Hi!
I've been lurking here for quite a while, after doing research for my first "real" costume....
I've always been crafty. As a kid, I was fascinated with masks, horror, and gore. I had a subscription to Gorezone magazine(thanks, nana). I was a bit like a female Tommy Jarvis from Friday the 13th:The Final Chapter. It probably made me seem like a weirdo, a 10 year old girl in her bedroom attempting to sculpt wounds and scars, making herself look as disgusting as possible as often as possible, but fortunately my family was (and is) awesome and my parents never discouraged me. I learned to sew and make my own clothes in high school. I always had friends who were interested in art and in making things. In college, our professors encouraged us to take up a craft like knitting, needlepoint, or crochet to build manual dexterity (I'm a dental hygienist).I learned as much as I could so that I would be able to make (or at least attempt to make) anything. I even gleaned knowledge of molds, casting, etc from my Dental Bio-Materials class (when they demonstrated how dental labs invest-cast- in gold, I was imagining making a giant, gleaming C3PO).
Costuming and prop-making just became a natural extension of all of that. An expression of love for the things (and characters) I love, using ALL THE CRAFTS. Sewing, molding, etc. Knowing a bit about some crafts and a lot about others has served me well so far.
Doing my research for my first "real" costume brought me here. I thought I would start with a relatively "easy" and "recognizable" costume- Princess Leia in her Endor Battle gear. I quickly discovered that there's no such thing as "easy" when it comes to costumes! I made her poncho with no pattern, just draping a dress form with fabric, pinning, sewing, cutting, repeat. The thing I imagined would be easiest ("it's pretty much just a rectangle with a hood, right?") ended up taking a week! I also struggled with her hairstyle. I have very short hair myself, and having to style a wig with very long, heavy hair was a nightmare. It was all worth it when I was done and put it on for the first time. Having done so much research into the character made me love Leia even more than I already did, and I now FELT LIKE her. I was ready to take on the Empire! Unfortunately most of the people I know IRL only knew her from her ANH costume, and had zero idea who I was supposed to be. I didn't care. I love making the costume and wearing it, and getting into the headspace of a character I grew up admiring. I was definitely hooked on costuming.
I'm now planning two costumes concurrently- Marvel Girl (I needed a break from the sculpting and designing of all Leia's accessories and her weapon) and Shadow Weaver (my first real attempt to drape and mold foam over a wire amature- but NO WIG and I can wear my glasses under that hood!). I'm psyched to be here and I feel like I'm learning so much just reading everyone's posts. I don't know what I'll be able to add to the conversation but I'm happy to be here just to express awe at all the amazing things everyone is creating.