spookystitch: Hey tumblr, let’s talk about practice and improvement! I’ve never re
spookystitch: Hey tumblr, let’s talk about practice and improvement! I’ve never really posted my really old cosplays because I started back in the day when I used a disposable camera at cons. I don’t really have pictures of me in my old costumes. But! I recently obtained some old bins from my dad’s basement, and lo and behold: old costumes! I picked one that is fairly comparable in general style to my most recently photographed project. On top, you can see an ancient relic of about 9 years ago. This was before I had a sewing machine, so the entire thing is hand sewn. (Protip: handsewing literally everything makes you an incredibly fast handsewer. I’m one of the speediest stitchers I know to this day.) Anyways, it’s a shapeless sack with safety pinned ribbons for straps, made of terrible cheap satin, and by my current standards is an absolute trainwreck. But I was so proud of it back then! I had fun wearing it and felt cute. At that point, I had no idea that this would eventually be my career. I was just doing it for fun! And that was valid. But I decided that I liked sewing so much that I was going to keep at it. I got a Singer Simple for christmas one year (despite my protestations: sewing machines scared me and I looooove handsewing), learned to use it, and continued sewing in full force. I decided to go to school for costuming, kept cosplaying, and CONSTANTLY working. There are rarely days that I do not sew. It’s both my job and my hobby. This is almost a decade of constant work and improvement. I am not inherently talented. I did start out with good fine motor skills (shout out to my mom for encouraging my clay addiction when I was little) and a good grasp of three dimensional problem solving, but those skills are only any use because I practiced them and built upon whatever “talent” I already had. Improvement is possible! Take this message to heart, baby cosplayers and costumers! <3 Awesome! I really need to do one of these comparison posts! -- source link