Top 10 Sustainable Cosplay Tips: 10 Recycle

Earth day is coming up but every day should be Earth day! Now as far as hobbies go, I know my sewing hobby is a double edged sword. Knowing how to sew is a life skill and I did it to fix up clothing, making my own from scraps, and to keep wearing stuff that's not totally damaged because I'm cheap and into recycling. Cosplay can be a wasteful hobby and it's certainly not cheap, HOWEVER it is possible to still mitigate some of the damage to try and to recycle and reuse in this hobby too. Here are 10 ways to costume more sustainably and put the recycle/reuse philosophy to use in your costume!

10) RECYCLE!
The costume on the right is 100% recycled (sans wig)! READ IT! RECYCLE AND REUSE BITCHES! Not only can you mix and match pieces from other outfits, on many occasions we just recycle objects! Lets break it down for you:

• Goggles and hat: goggles from a few Halloweens ago and the hat is a friend's antique pith helmet
• Capelet: the velvet is from a pillow that the cat peed on. One side was shot but the other side...had enough fabric for a cute capelet! The lining for it was from an old skirt that didn't fit either of us and was frankly ugly as hell. The trim was bias tape that was of unknown origin from ma's old trash box and the chain was from a broken necklace. 
• Blouse: old dress blouse that had horrible stains on the sleeves from a spill at a dinner party and pit stains so the sleeves were cut off and faced with ribbon from the stash that was too little of to do much else.
• The corset: Made from a dress that was badly stained with red wine at a party. There was still enough of it to cut fabric for that corset. Unfortunately the dress was white and black and had other stains....so we tea dyed it with stale dollar store tea that had been in my kitchen for years. The edging was done with more elderly bias tape.
• Bustle belt: The belt and pockets were cut from a paid of jeans that had been patched over and over for years and had finally met their maker. The only parts NOT shredded to bits from biking was the waistband and pockets. These were spray painted with extra paint from yard work and extra acrylic from old projects. The skirt part was a single suede look curtain from Goodwill that had been too short for my kitchen and the trim is extra from my living room curtains. Even the paint is recycled leftovers from other home repair projects.
• Skirt: tea dyed muslin left over from a quilt.
• Boots: cleaned up Goodwill boots getting a second life. We just replaced the laces and cleaned them up nice. Even the tights were from another costume she'd been wearing for years. 

 To the left is my first kimono which has will-o-wisps and kitsune painted on it. The fabric is from an old sheet set from college that ended up only having the flat left thanks to peroxide stains (learn from my fail....have white pillows if you always have skin cream from hell on) and the kansashi are flowers from an old valentines display. I made an original under kimono made of a comforter cover that was going on 20 years old but the fabric was so fragile from washing that it ripped like paper the first time I tried to put it on....so keep in mind that you can only recycle so many times before it doesn't work anymore.

The standard "use curtains and sheets for other things" is pretty obvious but don't be afraid to take old costumes apart either. Here's a ton of yardage in kimono just saying