Here’s some common questions people send me! If you still have questions beyond these, you can contact me here! And if you are looking for something more like tutorials, they are over here!
These are questions I get on a regular basis and I’m just trying to answer them as plainly and as straight-forward as possible… I don’t mean to sound sassy but after being asked for the 200th time if I rent my costumes it starts to get old.
1. Do you buy your costumes? Where do you buy them from?
2. Will you make a costume for me? How much do you charge?
3. Can I rent/borrow one of your costumes?
4. Can I buy one of these costumes listed here? I don’t see a checkout.
5. I have this costume I bought at the Halloween store last year. Do you want to buy it?
6. Will you be in my fan film?
7. Can I use your costumes in my fan film?
1. No.*
2. No. **
3. No.
4. No.
5. No.
6. No.
7. Absolutely no.
*I make my own costumes, if I buy a piece from someone I give credit to the creator on my portfolio pages!
**I do sometimes make costumes for other people; through the theater work I do, and I occasionally make stuff for friends. I don’t accept commissions.
– I’ve seen your sell some of your costumes before, how can I find out what costumes you might be selling?
If & when I am selling anything, it will be listed as for sale on my main site – and you can always check my etsy store for costumes/props/items I am currently selling. It’s rare because I don’t like to sell them, it’s like selling my children!
– Will you be attending XYZConvention this year?
There are a lot of conventions out there and (sadly) I can’t afford to get to them all! My future convention plans are listed on the sidebar. Since SDCC is usually the one people are asking about – we stopped attending SDCC in 2006, we don’t currently have any plans on going back.
– What is your favourite costume?
I get this one a lot and I never mind answering it; but the answer is almost always different depending on the situation, my mood, time of day… 🙂 To pick a few of my favs, would be Ozma, Belle, Queen Amidala’s parade dress, Ms Marvel, Anne Boleyn, Marie Antoinette, Queen Hippolyta, Kingdom Com Wonder Woman, and Leia.
– How much did that costume cost?
How long did it take to make?
I generally don’t keep up with what I spend on a costume; I’m not charging anyone so I don’t need to keep a record, and sometimes I will start collecting pieces up to years in advance (“in case I ever get to it!”). I do budget and make good use of coupons and re-using items to keep costs down – one good thing about having so many costumes is I have a large stockpile of shoes & wigs, not to mention all of those random items I’ve bought over the years in case I ever get to it, as well as a ton of fabric remnants, patterns, and other bits and pieces.
You can also check out my FAQ Friday responses on Budgeting and cost breakdowns.
I can generally guess-timate how long a costume took, but I can’t say “It took me 96 hours to create,” because again, I’m not having to bill someone for my hours. And, when I say “this took about a month to make”, that means I worked on it for a couple of hours most evenings after work, on the weekends. In between work and other things. It didn’t actually take an actual month. I just worked on it off and on for about a month.
Also, for some reason lately, a lot of people have asked me “how long does it take you to make your costumes?” or “how much do your costumes cost to make?” and like… they’re all different! There’s no one answer for those questions. I’ve made costumes in a weekend, I’ve spent half a year on a costume. I’ve spent $10 and I’ve spent… LOL ugh I don’t even want to say the highest but it’s up there. It’s just all so different. That’s part of why I enjoy it so much, every costume presents different challenges, different materials, a new experience.
– Where do you live?
I like to travel all around the country to conventions, but I firmly rooted in Memphis, TN. In more recent years I’ve pretty much stuck to southeast cons with a few exceptions.
I think a tend to throw people off for some reason – I’ve gotten a lot of people who assume I live in the UK. I wish! Pretty much the only way I’ll ever get to an international convention is by being an invited guest, unless I hit the lottery or something. Or somebody wants to sponsor me. Anybody want to pay for me to go to a London con? Because I’ll do it.
– How did you learn to sew?
My grandmother & mom taught me. I still call mom for advice when I’m stuck 🙂
Here is a longer response to this question.
– A note on patterns
I try to point out what pattern I used if at all possible, but that comes with a grain of salt – a lot of times these patterns were highly modified and not used according to the directions. Plus on older costumes, it’s harder for me to remember the exact pattern (especially if it was something basic, and I modified it). On these, I can look through my pattern index and I kinda tell what I MIGHT have used, but it’s often just a guess. Unless it’s something that was a pain in the butt, or something crazy – anything to make it stand out – it’s hard to remember which basic skirt pattern I used on a costume I made 10 years ago.
One more warning, a lot of my patterns are out of print. I’ve spent 20 years collecting patterns, including buying “lots” (as in, a group of patterns; not necessarily a “bunch” – but I guess both definitions stand) of older, already out-of-print patterns on ebay to kickstart my collection. You can generally easily find out of print patterns on ebay and etsy, but sometimes they will not be available, or may be really expensive.
If you want to build your own collection of patterns, I highly suggest watching for pattern sales. Where I live, both Joann and Hobby Lobby will have pattern sales, where patterns are $1 or $2 instead of $15-$20. There’s usually a cap on how many you can buy (5 or 10). I watch for them and go pick up new patterns when they’re on sale. $5 for 5 patterns is way better than $100 for 5 patterns….
– I need you to email me a complete instruction on list on how to make XYZ Costume.
I am ALWAYS ALWAYS glad to help other costumers as much as possible and give whatever tips and tutorials I can, however, I don’t particularly have time to do the complete research and legwork for someone else’s costume. It is very time-consuming. I have occasionally helped theatrical productions as a consultant, and I will be glad to do that on a personal level if you feel like you need it – please contact me and we can discuss terms. 🙂