THE COSPLAY: Ever since I saw Rey in theaters, I knew it was inevitable that I would cosplay her. A badass, determined, endearing swordswoman was a thing I absolutely needed from Star Wars. 

I drafted the top to fit me perfectly; I pulled 3 pants that met color/composition requirements on The Rebel Legion’s official costuming standards for Rey, and I repurposed those pants to add kneepads and stitching. Both the top and pants has all of the décor topstitching, including hours of hand whip-stitching. 

Even though it looks like leather, the belt was made from suede fabrics and heavy interfacing. I wanted to share a process to make strong belts, without the moral/environmental reflections that come with using leather. This process involved heavy interfacing sandwiched between two layers of painted suede, made to look dirty and worn down. 

In order to demonstrate what you can do during pandemic, with no access to high-tech tools, I transformed a lightsaber toy into a fully-lit, all sound, interactive lightsaber. There were too many hours of carving inside the lightsaber, checking if the electronics fit, then carving again! I wrote a tutorial so anyone can do it, and that tutorial won a Star Wars Challenge hosted by Make Media and NVidia! 

BIO: I'm an award-winning master-level cosplayer and professor empowering people to craft, make and build, from handsewing, to electronics and everything in between. With 10+ years of cosplaying and costume building, I enjoy sharing the love of craft and helping others in their cosplays. 

My start was cosplaying Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender, for the notorious movie that totally-does-not-exist “The Last Airbender”. Since then, my professional experiences include building 100+costumes and props for Theater productions, training in both Fashion and Costuming Design, and sharing everything I learned as an educator. 

I apply my evaluation, design thinking, research and prototyping skills I teach students, towards my fashion, costume and prop designs, builds and technologies. My unique skills combine traditional craft with maker and technology, and I'm able to brainstorm, design, build and assess any technology and build desired.

COSPLAY BY @CRAFTYSORCERESS
PHOTOGRAPHY AND DESIGN BY BRIAN NISHIMOTO

GALLERY