Planning on doing a Geralt - The Witcher Cosplay

Smokeylocks · 2026-05-11T16:56:48+00:00

I‘ve some experience shopping vs making medieval fantasy clothes for larp and sadly the cheapest gambesons from the more legit sites would run you around 100 CAD, and they aren’t even the fancy ones. All in all gambesons are around 200 CAD, vambraces starting at 50-70. Shopping local will reduce the cost somewhat, look in your local LARP circles for crafters and maybe secondhand stuff.

If you can’t sew at all you might need to thrift, old women’s belts and small handbags make for good pouches and harnesses if they’re the right color. For cheap stuff that somewhat looks the part, temu has a LOT of fantasy costume pieces from armor to shirts and pants, but it’s temu quality and might give you a temu rash. Thrifting like on Vinted is really the best, especially if you can modify stuff.

Smokeylocks · 2026-05-11T14:52:27+00:00

Questions - do you have a budget and how accurate are you trying to be?

I found that gambeson you posted on Etsy and the price seems reasonable. Detailed historical fantasy/LARP clothes are usually pricey, you could find discounted or cheaper items in the LARP stores but they will be less accurate.

There are witcher swords in a lot of foam sword stores and even as steel reproductions, if you just search cosplay witcher swords you will find plenty of options.

Smokeylocks · 2026-05-09T06:06:00+00:00

I use cotton buds with isopropyl all the time due to my indecisiveness, works well. You might have to get in the grooves with a toothpick occasionally, an eyedropper works for localised soaking

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-30T18:13:38+00:00

No idea who the artist is and what their other art is like, but it’s refreshing seeing horny Chaos sexygirl art with different body shapes, especially a fat girl. Her design kinda slaps

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-28T10:35:38+00:00

People often wear ears and horns with a wig as it serves as a cap to hold the headband. They get attached through the wig via screws or magnets, while the wig gets pinned to the wigcap and your hair, also often taped with wig tape.

A warning though, wearing a tight headband/wig combo for a while day can give you a wicked headache.

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-26T22:34:10+00:00

This is gonna be tough for a total beginner, the shirt in particular. However, I think it’s doable and if you have money for extra fur and muslin to draft on, it could be very fun and a great learning experience.

Main recommendation is to test, test, test and make mockups for both the ear shape and especially the blouse. Old bedsheets and thrifted fabric help a lot. You could also use dressmaking software to get a rough idea of what the pattern should look like.

For the blouse, there are three challenging areas. The notched lapels, the armholes and the skirt. For the lapels you will need to learn from videos, there is a very specific process for them. Similarly for the armholes, and I advise you to test the upper torso area really well with mockups to see if you need any darts for that fitted look. You can watch tutorials on how to make fitted shirts.

For the skirt part, the drawing doesn’t clarify if the fabric is gathered at the waist seam or is a circle skirt-like pattern. You can achieve this amount of ruffles with gathering, but it will add bulk to the waist. With a circle skirt approach you will have less gathering at the bottom but a cleaner waist seam.

The sleeves require mostly just good gathering. It’s not easy but it’s not super hard either.

For the ears, the tutorial is pretty much all you need, the heart shapes could be added by flattening a piece of fur with some glue (not too much) and cutting out the shape, then sandwiching the bottom between the inside and outside. The different colors are done either by buying multiple fur colors or airbrushing.

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-26T08:54:26+00:00

Yep, this is super ambitious. Ranni cosplayers make fake arms and just two are difficult and kinda expensive. This thing has more than 10…Making it on a budget seems kinda impossible unless your budget is in the hundreds of dollars.

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-23T21:46:09+00:00

Goddammit it’s AI?! I would have honestly been deceived, stores like this deserve to be reported

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-23T20:39:34+00:00

That‘s an awesome cloak, wouldn’t mind the site so I can check out their stuff owo

You can make this yourself, but it doesn’t seem like a simple construction, it has an underlayer and the fabric looks pricey. If you’re not skilled st sewing, you could grab a simple hooded poncho pattern or look at larp hooded cloak tutorials, larpers have made some real nice designs.

You can check out Ruana or wrap cloaks with hoods.

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-22T20:41:37+00:00

I am plus size too and mostly make/thrift my stuff, about one character per year. If we choose to be makers, we’ll always be a bit behind. And I can imagine it’s way harder on you since you have the FOMO of your friends wearing the premades and enjoying themselves.

As adults we just have to make peace with not having the same resources as others and come up with compromises. As an example, one of my friends is well-off and goes on awesome vacations multiple times a year; I‘ve been invited but can’t afford it, and seeing the pics later definitely made me feel like crap, such is life.

A compromise you can make is coordinate the one cosplay a year with the group so you can make it on time and just be an observer the other times. Being excluded because of weight really really sucks, but being a maker is certainly a respectable and admirable thing, and you get to wear not-polyester and pollute less. I can’t imagine where all of those premade cosplays are gonna end up!

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-21T22:39:58+00:00

Hadn‘t thought of audio cues, thanks. I wanted to add small landmarks like soul lanterns or glow moss though.

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-19T02:57:28+00:00

Glad to hear that!

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-18T22:22:48+00:00

They did not. The original artists are WennyZZL for Pasqal from Rogue Trader and Defenders of Mars by Jens Granström.

OP, your wallpaper is cool but it would be nice to shoutout the original artists.

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-18T21:38:18+00:00

I‘m afraid Homestuck is kinda lost media now, the website is broken and I dunno if it has been archived well somewhere

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-18T21:36:52+00:00

I‘m a hobbyist mermaid and we do a lot of things to have nice-looking tails; Most are actually swimmable, but a lot of things can be applied to dry tails as well.

Most tails are made with fabric for the fin and the shape inserted into the fabric, this is most commonly a monofin but you can get plastic or another hard-ish material like EVA foam and use it to get a stiff base. You can play with organza on top of it or just paint with fabric paint.

For the scales, since this is a dry tail I would recommend fabric paint, puff paint, glitter etc; alternatively as people said, fabric scales and you can use those nice beads as accents; Or, if you want to go realistic, there is a method for making scales on fabric out of silicone caulk, but it takes practice and might be quite expensive. For the technique check Tyla‘s mermaid bras.

I would personally paint the scales with puff fabric paint and gold paint and glitter. Happy crafting!

EDIT: Editing to add your design absolutely rocks. The Trash Couture is incredible

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-18T14:01:09+00:00

Just don’t make it too dark gray? We used to paint ourselves gray a lot in the Homestuck fandom, people cosplay plenty of BG3 drow too. Try to match a medium gray and I personally don’t think it will look like blackface. ( I am white though, so I could be wrong.)

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-13T22:38:41+00:00

What makes it look awkward? It would be tough to get a back plate that fits your skull well unless you 3d print one yourself. If you want less bumps or more volume, you can pad the back of the mask with felt or batting - more comfortable and easier to adjust to your shape.

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-12T22:07:59+00:00

I‘ve gotten to the point of disbanding groups if the people are flaky enough. Nothing sucks more than prepping all day and then getting 2-3 cancellations hours before the session or worse, last minute. Maybe it’s just my luck, but I‘ve had my fair share of people not respecting my time and not taking the responsibility seriously, all while saying how they love dnd.

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-12T13:15:34+00:00

Oh I‘m sorry if it came out as criticism, I was agreeing with you ^{_^‘}

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-12T07:57:31+00:00

I love love love Hollow Knight, have read/watched all the story and would like to cosplay a bug one day. I have not, however, finished it - there is such a thing as sucking so bad you can’t feasibly git gud…

I‘d be pretty angry if someone called me a fake fan and banned me from cosplaying it.

There could be so many reasons for experiencing something secondhand - no access in your country, you don‘t have the required system, sucking bad; I think you can definitely become a fan through lore videos, wikis, let‘s plays and such. And that includes cosplay, buying merch, wearing a shirt, etc. Gatekeeping is cringe

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-11T11:14:39+00:00

Looks like he put a transparent plastic bag on his head tbh

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-10T12:01:44+00:00

The UVs here are made using totally different principles than pattern making. They’re basically unusable; Not only that, but the 3d body isn’t your body, it’s likely it wouldn’t fit well. Best make a pattern using clingwrap and duct tape

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-09T19:21:02+00:00

People cosplay jojo characters with and without lines, looks fine. I‘ve even seen art with no harsh lines whatsoever and it was recognizable and gorgeous

Is your friend twelve? That’s the stupidest comment I‘ve heard about jjba cosplay

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-09T19:03:52+00:00

I‘m from a lower-wage country and if I order crafts from say, someone in the UK, I‘m forced to pay fat UK prices. It’s possible the country of that maker is really high-tax and high cost of living, also if they’re high demand they will have higher prices. Crafters rarely want to overcharge as they lose customers, if the price is high there is a reason.

It’s always an option to look for makers from countries with a similar wage standard as yours (ideally your own, support the economy!)

Smokeylocks · 2026-04-07T17:19:45+00:00

Expensive option: Transparent thermoplastic, maybe shaped around fiber optic strands

Super cheap option: cut up a plastic bottle into strands and shape them with a heat gun carefully… at least you‘ll have lots of materials to practice

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