A Year of Costumes

Once again, I have surprised myself with the amount of costumes I have made this year especially considering that I did not attend any conventions again.

I started the year off by making a dress especially for Valentines day. I want to try and make this a yearly thing where I do some sort of cute couples costume with my husband to celebrate the day.

Anyway ~

For this Valentines, I made Allie Hamilton’s blue dress from that iconic rain scene in The Notebook and I guess you could say that I thrifted Noah’s outfit too.

We waited an entire week for the forecast to turn to rain and then on the day, of course, no rain. So we borrowed Anna (the photographers) watering can, filled it with water at the scout den near where we were shooting and poured it over ourselves to get the freshly rained on look.

Next up, I worked on a Rey Skywalker commission. I was suprised at how much I enjoyed working on this project considering how much I can’t stand Rey as a character. It almost has me tempted to make my own scavenger Rey costume, but having said that, I think I need to make some prequel era Padme oufits first.

After Rey came my first “big”/labour intensive costume. A remake of the Beauxbatons uniform from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. As this was my third time making this outfit (first 2013, second 2016), I wanted to make it as screen accurate as possible. This included making a mockup to get every seam right and dying the fabric to get the exact right shade of blue.

I was so happy with the patterning of the costume but after finishing it I decided I would be making another. I want to make a FINAL one from actual silk, and I think I cut the capelette a fraction too short.

It was around this time that I discovered The Northland Bernina Fashion Awards that were held here in Whangarei. They had a cosplay section so I thought I’d enter it for something to do and it would be a good reason to finish the Moana costume I had started the year before. I finished detailing the top and hand embroidering the overskirt, made a Heihei and gave it my best shot.

The event itself was an amazing experience and so well run. I ended up placing second in my division but I had totally been inspired to enter again in 2023 with something bigger and better.

Time for another BIG ol remake! I had got it in my head that if I were to go back to Dragoncon in the near future, that it would be really neat to go as Sarah Williams and Jareth from Labyrinth. This meant revisiting the costume I had first made in 2016 and deciding what worked well and what didn’t. Turns out I pretty much scrapped everything I had done for that first version and began researching again from scratch.

Overall I was pleased with how the new version turned out especially considering that I made my first set of panniers which I entirely self-drafted. It was also this project that kicked started my idea of focusing on my YouTube channel.

Then came a project that I’d been wanting to do for years but I’d never been able to find the right kind of fabric for it, nor did I have any means of creating the flocked floral pattern it was covered in. This year I brought a Cricut machine and as luck would have it, I found exactly enough of the right green/gold shift tafetta at an opshop. It felt real good to add this Bella Swan dress to my Twilight collection.

Next I did something foolish and got my hopes up that the Auckland Armageddon Expo would indeed be happening this year so I made a Fembot and Austin Powers suit which I was planning to wear the Friday night with my husband. I love how the Fembot turned out and as I have no photos of Austin, can you guess how I feel about it? Basically I’d never had more difficulty with following a pattern than I did with the vintage ones I used to create his red velvet suit. I hope to take photos of it eventually.

One event that didn’t get cancelled was my friend Anna’s birthday party. It was hobbit themed so I threw together a quick Gollum the day before. I loved the fish purse that I had filled with gummy worms.

Halloween was quickly approaching and I wanted to do something special the week leading up to it. I started by going through my UFO (unfinished objects) pile and pulled out the Sarah Sanderson I started the year before and the Sally Ragdoll which was started a few years before and did what was needed to finish them both.

At Anna’s birthday the week before Cosplay Cyanide gifted me two spooky Tim Burton costumes and so the idea was born that I would do a photoshoot each day leading up to Halloween to celebrate.

On Halloween night I wore my Morticia Addams once again with my husband joining me as Gomez, though I forgot to take any proper photos.

After Halloween came Christmas and I got to rewear the Anna costume I made last year with my friend – Anna – joining me as Elsa for the Whangarei Christmas parade.

Finally, I had all the hopes and dreams of getting a Durmstrang uniform finished before Christmas, but uh, I’m currently a week out and I barely have the mock up done, so that may be pushed out til the New Year.

Let me know which costume was your favourite and be sure to check back here soon to see all my plans for 2023, I have a few and hopefully a convention or two to actually attend!