How Four Cosplayers Used Spoonflower to Create Incredible Looks

What happens when the cosplay community meets Spoonflower? Spectacular things! We invited four talented cosplayers to sew together a cosplay or character-inspired outfit using the never-ending list of fabric designs found in the Spoonflower Design Library. These experienced cosplayers are extremely skilled in their craft and can truly transform themselves into the spitting image of a character and more. Continue reading to see their creations! 

My design, inspired by forests I would find in my favorite fantasy titles, features real photos of oil paintings morphed into a whimsical border print for circle skirts.

First, I completed two alla prima oil paintings. They were first painted with black and white acrylics to create the trees then colored and detailed in oil paint. The paintings were then photographed and taken into Photoshop, where I created a repeating pattern by mirroring the image and filling in gaps with the clone stamp tool. The fairies were added in Photoshop as well.

Then to create a border print, I warped the paintings into a half circle using the warp tool. Illustrator was used to create a half circle skirt shape that was the exact scale of what the real skirt would be. That shape was then used as a clipping mask on the warped paintings, creating half of the full circle skirt of the print.

The print was then laid out with two half circles and the flat repeating print, and the image saved to a whopping 6300 × 21,600 pixels, the exact size of four yards of Spoonflower’s Petal Signature Cotton®️. Though, I ended up printing on Organic Cotton Sateen instead which worked with the same width. Since this file is so large, it needed to be saved at 150dpi and needed to be reduced in quality as a .jpeg for the system to accept it.

Once the fabric arrived, cutting the skirt was incredibly simple because the print already demarcates where to cut, similar to traditional “cut and sew” style fabrics. I cut the bodice from a simple princess seam pattern and lined both the skirt and bodice with a green cotton broadcloth. The dress also features green chiffon sleeves, a shirring panel in the back, a single insert pocket in the skirt and a zipper (installed upside down for easy zipping).

I’m really proud of how this dress came out, and excited to see what else can be made with this print, and I really feel like this project showcases how much Spoonflower can do when you think outside the repeating pattern box.

When my favorite video game series released a new title two years ago, I knew it’d be one of my favorite things of all time (and I was right!). One of the new characters in this game is a lizard with a great sense of style — everything about his design and character was right up my alley, so I knew I had to cosplay him.

Plaids are notoriously difficult to source, so I designed this diagonal red fabric in Photoshop and had it printed on Spoonflower’s Dogwood Denim™. As someone who’s always had a pair of red plaid pants in their personal wardrobe, it felt so fulfilling to actually make my own pair for this character! Matching patterns is one of my favorite things in sewing, and I knew I’d have a blast making sure all the plaids lined up where they could.

What I love about cosplay is turning designs that exist in animation into designs that exist in the real world. For this punky lizard, it meant taking the fairly basic pants from the in-game character model and adding pockets, buckles and straps to give him the street fashion vibes that feel true to the character.

In the game, this character absolutely loves insects (it’s easy to spend hours catching them on my island!), so I knew I wanted to add some buggy references. I found an adorable red and black beetle appliqué and made a “Yes!” canvas patch to reference what your character says when they catch a new insect. Instead of the simple ladybug shirt from the game, I used my cutting machine and heat transfer vinyl to add a detailed stag design to this thrifted shirt. I sculpted some horns, studded a choker and my girlfriend @littlemantiscosplay styled a quick wig piece to complete the look!

It was so fun to balance the cuteness of the original game with the character’s punk style, and I’m so happy with how it turned out.

I love fantasy and the idea of going to far off imaginative places, so I wanted to create my own Elven Princess fantasy look. Researching other elven designs, they were typically simple but flowing with long beautiful trains. I wanted to give a sense of fantasy and drama in my design, so I chose two fabrics — Spoonflower’s Celosia Velvet™️ in Medieval Renaissance Floral Damask and Chiffon in Silvery Grey Texture. I needed a lot of the velvet fabric — eight yards to be exact. The fabric design was directional and required the pieces to be cut in a certain pattern that I couldn’t use my usual puzzle piece method for.

For this project, I used a Simplicity 1151 pattern as the base and altered it to have a more magical feel. I lowered the neckline at the front and the back of the dress to give a greater sense of drama. The hardest part of this was making the neckline wide and low while also keeping the dress up, as well as the double look of the neckline. I really wanted to look like I had stepped out of the pages of your favorite fantasy novel. In my vision, the illusion of the dress floating on my shoulders was important to me.

For the sleeves, I decided to create a bell sleeve using chiffon, but once I began to drape the sleeves I realized I needed more drama. So, I used some fabric from my stash to layer on top of the chiffon. Since I only had two yards of this glitter and pearl mesh, I had to gather rectangles of the fabric but left the last foot or so of the tube open. This allowed me to have the elegance and flow of long sleeves but the accessibility to still use my hands when necessary (and a great drape of the chiffon underneath).

It’s important to have greater representation in fantasy. Being given the chance to create a look that exuded fantasy was absolutely amazing. I want to see more fae, elves and magical beings of color in fantasy moving forward. I’m grateful I was able to collaborate with Spoonflower and bring my elven fae vision to reality.

Photos by @itsjustnovice

This cosplay is inspired by one of my favorite movie villains! While the coat I was going for is supposed to be one piece, I decided to split it into a separate top and skirt since the skirt would be big and heavy and would possibly weigh down everything. The look has two sides split down in the middle; one is made with faux leather and the other with Dalmatian Spots by houseintheorchard. The Dalmatian side was printed on Minky, so it actually feels like fur (I caught myself petting the material throughout the construction process, haha)!

I like to start any form-fitting sewing project by creating a custom pattern with some plastic grocery bags, tape and my adjustable dress form set to my size. I patterned the top piece with this method, and it fit perfectly! The rest of the top includes the hood (which is a lot of fun to fling over my head because it’s quite oversized), sleeves and the buckle details in the front.

The skirt design is a little chaotic… but in the best way! It’s intentionally asymmetrical to match the personality of the character, with uneven hems and gathering. I consider myself somewhat of a perfectionist so it was an interesting time for me trying to “un-perfect” this part. Though, it was satisfying to see all the ruffles and folds come together in the end to create a huge skirt that is extremely fun to spin in.

Overall, this was a challenging yet super fun project that turned out great! Taking something simple like fabric and being able to use it to turn yourself into someone completely new and different is what I love about cosplay. This cosplay project and all the others I’ve completed fuel my creativity like nothing else.

Photos by KuroKaze Photography