I’ve always enjoyed dressing up. When I was a kid I would refuse to go anywhere without wearing a tiara which eventually evolved in me not going anywhere without my detective hat. But then one day when I was 14 I decided to dress up as a character from my favorite anime at the time and I’d like to say I jumped head first into cosplaying then but I didn’t. I was scared to be open about liking to dress up. Even though I went to many conventions in my younger years it wasn’t until my 20s that I started to cosplay more consistently with more elaborate costumes. There were many moments where I thought I might actually be good at this and one key moment was my first cosplay competition. It took me a year to work up the courage to even enter. I created my first ever suit which was covered in hand sewn zippers and I went in not expecting to win anything. So I was completely surprised when I had entered as beginner and won as intermediate. I’ve been cosplaying competitively ever since because it helps push myself further to create bigger and more complex costumes and meet some amazing people.
As soon as I saw Sunset Dragon’s version of Merengue from Animal Crossings, I immediately knew I had to make it and make it look like real strawberry cake! This was my first time ever making a dress and was the hardest cosplay to figure out how to make. I had to do a lot of research to figure out how people traditionally make fake cakes. They use sponges for the cake and spackling or modeling clay for frosting but I had two problems I couldn’t find a sponge large enough for a skirt and clay could potentially chip and be too heavy. I solved this by using a roll of memory foam for the skirt and hand sculpted wool for the frosting. I did a lot of hand sewing, dying, beading, and needle felting for this cosplay. I even crochet a matching strawberry bag with a strawberry chain and created strawberry cake hair clips. One aspect that I really love is the prop I designed! In Animal Crossing they have several different bug catching nets but no strawberry one so I designed my own and created it out of Perler beads!
My most proud cosplay is my Jolyne Kujo cosplay! I think it’s my best sewn cosplay to date because it is patchwork that I literally hand stitched together to look like it was strung together by her stand. I’m also really proud of the wig because I turned a white straight wig into a blue and green afro with box braids! I especially love the braided butterfly detail. I also will forever love this cosplay because it got me my biggest win yet. I won Blerdcon’s Craftmanship contest 2022 and became their first black cosplayer of the year for my hard work.
The only thing I’d like to add is that I’m just getting started. I can’t wait to create and show the world all the crazy designs I have in my head.