ABOUT THE NEEDLES

 Broken Needles is a team of Pittsburgh costumers and crafters. Haus Strongman has been casually crafting costumes, props, and cosplay since 1997. Trained under a wedding dress making grandma and tinkering engineer parents Haus Strongman plans usefully weird performance wear, technical gear (costumes that come apart or can be used for different outfits easily, hidden pockets in stupid places etc),wafuku and SCA garb, and armor. She spends too much time and money at Home Depot. Haus Thotep also has years of exp in sewing and cosplay as well as performance art. We make a good team, one part Tim Gunn, one part Mythbusters, one part OCD! Recently Ashley-chan has joined us. We teach her sewing and she teaches us wigs, props, makeup, and builds.

We specialize in up-cycling as well as making costumes from scratch but prefer to use reclaimed fabrics if possible. Finding stuff in second hand stores and reworking it vs buying all brand new is our thing. All leather or fur is fully reclaimed from thrift store finds. We also make burlesque costumes, and costume sets for performers, specializing in gear for metal grinders and fire flow artists. Ann participates in the SCA as well as costuming for anime and scifi conventions.  Narla does the delicate work, Ann does the grunt work, and Ashley brings the prop-making/SFX skills


ANN aka Rusty Needle
Favorite costume so far: Hell Girl or my steampunk blue adjustable stripe set
Most FAIL costume: Erza Knightwalker...it broke before the judges even saw it, gave me a rash and bruises, and made my car smell like a bunch of teenagers were huffing paint in there for weeks.The finish was good enough that people thought it was real metal tho, and even after sitting in a box on my porch in summer rain from June until September, the paint was still car show perfect. Too bad it broke and was downright miserable to wear. Such fail!
Specialty: Project management, painting and finishing, scavenging, victorian bustles and skirts, kimono, writing, 17 years and counting of costume making and upcycling exp..still sucks! ;p
 Advice: Doesn't matter how perfect your sleeve is, if you don't have the rest of the costume to go with it it's just a sleeve! Do the job the best you can and improve every time but it won't do you any good not to finish.

AWARDS
Judges Award- Tekko 15 2015 Pittsburgh PA [Hellgirl]
Official Ohayocon Mascot- Best Lindsay Ohayocon 2015 Columbus OH[Real Nurse Lindsay]
Judges Favorite Award - Sagawa Project 2014 Pittsburgh PA[Red Kitsune Kimono]


----Roanoke/Staunton VA---
(Small awards, Shevacon was about 500 people with about 10 in the contest)
Best in Show, Best skit; --Shevacon 01' [Nuriko and Miaka], '03 [D&D original group]
Best New Costumer Judges Award- Shevacon '98 [Sailor Saturn]
Judge's Choice (Weis and Hickman) Shevacon '97 [Raistlin Majere]



NARLA aka Sharp Needle
Favorite costume:
Most FAIL costume:


AWARDS:
Judge's Choice Award from "Patches" --Colossalcon '14 Sandusky OH [Faye Valentine]
Best in Show-Scifi in the Valley Con '12 --Pittsburgh PA [Steampunk R2D2 Burlesque girl]
Advice:

ASHLEY aka Mystery Needle
Favorite costume:
Most FAIL costume:
Advice: If your costume doesn't work out or it gets broken/stained..cover it in blood and distress it and be !Zombie [WHATEVER]. Works every time! 

AWARDS
None yet but there will be! ;p