We were lucky to catch up with Sammi Kaye Nystrom recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sammi Kaye, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
My cosplay journey came naturally to me, because I had already been sewing for many years before I took up the hobby. I was very young (around 6 years old) when my mother first taught me how to hand sew with needle and thread. Every year we would design and make Halloween costumes together, and I spent a lot of time learning how to do basic stitching and mending. When I got a little older, we would sew dance recital costumes, party dresses, and themed outfits for spirit days at school. When I was about 10 I started learning how to read and understand commercial sewing patterns and was learning how to cut out patterns, piece them together, and install simple finishing like elastic casings and working with bias tape. Shortly after I started getting into the hobby of cosplaying (around age 12) and that is when I started sewing more difficult projects. It was a gradual, but natural evolution into the skill level that I am now – much like learning an instrument, dancing, or playing a sport!
Looking back at my progression with cosplay and learning different sewing techniques, I do wish that I would have experimented more with using unconventional materials and crafting techniques, however I was working with the limited knowledge and resources that I had available. Because I started sewing and cosplaying at a young age, I was mostly looking towards my mother for advice and guidance – and to her credit – she didn’t know how replicate a costume of an animated anime character either! I have memories of my mom and I getting into arguments because I wanted the costume to look a certain way, and I can remember my mom saying “It’s not a real person! Fabric doesn’t work that way!” – which is something that I have to remind myself of as a mantra when I get frustrated that things aren’t looking “animated” enough! To help me gain more techniques and speed up the learning process, perhaps I could have read more historical sewing books, or engaged with forums online, but even still I am rather pleased with how much I did accomplish while I was young and how I was able to evolve into the cosplayer I am today.
The basic skills that I found to be the most essential was learning how to use an iron, how to sew a few basic stitches on the sewing machine, how to understand and work with a commercial sewing pattern, and how to fit and tailor clothing to your body. All the other fancy bells and whistles of sewing and cosplay can follow, but knowing the fundamentals will certainly come in handy more times than knowing how to sew an intricate trim for example. It is so important to know how to tailor a garment to fit your body – knowing where to add seam lines and how to take in fullness (with a gather, or a dart?), how to shorten or lengthen a hem, how to add seam allowance for a zipper… these skills are some that you will encounter with nearly every cosplay or costume that you make. And, one of my biggest pet peeves, ironing your project after almost every step will dramatically increase your cleanliness and produce a more professional quality garment. Pressing out creases before you sew, pressing seams flat, and smoothing out hems is definitely one of the most essential skills to learn.
When I started cosplaying in 2004, the only resources we had were books borrowed from the library, sewing patterns from the store, and word-of-mouth techniques shared at conventions. Although the internet was around, it was still in its infancy and there was not a very large cosplay community to connect with – I was also young so my online activity was understandably very minimal. I remember making patterns out of recycled newspaper, and “Frankenstein-ing” together multiple patterns into something that resembled the anime character I was trying to portray. It was very difficult with trial and error, figuring out what worked and what didn’t. Thankfully today we have so many more resources and communities that we can share and learn from, and that is one of the major differences between cosplay then, and cosplay now.
Sammi Kaye, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Sammi Kaye, and I am a cosplayer! I have been cosplaying for 21 years, and it is something that started out as a fun hobby when I was a child, and has grown into an art form that I dedicate myself wholeheartedly to now as an adult. Cosplay can take on many forms: there are some people who enjoy simply dressing up as a character for the joy of getting to portray someone different for a day – similar to how most people celebrate Halloween, there are some cosplayers who focus on the performance aspect where they create elaborate stage performances and act out a scene in character, and there are also cosplayers who focus more on the craft and creation of making a costume from scratch. I fall into the latter category, where I enjoy creating a costume from the ground up and hand make all of the pieces myself. I consider myself a competitive cosplayer, meaning that I regularly compete in cosplay craftsmanship competitions where I am judged on my techniques, cleanliness, and accuracy of making my costume. I also have experience more recently, competing in performance competitions where I am judged on both my costume and an in-character stage performance. I am honored to say that I hold many craftsmanship titles for my work, as well as three international award titles for performance craft. With these international awards I was chosen as the representative for the United States, and then competed against representatives from other countries. Getting the opportunity to represent my country in an artistic craft that I love so much, AND getting the chance to travel, meet new people, and experience cosplay in a different country, has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my cosplay career.
In addition to the work I do for myself through my competition entries, I also attend local conventions where I present instructional panels, host workshops, judge costume contests, and host events. I really enjoy these moments because it allows me to connect to my audience and the cosplay community on a more personal level. The panels that I host focus on topics such as body-positivity and plus-size representation and acceptance within the cosplay community. As a plus-size woman, I have experienced my fair share of negative attention because of my size in relation to the character’s that I cosplay. My goal is to share these experiences, and educate other cosplayers on how to feel confident about themselves in cosplay, and in everyday life. I promote myself as a plus-size cosplayer, showing that I am proud of who I am and that I love how I look. When I dress in cosplay I am able to transform into a more powerful and confident version of myself – and I want to inspire and empower other people to do the same.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
The mission that is driving my cosplay, is to simply push myself to learn how to do and create more things. I enjoy challenging myself by expanding upon my skills and learning new techniques that I can then apply to more and more complex costume builds. I have a short list of “dream cosplay’s” and I don’t think I will be creatively satisfied until I’ve completed those projects! I also want to enter into more international competitions so that I am able to travel and meet more cosplayers from around the world. When I think about what cosplay might look like for myself in the distant future, even if I am not crafting new costumes to the level that I am now, I would still like to be involved with the community in some aspect. Perhaps I could lead a convention’s cosplay department, and offer consultation services to newer cosplayers looking for advice. Even if I don’t have the time or ability to cosplay myself, I would still love the chance to help others do so.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
I think there are a lot of misconceptions about how ‘easy’ it looks to cosplay. It is not easy. It is actually extremely difficult. I know we have all seen those Tiktok time-lapse videos where a costume is built in a day, and a prop is made in a few hours, or a 3-D printer spits out a perfectly modeled accessory. It is not like that at all in the real world. Cosplay takes an incredible amount of time in pre-planning, preparation, research, and prototyping – all before you even make your first cut into fabric or dremmel into your foam. Being a cosplayer means doing the work of an entire costume production team by yourself. You are the costume designer – choosing the materials, finishings, textures, color, story, silhouette, and carrying the vision for the project. You are the pattern-maker – drafting flat patterns, draping on a mannequin or model, paying close attention to fit, function, wearability, and scale. You are the stitcher – physically sewing garments together seam by seam, pressing with an iron, adding notions, details, all with extreme precision. You are the fabricator – designing and crafting props, accessories, wigs, shoes, understructures, all while getting covered with paint and dust particles from sanding. You are the finishing team – adding on the extra details and embellishments such as painting, dying, rhinestones, beads, trimmings. And then when all the hard work of crafting is done, you are the model too! You are the one wearing the costume, dressing yourself, doing your own intricate makeup, styling your wig, and then battling the heat of wearing a heavy piece of art to a convention or event space. Cosplay is NOT for the weak! I am continuously in awe of how talented and resourceful cosplayers are. It is such a respectable thing to be able to craft things by hand, and to make something amazing materialize out of raw materials. I want people to know that cosplayers truly love what it is that they do – otherwise all of this hard work may not be worth it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kayecosplay.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kayecosplay
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kayecosplay
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kayecosplay
Image Credits
@amiephotos, @final_egirl