Hi there! 👋 I’m Lydia, aka LyddiDesign Costumes. I’ve been sewing and crafting since I was a kid. I started cosplaying in 2009 as soon as I discovered it existed as a concept – at least that’s when I made my first official cosplay and wore it to a con (Dragon Con 2009). I started getting more serious about it in 2012, and here we are to this day still going at it!
I started this site/blog around 2012 when I realized I was starting a new obsession, one that would “stick” for a long time. I really wanted a place to document my costumes for other people to see (and for me to reflect upon in the future), as well as to share knowledge with the community (and not to mention, a void to write all my thoughts into 😅).
one of my Halloween costumes from the early days when my costuming obsession started getting real.
My Costuming Journey
When I was a kid, probably around 7 or 8, my grandmother taught me to sew with a machine and how to follow clothing patterns. I mostly made Barbie dresses and sometimes something for me. I also was a very crafty kid and was always making things (like doll furniture) and drawing. I especially liked drawing pretty dress that I designed myself!
As I got older I started to get more and more into making Halloween costumes. By the time I got to college I was spending a lot of effort on my costumes.
Most of my Halloween costumes pretty much involved sewing and various “crafty hands at home” techniques. Nothing super intense compared to what I do now, but I still found myself starting to pay attention to details and spend a lot of time on more difficult ensembles. Though at some point I felt that my efforts were wasted on Halloween, where the craftsmanship and effort weren’t really noticed by party-goers (I really don’t blame them, their priority is having fun!). I think I felt for a while that the time and effort wasn’t “worth it” so I took a bit of a break.
Then one Summer when I was visiting Boston, it happened to be the weekend of AnimeBoston. I ended up attending because some acquaintances were going. At this point I had thought conventions were just “nerdy” events (really ironic considering I’ve been a huge nerd all my life) and that I would be bored. But as you can imagine, that was not the case for me. I wasn’t a big anime fan (as in, I’d only seen a handful of shows and enjoyed them, but I didn’t actively pursue watching more), but I really enjoyed myself. The first thing I noticed was that everyone was wearing a huge diversity of costumes, and I felt the immediate urge to make costumes again. Turns out other people were obsessed with making costumes, I wasn’t alone! So later in September I went to Dragon Con for the first time dressed as the Major from Ghost in the Shell, my then current obsession (one of those few animes I watched).
It wasn’t exactly the best costume, being a material and style I’d never worked with, but I felt pretty cool. I loved wearing it so much I went to Anime Weekend Atlanta a few weeks later and ended up entering the costume contest, my first time ever! I didn’t win anything of course, but I got to see amazing costumes up close and talk to other costumers. Afterwards I was a bit burnt out from doing 2 cons back to back for the first time, so my brain left costume mode for awhile. For the next Dragon Con I was just super lazy and went as a Sim. (Ironically, a ton of people loved it and took pics of me, even though I was wearing something so simple – a trend that has continued my whole costuming career 😅).
That was the only costuming con I went to that year (not counting PAX East, I felt costuming was not big there at the time). Then in 2011, Game of Thrones came out. I had a new obsession, Daenerys! So for Dragon Con 2011 I made her silvery/purple wedding dress and a golden egg. I worked pretty hard on it, but as usual waited till the last minute and didn’t execute it as well as I wanted. (Except the sequin egg, that turned out amazing!) Little did I know this “waiting till the last minute and being disappointed” trend would be a lesson I never learned from and still plagues me to this day. 😆
© Dave Nelson Photography
And then Skyrim came out. And Lydia was a main character – a character with my own name! I knew I HAD to be her. So I started thinking about it (since November-ish 2011) and officially started in May 2012. I’d never done armor before, so it was quite a feat for me. Except for taking a few weeks off at one point, I pretty much worked on it constantly until the con. If you want more detail on this costume, check out the post I made on it. So I just barely finished it on time and did the Friday Night Costume Contest and parade.
The contest was such an amazing experience. I got to talk to the other contestants (while waiting around ~5 hours) about how they made their costumes and got some great tips. I also got to fawn over the amazing Skyrim iron armor costume that won Best in Show. I didn’t win anything like I expected, but still had fun, which was the whole point!
Even better was the panel the judges gave the next day. They talked about the winners and the amazing things they did to make their costumes. They also gave SO many tips for how to make your costume more professional and next level. This was very important for me to hear because I had no mentors or basis for what makes a “good” costume (or more specifically, good in the eyes of real costuming professionals). Once I really digested all of this advice, something clicked within me. While previously I had been kind of winging it with my builds, I now had some solid tips to start with.
I felt this extreme urge to make a new costume for next year with the goal of making a very professional costume that I could really be proud of. And then… I couldn’t stop! I’ve made SO many costumes since then and entered tons of contests. I’ve had great wins, and learned some hard lessons. I’ve also attended many panels learning great advice from other costumers. (And these days its all on social media!)
I can’t wait to keep going and see what I make in the future. 😊
Tears were shed. :’)