We were lucky to catch up with Sarah recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

As an entirely self taught sewist and designer, my skills have been accumulated over time. That isn’t always the most efficient way to learn a craft because it takes a lot of time, patience, and commitment to learn your art and learn to do things correctly, but I don’t know that I would have wanted to learn my skills any faster. Patience and attention to detail are the most essential skills that need to be developed in order to master sewing elaborate costumes. The advantage of learning slowly and at your own pace is that you have time to truly hone into the unique skills that you excel the most at. When I was younger, I lacked patience and I would often skip over important details in the creative process, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve developed so much more patience and have gotten so much better taking my time with new projects and new challenges.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I didn’t really choose my path as a costume maker and content creator, it chose me. I have an art history and a museum studies degree, and my background is in the museum and antiques fields, but I was always making costumes for local theatre and film productions on the side as well as my own costumes for comic conventions. But ongoing health issues eventually led me into sewing costume and bridal commissions for people in my local community, because sewing allowed me to make my own hours and take breaks at times when I my has health dictated that I slow down. As I have built up a community on social media, I have started to transition away from sewing for clients and focus more on creating content and sharing my art and my process. I love inspiring people to create themselves and demystifying the process of what goes into making a costume. I try my best to answer questions and encourage beginners and my peers as well. The costuming community can be intimidating and competitive at times, and I don’t want anyone to ever feel excluded or unworthy. Whether you have been sewing for a week or 30 years, you deserve space and a sense of belonging.

: Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

At the end of the day, I just want to inspire other people to create, play dress up, and to show that anyone can learn to make costumes. That may sound like a simple thing, but it means a lot to me when someone tells me that a post or a costume of mine inspired them to create something.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think in order to thrive as a creative, you have to be resilient in many ways, from managing your money to dealing with daily criticism from strangers on social media. But my biggest story of resilience was coming back to sewing after being injured in a wreck caused by a drunk driver two years ago. For the first few months after the wreck, I struggled to remember some of the most basic of sewing skills because of my head injuriesI, and the rest of my injuries made it difficult to sew for more than a short time each day. It was incredibly frustrating, because sewing is such a big part of who I am. Some of the projects I started shortly before that wreck have only recently been completed, but honestly, those are projects I am really most proud of because they symbolize my resilience and how much I overcome to complete them.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Instagram.com/lunarrosecostuming
• Facebook: facebook.com/lunarrosecostuming
• Other: tiktok.com/lunarrosecostuming

Image Credits
Lunar Rose Costuming