Cosplay Skills with Silk, Taffeta, and Satin fabrics

Leveling up your sewing skill IRL is a series of short articles with tips, tricks, and things you should know before working with different types of fabric. We hope these help level up your skill and save you some tears as well as time. Please refer to the XP requirement bar for the difficulty rating of each fabric.



Sewing with satin, silk, and taffeta can be very challenging. They are such beautiful fabrics and perfect for so many cosplays. There are a few things you should know before working with them that will save you some heartache, tears and most importantly time.

One of the first things is to make sure you are using the proper sized needle. Satin doesn’t “heal” around needle holes, so if your needle is too large you will have very visible needle holes as well as possible puckering from the fabric giving way. We wouldn’t recommend using very many pins on this fabric as it spreads apart the threads and can sometimes still be visible after the sewing is complete.

Secondly,you should use a short stitch while keeping your fabric taut and smooth. The last thing you want is puckering on your seam. If you are getting pucker on the underside of your seams you may need to switch to a smooth presser foot to keep it from grabbing the fabric too harshly.

When working with fabrics like these you want the least amount of seams possible, since the grain on the vertical seams can pucker over time no matter how perfectly you sew them. To help with this you can add a little interfacing to your seams, but experiment with it to see what works best for your machine.

If you found this article helpful, have questions, or have an article you’d like to see be sure to let us know in the comments below.

How to Make Mei's Belt from Overwatch?

Need to make a belt that's simply a-mei-zing? We've got you covered.

My Mei cosplay debuted for the first time this year at Blizzcon 2016. I should have taken a lot more photos during the assembly process of Mei's belt, but hopefully, this helps someone. Please ask me any questions you may have in the comments below! In order to get the proper sizes, I used Photoshop to overlay Mei's photo onto a photo of myself holding a ruler. This gave me approximate measurements, sizes, and scaling for everything that I needed to make.

Foam Pouch Base

I started off with the basic size I wanted for my pouch. I made a simple pouch with a flap from 8 mm foam. As you can see in the second photo, I didn't like how the top looked. It was cracking from being opened/closed and it was standing up too much. I decided to just cut the foam flap off, and make a flap out of the vinyl I purchased to cover them in.

Vinyl Flap and Covering

I made the flap out of outdoor vinyl and stitched on the details. I also roughly covered the rest of the pouch in the same vinyl, attaching it to the foam with Hot Glue. Hot Glue probably wasn't the best choice, but I was working with what I had at the time. I folded over the edges to give it a clean look. When gluing this, avoid trying to glue the finished sides of the vinyl together because they won't hold very well. If you're going to use something to keep the pouches closed, you should attach this now. I didn't think about it until it was too late and I had to hot glue velcro onto the pouches.

 Weathering and Painting

Using Oil Paints and a makeup sponge, I started weathering the back of the pouches and around the edges. I used an iridescent blue fabric paint for the blue strip on the front of the pouches. It took a few coats, but it came out looking amazing. I weathered over the blue a bit afterwards to make it blend in a bit better.

Sealing, Attaching the Flap, and Mod PodgeI made all 3 pouches and started to weather them. Once the back was dry, I added Matte Mod Podge to "Seal" the Oil Paint. After that dried, I added Chicago Screws (using an awl to punch the holes) to make sure the fabric flaps would stay attached to the foam pouch with repeated opening and closing. The lines you see on the back are me finding the center of the pouch so I can line it up with the belt when attaching the pouches later.

Why Mod Podge? I coated the entire belt with Mod Podge to seal it because I knew it would wear, chip, scuff and add to the weathered look. Also, if too much chipped off, it would be easy to repair and repaint.

Belt Base

Once the pouches were all made, I started working on the actual belt. After measuring it to my size, I used 8 mm foam for the base and then added 6 mm strips to the top and bottom for detail. I then made the front flap and canteen holder which I (unfortunately) didn't take photos of.

 Attaching Front Flap and Covering Belt

I glued one side of the vinyl that will cover the belt itself down along the very edge. That would have been difficult to do after attaching the front flap. I attached the front flap and canteen holder with Chicago screws, and then glued the belt vinyl over top to hide the Chicago screws that were holding the front flap on.

 Attaching Pouches to Belt

I used Chicago screws and an awl to punch holes through the belt and pouches to attach them. I attached Velcro to the pouches with hot glue to hold them closed. I should have sewn them on, but I didn't think about it until it was too late.

 Creating the Canteen

I carved the canteen out of 10 mm foam layered and glued together. I used 3 mm foam to add the small details like the circle on the front and the black grips along the sides. I sealed it with a few layers of wood glue and sanded it smooth. I then painted it with a few "Pearl" acrylic paints to give it a frosty metal look.

Attaching the Canteen

I used Chicago screws again to attach the canteen straps to the belt flap and then one to close the straps around the canteen.

Making it Wearable

I used plastic clips on and webbing straps to close the belt in the back. I ended up having to hot glue the clips flat so that it stayed in place. Be careful if you decide to do this, because you don't want hot glue to get inside of the clips so that they don't clip together. It wasn't the prettiest, but it stayed put without an issue for two days.

The Finished Product

This is what the belt looked like completed. I hope this was helpful to anyone wanting to cosplay as Mei, or anyone that just needs help with a belt. If you are also interested in this, please contact me. Also if you want to buy more costumes, please visit my website: cosjj.com