I usually never put unrealistic deadlines on my costumes. The reason is that I did that once. I planned to make Ysera in a very short time – she was the 2nd cosplay I ever made, and it was a very unrealistic time frame i made for her. As a result, I didn’t sleep for weeks and it got to the point that I’d get up at 5 in the morning to craft, go to work for 8 hours, then craft more. The result was horrible and I ended up throwing the towel in the ring and not bring her to the planned con,

Ever since then, I have either not made any deadline at all or made sure there was more than half a year until deadline. Except with my Gamescom cosplays. Why? Because we’re in a group and it’s fun and we all need to match! We had a stupid idea that in 2 months, we’d gather materials and finish our cosplays. All good and well, except my boyfriend doesn’t sew, and he’s part of the group. So except a few armor pieces that he would make himself, I had to complete 2 costumes in little over 2 months. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. I made a beautiful corset – and had to start over from scratch, because the fabric I chose ripped. My sewing machine broke. The horns I spent hours artfully applying paper clay to cracked. Three days from the deadline, I am still missing so much stuff. I should have learned the first time. But I didn’t. Now I am paying the price by stressing like a mad person and growling at everyone around me.

This is a reminder to all you people out there: Be honest and realistic with yourself. Maybe you want to make that huge armor. Maybe it’s the first you ever made. And you want to shine in all the glory of wearing it at that upcoming convention. But don’t be like me. Don’t think you can suddenly master all techniques and magically add more hours to your day. We each have a pace that we work best at. Trying to rush something like creativity will just result in less than perfect results, and you will end up regretting it, hating the costume or needing to redo things.

Having said that, I still am determined to finish. I have sacrificed a lot to get this far, and I will persevere for the last part as well. But I will regret for a long time that I rushed this and made something I enjoy into a chore.