History
I've been enjoying crafting outfits since 2006, way before social media was an actual thing. Even later came the "pages" where you could set your profile open as "Artist". Having all these old pictures on private profiles makes it difficult to show my growth, besides that I don't want some older costumes in my portfolio anymore. I've made this history page to kinda follow my progress over the years.
In the past I was an active model in the "Gothic Models" forum community, besides going to renascence events. Around 2016 I got many comments that people didn't understood a costume maker that was a model as well, at the time I kind of felt obligated to chose between 2 big passions of mine. Besides most photographers I worked with at the time joined the events as well.
I made the decision to only do photo-shoots in costumes, having my focus on judging contests and craftsmanship panels I was giving at the time. I still miss the old pin-up styles and artistic projects I worked on.
So here it is.... A timeline of my growth since my costume sewing journey started back in 2006.
2006
First serious sewing project, graduation dress
Started sewing when I still went to high school, sewed my first dress with an Mart Visser gothic dress pattern that was available in a sewing-magazine at the time.
2007
Start of the rabbit hole
Joined my first renascence fair the "the Elf fantasy fair" now know as "Elfia", and visited my second event the "Midwinter fair" in The Netherlands. I Sewed 2 new dresses with the use of historical sewing patterns and an Mart Visser gala dress pattern that was released in a sewing magazine. I transformed the gala dress into a gothic bride and the historical pattern into an elf. The elven staff is handmade with paper mache and had a red glowing orb in the top. (yes led's in 2007!)2008
Going to more events
Since there where only 2 a 3 events a year I spent most of my time mastering my first self sewn corset. It was part of an Victorian outfit, I used historical sewing patterns by "Laughing Moon" & "Butterick". For the umbrella I cut apart the old cover and made a pattern myself, covered the umbrella frame and sewn it in place by hand. Later that year I made a new gypsy inspired outfit, working with a headdress and feathers for the first time. It felt so scary to make my first self drawn patterns, though it was just a skirt.Beside crafting I had a photo-shoot in a previous made outfit
2009
The year I went for it! joined my first comstume competition
In 2009 I made my second corset by harvesting the boning out of the first, I still have this corset and it's a great reminder of where I came from. I used a "Laughing moon" pattern, the outfit got new jewelry and a new hat.I joined my first costume contest with the Blue fairy and even got a "Royal mention" for promising beginner, This outfit was made with an "Butterick"sewing pattern. Later that year a photo of the "blue fairy" got released in the gothic models yearly calendar.
The gypsy outfit got a upgrade with a more classic headdress, a new made top and more accessories.
In the winter I made a big poofy skirt that took 13m of fabric to create, I used the base of the blue fairy skirt and added lots of ruffles. A warm cloak was made by combining some sewing patterns I already had. I must admit at the time I felt unstoppable, I understood most sewing patterns without the need of instructions (outside of the seam allowance).
Aside from making costumes I started modeling more with photographers I've met during events and I joined photo meetings. This was also the year I left in love with pin-up photography.
2010
Getting buzzy, crafting and shoot boom.
Went to the elf fantasy fair with the big poofy skirt I made the winter before, made my first under burst corset by altering the patterns I already had. I used a padding in between the layers so it got a depth effect on every seam. I made some cyber dreads with all kind of industrial tubing and foam I could find, cyber dreads where not in my budget.... I rather spent it on more fabric.For Castlefest I made a Greek goddess outfit using a "mccalls" pattern, I made the mask with plaster bandages so its a full fit on my face. All jewelry is made with a "wire wrapping" method, I spent days wrapping wires and encase shells in them. For a Lolita photo meeting I made a cute high waist skirt by extending my under-burst corset pattern into a skirt, and to match it all I made roses out of some leftover fabric and buttons. To top off my crafting year I made a snow fairy outfit with some cute wings, the whole dress was fully padded to be cozy for outside winter events.
Aside from all the crafting I started to enjoy more and photo-shoots and have fun at photo meetings.
2011
First big project, Start of a wing addiction & Making my own sewing patterns
The year I finished collage, moved on my own and got a big girls job as a lab chemist.I still made my "Necromancer" costume living at home with my parents, the "Steampunk nurse" was made at my own place. Since I wasn't restricted to the limited space I got at the attic, and I had no other people trowing costume parts around... breaking them. I could finally make bigger wings. At the time wings where my main obsession, fighting physics and making hidden bespoke constructions to limit the pull weight. I only could afford to visit one event and went to 3 others as an invited costume guest or interactive costume actor.
It was a quite year for photo-shoots with moving and settling in a new place while still making some costume parts and and outfit. I only did shoots with friends.
2012
Won first prize in a costume competition
I wanted to up my game with my costume and I tried out local sewing lessons, to discover that all they had to offer was letting me read their schoolbooks. Before diving in the big project of the year I tested some techniques out with a diesel-punk outfit, I still love how the jacket came out. For the costume contest later that year I made the "Crazy Duchess" and won first prize with it, and I became a member of Elfia's royal court as Countess "Von Kier".As a model I explored allot of different styles and worked on some great collaborations, I already felt in love with pin-up but I can certainly not resist some more artistic projects.
2013
No costumes, planning on buying a house (saving my bucks)
I mostly spent this year enjoying shoots with a small group trusted photographers I worked with before. Crafting outfits was not in the budget since I was buying a house, non the less I have a lot of good memories shooting.2014
New place, hardly crafting budget. Discovered cosplay and their events
Bought a fixer upper from a house, had no real budget to make costumes. A good friend at the time was elected Queen of Elfia and I didn't want to miss it for the world! She loved demons so in her honor I made the "Succubus" and joined the Elfia of her ruling. The idea was to have big latex wings without having to wear a full corset construction to hold them, a bespoke welded frame was designed to make this look possible. Walking on hoof shoos was one of the biggest costume regret I have till today.Aside from a full-time job all the time and budget I had went to fixing my house, I only did a view shoots on invite.
2015
Back to creating costumes, enjoying photo-shoots & became a MUA
The transition to the new house is mostly over around April and crafting can start again, hold your horses I've been ready for quite a while. with just 1 week to go to next Elfia I just went to the fabric market and looked what I came home with, hoping the idea might form along the way... and it did.A comment that multiple people have been giving me my whole life popped up in me "you have a fat ass / your to thick" and thought F*ck it! Let's show that ass and be proud to have it, before I knew it "Morristy Dusk" was created. With the next project I felt confident enough to work with a dream material silk, a fabric I love but was always out of reach. The "Royal Vampire" was the first costume I spent a higher budget on the fabric and I had to be honest with myself, it showed. I made a fun post-appo outfit to chill a Castlefest for ones, instead of working there or spending the day taking pictures.
To finish the crafting year "Hades" was made, and I got interviewed at DCC.
Aside from all the events and crafting multiple outfits I did quite a view shoots, even started doing the make-up of others (Make-Up Artist: MUA)
2016
Back to one big costume a year, Start as craftsmanship judge
Spent along time crafting to join my first cosplay contest with the "Diablo monk". Here's where I unfortunately found out that the European cosplay contests value their "acts" higher than the craftsmanship (60/40 at best). As a crafter with past costume contest experience, this was a huge shock to me. It left me pretty disappointed and felt excluded in a community that claimed to welcome anyone with open arms. Still it was fun to explore a new community and meet new crafters.I enjoyed both cosplay, renaissance events and modeling, all of this became a huge problem. The people in the different "scenes" did not understood that I could do all these 3 things on 1 page or as a person, to be honest I felt obligated to drop a hobby of mine just to keep doing the other 2. And so I did, I gave up being a model. I hoped that modeling in my costumes would be enough, thought its difficult to plan multiple shoots a year. At this moment most costumes I make start with a crafting time of 200 hours, making it impossible to make a lot of costumes alongside my full-time job.
Later in the year I made the " Neko Maid" outfit, this so I could move around easier when working on events. I started judging contest as a craftsmanship judge & give informative panels at events.
2017
Buzzy making informative panels and joining events as craftsmanship judge
The event experience changed, I managed to make one outfit "Jack Skellington". Aside from making outfits I became a crafting judge, gave crafting panels and hope to inspire others to make their own costumes. The preparations to do this all took me a lot of time.2018
Going International, working more at events.
I won my first international preliminaries with "Mercy Valkyrie " and got to represent The Netherlands in Portugal at WCM.At the same time on the background my relation broke after 13 years and I had to find a new living place, and move to a new place. All of this together gave a lot of stress and stuff to find out.
I started helping out others by making tutorials on my you-tube channel & picture tutorials bogs on my site.
I made three smaller outfits in between to keep my crafting urges in check and started designing a convestion pattern from my "Mimikyu" outfit by trying to learn digital pattern drafting. A "Mercy Baywatch" outfit was made for the first Viencon event, incl blog tutorial on how to make her wig. The cute "Mavis Dracula" was made as cozy outfit to judge in.
2019 → 2023
Health problems.
Turning blind & Ovarian cancer
Health problems started, even before the Covid-19 pandemic hits. Slowly I lost my eyesight due to a still unknown immune disease, I became legally blind.<
To make things worse I had something growing in my tummy, a cyst they told me. Mid 2020 I got operated but due to the pandemic I never saw a doctor after the operation.
Late 2020 I was lucky to receive 2 cataract surgery's, most of the hospital's operating rooms where shut down due to the pandemic. The only catch was, I had to do it while locally sedated and awake.I barely saved my full-time job, It took me a hard 4 months bud I made it withing the time limed.
I dropped an abusive relationship and found new love.
Thinking a bright new (2.0) future is starting, 4 months in the relationship I got tummy and back pain again. I could not go to my gynecologist since it's been to long they they had seen me, and their waiting list was 3 months. I asked my local doctor if a midwife could look at it, and withing 3 months got diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It was a hard pill to swallow, especially because I had just recently conquered blindness. This led to activating my "hospital mode" again for the second time. So into chemo I went, while the world was too busy fighting an ongoing pandemic. I was lucky to see the year change to 2022 and was fortunate to get through my last treatment early that year.2024
Learning everything again, starting over
I guess this will make another new start (3.0), I'm learning a lot of things I've missed while I was sick.This might seam odd but to give a perspective: you probably went true the 3 year of the pandemic and now almost 2 years later you still struggle with processing this time and how different the world become. - Now figure that I never actively noticed the pandemic besides doctors appointment and operations being postponed.
After dealing with some hard realities about how people close to you can treat you while your sick, I wanted nothing more than to talk things out. But no sofar I've been ghosted, shamed and blamed for a lot of things a sick person should never be for. After 2,5 years of waiting I got into the mental health system to help me process these scarring events.
I won't give up but I noticed the world around me is majorly different than what I recall pre blindness (2019), I notice I don't always get all ques and everything is way faster. Please be patient with me if I might respond strange, I'm probably misunderstanding something and need a little bid of a information.
The sun still shines, new costumes in the making
After years I made a fresh new outfit "Darkness" and "Frieren" is in the making.Learning lots of new techniques as 3D-scanning, 3D-printing, modeling, casting and much more.
I'm working on creating convection size sewing and foam patterns from my bespoke outfits. I hope by providing convection patterns and more crafting knowledge more people will start making their own costumes, it's such a fun hobby and it saddens me that the current generation is buying more non flattering outfits rather than making a couple of good fitting ones themself.
