you have not been approached then consider yourself lucky because it is pretty rampant. The share for share explosion is a reflection of how cosplay has changed over the years. There is definitely a greater focus on visibility and getting your brand out there. It may even be a goal that people have when starting this hobby. A goal which was unheard of 5 years ago.
I hold no ill will against people who do this. I understand there is pressure to get some name recognition to get more opportunities, such as invitations to events and visibility to potential collaborators. That pressure can be overwhelming at times and it can be discouraging to see others get social media success as you remain stagnant. I also understand the joy of people accepting and encouraging you and your work publicly. When I decline a share for share it is not something personal. It is not a reflection of the quality of their work or the content of their page. I do it because of a long list of reasons and because I don't think the process really helps anyone.  Myself and Yaya in her Lady Sif It was quieter than last year but that meant more time to catch up with friends and meet new people. I also spend a good amount of time encouraging people to enter more masquerades. I hope they go ahead and try a competition or two. I find it is such a great way to learn new tricks and to meet some really talented costumers. I watched the masquerade and I am so proud of my WCS partner Calamity being able to judge her first competition. Also a very big thank you to everyone who dropped by my table in the artist alley. I still get surprised whenever someone recognizes my work or name. I'm sure it helps to have a banner hanging up behind you. My highlight for the weekend was 3 nights straight of dinner with friends, with us chatting about cosplay, B-movies, and whatever came to mind. Friends are always what make a convention for me. Behold my photo dump of cosplays I snapped an shared on Twitter (@Meltingmirror) over the weekend. There is lots to see.  This casual cosplay reuses a wig, horns, and ears, uses a cheap modified bathing-suit, and includes inexpensive accessories. I'm going to detail most of the advice I give out at "Cosplay on a Budget" panels, which are almost a permanent fixture at cosplayer heavy conventions.
If you ever get a chance to check one out at your local convention, do it! They may have even more tips to give you, especially ones specific to your region. Some of my tips refer to Canadians/Americans companies, but overall it is general advice for all. More blogs in the 10 year Cosplay Retrospective Series: Week 1 -Wigs | Week 2 - Make-up | Week 3 - Armour | Week 4 - Cosplay Closet Purge | Week 5 -Planning | Week 6 - Inventory | Week 7 - Controlling Cosplay Costs | This blog details some of the advice I give at panels for cosplay beginners such as "Cosplay 101" or "How to start cosplaying" since not everyone can make it out to Canadian events. I hope you find it useful. More blogs in the 10 year Cosplay Retrospective Series: Week 1 -Wigs | Week 2 - Make-up | Week 3 - Armour | Week 4 - Cosplay Closet Purge | Week 5 -Planning | Week 6 - Inventory | Week 7 - Cosplay on a Budget
 All the feathered trim could be removed from the cape for easy transport. The coat had wing extensions that were also removable so I could go through crowds. I also brought some flats because I had towering painful heels. Comfort & Assistance Is your costume comfortable or uncomfortable? Will you need assistance getting around the event? Is your vision limited? The comfort of you costume will determine how long you can wear it, so you should budget your time accordingly. Prioritize your events (gatherings, panels, etc) to make sure you can attend and enjoy them. Inconvenient or awkward costumes may require you have an assistant (aka handler) to help you navigate the crowded con floor. Be sure to check the convention policy on large costumes, as some events require you have an assistant for large or vision impairing costumes. Consider some back up options to deal with uncomfortable costumes. I often bring a pair of flats if I'm wearing painful high heels. Also, you can make certain costume parts easily removable for maneuvering through crowds, such as wings or armour. I sometime bring a tote bag with me to carry certain costume pieces from one event to another.  Bladder buster costume Bathroom Can you go to the washroom in this costume? How much time will it take you to go to the bathroom in this costume? This is very important because with cumbersome cosplays where you need to set time for washroom breaks. Respect your bladder and go to washroom whenever you have a window of opportunity. My Shiva costume was 30+ minutes ordeal to go to the washroom and that's not including putting everything back on again. I made sure to capitalize on some free time while waiting in the greenroom when I was competing in the masquerade.  A great sales associate helped me get all the materials for this costume in one trip. Materials Choices
Knowing the properties of the fabric you need to buy for a costume will help you narrow down which one you need to purchase. Here's what I consider before I settle on a fabric.
Some examples: Charmeuse silk would be classified Shiny (somewhat)> Light > Opaque > Smooth > non stretch > Solid and/or pattern (depending on the costume) > dyeable > high budget. Compare to satin which can be heavier, have slight texture, can be stretchy, can be dyeable (only with polyester dyes), and low budget. If you can determine which attributes best describe your fabric, someone at the fabric store can probably help you pick something out. Having a reference photo handy always helps, especially if you have a hard time naming fabrics. Thursday & Friday  Rich purples. Can you guess what this is for? Before I make my yearly trip to New York for this convention I always try to plan out as many costumes as I can for the following year because the selection of fabric in the city is ridiculous. Nothing can beat fabric shopping in the Garment district. Although I have yet to hit L.A. - maybe someday. The first two days of the trip was devoted to getting a fabric and trims fix. Calamity and I each ended up with about 20 pounds of fabric. We both packed light to make sure we were within our luggage limits. Must visit stores:
SaturdayI only got a pass for one day and I was also taking part in the cosplay contest so I was strapped for time. In the end I didn't get to spend much time on the con floor or meet up with friends. It was go-go-go until 10pm. I had to get up early to get dressed in Hana for pre-judging at 9:30am. It was quite a pain getting there with face paint on a rainy day with all my stuff to haul. On the plus side, I got to meet a lot of the participants including a German cosplayer. There was such a nice variety of costumes as well.    After judging I went for lunch with Calamity, then back to my hotel to get changed and remove my face paint. Then I went back to the convention to check out the con floor. I picked up some free fake nails and bought an omnibus version of Legal Drug (gotta love Clamp). I also did a quick run of the artist alley before heading back to my hotel to get dressed again for the cosplay competition at 8pm. This time I got to bond with a local cosplayer in a stellar Vampire Hunter D costume while hanging out backstage. In the end I didn't place but I greatly enjoyed meeting everyone, but I don't think I would be doing anymore comic con competitions. It's too much of a drain of time, especially since I only had a Saturday pass. Sunday Sunday was easy going. Calamity and I went to Times Square for some regular shopping. Most of the fabric stores are closed anyway. I managed to pick up a few pieces of clothing a tree ornament from the Disney store.
We made it to the airport much earlier than planned, and nicely enough our airline, Porter, bumped up our flights so we got home a few hours early. My fastest run through the airport ever. Sometimes it's hard to say goodbye  Unless they have unlimited storage space, eventually cosplayers have to go through their cosplay closet and make some tough decisions. I'm throwing this blog in the "retrospective" series because I find this is an activity I've done repeatedly throughout my cosplay life and a little wisdom helps make the process easier.
More blogs in the 10 year Cosplay Retrospective Series: Week 1 -Wigs | Week 2 - Make-up | Week 3 - Armour | Week 4 - Cosplay Closet Purge | Week 5 -Planning | Week 6 - Inventory | Thursday Calamity and I were travel buddies for the weekend and we had the joy of getting to the airport for 5am to catch our 6am flight to start our journey. We landed in Atlanta after noon and went straight to the Hyatt to check into our room then meet up with our friends at Hooters. It was my first and last time going there. The food was bland and the service was horrible. We waited forever for our food and even longer for our bills which eventually made me miss out on a planned shoot. Anyways, the rest of the day was spent wandering the event and eventually partying the in the Marriott at night. Friday  Sharla Friday morning I got straight into my Sharla costume for a shoot with Jason Chau Photography. It always nice to collaborate with new photographers :D Keeping with my trend of forgetting costume pieces, I forgot to put on my weird club thing on my left arm - which you can barely miss since so much is going on there. I changed out of it immediately after the shoot to easily move through the event.
Afterwards we grabbed lunch with a bunch of photographers and friends. It was nice catching up and meeting even more new people. Calamity and I spent the afternoon browsing the dealers room. There was so much to see although I was not a fan of the layout. I much prefer open warehouse like settings for dealer's room because they are easy to navigate. There is also a noticeable variety of goods in the dealer's room compared to the typical anime convention mostly: Lots of leather, quality kimonos, belly dancing attire, pocket watches, and corsets, corsets, corsets. Friday night I had a great dinner at Ray's. It was little expensive but the food was great! I then spent the night hanging out with friends at the Marriott lobby again. Friday
Maybe She's Born with It? No, I'm pretty sure it's Makeup Get your makeup kit ready because I'm taking a quick look back at makeup in the cosplay world. More blogs in the 10 year Cosplay Retrospective Series: Week 1 -Wigs | Week 2 - Make-up | Week 3 - Armour | Week 4 - Cosplay Closet Purge | Week 5 -Planning | Week 6 - Inventory | Week 7 - Controlling Cosplay Costs |  I woke up like this, obviously (Hana 2013) |
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