Cosplay,for many people, is a very luxurious hobby.Indeed,cosplay takes a lot of money,if you want to restore a character, using the best fabric and the most expensive material.Maybe a small cosplay project will cost you a whole month’s budget,that makes lots of people can not afford for the expensive hobby.But if you cosplay in the right way,maybe you will save lots of money!Today,I would like to talk about the topic about how to cosplay in the cheapest way!

1.DIY Costumes Is A Way To Save Money

DIY,which is means “do it yourself”,is perhaps a good choice for you!Making a costume by yourself takes time, and it could become very difficult to make props, style wigs, and sew costumes ! But It is also a highly rewarding way, you may save lots of money. If you have the ability and time to DIY it, I highly sugguest you take this way, it’s awesome to complete your project by yourself.On the contrary, it will be a huge challenge if you are a green hand or you don’t have enough time.Let me analyze the problem in detail.

1.Price

The price is affected by many factors,it depends on what costume you make, how much the materials you choose, and how many mistakes you make (There are many risky thing you should not do,you might have to get more fabric and re-do the whole thing!).I’ve seen cosplayers make the same costume for as low as $10 and as high as over $2000,that is the important thing that we have to notice!

So is it a cheaper way to DIY your costumes? Sometimes it is,and sometimes it isn’t! You don’t need to pay for additional costs like shipping fee, or pay for the labor since you provide it yourself. However, unlike when buying from a onlinestore, you don’t get an up front price. You may estimate it cost about $150 but the little things add up along the way , it might be $150 to start but you could easily spend more actually because you may make some mistakes, or you forget about a piece, or something failed.

2.Time

Making a costume takes time definitely! The time you spend depends on the difficulty of your cosplay project.The time you spend on the project vary from several days from several months.My advice is that you should plan ahead before you start . Make a list of everything you want to do, and remember to keep it flexible.For some cosplayers who are busy with work, making the cosplay may not be the right option because of the amount of time it takes.

3.Ability

Making a costume is not an easy job,sometimes it requires you to have some ability sewing, building, or crafting. Most costumes can be made by altering sewing patterns, which give you directions on how to DIY it, but some patterns are tough and might be difficult for an inexperienced sewer with nobody to help them. Besides, some projects are much more difficult than just sewing and may require additional tools to do. For example, working with wood for a prop usually requires tools and the ability to use those tools. These skills all can be practiced, you could go to a sewing classes, or you can read tutorials on this topics.

As an experienced coser,I suggest that the green hand start with the simplest project.You’d better pick some popular characters whose costumes are very simple.It will be easy to find tutorial if you choose the popular character and the simple one is easy to start as a newer!Here I would love to share with you some characters for you to start!

Dave Strider (Homestuck): God Tier (this needs some sewing), Beta / Alpha clothes.

(Homestuck): God Tier (this needs some sewing), Beta / Alpha clothes. Dirk Strider (Homestuck): God Tier (THIS ONE MAY BE HARDER), He has a few other outfits but the shades may be something you should buy.

(Homestuck): God Tier (THIS ONE MAY BE HARDER), He has a few other outfits but the shades may be something you should buy. Karkat Vantas (Homestuck): Regular clothes (this one calls for a ton of make up and other such things, I would suggest just looking up these guys) .

(Homestuck): Regular clothes (this one calls for a ton of make up and other such things, I would suggest just looking up these guys) . Fin / Fiona (Adventure time): Just look these two up (one genderbent)

In a word,if you have never made a cosplay project by yourself before and want a time approaching project,you would better not try it. But if you have plenty of time and want to DIY your costume then the resources are out there and some cosplayers are willing to help you!There are some cosplay guides for you!

2.Rent Costumes–Suitable For Disposable Use

Rent costumes is another way to cosplay cheap.If you don’t want to keep this dress for a long time or the price is really expensive,so that rent costumes might be a wonderful choice for you !Indeed,for some cosplayer who is going to attend a comic cons and dress the costume for only once,you don’t have to buy it.Or if you are intended to attend a party,but you don’t have enough money to buy the expensive costumes,you could rent one!In that way,you could save some money!

There are so many costumes stores which offers costumes renting service,you could google it,and maybe you will find one!It is a good news for some cosplayers who are still a student and lack of money.But to be honest,if you live remotely,renting might mot be a good choice for you,it is too much trouble to rent a costume and return it!

3.Purchase Online Saves Times and Money

Buying a costume online is a good choice for you.It could help you to achieve some great projects that are impossible for individual.I highly recommend that you choose a high quality suit.There are a lot of positives of purchase high quality and cheap suit costumes, and I’m going to go through them.

1.Time Saving

When buying a suit of Halloween Costumes,you could save a lot of time because you don’t have to make it by yourself. Even if a costume is simple and might only take several days to make, that is still a lot of time that some cosplayers don’t have! The only time you cost is searching around for a good onlinestore to buy from. Don’t worry about the problem,I will give you some advice on the problem!

2.Perfect performance

This Full Set costume is an exact replication of the costume which will give its wearer a powerful look.Movie quality costume make you stand out!

Based on the origin .Tailor Made with 100% screen version,the full set costume are exactly same as original.It will bring your costume into life.

.Tailor Made with 100% screen version,the full set costume are exactly same as original.It will bring your costume into life. Customized. Tailored according to your body size.You don’t have to worry about the size,fabric and so on.

Top quality with fine fabric,the material used are excellent.

Wearing high quality suit costumes will significantly improve your performances,whether you’re at a party or an anime cons,you will easily get attentions from the public.When you post your pictures in your facebook,you will also be easier to get likes from other cosplayers.Imagine that you are the followers, you will also more likely to love the better performance one,don’t you?

3.Money Saving

You may wonder why high quality suit costume is more cheap,just for two reasons:

Buying the whole suit costume cost less than buying the all parts of the costumes. I did the calculations when we split the price of each piece of clothing is much higher than the suit costume.I have ever bought a X-man Deadpool Wade Halloween Party Cosplay Costume at the cost of $300,but when I want to buy each part of the costume,I found the cost is up to over $450!

I did the calculations when we split the price of each piece of clothing is much higher than the suit costume.I have ever bought a X-man Deadpool Wade Halloween Party Cosplay Costume at the cost of $300,but when I want to buy each part of the costume,I found the cost is up to over $450! Quality costumes last longer!Generally speaking, cheap, throwaway costume aren’t cheap in the long run.This can be broken down into simple math. Fashion blogger Legos In My Louis recommends you use the “cost per wear” equation. It works like this:

(price of garment + maintenance) divided by the number of times you’ll wear it

You could do math before you buy.Through a very simple operation, we can figure out that quality costumes actually cost less than the cheaper one!

So there comes the question –where can we get the best and cheap suit costumes?Good questions,here I will be happy to compare the current mainstream online shops.(Take the Captain America Theme costumes for example.)

From the above table,We can draw a conclusion :The materials used in all shops are similar,but the price ranges from average $220 to $350,the cheapest one is Xcoos ,and the most expensive one is Ezcosplay. But the services they offer are almost the same,that is an interesting thing.And to our surprised,the most expensive one takes the longest shipping time!Therefore, I suggest you buy on Xcoos.

4.Try Some Cheap Japanese Style Costumes

For some cosplayers who love Japanese anime or Japanese movies,trying some Japanese style costumes might be a good choice for you to adopt!Indeed,Japanese style costumes are much cheaper than our traditional costumes.You may cost the same amount of money on several sets of Japanese anime costumes as one American style costume.

The main reason is that the costume materials of the two style are not the same,Japanese clothes are made of cheap cotton and chemical fiber,and the other is mainly made up of leather.In recent years, more and more Japanese costumes have been favored by American cosplayers due to the popularity of Japanese anime,I have noticed that Japanese style school uniforms are hot sale in some store!

If you are annoyed about finding the right stores,I would be happy to offer some advice on it,but I have to say ahead that I have never tried Japanese style costumes before,so that I could not guarantee the quality of their products!

Assistcosplay online store:Category complete, the price is relatively low.

japan-cosplay online store:I love the style of the store.

Of course,it might not be a cosplayer who only loves the style like Captain America costumes,the Japanese style costumes would not the the right choice for you!

In Summary

Honest speaking,cosplay is an expensive hobby.But it can also be cheap if you get the right way.We shouldn’t give up what we love because of lack of money,there are lots of ways to solve the problems.Hope you enjoy the hobby!