A little late in the day to be asking, but having a little trouble with part of this costume and thought I'd try to confirm the best way to do it.

I'm doing Yuki Onna from 'Nurahiyon no Mago' who wears a kimono with a diamond pattern on the bottom.



I was going to use masking tape as a stencil and fabric paint for the design, but someone said applique might look better. Anyone have any ideas on what would be the best way to get a pattern like this?

I tried to use masking tape the otherday but it didn't stick very well so some of the paint bled underneath. =/ You could always make a stencil out of paper? Might not work for the pattern you want though?

I'd suggest either applique with Heat 'n' Bond Lite or screen printing. With the Heat 'n' Bond you don't even need to do any sewing necessarily as it's double-sided adhesive, but doing a tight zigzag stitch around the edges will give the pieces a nice finish and prevent your edges from fraying. Using Heat 'n' Bond is very simple, too.

Screen printing is undoubtedly more fiddly but it does look nice. There's a tutorial on "fakie" screen printing here. I haven't tried following that tutorial though so I can't vouch too strongly for how good it is.

That is awesome, if certain stuff arrived soon enough I would've needed to do something like that for a second cosplay for Aya so that's helped a lot, thanks . One question though, what is contact paper and generally where do you get it?

It's a type of paper used for lining drawers and cupboards, it has a peel-off backing with a sticky surface underneath. I've never gone looking for any myself but it sounds like the kind of thing you could probably get in a DIY or home decorating shop. Alternatively, eBay.

I have also seen screen printing tutorials that have recommended using freezer paper instead of contact paper and apparently work just as well, but since that doesn't have an adhesive side it probably bleeds more. Again, I haven't tried using it and I don't know what its particular properties are but I remember seeing it for sale in Hobbycraft.

Cool, cheers. I'll go have a look in WHSmith or the local art shop at the weekend.

Sillabub has pretty much covered the suggestions I would give. Just as a side point, Heat n' Bond is also known as bondaweb if you can't find it under the first name, eitherway it gives excellent results and is simple to use.

A third alternative to either applique or the 'fake' screen printing, if these don't suit you, is block printing. I used this for a costume which had a small, repeating pattern on the fabric. It's similar to the potato printing primary school children do, except I created the printing block out of sculpy allowing for a fine edge to the pattern.

Once baked, brush the paint on the block and then push down on the fabric. You may want to test it first on an old piece of fabric to see how much paint is required for an even covering.

I've used Bondaweb as well and I've found it a poor substitute for Heat 'n' Bond, it doesn't hold to the fabric as well and results in fraying after a while. Not saying not to use it, and maybe I'm doing it wrong somehow, but if you do use it, you'll have to do the zigzag stitch along the edges to keep it looking neat and in place.

Applique would produce a very nice result, but it does take time to do that many. If you're after a quick solution, make a potato stamp or something similar like what theKillingDoll said!

You could just do the applique stitch in black thread without putting any actual fabric on - just draw the squares on with tailor's chalk and keep the line slap bang through the middle of the sewing foot, and it'll zig-zag on either side of it and cover it up. Less fuss than appliqueing actual fabric on, as the fabric inside the square is the same colour. Just make sure you have loads of thread!

Thanks for the tips everyone. Due to a few uncontrollable issues I decided to go with fabric paint for the ease of it (though 'ease' is a relative term). Appreciate all the advice.