Melissa is a self-taught seamstress-in-training, amateur costumer, and full-time library assistant.

 

Stationed in Pennsylvania, her first experience with cosplay came when she was fourteen and stumbled upon Sailor Moon cosplayers on Google Images. After attending Otakon 2010, her first convention, her fascination only grew until she bought her first cosplay for Otakon 2011, which was immediately followed by assembling another. Unsatisfied with the quality, she bought a sewing machine and set to work, using YouTube as her instructor.

 

One of her oldest loves is costumes. At five, she was making her own princess paper dolls. At eleven she remembers studying the costumes in movies such as Ella Enchanted and the Princess Diaries 2, trying her best to sketch them and add her own little details. In July 2012, she sketched out the idea for her first original Victorian dress which she premiered at Katsucon 19 seven months later. She has since taken online courses in making bustle dresses and hats. 

 

In November 2013, she had the pleasure of seeing her costumes on stage for the first time when she costumed "Curtains" at a local high school.  She was later employed at that high school as a costume designer, as well as at a professional playhouse.  She's since costumed over half a dozen productions with both amateur and professional actors. 

 

When not behind her sewing machine, hiding out like the hermit that she is, she is often found  working at her local library, reading, and researching new costumes to make.