Very first con and cosplay costume

[Fuyuki]

Alrighty, well next year (2012) I will be going to the New York Anime Con in October I'm extremely excited because this will be the first ever con I've gone to, and also the first time I've ever made my own clothing. Now, I'm going to be cosplaying as Sasuke (from shippuden) and I was wondering if anyone had any tips with sewing (I sew by hand and don't know how to use a sewing machine). I probably won't have the money to have a mannequin (or whatever you call them .-3-.) so i'll be using a makeshift one, probably cardboard or something.
I'd really love to see what idea's/tips anyone has for my first time with sewing a whole outfit. I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

~Fuyuki~

[ladymulti]

Probaby the best thing to do is to first attempt to find clothes that are similar to the particular outfit and disassemble/reassemble/dye them to make the outfit. Thrift stores or local Salvation Army stores are sometimes a good place to look.. If ya can't find anything there, attempt to find patterns at WalMart or any local store that are similar and just mix and match them. You can also find some free patterns online if you look hard enough; most of them are of dresses, I've found, but some are of coats and stuff, too.

Sewing by hand versus a machine shouldn't really make a different; depending on your speed, it just may take quite longer. ..and if you use the patterns as the instructions say, you shouldn't even have to use any kind of dress form; just get a good box of pins... I don't have a dress-form myself and I've made, like, 5 full outfits.

Me myself, I always look for thrift store clothes first, depending on the difficulty of the outfit I'm making, or the "normality" of it. I'm guess I'm into more complicated props, myself, this year. xD ..so I'm cheating w/ thrift store editing. I'm sure I look funny when I carry print-outs of art-book images around into stores with me where I live, but I love confusing people when I explain what I'm looking for. I completely de-beaded a dress for my costume next year; it took a good hour but it saved me sewing it especially since the main prop is going to take weeks to a month to make.