Sewing, Crafting, and Cosplay: About this Blog

Coronavirus Mask Mania

I've always wanted to make couples costumes for self and hubs so we are that awesome couple at a party.  Although I've been sewing since my mother forced me to learn as a kid, I never got motivated enough to sit down and make anything real.  Well, the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020 changed all that.  I literally turned my home office into a homemade mask production facility to sew fabric masks for charity. At last count (as of August 2020), I've sewn 183 masks for charity, family, and friends.  Over that time, I actually started to enjoy sewing, rather than seeing it as a necessary chore.  So that's it.  I've been bitten by the sewing and crafting bug like everybody else has. So now I am sewing cosplay and venturing into other crafts.

In the middle of the pandemic, my 30-year old sewing machine also broke down and I couldn't easily take it in to get serviced since everything was shut down.  This "forced" me to replace it with a new, upgraded, computerized model, the Singer Quantum Stylist 9960.  I chose it mainly because it was one of the few available that I could buy online for home delivery at the time. Since every other seamster on the planet was now making masks, sewing machines became the shortage you never heard about.  So far I really like it.  It's a mid-range machine that has a number of pre-programmed stitches and comes with a lot of useful extra zipper feet and accessories that will hopefully become handy as I do more cosplay and other crafts.  At some point, I will acquire something like a Cricut or Silhouette machine and a 3D Printer to help with constructing all the little details you need when constructing cosplay.

Quantum Stylist 9960

I expect that this will mostly be about my cosplay projects, but I'm finding that I need to take breaks now and then with little projects that don't involve cutting fabric, which is my least liked thing about sewing.  (I kind of actually hate measuring and cutting).  As I write this, I am working on finishing the shoes on a Buddy the Elf costume for Mr. Geek, and the trim and shoes for the accompanying Jovie the Elf, but keep getting sidetracked by other things.  Hopefully this blog will keep me motivated to stay focused and get things done.