Cosplay Fabric Shopping! Silica and Ulquiorra

Things have been getting better lately. After a week of struggling to find accommodation next year someone from my class has offered to let me rent her spare room, and she doesn’t want a deposit, which means a spare £200 for me. I decided to use this extra money to get a few things I’ve needed for a while as well as get a head start on collecting cosplay materials for May. One of the things I finally got around to buying was a new suitcase. £21.99 from Argos, it’s massive (it comes to the top of my hip, so I’ll always have enough room) but can be carried vertically (unlike my old big one). This is going to be great for conventions as well as travelling between London and Liverpool.

So today I went to a fabric shop for the very first time. The shop I went to is called Abakhan and it’s right across the road from where I’m staying now. Everyone I’d spoken to about it before said it was great and after going myself I have to agree. So here’s my little review on the shop:

• Large range of materials for many types of craft
• Really good prices
• Staff are very friendly and helpful
• Can be a little intimidating at first if you’re new to fabric shops
• I may be wrong but in the upper floor fabrics seem to be arranged randomly in some areas, it can be difficult if you’re looking for something specific

I will definitely be going there again.

So, let’s take a look at what I bought:

We’ll go left to right:

The stuff on the left is for Ulquiorra. The fur was labelled as ‘Luxury Fur’ and it’s easy to tell why. It’s so soft and fluffy, just perfect. I was getting worried I wouldn’t be able to find any black fur, I went upstairs first and they had some beautiful furs but no black. Then I went downstairs and found two different beautiful black furs. This one was my favourite and the cheapest at £10.94 per kilo. I was a little worried it didn’t go by metres like upstairs because they still cut it by metres first so unless you’re great at estimating weight (I’m not) it takes until you have to pay to know how much it costs. I was pleased though, 2 metres of the fur cost £18.76. that’s going to make the fluff for my legs and tail, and I’m hoping to have a little left afterwards. It’s already covered my carpet in fur but luckily it seems to have lots to spare.

The black stuff in the middle is called Micro Fleece. I’m not sure what the difference is between that and regular fleece but it’s so soft and comfortable. I’m planning to use it for the inside of my hoodie. Until I can make that though I’ll probably be sleeping with it because it’s so cuddly. One metre cost me £3.74. They had some really cute patterned ones too. I really want some of one that had hearts and cupcakes on it.

The white stuff in the bags is toy filling, £3.25 each. I’m planning to use it for my horns and wigs to give them a plushie type feel. Anything leftover (there should be leftovers) will go to making an actual plushie.

I just need a bit of white and black fabric appropriate for a hoodie now and I can make the whole costume. They had the perfect black fabric for that but I didn’t end up buying any today. I figured I’d better save some money for now. I’ll by the rest slowly between now and February.

Then we come to Silica’s stuff. The red is something they call Drill and it’s perfect. I knew nothing about the fabric before today but it looks and feels exactly how I imagined it should be. I bought 3 metres at £7.49 per metre. I probably needed two but the extra can be used either to double up the fabric here or go toward something else.

The yellow is called Velour Wool, I bought 1 metre for £7.99. Both this and the red one are made of a combination of cotton and polyester, but in different percentages, so they’re not that different from one another and the colours go together well. I feel they’re both either the accurate colour, or close enough to the accurate colour that no one will complain.

I also managed to by yellow thread for 59p. It’s an almost perfect match to the yellow fabric so the stitches won’t be too noticeable.

I also managed to get a couple of little buckles for £1.25. I plan to use one for the buckle Silica has on one of her socks.

Then as a couple of little extras I got a small box of various sewing needles (60p) and some more black thread (£1.04) because it’s always useful to have those around.

That’s it for now. I’ll show the rest as I can get them and share my progress when I finally get to start making the costumes (probably not until the end of March).