Licca's Sewing Room

05/06/2026

I wanted to post this picture of Ayesha that did for me a couple of years ago. It actually shows very clearly the effects of the modifications I did to the dress so I could wear it ten years after I made the outfit. It is my philosophy that I want to wear my outfits for many years to come, and this is a great example of that.

The big thing is the addition of the back modesty panel with the corset lacing. This gives me a few more inches of waist so I can get into the costume even though I had gained weight. You can see the effects; there is a ribbon that is visible that I used to do the corset lacing, and the original organza overdress is separated at the back seam. Luckily the velvet sash covers the new location of the zipper stop.

30/05/2026

The term for the poles that are exposed from the lagoon in Venice unfortunately escapes me. Like the last picture I posted from my Venice shoot, we see the Rialto Bridge, but we did this shot from the opposite side.

Art Direction, Photography, Hair: Obsidian & Blush ()
Makeup: .andrews
Costume made by me

10/08/2025

I would like to announce that I will be one of the judges for the cosplay contests at Colossalcon Texas this year. As a change from last year, there are three contests this year; the in-character contest and the main contest, which are mostly unchanged from last year, and the Colossalcon Cosplay Cup, which is new this year. I will be a part of a group of cosplay guests that will be splitting up amongst the contests for judging.

I look forward to a great weekend where I get to see people's costumes, and there are still spaces open in the main contest for walk-up entries!

28/07/2025

We did not do the entire Aria photoshoot in Venice; the city in its current state doesn't really cover all the backgrounds and areas that was in the manga and anime series. We went to another part of Europe (guess where) to do some other shots.

As a little bonus, for the first time I have worn the summer version of the Aria Company uniform. When I made the original winter version, I made it so it would take very minimal changes to go between the two uniforms. We were finally able to take advantage of that.

Art Direction, Photography, Hair: Obsidian & Blush ()
Makeup: Chanel Andrews
Costume made by me

24/07/2025

For some variety, I wanted to post some of my photos that never made it to my cosplay social media, and everyone seems to love Ayesha. Fun fact: nearly every hole in the hem of the dress and the edges on the overdress is cut individually by hand as part of the cutwork technique I used to achieve this effect.

If you all are at ColossalCon Texas or San Japan in the next two months, the photographer for this shot, Wild Momo Photography has slots open for booking!

21/07/2025

I couldn't wait, so here is another picture from my Venice shoot. This time I don't really need a map to show people where I am in the city.

Art Direction, Photography, Hair: Obsidian & Blush ()
Makeup: Chanel Andrews
Costume made by me

19/07/2025

A few months ago, I mentioned in a post that I was in Europe for a cosplay photoshoot. I actually was in Venice with Obsidian & Blush to do what was probably my dream photoshoot, which was to shoot my Akari costume in Venice. A lot has changed in Venice since the Aria manga was published, but the team went and scouted as many places in the actual manga and picked out a few that would work well. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the setting of Aria involves a city called "Neo-Venezia" that was put on a terraformed Mars many years in the future. For this section of the photoshoot, we chose the winter outfit.

I have a lot of pictures from this photoshoot that I'm going to post over the next few months, plus some pictures of my cosplay that has never been seen before.

Art Direction, Photography, Hair: Obsidian + Blush ()
Makeup: Chanel Andrews
Costume made by me

17/04/2025

The new version of my Sewing Machine Hacks panel is now on my website. This version adds my trick of using cheap bar clamps to hold spools of fabric.

This is the second version of this panel, and I cover some ways you can make your sewing machine do things that aren't obvious! For example: How to use notecard/cardstock and tape to create your own guides How to know exactly how many stitches have you done so far on your machine How to make

15/04/2025

I have started to put some of my panel slides on my web page, and the first one is the circle skirt panel that I presented at Ushicon 2025. In the past, I would put the slides on Facebook, but this time around I'll simply direct people to my webpage where the slides are.

I presented this panel at Ushicon 2025 in Austin, Texas. This panel covers the basics of sewing circle skirts. I wanted to emphasize some topics that are not mentioned in most instructional content regarding circle skirts, including: Why do sewing instructions tell you to hang your skirt overnight b...