Creativity Strikes at 3 in the Morning.

I couldn't sleep last night. That in itself was odd, I don't usually suffer from sleepless nights. Lay on the bed and I'm out before my head hits the pillow. Last night, however, my mind just wouldn't shut up. I'd spent the evening looking at Cosplay pictures from Comic Con and Dragon Con, and I was afire with creativity! I want to sew and I want to sew NAOW! So to shut myself up, I've created this blog for costuming and cosplay.

A bit of background. I've been a Civil War Re-enactor for years. Don't make me count the years, it just makes me feel old. Suffice it to say I've been doing it since high school.

Aren't I cute! Photo by Tom George Davison. Check him out at
here!

That gave me my first taste of costuming and garb. It also has shaped how I approach costuming. I always have an itch to make it more authentic. Even when working on my fantasy costumes. I maybe be making a dress for an Elven Princess, but it will be the most AUTHENTIC Elven Princess this side of Middle Earth. Weird, I know. I didn't get much sleep last night so this post is going to be a bit weird.

Shortly after high school I saw some people playing something in the local park. Not unusually but what caught my attention was they were all dressed up in crazy costumes. I didn't care what they were doing, I wanted to play too. So I joined Belegarth for a couple years. Up till then I hadn't shown much interest in costuming. I liked to sew, but Civil War clothes have so many rules to them. Belegarth was fantasy! I could do what ever I wanted to!

Actually this is a picture of the game NERO, I can't find any of
my old pics of Belegarth.

 Unfortunately, I was also fresh out of high school with next to no money, so the costuming I came up with was usually made out of the cheapest cotton broadcloth I could find. That and patched together out of remanent bits. I also promptly forgot everything I ever learned in sewing class. I made so many mistakes but the ones that haunt me to this day is the white shirt I sewed together with black thread. I was lazy and didn't want to change out the thread on the sewing machine. I loved that shirt. Still have it to this day. I even tried to dress it up later and added black embroidery to the neck line so the black stitching would look on purpose.

After Belegarth I drifted for a bit. Still did Civil War cause that is a family thing, but not much fantasy. I made the occasional Ren Fair dress for fun, but only got to use it once or twice a year. Dressed up for movie premieres when I went to the theater with friends because that's how we roll, but that was about it. Then about three years ago my sister and her fiance started to do some Live Action Role Play (LARP) that he used to do years ago. I had an excuse to make costumes again! We've had so much fun making our outfits, we've started making more for our friends. Just for the joy of it.

So that's where I am. I like making costumes, but in no way whatsoever am I a professional, or even good at it. I just like it is all.