How it all started - becoming a cosplayer!

Growing up Halloween was always my favorite holiday. I loved the shorter days, the cooler weather, the creepy decorations and holiday movies, but most of all I loved the costumes. Planning my Halloween costume and getting dressed up was always the part I looked forward to the most each year and I would plan my costume months in advance most years. Sure, I had plenty of years where time or money slipped away from me and my husband and I would make a mad dash to spirit Halloween to see what was left on the picked through shelves days before the holiday. But most years I had a plan.

My costumes were never big or elaborate, and I never made them myself, but I was always very excited to plan them. In recent memory only two of my costumes actually had hand made components. One year we cosplayed as our Pokémon Go trainers and I crocheted Magikarp hats for my husband and I. Another year I wanted to go as Maleficent, and my brother had just gotten a shiny new 3D printer. He printed off some big horns for me and I tried my hands at making a paper mâché head cap to attach them to, and I wrapped them in faux leather. They weren't perfect, and that head piece was so warm, but I loved how it looked.

Somehow, despite my love of costumes, I never really delved into the world of cosplay. I was aware of it, I just didn't believe it was something that I could do. I have had body image issues my whole life, and I didn't believe I was the right "type" to cosplay. I wasn't thin enough, I wasn't pretty enough, I wasn't nerdy enough. My list of "enoughs" went on a mile long.

In 2017 my husband and I joined a guild on World of Warcraft, and as such became a part of that guilds discord server. Over the years we became incredibly good friends with many of the people we met through this guild. They became like a second family to us, and at the start of 2022 a couple of our guildies were planning to go to PAX West in Seattle, WA. This seemed like an amazing opportunity to meet some of our guildies in person, especially since these particular guildies lived on the east coast. The complete opposite of us, given that we live in Oregon. These guildies are cosplayers, and through them, as well as spending more time on Instagram and learning more about cosplaying and the community in general I decided enough with my "enoughs". I wanted to try it out.

So, in the summer of 2022 I planned my very first cosplay. Well, really, I planned two of my very first cosplays. One cosplay with my husband, that was mostly piecing together ready made items, and another cosplay that would be my first cosplay sewn from scratch. I was a bit intimidated, but oh so excited!

A little history on my sewing/crafting experience. Growing up my mother was a quilter/sewist. She loved to make quilted wall hangers and rag quilts for us kids, and for a short while she ran a very successful eBay store selling baby/toddler clothing sets that she sewed. They were absolutely adorable. So, I had the privilege of playing around with her sewing machine and serger. Mainly just goofing off, never anything serious or massively successful. The only project I can recall that was actually useful was a purse I made out of old jeans where I cut the legs off and sewed the bottom shut and managed to add lining to it, then turned one of the pant legs into a strap. So as a child/teenager I got to understand the concept of using a machine but never became proficient at it.

In my mid twenties my husband gifted me a sewing machine for Christmas. I adore this sewing machine. He was so incredibly proud of it. He used to work across the street from a sewing shop, and consulted the owner and picked his brain to find me a beginner sewing machine that would hold up for a long time and take some abuse. My Janome 2212 was a work horse of a beginner sewing machine, and while he upgraded it for me for my birthday this year, it still gets used. If I recall time correctly (and given my time blindness take this with a grain of salt) I got that machine around eight years ago. Up until I started cosplaying I mostly sewed circle skirts, a couple women's blouses, and some very basic children's clothes.

I never escaped beginner sewing. I never really saw a need to. It did what I needed to do. There were no projects that I was drawn to that were outside the beginner realm, and at that time I saw no point in sewing my own Halloween costumes. It wasn't until we decided to go to PAX West that summer that I realized there was so much more to sewing.

For our couples cosplay we chose Orville and Wilbur from Animal Crossing. Mainly because, still being fairly fresh off the covid lockdown train, Animal Crossing was still a game we were playing heavily and we loved those Dodo birds. We found some face masks and iron on badges on Esty, and I crocheted some DAL (Dodo Airlines) Lanyards for our badges. We found some basic button up white shirts, and after ironing on the patch all I had to do was stitch on the ribbon and sew on a little gold button to the shoulders and boom, we had out dodos! These cosplays were a huge hit at the convention, and I was surprised at how often were were recognized right away despite not looking like birds. This remains one of my favorite cosplays, especially since it is one I can do with my husband.

Deciding to do Princess Daisy wasn't as easy. Part of choosing her as a cosplay was an attempt to get my husband to chose a character from the franchise for another group cosplay (spoiler: he didn't) but another was because I've always like Princess Daisy. Mario Party was one of my favorite video games growing up, and one of the only games my siblings and I could agree on playing together. Daisy was always the character I played, and she holds a special place in my heart with those memories.

I looked at a lot of other cosplayers who did Daisy trying to decide how I wanted to do her cosplay. I wanted a big, poofy princess dress, but it didn't seem realistic. I was on a minimal budget, we were traveling by train so I didn't want to carry a lot of baggage for lots skirts. And I hadn't really been to a large convention for a whole day (I spent a couple hours at Rose City Comicon in 2018) and managing a massive ballgown seemed like a pain. So in the end I decided making a short version of her dress would probably be easiest.

I found a dress pattern that seemed like it would match her dress well enough (I wish I could find this pattern again, or remember the name, but it has disappeared into the nether!!) and made a mock up in a fabric I didn't totally hate. It seemed mostly fine (Bodice was baggy, but the waist fit and I didn't know how to make adjustments) and I loved the sleeves! But the skirt was a gathered rectangle and I just wasn't feeling it. So I decided to delve into the realm of pattern modification and just ditched the skirts. I kept the bodice and made a circle skirt. I already knew how to make them so I figured I could just attach it to the bodice. And what do you know, it worked!

So I made two circle skirts, one shorter than the other, and trimmed them with orange. I found a tutorial for the hip poofs where you basically just fold a circle over, sew it together, and gather it up on the flat edge, and I attached all of that to the bodice as one piece. I added lace to the sleeve cuffs and neck and bought a fluffy tulle petticoat and boom! I had Daisy! By this time we had our own 3D printer, so I printed off her crown, the chest flower, and her earrings, and painted them all, and found a cheap wig on amazon.

I learned a lot with this cosplay. I loved this cosplay. I also hated this cosplay.

I learned that poly-cotton frays, and that seams need to be finished. All of the seams on the interior were raw, and no seam finishing or pinking was done on the garment. I was shedding threads all over the convention.

I learned that I needed to learn how to modify garments to fit my body. The waist of the dress fit, but the bodice and bust was baggy and ill fitting, and the sleeve bands were too tight and painful.

I learned as well that wigs are hard to style, and 3D printed crowns need more than just a thin headband to stay balanced on your head.

I also learned that sanding is important for your 3D prints, one day I will take heed of this lesson.

I learned that I love cosplaying, and I love sewing, and I love crafting. Making these cosplays introduced me to a hobby that has given me purpose and fulfillment like I could never have imagined. I get so much joy out of creating new projects and sharing it with others, and I wish that I had learned more about the craft sooner.

Last Halloween I partially remade this cosplay. I separated the bodice from the skirts and chucked it. I got some matching fabric from Joanns and modified the bodice from Simplicity 8411 to make a new top for the costume. I also put the skirts on their own seperate waistband and added some lace to hide some pen marks on the hip poofs/swags that I hadn't noticed in the initial make. This was what I wore to work for Halloween last year. I work in an Elementary school and the kids absolutely loved it!

This cosplay is far from perfect, the skirt seams are still unfinished, but it still holds a special place in my heart. Which is why I challenged myself to remake Princess Daisy. Not this version of her, a new version, based on her Super Mario Smash Ultimate design. It was a fun test of how far I have come in the two years since I started cosplaying, and a tribute to the character that kickstarted it all.

This is how my cosplaying journey began, and I hope you stick around to learn more about the other cosplays I have made!