The Costume Making Guide: Creating Armor and Props for Cosplay

This book has very good information for getting started in cosplaying and how to use common cosplay tools. I wish there was a bit more, but the content makes sense for a beginner book.

My 12 yo child found this so helpful that she made up the armband on the front cover the same night she received the book. Great explanations, illustrations, and information on where to obtain materials. Super fun ideas for kids and grownups to cosplay or just to bring to life your own hero creations.

I bought this when I decided to get back into cosplay after a long hiatus. I'd worked with foam before to make armor, but this guide really helped me improve my skills! The step by step directions are useful and the book starts with a list of materials and tools. I have been recommending it to all my friends who mention that they'd like to try cosplay armorcrafting, since it's a great introduction!

Overall my daughter, who's getting started with the cosplay hobby, is happy with the book. I've read through it, and gotten halfway through a project inspired by one of the projects; a steampunk cyborg arm. The author has an excellent YouTube channel, which provides video on how to do similar things, so why buy the book? Because it's a lot easier to follow instructions in a book as you work through a project at a work bench rather than fiddling with video playback on a notebook or tablet computer, or try to work from memory. Additionally, her channel is excellent, so it feels good to support the artist. There is a lot of emphasis on using Worbla, which is very expensive, but that's not the reason I knocked off a star. I was hoping for more general guidelines and instructions on how to do a type of prop, rather than walkthroughs of doing specific props. It would have been nice for there to be side notes with additional guidelines and tips along the lines of 'If you want to make an X it's a good idea to do Y' and on how to adapt the projects in the book to other projects. There ARE guidelines like that, but I wanted more of that sort of thing, even if it meant putting one less project walk through in the book. For example, it would have been helpful for more guidelines and warnings on how to create templates from plastic wrap and duck tape without wasting time and getting stuff wrong on the first few attempts, like how my flabby arm would be compressed, and result in all the pieces being too small!

Incredibly well put together, very concise and filled with useful information, also great pictures! I've been making costumes/ cosplay for decades but never tried foam or worbla armor or weaponry, this book is so helpful, so are her videos. Thank you Svetlana for sharing your knowledge!!

The guide is a great way to explore and covers step by step process to make it easy to understand. If your crafty and have the necessary materials, or need to obtain, they go over what is needed to create, make and finish off the pieces you want.

Awesome book. Full of step by step and tips. Easy to follow and comprehensive. One of the best parts is the distributor list. She doesn’t keep secrets on where to purchase the materials needed to make what you see. I love that.

Love this book! Using a few select examples a variety of items common in cosplay are created with a variety of techniques explained very well. Photos are clear and helpful. Gives you all the info needed to get started.

Only has one costume and even then very little real help, don’t bother. You will get more from you tube

This is a great book who cosplayers looking for comprehensive tutorials on how to make a variety of cosplay armour pieces. Svetlana shows the step-by-step process (with pictures and written descriptions) of how to create some of her best cosplays from beginning to end. The positives and negatives of using different types of equipment and materials (ex. black vs. brown worbla) are included. Painting techniques demonstrate that you don't need to be a masterful artist to make armor look battle-ready. The end of the book even includes some tips about finding inspiration and what you can do with your cosplays after they are made (ex. photography, masquerades) I'd recommend this book to anyone looking to step their cosplay game up.

Lo compré ya que unos amigos fanáticos del cosplay quieren hacer su boda cosplay, y todos los presentes debemos ir disfrazados. Como yo no se mucho de la creación del cosplay y me ha llamado algo la atención, en especial las armas, decidí comprarlo para ayudarme a crear mi atuendo para la boda. Cuenado se lo mostré a mis amigos cosplayeros, quedaron encantados y ellos se compraron uno más. Realmente nos ha resultado útil.

After taking my 9 year old to MCM Scotland comic con, she fell in love with all the costumes and wanted her own. After asking a few people I ended up at the Kamui website & on to here for this fantastic intro guide! Svetlana breaks it all down in a way anyone can understand, giving you everything you need to put your first costume together. Can't wait to put this into practice & make stuff with my daughter!

Un livre bien illustré et clair quand on connaît un peu d'anglais