I’ve been doing the SheProp September Cosplay Challenge on Instagram, and it’s actually a lot of fun so far. I haven’t gone back and looked at my older cosplay pictures in a while, so it’s been nice to go take a look at what I made back in the day.

I started cosplaying when I was a sophomore in college, back in ye olden days of 2002. I had never sewn before, and was using my mom’s old Singer sewing machine from the 60’s, but somehow I managed to make Asuka’s school uniform from Evangelion. I don’t have a lot of pictures of my first costume, but I still have the uniform in my basement sewing room.

I had no clue what I was doing when I made this outfit. It really was a complete miracle it stayed together through a convention, but somehow it did. I made a lot of mistakes on this costume (didn’t finish any seams, didn’t make the waistband right, didn’t really know how to use a pattern), but my favorite one was how I replaced a bobbin. I didn’t know how to use my mom’s sewing machine, and she was on a trip to Italy with her best friend while I was making this, so I was kind of just winging it. I genuinely thought you had to use a screwdriver to take half the bobbin casing apart every time you had to change the bobbin. When my mom got home and saw my finished costume, and I complained that switching the bobbin was the hardest part, she showed me what I should have done. Apparently, there was a little panel you could just pop off. I still laugh about that goof every time I change a bobbin now.