Costumes and Performances by Tab Kimpton

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Costumes, Tutorials and Skits by Tab

Hi there! I’m Tab Kimpton and here’s an archive website of my costume work. I mainly work as a comic artist nowadays so unfortunately I now only make one costume a year for myself, but I try to keep the site updated when I can!

I started cosplay back in October 2007 for a small recon in my local town. Since then I have made dozens of costumes, for myself, friends and commissioners. I do a lot of skit and performance work in my costumes, so you’ll find some funny stuff on this site as well as serious costumes. I love making obscenely complex costumes then taking them up on stage and being ridiculous in them.

I have several years experience giving panels and workshops at events, from sewing skills to laugh out loud Yaoi panels. I try to have a fresh set of panels for each calendar year to keep things exciting.  If you’d like to have me do a talk at an event for you, please visit the events section to see my schedule and the sort of panels I give. 

I run a dealers table at most Anime/comic events in the UK showcasing my LGBT comic work. If you’re interested in LGBT, Queer, Gender and Sexuality comics, feel free to have a look at my comic work at Discord Comics

If you’d like to see why I don’t have time to make as many costumes any more, check out my house renovations at the Fantabulous House

Cheers! -Tab

How to Paint a Space Suit

Hiya! It’s been a while so I’m starting with an easy tutorial to get me back into the flow of things.

Now for the last few years you’ve been able to buy nebula leggings, backpacks, heck I even sell T-shirts myself  but I’m a fancy guy and I wanted to make something which suited me (har har) better.

So last summer I decided to paint a Space Suit.

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I wanted something to go with Christian’s Dr Who coat, but I don’t look like anything from Dr Who, so after several jokes about my ego and cosplaying ‘All of Space and Time’ I bought a £10 suit from ebay that had a bleach stain on it, took the trousers in to actually fit and then began the painting process.

This method can make basically ANY FABRIC into a nebula pattern.

I know, I’m excited too.

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A Tale of Two Doctors, Part 9- Shoulder pads and lining

I’m currently tailoring a jacket that isn’t going so well, so here’s a tutorial to perk me up about costumes!
DrWhoCoat216

Onward to inserting the lining!

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Best Sewing Trick of 2015!

BREAKING NEWS COSPLAYERS.
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If you load your bobbin with embroidery thread, and sew from behind you can sew couching on machine in a fraction of the time by hand.

THIS IS MY GREATEST DISCOVERY SINCE FREEZER PAPER.

I found this while (being the exciting person I am) I was watching brother foot attachment videos. You don’t need to buy anything new to do this, just watch this video for more details

 

A Tale of Two Doctors- Part 8-Collar and lapels

 

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Next step is sewing the lapels in and trying to get a beautiful crisp edge.

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A Tale of Two Doctors- Part 7-Collar and lapels

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Time to add those classic collar pieces!

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A Tale of Two Doctors- Part 6- Canvas, horsehair and pad stitching.

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I’ve always wanted to do the fancy tailoring thing where you use a pick stitch to roll the lapel and get a smooth curve- well here it is!

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A Tale of Two Doctors- Part 5- Pockets that are bigger on the inside

coat tabs

 

A bit of research later and turns out the back thingy on coats is called a tab- yet another thing to add to my name sake!

Now it’s time to make the pocket lining- an an opportunity to make some huge, decent sized pockets that you can actually fit useful things inside. A pet peeve of mine is fake pockets, or even worse pockets so tiny that you can’t even fit a standard phone inside.

 

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A Tale of Two Doctors- Part 4, Pockets and the Mystery Back Piece…

So, time to make those pretty pocket pieces!

 

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I cut some dark felt out to help line the spoon flower fabric and give it more weight.

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Now the secret of this task- invisible hem tape! I used it to iron the check, felt and lining layers all together in a sandwich of power.

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A Tale of Two Doctors- Part 3, The Master Coat Cutting

DrWhoCoat61

The mock up came back from the customer- we had some issues on the arm placement and the back needed to come in a bit so I made some adjustments then started scribbling! Labelling is super important for this project or you’ll just get lost in a sea of slightly triangular pattern pieces.

DrWhoCoat62

 

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