When I’m not writing or podcasting, my other favorite creative hobby is sewing. I enjoy making my own dresses for special occasions and events, including, but not limited to geek conventions. In 2014, I made two new cosplay costumes, an Easter dress, a sundress for the cruise I went on, and a full-length blue gown for Formal Night on the cruise. I also have several other costumes in various stages of the sewing process.

I had hoped that this week’s blog post would be about writing, podcasting, or one of the other projects I mentioned in last week’s blog post. I’m writing about sewing instead because it’s the only creative thing I’ve been doing this week. Why? On the evening of January 1, I received an invitation to a cosplay photoshoot through a local cosplayers’ group I belong to. It will be on Monday, January 12 at a beautiful local event venue that’s a perfect background for princess costumes. I decided to spend my time between now and next Monday getting my Merida outfit (this one) as close to finished as I could.

I started this costume back in July of 2014, but didn’t devote enough time to it to get it properly finished in time for my local geek convention. Right now, I’m working on adding all the features that were missing at the time of the con: sewing the hem and adding a decorative border (it was held together with safety pins at the con), fixing the back and adding laces (ditto), and finishing the petticoat to give it more volume. I had a good time wearing this dress at the con, but it would have been a lot more fun and made a much stronger visual impression if I’d had the petticoat, so that’s what I’m focusing on. Here’s what I’ve accomplished so far:

(Click to see at full size)

I attached the inner and outer skirt sections and put in the zipper this morning. In the evening, I worked on putting the waistband together. I’m getting pretty close to being done with this piece; I think I’ll need about two more hours of work to finish it. I will probably finish tomorrow night, then spend the rest of my weekday evenings working on the dress (balancing it with my classwork – yes, I’m taking a class right now, too.)

I’m really excited about next week’s photoshoot because I’ll get to spend time with cool, like-minded people who have made cosplay costumes based on various fairy-tale princesses. The organizer of the event is the owner of one of our local party princess entertainment businesses, and I really respect and admire the work that she and her talented staff members do. Go read the final section of this blog post for an explanation of what they do and why I admire them so much; the author of that post says it better than I ever could. I’m definitely not cut out to be a birthday party princess myself; I’m not comfortable enough around kids, I don’t have the great skin it takes to be a party princess, and my Scottish accent is atrocious. Thanks to the blog I linked to, though, I have a lot of respect for what the professional party princesses in my town do, and I can’t wait to meet them in person.