Teachers for Costume College 2025!
Yosa Addiss
Yosa Addiss became a historic costumer after pursuing a degree in costume design. She created one of the first websites for custom-made costume gowns in the late 1990s (yosa.com). Yosa is a lifelong fan of historical costume. She finds something wonderful in every era, especially if the garments have pockets! Her preferred mediums are sewing, machine embroidery, and hand-crafted embellishments.
Nancy Alonso
Nancy Alonso is a nurse, stylist, costume designer, and fashion designer. Her specialty is costumes with unconventional materials like resins, Wonderflex, Fosshape and PVA. She has worked in multiple short films and opera. Nancy enjoys utilizing fabric manipulation to give the piece a new life through textures and shapes. Her attention to detail and her out-of-the-box thinking predominate her work, making her designs unique and different.
Business Name: Nancy Alonso Designer
Website: www.instagram.com/nancy.alonso.designer/
Mary Altman
Mary Altman has been crafting since she was a child. She does cross stitch, embroidery, needlepoint, knitting, crochet, sci-fi costuming, home decor sewing, and more!
Grace Amundsen Barnkow
Grace Amundsen Barnkow has been a costumer since 2020, crafting ensembles from Bronze Age Mesopotamia to the Titanic Era, primarily in the historical or history-bounding space. Her engineering background infuses a mixed-materials flair into designing patterns, molding props, and 3D printing. Specializing in extravagant hair, headdresses, and accessories, she brings a touch of whimsy to her work. Grace also makes her own fabric, from shearing her angora goats to weaving and dyeing.
Cynthia Barnes
With extensive re-enactment and dance experience, Cynthia Barnes has a performance resume spanning decades. Her costuming specialty is historic social dance wear for both men and women. For 20+ years, she has been dancing, costuming, choreographing, stage managing and performing with SF Bay Area groups, including living history at Calif Historical parks, Stanford Vintage Dance Ensemble, Dickens Faire, two Gilbert and Sullivan Societies, a Commedia dell’arte troupe and Santa Clara University’s theater department. Lately she’s been studying Renaissance dance, fashion & etiquette.
Trystan L. Bass
When she was five years old, Trystan Bass loved to dress up in black tights and a trench coat to play Mrs. Peel from "The Avengers." She's been wearing funny clothes ever since. After learning to sew at her mother's knee, Trystan's hobby became creating her own gothic and historical outfits. She’s worked at Renaissance Faires, judged science-fiction/fantasy masquerades, held offices for the Greater Bay Area Costumer's Guild, played in the Society for Creative Anachronism, and critiques historical film costumes as Editor-in-Chief of Frock Flicks.
Website: www.trystancraft.com/
Elisa Bechtel
Elisa Bechtel is co-owner of Thimble & Plume, a historical patterning, costube, and haberdashery company known for their love of Landsknecht and 16th century fashion. She is a self-taught sewist and historical costumer and is a member of the SCA, where her focus is costuming, period construction, and experimental archaeology. A historian by trade, she also worked in the costume shop of a living history program, learning to make 18th-19th Century clothing. You can follower her current projects on Instagram at @handmadehistory.
Business Name: Thimble and Plume
Website: www.thimbleandplume.com
Emily Besich
Emily Besich is a librarian, crafter, and costumer based in Tucson, Arizona. She has been creating wearable art for over 15 years and loves to comb through estate sales and thrift stores to find unique pieces and materials. Her favorite eras are Renaissance and late Victorian.
Barbara Bessol
Barbara Bessol is a professional tailor and long time costumer in northern Nevada. She has been building and tailoring period costumes, costume crafts, and pattern adjusting for over fifteen years. In the last four years, she has specialized in LGBTQ+ alterations. Her life's philosophy is that everyone, no matter their shape or size, should feel comfortable in their clothes.
Bridget Bradley-Scaife
Bridget Bradley-Scaife started costuming at age 12 when she got involved in Renaissance Faires. Since then, she has expanded her love of costuming to all time periods, but her current focus is on the 18th and 19th Centuries. She is a member of the Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild, a fabric enthusiast and former buyer for Renaissance Fabrics, and now the owner of North & South Emporium (NorthSouthEmporium.com), which specializes in mid-Victorian jewelry and accessories.
Business Name: North & South Emporium
Website: www.NorthSouthEmporium.com
Bronwen Burton
Bronwen Burton has over 30 years experience working in the costuming industry. She has worked in all disciplines, including theatre, dance, film, and opera and for both professional companies and educational institutions. She was staff cutter draper at South Coast Repertory and Opera Pacific before becoming the Costume Shop Manager at Fullerton College. She is now co-owner of Lucky De Luxe Fabrics, a fabric and sewing thrift store. She has a BFA in Costume Design from Cal Arts and a wide knowledge of period pattern making and 1930s bias draping.
Business Name: Lucky De Luxe Fabrics
Website: www.luckydeluxefabrics.com
Jane Cadieux
Jane Cadieux has been making custom costumes under the business name Dryad's Grove for over 10 years. She is an avid textile fan, and has been sewing for more than three decades. She is a member of the Queen's Court at The Renaissance Pleasure Faire and is an active member of Costumer's Guild West.
Business Name: Dryad's Grove
Website: www.facebook.com/dryadsgrove/
Amy Carpenter
Amy Carpenter has been working in leather for 18 years, her main focus has been high end leather costume accessories and pop culture fashion items. Most recently she has been creating one of a kind pieces for the entertainment industry for Netflix, Disney, and Amazon. She has also worked in the collectibles market for 15 years creating fine art prototypes and samples for domestic and overseas manufacturing.
Business Name: Legendary Costume Works
Website: www.facebook.com/legendarycostumeworks/
Brayton Carpenter
Brayton Carpenter has been creating costumes since 1990. Working in a variey of textiles, fabric, leather and synthetics, his portfolio showcases a range of genres from historical to fantasy and scifi. His work has been featured in all media forms, most recently in the Lucasfilm series Skeleton Crew. Find him and his creations at Legendary Costume Works on several online platforms.
Business Name: Legendary Costume Works
Website: www.facebook.com/legendarycostumeworks/
Stephanie Clark
Stephanie Clark is a long time sewist and crafter that has recently taken a dive into historical costuming. She enjoys sewing, quilting, jewelry making, reading, and fashion designing. Her sewing journey has been largely self taught, with guidance from her mother and good sewing friends.
Jamie Costin
Jamie Costin is a film and tv costumer in Los Angeles, CA, who got her start in theatrical costuming. While she loves her career, her hobby of historical costuming is her passion.
Alena Craig
Alena K. Craig is currently working as a craft teacher, after studying History and Theatre with a concentration in Costume Design at Muhlenberg College. Having recently moved back to rural Alaska, she is excited to see fellow costume enthusiasts and not have to worry about making a matching coat. A lover of details, she teaches classes on embellishments and would love to see your needlework. She is passionate about making historically adequate and whimsical clothing, especially things with big poofy skirts!
Business Name: The Netloft
Website: thenetloftak.com, or www.instagram.com/alena_ofalaska/
Rory Cunningham
An Emmy nominated professional costumer working in Hollywood for more than 35 years, Rory Cunningham is the owner of Bill Hargate Costumes Inc., a Union Custom Made Costume House specializing in film and television costumes from corseted frocks to superheroes and space suits to red carpet gowns. Many costumes created by his company have also been featured in museum exhibits.
Business Name: Bill Hargate Costumes, Inc.
Lauren Dedow
Lauren Dedow is a scientist who needed a way to let out her creative impulses. She's this year's Teacher Liaison, which means you'll see her running around all over at Costume College keeping track of all the classes and teachers. Flag her down if you have any questions or just to say hi!
Andrea "Ange" Dee
Andrea "Ange" Dee has been interested in historic clothes all her adult life. She has focused on medieval/renaissance and jazz era clothing. She has a special love of jazz era accessories. Currently she is enjoying working with vintage patterns and sewing techniques. In her heart she is living her best life in 1928.
Heather Dill-Tullo
Heather Dill-Tullo (@Dill_of_all_ Trades) has been sewing and crafting since she was a kid, but her costuming journey started in college with her first Renaissance Faire costume. What started as a necessity, has grown into a branching, twenty year passion ranging from historical and screen recreations, to leather craft and prop fabrication, to cosplay and incorporating electronics into her creations. She loves sharing her skills and knowledge with others as much as learning something new.
Linda Dunn
Linda Dunn has taught at Costume College for several years and has enjoyed the experience tremendously. She has been a sewist and designer since she was 8 years old and has taught with community education, volunteered with community theatre and had a wedding and special events design business for over 50 years. Learning and creating continue to be her passions.
Betty Eck
Betty Eck came to Costume College from the cosplay world, where she spent many years making fantasy costumes, accessories, and wigs. She resides in South Florida and actively cosplays and competes in cosplay craftsmanship competitions as a journeyman. She is a student of many arts and handicrafts and values traditional ways to hand manipulate objects. You can find Betty on Instagram as Zlecky or @zlecky
Website: www.instagram.com/zlecky
Mark Edwards
Mark Edwards is a photographer based in Los Angeles. Growing up in Virginia, he was captivated by films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Quick and the Dead, and Blade Runner. He moved to southern California in the late 90s and landed his first role working for James Cameron on Titanic, resulting in 20 wonderful years of working in post production/visual effects. Today he is a full-time photographer specializing in live events, portraits, and company branding with Pop Culture flair (markedwardsphotos.com). In his free time he enjoys working on personal projects including classic noir and western inspired photography.
Catherine J. Esera
Catherine Esera's gateway into sewing was needlework as a child. In high school, she took the plunge and learned to sew with a machine. She graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with a bachelor’s degree in Apparel Manufacturing & Merchandising with a specialized focus on theatrical costuming. She worked professionally as a costumer in many capacities, including wardrobe manager, stitcher, designer, first hand, and cutter/draper. Catherine has worked in several different theatrical settings, including education, community theater, Shakespeare festivals, opera, regional theater, and road houses.
Business Name: Lucky DeLuxe Fabrics
Website: www.LuckyDeLuxeFabrics.com
Leslie Flagg
Leslie Flagg, PharmD, is a pharmacist by trade and works in sales. She received her art minor while completing her Doctor of Pharmacy in 2010. Her predominant medium is pyrography, applying her art to wood, leather, and wool. She is an amateur costume, makeup, and hair enthusiast.
Liz Gerds
Liz Gerds currently works the Costume Shop at Loyola Marymount University. She has been fascinated by costumes and dress-up since childhood and made her first costumes during high school. She has created costumes for stage, historical reenactment, competitions, and weddings. Her professional career has included working for Alter Years, Farthingales LA, Boss Wench, and others. Liz is a Past President of the CGW and has been involved with Costume College from the beginning.
Sarah Goodman
Sarah Goodman has been costuming, prop building, and “dressing up” for most of her life, from her baby brother’s Flying Purple People Eater costume to serving as designer and wardrobe mistress for the Saucy French Postcards Tableau Review at the great Dickens Christmas Fair. Originally an anthropologist, she is fascinated by the interaction of clothing and culture and the social meanings of what we wear and why.
Maryann Green
Maryann Green is the production manager and adjunct professor at Pima Community College's School of Theatre Arts in Tucson, AZ. she has been designing and making costumes guerrilla style for high schools, community college, and professional community theatre for over 20 years.
Beth Grover
Beth Grover worked in the fashion industry as a technical designer for major brands such as Lucky Brand Jeans and Quiksilver, and has experience working in fashion and costume archives. She has a B.A. in History and an A.A. in Fashion Design. Her personal blog is www.VisforVintage.com.
Website: www.VisforVintage.com
Sara Hall
Sara Hall has over 20 years of experience sewing. She started sewing as a theatre major in college. She recently received her Associate Degree in Fashion Design from Phoenix College in Phoenix, Arizona. Sara has won multiple contests in her area for fashion and costumes. She has her own business, Sara's Custom Cosplay and Design, creating custom clothing and costumes for customers and also teaches others to sew. She is passionate and friendly and is always looking for new ways of creating cool and interesting costumes and she loves to share her knowledge with others.
Business Name: Sara's Custom Cosplay and Design
Website: www.sarascustomdesigns.com
Cat Haltner
Cat Haltner is a historical costumer with experience in medieval and Victorian recreation.
Lia Hansen
Lia Hansen has been designing shows and teaching costuming for over 20 years in the Orange County area and at Vanguard University. She likes handcrafts and enjoys the historical research aspect of the profession. Her favorite time periods are the 1850s and the post-WWI era.
Maegen Hensley
You know that moment when you've found your “people” and you can't shut up about all the neat things you make, the hundreds of things you plan to make, and the thousand things you will never make? That’s Maegen Hensley. Oh, and she is currently the Director of Asset Management for Prop Store of London located in Los Angeles area, was Costume College Dean in 2009 and 2019, and has been on the Costume College committee longer than her daughter has been alive.
Elee Hery
Elee Hery is a long time costumer with over a decade of sewing experience. Mostly in the realm of cosplay and lolita fashion, they have recently been dabbling in historical costuming. They are an award winning costumer and cosplay guest and experienced in a wide variety of skills from sewing to resin crafts to electronics. They are excited to help you level up your crafting skills. Follow their work on instagram @theacalix
Website: www.instagram.com/theacalix/
Nancy Howe
Nancy Howe’s costuming started in high school and has expanded since then to include Halloween costumes for her children and costumes for Comic Con in San Diego. While she has never sewed professionally, she volunteered for 10 years costuming both community college and high school shows. Her costuming has been nominated for local community theater awards. Her diverse costuming experience has allowed her to explore different media, including actual wood and nails construction (SpongeBob the Musical), EVA foam (Dune stillsuits), and wig-making (Cosplay).
Lorelei Howe
Lorelei Howe is a twenty-one year old student at UCSC, majoring in Linguistics and minoring in Math. They began sewing during the 2020 Covid lockdown tailoring thrifted clothing, but they fell in love with costuming under the careful tutelage of their sewer mom, Nancy Howe. They have been fascinated with various forms of visual art for their whole life and are particularly fascinated with color theory, both how to make color palates, and the science behind color. They enjoy makeup, cosplay, and historical sewing, particularly the Victorian era.
Mela Hoyt-Heydon
Mela Hoyt-Heydon is a union Costume Designer who retired as Chairman of the Theatre Arts Department, Fullerton College in 2016 after 38 years and moved to Oregon in 2020. Her millinery shop, Atelier Mela, is open to the public, but primarily makes hats and costume props for the entertainment industry, her main client being Tokyo Disney. Mela is a founding member of both Costumer's Guild West and Costume College, a past board member of the Costume Society of America, and has designed for TV, film, theater, theme parks, cruise ships, and music videos.
Business Name: Atelier Mela
Website: www.ateliermela.net
Cheryl Hutchins
Cheryl Hutchins (@cryptid_craft) is a Masters-level competitive cosplayer and historical hobby costumer based out of Tucson, AZ. With over twenty-five years of sewing experience, Cheryl has expanded her skills to include foamwork, leatherwork, chainmail, and more. Her passion for crafting makes her excited to continually delve deeper in the world of cosplay and historical costuming.
Website: www.instagram.com/cryptid_craft
Lalena Hutton
Lalena Hutton currently works as a Costume Shop manager for a theater, but she also is active as a historical costumer and a reenactor. She has trained in Couture and Tailoring construction techniques and loves to share her knowledge on the Thimble And Plume YouTube Channel.
Business Name: Thimble and Plume
Website: www.thimbleandplume.com/
Erica Jimenez
Erica Jimenez is a sewist and costumer, with a BFA in Theater Costume Design and a degree in fashion design from FIDM. Never one to be limited by what already exists, she puts her experience in technical fashion design and interest in garment fit and construction towards creating and fitting her own patterns.
Lisa Juarez
Sewing since age 12, Lisa Juarez caught the costume bug in her teens, and hasn't looked back! Her formal background in Design & Art History adds artistic flair to her creations, and she likes helping others refine and develop their ideas. Past projects have been as varied as dance costumes, tents, home furnishings and Cavalier-period garments. An LA local, she's haunted the downtown fabric district since the early 1980s, and scrounged in thrift stores and flea markets for hidden gems perfect to incorporate into costumes. Now retired, she's particularly focusing on garments from the Elizabethan era.
Courtney Kelly
Courtney Kelly is a writer, poet, and history teacher based in Reno, Nevada. She spends her free time diving into evermore obscure forms of textile arts from knitting and crochet, to pattern drafting, to embroidery, to lace making. She is so excited to come back to Costume College to share the things she's learned with you.
Tanya K. Wilson
Tanya K. Wilson is a historic costumer that has worked in museums and special collections environments in roles ranging from collections preservation and research, to exhibition design. Currently she works as a reference librarian at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Outside of her professional life, she is a clothing research enthusiast in the SCA with an interest in 16th-Century Italian fashion, and the world of the Royal Scythians. She is obsessed with her two fluffy cats, and is the author of the historical sewing blog Crinolines and Cavaliers.
Becca Konieczny
Becca Konieczny's goal is to live for her passions in life: needlework of all kinds from all over the world, 19th Century jewelry, dogs, horses, and historical fashion. Becca has studied needlework with the Royal School of Needlework in the UK, the Embroiderers' Guild of America, and the American Needlepoint Guild. She has loved and shown Borzois, Greyhounds, Salukis and other breeds of dogs in the USA and Canada.
Regina Lawson
Regina Lawson came up costuming high school theater productions and rock bands. She found her heart in historical clothing, making Victorian, 14th C, 15th C, and 16thC English, and 16th C German clothes, and specifically, researching and trying to reproduce Early Modern Irish and Highland Scots clothing. She's been doing THAT for over 35 years.
Lana Lily
Lana Lily is a lover of history with a passion for historical sewing techniques. With a degree in Fashion Design from FIDM and more than 30 years experience as a historical reenactor she combines modern and historical techniques to create a unique approach to both historical and modern clothing creation. Lana found a love for teaching at Costume College and had the honor of being Dean of Costume College 2007.
Website: www.lanalily.com
Olivia Lizardo
Olivia Lizardo is a fantasy and historical costumer who works in animation and illustration. She creates fantastical pieces, beginning with illustrations and concept art, all the way to the leather crafted accessories. Her love of imaginative worlds has led her from working with Shakespeare Theater companies to Disney Animation Studios and many places in between.
Rebecca Maiten
Rebecca Maiten is an actor and costumer living in the Seattle area, and has been fascinated with historical fashions for as long as she can remember. She started sewing in high school, and has been creating historical costumes for about 15 years. Rebecca loves sewing costumes of any era, from the 17th C through Edwardian era, and also enjoys cosplay. Rebecca runs the Youtube channel, Lady Rebecca Fashions, and is also one of the founders of the Puget Sound Historical Costumers Guild. You can also find her on Instagram as @LadyRebeccaFashions.
Business Name: Lady Rebecca Fashions
Website: www.youtube.com/ladyrebeccafashions
Sandy Manning
Sandy Manning has been involved in costuming since the age of 15, when she got involved in theater and had to make her own costumes. Since then, her interest has expanded to include multiple facets of costuming. She loves researching topics and sharing information with others.
Leanna Marden
Leanna Marden loves sewing, crafting, and all things involving handwork. She has a background in fashion design and has been a sewing teacher, a seamstress, and a rhinestone worker. Right now, she works as a historical interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg, but who knows what she’ll get up to next?
Paige Mattern
Paige Mattern has been costuming since her son was 3 years old, starting with the Renaissance period and working her way through Victorian, Edwardian, and the Medieval eras as her interests expanded. She started cosplaying in 2019 with Steampunk and the Wizard of Oz, and quickly moved into Star Trek, Maleficent, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars, winning several awards in 2024. She was Costume College Dean in 2023, and has previously served on the CGW Board of Directors, and has been teaching since 2013. She attended Costume College in 2009 and has been hooked ever since.
Natalie Meyer
Natalie Meyer has been a member of the Costumer's Guild West and attending Costume College since 1993. She has been a teacher since 1998 and has been the Dean of Costume College twice. She has been sewing since she was 5 years old and has been costuming for roughly 40 years.
Jess Miller
Jess Miller has been costuming ever since discovering the Renaissance Faire, the SCA and science fiction fandom all in the same year. She has a BA in art with an emphasis in textiles and further coursework in anthropology, which creates an interesting dichotomy. She is a Past Dean of Costume College and has run local masquerades and will always cheerfully discuss costumes.
Ed Morlan
Ed Morlan started costuming without realizing it by designing and sewing his own gear for military trainings before finding his way to the occasional movie set where he met a group of guys who managed to get him to a civil war reenactment. He loves hand-making wood and leather products and forging his own blades and weapons. He loves teaching at various cons to pass on his knowledge. Ed is a reenactor, 13th Century longbow archer, and dabbles in Rev War, Roman, Greek, WW2 Navy, fantasy, Steampunk and Sci-Fi, and compete in costume/cosplay competitions.
Business Name: Knots & Nails / The Foxy Wolf
Auden Mucher
Auden Mucher is an independent costume designer with a focus on using clothing to bring out the best in each of us. With over 8 years experience in theater, her true passion is designing work for her original stories. Currently based in NYC, she works as an apprentice in a small fabric manipulation factory under a master pleater.
Website: www.audenmucher.com
Jenn Mulvey
Jenn Mulvey has been costuming for a long time, spending many years dabbling in all facets of costuming. Jenn has been involved in running conventions, being on guild boards, teaching at various cons, and has entered into a few costume competitions along the way. She loves all costumes from historical based to fantasy and Anime. Costuming and Cosplay is a big part of her life and she loves meeting new people and finding out what they love about the hobby also. She takes great pride in making perfectly imperfect creations and would love to know what's next on your list too!
Irene Murray
Irene Murray became interested in costuming when she joined the SCA in the early 70s. She became thoroughly hooked after taking costume design classes at Mills College followed by fashion design school. She was a women's draper in the San Francisco Opera's costume department for 36 years before retiring in 2022. She's been a member of GBACG for about 10 years.
Sabrina Nelson
Sabrina Nelson started sewing at 5 when her grandmother taught her on a Singer foot treadle machine and she made Barbie clothes. At 20, she was only 4" 10" and realized she would never be able to fit in anything off the rack unless she learned how to alter clothing. As she became more interested in sewing she turned to costume design. Her current wardrobe includes history bounding fashion, Marvel mashups, and more. She makes and sells historically inspired hats, reticules, and feathered hair fascinators.
Business Name: Sabrina Costumes
Website: sabrinacostumes.com
Edel Nevins
Edel Nevins holds a B.F.A in Costume Design & Technology from Stephens College. They currently live in Florida working as a costume specialist for Walt Disney World.
Christienne Palmieri
Christienne Palmieri has been teaching needle arts for over 35 years, including sewing, knitting, embroidery, and more. Self-taught from the age of 9, she decided after a long accounting career in the corporate world to go back to school for a degree in Fashion Design from FIDM (while raising her then toddlers.) Historical costuming has always been a secret desire and with the discovery of CGW, she's finally making and wearing the costumes of her dreams. Perhaps a YouTube channel is next!
Emily Partridge
Emily Partridge, AKA 'The Sucky Seamstress', lives near Seattle, WA and has been into various eras of historical costuming for twenty years. She loves doing historical research, planning events, and running amouk with other historical costumers. She played Queen Elizabeth I at Renaissance Faires for nine years, ran a historical character education program, is a member of many costuming groups, and will dress up for anything (she's probably dressed up now!). She has a supportive and handsome hubby and a grumpy old man puppy son named George.
Joanne Paull
A hobby sewist, Joanne Paull, has been her family’s costumer for over three decades. She has built complete lady’s ensembles for Medieval, Renaissance, Georgian, Regency, and Victorian eras. Fullerton College’s Theater Arts Department and 25 years of Costume College vastly expanded her knowledge of techniques, tricks, and historical methods. Altering commercial patterns, draping, drafting, books, internet: she will find a way to make it work! Her most recent deep dive into clothing of Henry V’s court in 1420s England earned her the position of Costume Mistress for the Guild of St. Crispin.
Scott Pennington
Scott Pennington discovered a love of making historical garments and pattern matching in the early 80s. He has a love for fitted garments including, corsets, bras, and other close fitting garments. This led him to an interest in drafting patterns through various different systems. Scott has worked in the Dickens Christmas Fair Costume Shop for over 10 years, helping to fit, repair, and make costumes for participants of the fair. Scott loves sharing his passion of sewing and fitting with others and is eager to pass on his unique perspective on how things fit together.
DL Popplewell
In high school, DL Popplewell made her first costume for the Northern California Renaissance Faire. Not great, but it was so much fun she made more, including for other participants. She was a partner in an accessory booth until moving to Florida. She became a master gardener and turned her garden into a Certified Wildlife Habitat. Twelve years later, back in California, friends introduced her to The Great Dickens Christmas Fair. An old friend asked her to make 1850s accessories to sell at her shop and she found her passion. DL retired in 2024 and started an historically based accessories business.
Business Name: DLP Historical Accessories
Website: www.facebook.com/dlp.historical.accessories/
Trevon Powell
Trevon Powell is an Historical Costumer specializing particularly in the Victorian and Edwardian Period. Partnering with both The Tempe History Museum and The Phoenix Heritage Square Museum as a costumer coordinator. He is so excited to be returning back to Costume College in 2025.
Business Name: SirDressMaker
Website: www.instagram.com/sirdressmaker/
Wolfcat
Wolfcat has been involved in fandom since the mid-80s. She's been called "the-7-costumes-a-day-girl", and enjoys a variety of types of costuming, from historical or media reproductions, anime, fantastical fae, individual whim, and even visual puns. Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, she loves wearing fun things and will cheerfully give purring hugs or talk about costuming, gaming, food, and all other things relating to her fandom flavors unless she's dancing or reading. Interrupt those at your own risk!
Sharon Raynes
Sharon Raynes has been to Costume College five times. Sewing and crafting bring her great joy and she'd like to share some of the fun with you.
Laura Raynes
Laura Raynes has been knitting for thirteen years and sewing for four. She loves to make 1940s inspired garments and casual dailyware. She’s passionate about sharing what she has learned to help others create garments that fit better (and are more unique) than anything one could find off the rack.
Carolyn Richardson
Carolyn Richardson has been making costumes for over 40 years, starting originally in the Middle Ages for the Society for Creative Anachronism, which she joined right after high school. Since then, her interests have expanded to just about every period from 1300 to 1950. She also collects antique sewing machines.
Jen Rosser
Jen Rosser owns and designs embroidery for Jenny Rose Sews on Etsy. She is a self-taught seamstress and embroidery designer who uses her passion for film costume design to inspire her creative endeavors. By day she works in film and television animation and by night she watches Star Trek with her husband.
Business Name: JennyRoseSews (Etsy)
Website: www.instagram.com/jennyrosesews
Diana Rotheneder
As the CEO of Renaissance Fabrics and The Renaissance Fabrics Study Collection, Diana Rotheneder is passionate about curating and carrying wonderful historical fabrics for the costuming community. She has been studying and sewing historical clothing herself for over 25 years and her current loves are Regency and the 18th Century. Diana has taught many classes at Costume College and beyond and she looks forward to sharing that knowledge with you!
Business Name: Renaissance Fabrics
Website: www.RenaissanceFabrics.com
Catherine Scholar
Catherine Scholar read "Little House on the Prairie" at age five and has been obsessed with historic clothing ever since. Catherine served on the board of the Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild for 10 years as Newsletter Editor, Events Coordinator, and President. She has studied fashion design and enjoys working from period dressmaking guides. Catherine has taught many costuming workshops for GBACG, Lacis, Renaissance Fabrics, 1886/Costume On, Costume Skills Institute, and Costume College.
Victor Shapero
Victor Shapero is an interdisciplinary artist with a focus on material science and fiber arts. He’s been teaching at conventions and other special events for over 20 years interspersed with one on one and small group tutoring. You may have seen him as a regular over the years in costume repair at Loscon and Gallifrey One, fixing holes in people’s costumes and showing everyone who can’t run fast enough how to sew on buttons.
Rebecca Shedd
Rebecca Shedd’s journey in costuming spans 22 years. She knew she had found her passion and her people the moment she stepped into her first Renaissance Faire. From there, she has expanded her interest to include late 18th Century, 19th Century, and early 20th Century fashion, as well as a smattering of cosplay. Beginning with her first sewing lesson from her mom, there’s been no stopping her quest for sewing knowledge. She is excited to share some of what she has learned.
Website: www.rebeccashedd.com
Elise Sigley
Elise Sigley is a self described ‘journey-woman seamstress’. She loves historical costume, but can’t stay away from all the pop culture conventions and thus has a habit of marrying the two and so specializes in historical cosplay. As the head of her cosplay group, tteatime productions, she won best in show at Denver Pop Culture Con in 2016.
Laura Skarka
Laura Skarka is a library assistant, cosplayer, and crafter who has been sewing since childhood. Something of a "craft dragon", she snuck costuming classes into her schedule while earning degrees in English and Medieval History and spent her formative years working at an old-fashioned hobby/craft store where she learned everything from beading and cake decorating to building model train sets and she has applied that knowledge to her costuming efforts ever since. A long-time gamer, she has written historical costuming and cosplay advice articles and worked as a costumed performer for RPG companies.
Virginia Solomon
Virginia Solomon has been involved with costuming for over 30 years in various organizations, such as SCA, Friends of the English Regency, Renaissance Pleasure Faire, Dickens Fair, The Jane Austen Society of North America, and Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild. She has experience in costuming for both men and women in multiple eras, from the Middle ages to the 1940s. She holds multiple degrees in History and Art History and is an avid artist and anglophile. In the past, she has presented talks in historic fashion, living history, and literature as well as "hands-on" art demonstrations.
Jen Stosser
Jen Stosser grew up in Perth, Western Australia, moving to Melbourne on a husband hunt in 1987. The first assertive thing Jen remembers doing is finding a summer-holiday sewing course and telling her mum she wanted to book it. Her mum wasn’t happy that they didn’t emphasise cutting off loose threads! Jen has been costuming almost as long as she’s been sewing, mostly superhero-adjacent works (or dance-mum costumes). Jen has been cosplaying since 1985 (was called a “Pioneer of Cosplay” by Yaya Han) and has recently been moving into every-day-wear historical clothing.
Crystal Taggart
Crystal Taggart is in her sixteenth year of running her own costume business, Crystal's Idyll. She teaches costuming classes locally, as well as at Science Fiction and Fantasy conventions around the Northwest.
Business Name: Crystal's Idyll
Website: www.crystalsidyll.com
Laura Tan
Laura Tan, PT, DPT, graduated from George Washington University with a doctorate of physical therapy in 2015. Laura has been working in outpatient orthopedics and started working with an interdisciplinary chronic pain program in 2019. While she dreamed of sewing during grad school, she was finally able to realize her dream of learning garment sewing once she settled into her career. After enduring the various aches and pains of crafting, she has combined her professional and creative pursuits to share with her fellow costumers to help them continue to achieve their costuming fantasies.
Dianna Taylor
Dianna Taylor is a crafter, nerd, cosplayer, and convention enthusiast. She has been costuming for her dance team for nearly a decade.
Krystyn Tsagarakis
Krystyn Tsagarakis is a passionate artist and dance instructor with a deep love for handmade things. Self-taught, she learned how to knit in 2016 and was immediately captivated by the mesmerizing interplay of yarn and needles, falling in love with the physics of knitting. A lifelong learner, Krystyn thrives on exploring new techniques and finds tremendous joy in sharing her knowledge and inspiring others on their artistic journeys. She finds immense fulfillment in teaching and loves to see her students discover their innate creativity and create beautiful, unique pieces.
Blair Van Tassel
Blair Van Tassel is a vintage enthusiast and Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild member. She found the costuming community on YouTube during the "inside times" and has been sewing ever since. Favorite eras span from 18th Century to Edwardian, but day-to-day you will see her in 1930s-1950s creations. She is the most overdressed at every occasion and loves to talk about craftsmanship. Find her at @blairvioletvintage
Website: www.instagram.com/blairvioletvintage/
Chad Volpe
Chad Volpe is a 30+ year Renaissance Faire reenactor and semi-pro cosplayer with a focus on samurai, who has been a featured attendee and panelist at many cons over the past 15 years.
Jeannine Wayman
Jeannine Wayman learned how to sew at the age of ten. Over the years, she started out hating sewing, but turned to quilting in her 30s. She currently teaches Interior Design & Fashion, and Advanced Fashion Design and Construction in a California public high school. One of the most important things about being a teacher is to encourage and support students in discovering a totally new art form, and having fun. You can check out her work on her blog, jninecostumes.blogspot.com.
Business Name: Jnine Costumes and Custom Embroidery
Website: jninecostumes.blogspot.com
Dave Wilson
Dave Wilson's costuming journey started when he was in the navy, sewing patches on uniforms and embroidery on work shirts. Then his good lady started to attend Costume College with friends, she had such a good time he knew he had to go with her the next year. They have attended almost every year since. He has taught several classes, most notably making hatboxes, in addition to classes about heraldry, medieval tournaments, coir bouille (boiled leather), the Panama Pacific Exposition in 1915, lost luggage on the Titanic, the Field of Cloth of gGold in 1521, and the history of armor.
Kathryn Wolters
Kathryn Wolters has been a *Verified* Costume Textile, Costume, and Accessory 'Junkie for 50 plus years, sewing costumes for her Minioan Barbie at 9 years old. She transitioned to adult costuming at 13 and started teaching at 16.
Business Name: Country Countess
Website: www.facebook.com/p/Country-Countess-100054674220160/
Erin Woodward
Erin Woodward has been sewing, costuming, and crafting for over 50 years. Her costuming focus has been 19th Century and she has earned awards for her work. She enjoys all types of textile arts, especially quilting. Recently retired, she plans to take up spinning and weaving as well.
Chris Yeakley
Chris Yeakley is a serial hobbyist who dabbles in sewing, but spends long hours reading, thinking, and talking to anyone they can about fashion and identity.
Jo Yeakley
Jo Yeakley is a serial experimentalist in all aspects of textile crafts, with over 55 years of sewing, making trims and accessories, dying and embellishing fabrics and beading, while enjoying teaching about all these subjects.
Diane Yoshitomi
Diane Yositomi has been at home with a needle and thread for more than 60 years. By her twenties, she was making all of her own clothes, and after entering fashion design school she designed many of them as well. She began to "dress historical" in the 1990s while volunteering as a docent at a Victorian house museum, and now enjoys recreating the fashions of 1800 to 1950. She credits Costume College with many new skills and delightful acquaintances which continue to open ever-widening vistas of costuming creativity and pleasure.
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