Author: Jasmine Huston

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Making Younger Me Proud

Jasmine HustonLeave a comment

What’s something you’ve done that your past self would be proud of?

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As I reflect on this younger question, I realize that there are a lot of things that younger me would be proud of. I don’t say that in a conceited way, but things I honestly never thought I would be able to make or accomplish, I have made. I think so many times; I tend to think about how all these things are wrong with my life, but I forget to see how far I’ve come.

When I was a kid, playing dress-up was one of my favorite things in the world. It’s something I liked to do all the time. What I always wanted to do was learn how to sew and make cute things to take my adventures to new heights. Unfortunately, at the time, my family no longer sewed, and the machines were too expensive in case I lost interest in it. After I got married, my cousin offered to teach me how to quilt, and I bought my first sewing machine. It was a $100 model from Walmart, but I was able to successfully learn how to sew with it. I made quite a few quilts with it, just the basic square ones. Then the pandemic hit, and masks were mandatory. I hadn’t pulled out my sewing machine in a few years, but I found this easy tutorial on YouTube and started to make them. I even sold some online.

That gave me the confidence to try something a little more complicated; I made a lined tote bag. I was so excited about it, and so I tried to sew a pair of shorts. That was a fail, but I tried again, and it was a success. 

It was actually my husband who got me into making my first costume. We always liked going to medieval fairs. So he said, “Why not make us some pirate costumes?” I cannot tell you how scared I was. But I started by making my top. I found a video tutorial with a free pattern on YouTube. After that, I made a skirt to go with it and bought a pattern for it. Soon I finished both of our costumes. As time went on, I kept doing slightly more complicated projects. Zippers? No Problem! Skirts? I can do it! Dresses? Oh yes!

Now 6 years into my clothing-making journey, I have made all sorts of cosplays. I’ve learned how to sew well. I’ve even won awards for the work that I’ve put into them. I get to go to comic cons and be with like-minded people who want to have fun as their favorite characters. I know that younger me would be so proud of finally making our dream come true. We did it!

Cat Lady, But Make It Fashion: My Self-Drafted Purse Pattern
crochet

Cat Lady, But Make It Fashion: My Self-Drafted Purse Pattern

Jasmine HustonLeave a comment

So picture this: You are going to a cat convention (a cat con if you will), you want to enjoy all the things that the show has to offer, but you have no where to put your stuff. You don’t want to carry your big regular purse around for hours, and it isn’t in line with the theme of the event. So what do you do? Near the end of 2025, I had this same problem. I wondered what I could do but nothing felt right. Then I saw this cute image of a cat purse online. It was adorable and instantly stold my heart so I knew I had to make it. The problem? The picture was generated by AI and no real pattern existed. The solution? Make my own pattern! Here is how it looked in the end and let me tell you, I’m so pleased with how it came out!

The first thing that I knew for this pattern is that I wanted it to fit my wallet. My wallet is really big, and it’s hard to find a smaller purse that will accommodate it. The other thing I knew was that I wanted to spend as little as possible to make it, which meant I had to use things that I already had at my house. I was looking through my yarn stash, trying to come up with something that I could use. I recently purchased a yarn winder so I have been going through some of the yarn that I have had for a while and found this beautiful grey and black variegated yarn. I wasn’t sure what the pattern would turn out like but it was worth a shot so I grabbed my 5mm crochet hook and got to work.

I started with a chain for how small I wanted the bottom and connected it to make a ring. I did a slight increase on each side to achieve rounded corners and then worked the rest in a round until I reached the desired length. I loved how it naturally had some tabby stripes in there and this bag reminds me of my beloved kitty, Haruka. When I got to the top, I did some decreases to round those corners too. With that done, I had an opening in the top and bottom to do the other pieces.

Next, I moved on to the back feet. I didn’t want them to blend in with the main part of the bag so I did them in a solid black of some yarn I had left over from another project. I started out with a circle and waited until I got it to the size that I did a couple of rounds of single crochets to get them to be 3D then I worked on the toe beans, and isn’t pink toe beans the best? After I got each of those attached to the main back foot, I worked on attaching the foot to the back being careful not to close the bag. I added some polyfill before sewing it on completely.

For the front feet, I started off with the solid black yarn to match the bottom feet and then after a few rows switched to the same yarn that I had used for the main part of the bag. Afterwards, I filled them as well then sewed them onto the bag at an angle so that they would fold in the middle just like when a cat is loafing.

For the head, I made a basic big circle then embroidered the nose and mouth on it. I then figured out where I wanted the ears to go so for the last row I added those and had a long tail to attach it to the body. Then I figured out where I wanted to attach it to the bag. I used some safety eyes that I already had and put it through the circle for the head and the body of the bag to keep it attached. Next it was just a matter of stuffing as I went until I got it the way that I liked it. I filled it more around the nose and mouth for that real 3D feeling then embroidered pink on there for the ears.

Next, I needed to do the tail, I was running out of yarn and I wanted to tie the black and grey in together so I did some stripes for the tail every couple of rows I would alternate them. When I was done I left a long tail which I used to sew the tail on and then close the bottom of the bag.

I finished it off with lining the bag and sewing some hidden D rings in the bag so that way I could use the strap from my regular purse as a crossbody bag. In person, you can see more of the 3D detail and this was probably one of my favorite makes ever and best of all, I didn’t even use a pattern so if I could customize it to what I wanted.

If you have been looking for a sign to experiment with crochet, let this be it: DO IT! Sometimes it won’t work out and that’s okay, just rip it out and try again because there is nothing more fun then getting your creative juices flowing. Until next time, happy crafting!

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Stop Struggling: 5 Tools That Will Save Your Sanity (and Your Seams)

Jasmine HustonLeave a comment

It’s 2026, and if you’re starting on your sewing journey, it’s hard to know what tools you actually need to make sewing easier. In this post, I thought I would talk about what my sewing room essentials are. In this post, though, I’m not going to talk about sewing machines because I feel like that one is kind of obvious. There are so many different kinds that we can save that for a post of its own. Let me know in the comments if you have others that you would like to add to the list.

1.) Sewing Clips: When I was first starting out, I saw everyone using pins. So I thought that I had to use pins as well. The worry, though, is that I have cats that like to try to eat anything that drops on the floor. The other concern I had was that I would end up poking myself and getting blood all over my project. The clips that I saw at the store were so expensive, though, so I bought a cute little tin from Amazon. It sounds dramatic, but they changed my life. They are easy to use, and there is no slipping. Best of all, they work on delicate fabrics as well, such as satin and silk.

2.) Pinking Shears: I had debated about buying these for a long time. Would they actually be useful? Yes! These are great for making sure that woven fabrics don’t shred. Especially if you do not have a serger or if you need to iron your seams open, but need some stability. These are also great for another thing, too, removing bulk from your seams. Especially on a curved seam, many patterns will tell you to make some notches to make the fabric lay more easily around curves. This does the job and looks nice!

3.) Rolled Hem Foot: This is my newest addition to my sewing room. I always wondered why it was necessary when I could manually roll the hem myself. Well, let me tell you. This saves SO MUCH TIME! The seam is clean, and it sews close to the edge. It offers a perfect professional finish. Since the ends are also enclosed, you don’t have to worry about fraying. You can easily do curved seams with ease. There are different widths to match your project and fabric. I know that many love to use it for hemming tricky fabrics such as chiffon and satin. I just bought a 3-pack from Amazon, and it works perfectly. It is important to note, though, that you need to know your machine well. Personally, I use a Brother sewing machine, so I needed to look for one that worked with my “low shank” sewing machine. It was easy to switch out, too, so I can go back and forth as needed.

4.) Tailors Ham: When I first saw these, I thought that they looked ridiculous and had no idea why I would ever need them. Then I started sewing clothes, and I quickly realized why it was important. If you are primarily doing quilts or things that are flat when finished, you probably wouldn’t need this. However, when making clothing to fit a 3D person, depending on the pattern, you need to be able to iron a curve. These are great for that. There are usually 2 sides for different types of fabrics. I also noticed recently that they have one for a sleeve. That seems like such a great idea that it may be one of my sewing purchases in the near future.

5.) Acrylic Ruler/Cutting Mat/Rotary Cutter: I’m including these three things as one because they go together. Whenever I need to cut strips of fabric for a bias binding, border, or just to cut out pieces of patterns, this comes in handy. The clear acrylic ruler is perfect for measuring the width with ease and provides a stable guide. The self-healing cutting mat is, of course, essential for protecting your surfaces. The rotary cutter is a great tool for cutting multiple layers out. When paired with the acrylic ruler, it will give you crisp, clean cut lines that you may not be able to cut with regular scissors. I especially love using this for quilts because I can cut several pieces at the same time to save time.

Those are my essential tools in my sewing room. In a future post, I’m going to share some more tools that offer a nice upgrade once you have been sewing. Keep an eye out for that post! Until next time, happy crafting!

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A Cut Above: Why This Zoro Tapestry is My Most Epic Project Yet

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In today’s post, I’m going to talk about a project that I completed in 2025. It is easily my most epic project ever and the one I am most proud of. My nephew was graduating from High School and I wanted to make him something as a gift that he would treasure and that was personalized for him. The question was what to make? I looked through hundreds of ideas on Pinterest and Etsy, trying to find inspiration. Suddenly, I found it! It was a pattern for a crocheted tapestry that was of an anime that he loved, One Piece.

This took over 75+ hours of work, even though I consider myself a fast crocheter. It took over a month to get this done, and the hardest part was starting. I kept telling myself there was no way that I would ever be able to complete this. Though I did face some challenges during the pattern, and sometimes I wanted to quit, especially when weaving in the ends, I hate that part the most. Still, when it was done, and time to finally block it, I knew that it would be perfect. I bought a couple of dowel rods and attached them to the top and bottom of the tapestry to keep it straight and secure. Then used some heavy-duty cord to hang it.

Unfortunately, the pattern that I used is no longer available on Etsy; otherwise, I would share it with you. I also wanted to add that it is important to know your audience if you decide to gift your work to someone. I knew that my nephew would appreciate all the hard work that went into this and would treasure it.

One of my favorite things about crochet is getting to learn new skills or new stitches. This helps to keep it interesting, and in the end, this was a fun challenge. I can honestly say that I loved every minute of it. So, if you would like to level up your crochet for 2026 I would highly recommend trying to do a crochet tapestry. They have a lot of smaller ones that you can do as well to see if you like it before doing a big one like this. Let me know in the comments what crochet goal you have for the new year. Until next time, happy crafting!

cosplay · sewing

Beyond the Sixth Universe: My Vados Cosplay Reveal

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Hello! Today, I wanted to reveal to you a cosplay that I made for FanExpo last year. This one took me months to make, and for the majority of the process, I had to create my own pattern or invent how the pieces would stay together and hold up. If you would like to learn my progress, then please keep reading.

As you can see above, there is a lot that went into making this cosplay. I first broke it down into several different layers. First, the dress. This was probably the easiest of the whole thing. The most difficult part was finding what the sleeve type for the dress was called. After some research, I found that the closest sleeve time that I could find to the original was called a Juliet sleeve. Fortunately, I was able to find a pattern for this type on Etsy for pretty cheap. I also purchased the corresponding top pattern, even though I don’t care for sewing darts and it went really well. The fabric that I was using was some extra-wide cotton fabric that I got from Joann Fabrics before they closed (and I still miss them to this day). With that, I was able to use an online calculator to find out how to cut out a basic circle skirt and added a slit in the back for a zipper to make it easier to get on and off. The dress was also supposed to have a high neck collar. A lot of times these kinds of things choke me so I made one that was detached and had stripes to tie it to a width that was comfortable.

For the second piece, the black and white overskirt, I had to figure out how I could get it to sit right and stay up. While I was looking for inspiration, I found a pattern for a corset belt and that’s when the idea hit me. I could connect the black overskirt to the belt. The lacing would be hidden under the front part os it would work out perfectly. I wanted to be able to iron it so I made it out of a cotton fabric that I already had at my house. After following the pattern for the belt, I added some loops to the front to make it easier. At this point, I wish that I had added some boning to help it stay up, but at the time, I didn’t think about that. Afterward, I did a half circle skirt pattern and sewed it to the bottom and put it and the dress on the mannequin. The get the best idea how it would lay with the petticoat, I also put the petticoat on the mannequin and then cut the straight lines until I got it to lay how I wanted it. Using some white crepe-backed satin I had from a different project. I cut strips and used them to line the black piece and used white ribbon for the closure.

Now for the top center part. This took a little bit more work because I didn’t have a pattern for this. I first started out with how wide I wanted it to be and then the length of one side. I cut a half circle until I found one that would sit around comfortably with the dress. I added an extra seam allowance to one side since it would be connected on one side and there would be an overlap on the other side so that it could have a hidden snap. Fortunately the shapes were easy enough and I cut them out of HTV vinyl and applied them. I used some leftover gold crepe backed satin to do the edging and sewed it all together and added the snap.

For the red sash, I had some more left over red satin fabric from my Princess Daisy Cosplay so I cut a strip out that was extra wide, folded and sewed it and just tied it. The staff was 3D printed and assembled. It has a wood rod down the center to give it some stability and a clear acrylic rod to make it look like it is floating. The STL for this was just found on Thingiverse so I only had to pay for the filament.

To finish the look I bought some light blue gloves so I wouldn’t have to put face paint on my hands. Then added some water based face pain on my face and added a white wig and some purple metallic liquid lipstick and I was all done. For some contouring in the face I used some darker blue eyeshadow. Then used some white flats I had and bought green tights that matched dress and it’s all done!

I’ll talk about this in a future post but this cosplay actually won best runner up in a cosplay contest! If you would like a more detailed view of each section check out my youtube channel or click the links below.

Planning The Cosplay
Making The Dress
Making The Tunic
Making The Overskirt

cosplay

Think You Can’t Cosplay? 5 Myths That Are Holding You Back

Jasmine HustonLeave a comment

Many want to start cosplaying, but they believe these 5 myths, and so they never start. Are you one of them? Today, we are going to talk about these myths and why they are false.

1.) Myth: You can’t buy your cosplay. Many people think that it isn’t a real cosplay if you didn’t make it. However, that is simply not true. Not everyone has the time, money, or resources to be able to make their own, and that’s okay. It is still cosplay if you buy your costume. Not to mention, purchasing a costume is a great way to get started, because then you can see if you like it before being fully dedicated to it. An experienced cosplayer will sometimes purchase one already made, so there is no shame in purchasing one. The important part of cosplay is to have fun, not whether you made your cosplay or not.

2.) Myth: You can only cosplay characters with your same body type. This is absolutely not true. Depending on the convention you go to, many cosplays are made from anime or cartoon characters. The reality is, no matter what size you are, no one can perfectly get the dimensions right. As long as you feel confident about your cosplay, that is all that really matters. The only people who will notice your size are people who are not worth your time or attention, I promise.

3.) Myth: You can only cosplay until a certain age. The truth is, cosplay is for any age. During the last convention I went to, as part of the cosplay contest, I was next to a woman who was in her 80s. It was her first time cosplaying, and her husband convinced her that she should enter the competition. Guess what? She won an award! Everyone was so impressed with her Vulcan character, and the joy that it brought her was so beautiful. She is not the only one; you can find a lot of social media accounts of cosplayers who are over 50, so it’s never too late to start!

4.) Myth: Making a cosplay has to be expensive. The truth is, if you are inventive and know your materials well, you can make a cosplay look really nice for cheap. For example, the hat to my toadette cosplay is made from various things repurposed. The cardboard frame came from the packaging of my parents’ new flooring. The stuffing came from fabric scraps and batting scraps that were too small to use in a quilt. I used hot glue; already had that. The white dots were made with the HTV I already had on hand. The only thing I had to buy was the fabric to cover the top, which I got on sale for 4 dollars. So that entire hat cost me $4. The dress is much the same as the fabric was on sale, or I got it from Walmart (the velvet for the vest). I think in total with the wig I paid maybe $35-40 and that is one of the most comfortable cosplays I have. I can not tell you how many times I have also used bedsheets, tableclothes, or curtains from the thrift store for a cosplay as well. In fact, the one I finished on the last day of 2025, the skirt is made of a tablecloth, and the one I am working on right now is made from bedsheets. The point is, don’t be afraid to think outside the box, and if you need to get some help from someone you know, to help get some ideas.

5.) Myth: You have to be perfect. There is a saying that goes Perfection is the thief of joy. That is so true. When you focus on being perfect, you will likely never start. If you do manage to start, you will be so stressed out about it being perfect that you won’t have as much fun. We are not professionals. Let me say that again for those in the back. WE ARE NOT PROFESSIONALS. This is meant to be a fun hobby. People are going to be looking at your cosplay as a whole, not nitpicking every detail or seam. Even in a cosplay contest, they are not looking for perfection. Though it may be hard, give yourself some grace and push the perfectionism away.

I hope that this was helpful to you. If there are any other myths that you would like me to talk about, then please let me know in the comments. I’m looking forward to continuing this cosplay for beginners series, and I hope you will too!

cosplay · sewing

Ready for Battle: My How to Train Your Dragon Costume Reveal

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Hello everyone! This one took months to complete, and I’m thrilled with how it turned out. I have to admit I actually made this one a while ago but I was going through a lot at the time so I never posted it. However, I’m happy to post it today. If you follow me on Youtube then you’ve seen some of my videos about making this cosplay. This required a lot of fur and especially of different types. I ended up purchasing it at Hobby Lobby. For one thing they were half the price of Joanne Fabrics (yes this was before they closed) but I could also wait until the fabric was on sale and so I ended up getting it for a great price. If you would like a step-by-step of how I made everything, I highly recommend you check out my YouTube channel. For now let’s take a look at how it turned out.

The hardest part of this cosplay was all of the spikes on the skirt. Each of them had to be 3D printed and painted individually. I also had my battle axe, which is not shown here. However, I did also crochet a big and a small dragon to really give it the how to train your dragon vibe. There is a wire in both of them, so that you can adjust the wings or wrap the smaller dragon around the wrist.

If you would like some help planning a cosplay, let me know, and I’d be happy to help!

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How to Make Clothes on a Budget

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Hello everyone! Something that I get asked about a lot is how can you make clothing cheap or on a budget. This is hard to find when you’re first starting out because a lot of the prices for fabric are crazy and it might feel like it is easier to just buy a ready-to-wear clothing on sale. So here are a couple of my favorite places to get fabric.

1.) Thrift Stores – You might be suprised by this one but there are so many diferent ways that you can go. Of course you can find pieces that you an alter to fit you and your style but primarily when I’m going to a thrift store with sewing in mind the very first place that I go is to the tablecloths and sheets. My tinkerbell cosplay was made out of a leaf lace tablecloth that I purchased for 4 dollars. My pinafore dress I bought a round table cloth and use the circle that I cut out of the center to make the bib. I also like using sheets for dresses because there are so much fabric there.

2.) In My Own Home – This might sound like a no brainer but I also use the fabric from my own home. As mentioned above I’m looking at old curtains that might have some rips in a couple of different places but generally can be reused or even bed sheets. One of my favorite summer dresses that I have ever made is out of bedsheets and I’m about to start another dress with this same idea.  Either way it is more eco-friendly and budget-friendly if you can reprurpose items you already have to make some fun new things.

3.) Shopping Sales In Store – I’m going to be honest with you, unless it is something I must have in that moment, I NEVER pay for fabric full price. I will always wait for a coupon or a sale. One of my favorite places for sales is Hobby Lobby. The normal prices are pretty good but they have 40% off sales every other week. For the Asrid Cosplay that I am working on right now, I was able to buy a yard of faux fur fabric for $13.50 when it was identical to faux fur they had at Joann Fabrics for $50 a yard! I always shop around when it comes to fabric. I have even gotten some good quality fabric from walmart before.

4: Online – Of course you can always buy fabric online. My favorite place to buy fabric online is Fabric Wholesale Direct. The price is great for most types of fabric and for some of the major holidays they offer 10% off. Also, I love that they have flat rate shipping and after spending so much, shipping is for free. It does take about a week or a little more for it to arrive though so you have to plan way in advance. Amazon is another great place to order online, some of their fabric can be expensive though so I always like to check the local stores and Fabric Wholesale Direct to see what the going rate is for that type of fabric.

Do you have any other tips that are not listed here? Be sure to let me know in the comments section to help others. Have a great week and talk to you next time!

PS: Check out this new reel of a recent upcycling project from some old ripped sheets.

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Travel to the Mushroom Kingdom With This Toadette Cosplay

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Hello Everyone I hope that you have enjoyed Mario Day this year and were able to take advantage of the great sales that Nintendo was having. I know I’m a couple of weeks late but I wanted to share with you this Toadette cosplay I made in January of this year. It was so much fun to make and it was a bit out of my comfort zone. For a while, I have really wanted to buy a hat that looked like a mushroom that was really popular last year or two years ago. Like with most things I was way behind the trend and by the time I knew about it, the fad had died down. My cottagecore vibes though could not stop thinking about making a mushroom hat so I decided to give it a try. What I love most about this project is I was able to use leftover packaging and things that were just going to be thrown away and given new life. Here is my Mario Day post featuring this super fun hat.

With this cosplay, I decided to challenge myself to make this as budget-friendly as I could. If you can believe it, I only spent about $20 on this one. The majority of it went into the wig. The pink dress under the vest was one that I already had in my closet and the vest fabric I found at Walmart for $3+ a yard and I reused some gold ribbon I already had. If you would like to see some of the process of making this costume please be sure to check out my Instagram.

gift ideas

Pioneer School Gift Reveal

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Hello! I wanted to take a moment and apologize for there not being a post last week. I was in pioneer school so it was a crazy but enjoyable experience. There was a lot of knowledge and encouragement that I got over the last week to keep going in my public ministry. This is more or less back to the usual grind this week though so I thought I would include a short post today about what I included in the gift for my fellow pioneers.

A couple of weeks ago I made a post of different suggestions to put in the boxes. I have used some of the ideas and thought you might like to see them. Since my school was almost an hour and a half away and I had 21 boxes to take I did use different boxes. I bought these ones from Amazon (you can find them here). They were of great quality and very sturdy. I loved that they were white and that they were easy to customize with vinyl if desired. Here is what was inside of the box.

I had a lot of different ideas but I wanted to go with something more simple. I started out by making mugs for everyone. There were two sides. The one side is the pictured above, the mugs also had the location on them but I have edited them out of the photo for privacy reasons. The back had this year’s text on them. I also bought a couple of packs of pens from the Dollar Tree because you can always use a good pen. For this one, I chose just a simple black pen that had a removable cap but you can also choose personalized ones or ones that are a little more fancy.

Next, I decided to do the lightbulbs. I bought them on Amazon which you can find here. I used the 100ml ones and they turned out perfect. I bought some Starburst jelly beans from Sams Club. It took a little over 2 plastic tubs to fill all 24 light bulbs. You can choose to add a cute note if you would like.

I finished off the box with the flight tickets. I highly recommend the seller that is in the previous post. The quality is great and I loved that there were four different colors. This was easily the star of the show and the thing that everyone loved. I’m excited to use these files again in the future.

That about wraps it up for today’s post. Thank you so much for joining me today. Talk to you next week!