The Lorax OOAK Messenger Bag

And the obsession begins. Ever since I had seen the Lorax, I had been wanting to sew something from it since there is absolutely no official merchandise from this movie yet. I don't know why they had not made any official merchandise for this movie yet, because it will sell big time. I've been debating about what to make from this movie for a while now and then this week, I had discovered that they make official licensed fabric from Dr. Suess' the Lorax.

I ended up buying some and I had a messenger bag pattern that has been sitting around my pattern drawer for a while. This is what happens when I get obsessed into new fandoms:

This bag is a one-of-a-kind item. I will most likely never make another one in my life. I thought I would sell it over on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/97095320/ooak-the-lorax-messenger-bag . It is going for $75 + shipping to cover material costs and labor fees. It took roughly about 6-7 hours to sew, probably a little longer since I kept getting interrupted on Friday night when I made it. More info can be found there about the materials and the bag it's self. 

What the lump!?

Since I had became an "artist" at conventions, I had been wanting to sell my stuff online. I had became pretty serious about giving etsy a try. For those that don't know what etsy.com is about, they are community specifically for selling handcrafted and vintage items. I thought it would be a good place to start. I had tried other domains and websites, such as other blogs, forums, etc., but they were never really a big hit when it came to selling my crafts.

I have only been selling on etsy since June of 2010. I had originally started to sell some fleece hats on there that were based on flags of countries based around popular Hetalia characters. They did not sell as well as well as I thought they were. Which had led into a bit of a disappointment. I had tried my hands then at some other basic character fleece hats. Sales were kind of slim pickings then. After a few months past of disappointment of etsy sale's, I had gave it a break and focused on only cosplay commissions for the time being.

I never knew how hard it was to find that one or two items that would make it in the world online and offline (i.e. at conventions). I had tried a few more times with character fleece hats and such, but nothing really worked. Back at Youmacon 2011, I roomed with some friends who were OBSESSED with Adventure Time. I had been told beforehand that I should invest some time and money into making Finn the Human hats. I never really thought about it then since I did not know the series. After being introduced to it at Youmacon, my friends were right. This series is HUGE. During the same convention, one of my friends had suggested and been hinting at me to make him a Finn the Human backpack since 90% of them online are inaccurate and nonfunctional.

I decided for Christmas, I would give it a shot to see what his reaction was to the backpack. I gave him one for Christmas. And he was more then over joyed! I never seen someone so happy to receive such a thing. It made me happy. Ever since then, November 2011, I had been making these bloody Adventure Time hats and backpacks. I had far extended it now to other characters such as Jake, Fiona and Cake hats. It seems like some weeks, I over exhaust my self with making these things, but I enjoy it greatly.

I still can not believe it that these backpacks and hats are the cause of my etsy success!

Finn the Human Cosplay Set made by me.

I am very thankful for everyone who has purchased one. Now, to only fulfill more orders. I do hope to come up with some new merchandise this year that will be non-Adventure Time related that will sell just as well.

The Beginning.

This has been a long time coming. I, forever, had wanted to dedicate a single blog to my sewing adventures. It had always been on the backlog of my to-do list for too many years. Now, that six years has past since I had became a seamstress; I thought it was well past due to sit down and start this blog. Many of you out there are probably wondering why anyone would want to blog about crafts or sewing in general, but sewing is a big part of my life. It is more then just a hobby now. It is my passion.

I had always been interested in arts and crafts since I was a little girl. I was lucky enough to have the "talent" for it, but sewing was one thing I never had the chance to learn until my early adulthood. I never had a home economics class nor a fashion design class in my life. I had never even taken a single sewing class either. My school schedule and work schedules had always conflicted with such. It was difficult to find the time to sit down to sew, even though I had been interested in the hobby since well before high school. Since I had began to get interested in anime and the hobby of cosplaying, in my later high school years - I wanted to learn how to sew for one reason and one reason only.

Cosplay.

Cosplaying is an unique art. For those that do not know what this term means, from urbandictionary.com: Literally "Costume Play." Dressing up and pretending to be a fictional character (usually a sci-fi, comic book or anime character). I had always loved Halloween as a kid, but this takes it far beyond just Halloween. Cosplaying takes it to a whole new level. You get to dress up and act like your favorite characters, more then just one time a year (depending on how many conventions you go to).

When it comes to cosplaying these days, there are four choices on how to go about getting a costume:
1. sew it your self
2. hire a seamstress/tailor
3. buy a cosplay off of ebay
4. "thrift" or "closet" cosplay

Number one was out. Before 2006, I only really knew the basics of hand sewing. I am a horrible hand sewer. There was no way I was sewing a costume by hand. Then there is number two. I have heard so many horror stories about commissioning from random strangers online. There was no way I was doing that. Then, I had tried ebay. I had tried ebay twice. The first time, I had bought a costume, the quality was so-so. But the second time I had ordered a costume from ebay, I was so frightened by what I got - it was never seen the light of day. I immediately threw it out because it was just horrible. The coloring was so off, the sizing was terrible (it barely fit, it was so tight) and it was made of a spandex material. UGH. What a waist of money. I was so upset by it, that I refused to buy any more off of ebay from that point on. And of course, I had my share of "thrifted" or "closet" cosplays, but anime does not always translate well into real life. It can only get you so far with certain characters.

That , I had taken upon my self to learn how to finally sew. Originally, I was going to get help from my mother with cosplays. She has never been a great seamstress, but she knew the basics. Of the two or three "cosplays" she had helped me with in the past, it was nothing up to par that I liked. I had asked and begged her to help me learn how to use the sewing machine, but she just never had the time to sit down to teach me after the one "lesson" I had with her of learning the basics of a sewing machine and how it operated.

That was the beginning. I had been officially sewing now for over six years. I've lost count of how many cosplays I had made for my self. I had expanded my talents to commissioning for those that can not sew. I had advanced to the point of no longer of being a novice seamstress, but a journeyman in convention masquerades. Last year, I had won "Best-in-Show" at Shinbokucon for my Black (Trainer) from Pokemon Black costume. This year at Animarathon, I had just recently won my second award, "Honorable Mention" for my Red (Trainer) from Pokemon. I never thought in my life, that I would of progress this far to winning even a single competition.

I am far more excited though for this year's cosplay list. I will be cosplaying as some of my all-time favorite characters that I had been dying to cosplay, since I discovered the hobby. I had been cosplaying officially now for over ten years, but it had only been since 2006 since I had been making my own. I feel pretty confident after last weekend, that I would be able to cosplay these characters to justice. Now, to only find the time to actually get around to starting them!