“Stage presence in performance can be the thing that makes or breaks you. I think the most important thing when approaching performance on stage is to put any shame, embarrassment behind you.”
ABBY SOLLARS aka AbbyCat Cosplay
Header Photos: ©2023 Geekslair Photography – All rights reserved. AbbyCat Cosplay
Abby Sollars, better known as AbbyCat Cosplay, has been a dynamic force in the cosplay community for over a decade. With over 30 years of sewing experience and an impressive record of international awards, Abby has earned her reputation as a semi-professional cosplayer hailing from the Pacific Northwest. Known for her expertise in every facet of cosplay creation, from meticulous costume design to transformative makeup and wig styling, Abby brings beloved characters to life with remarkable attention to detail. Her passion for vintage references and her infectiously humorous approach to character selection set her apart in the cosplay world. Always eager to share her knowledge, Abby offers invaluable tips for aspiring cosplayers.
Join me, as we celebrate AbbyCat Cosplay’s incredible journey, and let her infectious spirit inspire us all to bring our favorite characters to life.
Abby: Thank you so much for having me to do this. I know that you got my name and my contact information from The Honest Cosplayer, and I consider it such a compliment that she thought of me as being in the same caliber as her. She’s amazing.
Abby: I started cosplaying kind of by necessity. I’ve been sewing since I was 11, competitively since I was 11. And, at some point, you’re looking around and you have too many quilts, and then you start making dresses, and then you look around and you have too many dresses, and I needed a new thing to put that sewing and creative energy into it. Cosplay happened to become popular around that time. The show “Heroes of Cosplay” was on Sci-Fi, and I saw that as a way of adding my love of performing, my love of characters and costume, and combine that with my passion for sewing and spending so much time in my studio. It kind of was perfect. And so I went to my first con. I just made a little dress, put a wig on, and I was immediately hooked. It was a really life changing experience that first time I did it.
Abby: Sometimes when I go thrifting, I do have a particular thing in mind that I’m looking for, a type of fabric or an amount of fabric. So I’ll look for tablecloths or sheets or big ball gowns that have a lot of yardage in them. Other times, I’m just trying to find what I find. And when I’m doing that, I love it. If I can find leather jackets. Leather handbags are one of my favorites because I can use not only the leather from the handbag, but also the hardware. You can break those down, and use those, and incorporate those into costumes really nicely. I always swing by the toy section because you can get play mats, you can get yoga mats, and things like that. So, when I do do foam work, I try to use upcycled foam from that kind of thing. I have looked for plastic toys that can be repurposed for props just broken down, painted, put back together. I hit the flowers, the silk flower section, some of those things that you just need to have in your stash, because when the time comes to use them, you want to be able to access those right away. And if you can find them in thrift stores, and you can find them on deals or garage sales, then you can and have that ready to go when you need it. And you don’t have to start from scratch for your material hunt.
Abby: I think one of the most important things when you’re an upcycler and a recycler is having your stash, and keeping it really well-organized. You can’t use any of these things if you don’t know that you have them, and you don’t know where they are. So if you stay on top of keeping a good inventory of what you have on hand, if you keep a list of things that you know you’re always going to use, so you can always be looking out for them, that makes taking this approach to cosplaying a lot easier. When you do this, you are in a position oftentimes where it takes a long time to find the materials that you need, or to collect the materials that you need, because it’s not as simple as going to the store and buying them. So, if you can keep that in the back of your mind, where you’re always on hunt for the thing that can be used, and you’re open to seeing materials in ways beyond what they’re designed for, and you can see what other ways they can be used, then you can build that stash and that collection so that it’s ready to go when you have it.
Abby: I’m not really sure if it qualifies as a household item, but I do use cardboard, just shipping boxes from cardboard or box board from, like, cereal boxes. That gets used quite a bit. I will use a lot of thrifted sheets, so that does count as a household item, I think. One of the weirdest items that I’ve ever incorporated into a costume was one I used for my steampunk Wicked Witch of the West, which is a costume I love. Very proud of that one. But the jacket was made out of a thrifted car bra. I don’t know how many people are old enough to remember what these were, but they were, like, vinyl or leather, almost like a car cover that people would strap to the front of their cars, in the eighties. I don’t know why they didn’t look good, but we thought they were cool at the time. But I found one of those at the bin, and it was enough black vinyl for me to make that jacket out of it. That one’s kind of the one I’m most famous for.
Abby: On occasion, I will see a particular costume that will speak to me, and I will want to make that costume because I either love it or because it looks like an interesting challenge. Sometimes, that’s what drives me to do a particular character. But usually, I am picking characters that look like they would be a lot of fun to wear, that look like the people who are in on the joke would be really happy to see it, or just, I imagine walking through the floor of a con, or walking across the stage, and how I would move, and how I would react to people interacting with me. And if that looks like it would be fun, if that looks like it would make me smile, and make people around me smile, then I’m gonna want to do it. I love unexpected characters. I love old references. So, I don’t mind going way into the past to find something that will make me smile, and then hope the other people around me will smile as well. Sometimes these characters have very elaborate, cool costumes, like Carol Burnett. Sometimes, they’re really simple costumes that aren’t going to require much work or even a lot of skill. Sometimes it’s just a matter of wearing the right t-shirt, but if I can interact with people like we’re all in on the joke together, then that’s my favorite part of cosplaying, and why I pick my characters.
Abby: This was a very easy answer for me because I would bring Bobcephela to life primarily because it’s Bob Belcher. He’d probably feed me a fantastic burger. And as Bobcephela, he’s going to a con. He is going there with a good attitude. He’s open to meeting new people, and trying new things and cosplaying while there. Bob is one of my favorite characters, in general, just because he’s a bi icon, and one of the best TV dads you can find, so supportive and open that I think he would be fun to spend time with. And also, who doesn’t want to go to a con with somebody for the first time? I’ve taken several people to cons for their first con, and watching their reaction is so great, and finding what stops them in their tracks, because they can’t believe that there’s William Shatner or, “oh, my gosh, I can buy a lightsaber here. That’s amazing.” It’s just so much fun. So I would go to the Equestronaut Con with Bobcephela.
Abby: Someone once pointed out that I’m, “a crossplayer.” Now we can have a conversation about why that term is not really accepted, not gonna get into it now. But when they said that to me, my first reaction was to say, “No, I’m not. I don’t do that.” And they had to point out that actually I do, in fact, cosplay a lot of male characters. I had never thought of myself as a crossplayer because for me, the gender of the character is one of the last things I think about when picking a character. Everything else comes first. Does the costume look interesting? Is the character fun? Would it be fun to wear it? Is it campy? You know, those kind of things are the things I ask myself first. And it just happens that that has resulted in a lot of male characters. I do like playing with the way I present my male characters. Sometimes I’ll do it where it’s just a straight interpretation of the character. Like my French Taunter, like Lefou. I’m pretty much just cosplaying the character. And other times I do play with it where Jake “The Snake” is in a bikini and Macho Man is in a bunny suit. And I do like playing with that. I sometimes like catching people off guard. I do remember when I was wearing Macho Man, people would look at me and say, “Oh, it’s Macho Lady.” And I would correct them. Cause, no, I wasn’t Macho Lady. I was Macho Man-Randy Savage. And it didn’t matter that I was in a bunny suit instead of wrestler tights, I was Macho Man. And my relationship to gender presentation and the characters that I play, I just feel like gender is the least important aspect of it. So, it is fun to wear them because I pick fun characters, and sometimes it’s fun to wear them because I put on chest hair in a bikini, and people find that shocking. And it’s funny to see their reactions. But for the most part, I just want everybody to be having fun. And I gotta tell you, the French Taunter is so much fun to wear.
Abby: Making bunny suit versions of characters is one of my favorite things to do, primarily because there is a challenge in trying to fit as much character design as you can within the confines of the bunny suit. You don’t have a lot of real estate to work with, and so you have to make sure that not only are you representing the bunny suit nicely and creating a nice costume, but you need to be able to sell that character with limited accessories and limited space. How can you shove as much design as possible into those confines? So I make sure that the ears are communicating the character, the tail is communicating the character. If it is a specific button or a belt or a hat that I can use to make sure that who I’m trying to represent is showing through, without losing that bunny suit aesthetic, in that bunny suit silhouette, I consider it to be a really great challenge. And also, I like trying to find characters that you may not expect to see as a bunny suit. Macho Man-Randy Savage. People don’t expect to be in a bunny suit. They don’t expect my buddy or kid sister to be in bunny suits. And so there’s always that element of surprise or originality that comes through when you interpret different characters in that way. I start thinking about bunny suit designs so far in advance from when I need them. I generally make a bunny suit for the Dragon Con Bunny Hutch every year, and it has become one of my favorite events, one of my favorite competitions, and the thing that occupies the majority of my time in trying to figure out what I’m gonna do for the next few years. Yeah, I think years in advance for that particular event. It is my favorite thing, hands down.
Abby: I love shooting with animals, primarily because I love animals, and I like getting a chance to interact with them in that way. It is very different shooting with them, though, because if it’s just you and the camera, then you have a lot of control, and you have a lot of autonomy over how you pose and what you do. And if you have an idea, you can execute it. When you’re working with an animal, you kind of have to let them be in charge. You have to follow their lead. You have to look where they’re looking. You have to have the attitude that they have when posing, because you don’t want it to be just like you’re standing there with the animal. Why do you have that animal? There has to be a reason for that interaction. So you really have to play off the animal in that way, because they don’t know they’re doing a photo shoot. They’re just living their little animal life, and you really have to work with that. For the most part, the animals that I have worked with have been perfectly fine. One kind of interesting problem, when I was doing Cruella de Vil with the Dalmatian, which was my friend’s dog, her name is SuperNova. She’s really great. But she was trained not to get on furniture, and we needed to get her up onto the pillar so we could do this photo shoot, and we’d lure her up there with treats, and she would get up there and take the treat and then immediately get down, because she, in her mind, was not supposed to be on the furniture, so getting her to stay there long enough was difficult. And that wasn’t her being naughty. That was her being a good dog. Also, working with the chicken was fun, because to get that shot of the chicken flying, I did literally have to throw the chicken at the photographer. And then once we got that shot, we had to then go and catch the chicken so that we could try it again. So that one was an interesting one, and that snake did bite me. So… that happened.
Abby: One of my most difficult sewing projects was actually making my Ikea bag Pride outfits. That was so hard because Ikea bags don’t work like fabric. There’s no stretch, not even on a bias. So getting it to go around those curved shapes, to fit the way it was supposed to, was really hard. I am very happy with the way it turned out, but it was a headache, and I probably won’t sew with any Ikea bags ever again. The other costume that was harder for me, in a very different way, was my Katara dress from Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s not a complicated dress. It’s not a complicated costume, but that was one that I was working on in quarantine, and for some reason, I just had a mental block about it. It was a costume that I wanted to have and I wanted to wear. But having the motivation to work in my studio, having the motivation to spend the time doing it, it was just pulling teeth. And then I would work on it, and I’d make a silly, stupid mistake, one that I shouldn’t have made, and then I’d have to undo everything that I did. And it just felt like that costume was Sisyphus and the Boulder. I felt like it was a never ending, thankless task, and I don’t even know why it wasn’t difficult sewing. It was actually a dress I made multiple other times. It was just a dress. I don’t know why I had such a hard time with it. But, you do have to understand that being creative and being artistic, it’s not just about skill, it’s also about inspiration and motivation, and feeling at home in your workspace, and being in a state of mind where creating is something that is exciting and something that you want to do. And I was not in that headspace with that dress. And that made every single step of the creative process very difficult. In the end, I got the dress, I got the shot, and I’ve had fun wearing it. The Avatar community is a really fun one, but that is the one that caused me the most problems.
Abby: This is probably the hardest question that you’ve asked, because cosplays are not inherently comfortable to wear. Usually you’ve got on a wig or a mask or uncomfortable shoes, or it’s made out of polyester. So wearing them for a week doesn’t sound super fun. But if I had to pick one, I would probably go with my Anthrax Nun dress. And primarily, that’s because it is just a linen dress. You can wear flat shoes with it. You can get it on and off by yourself. You can use the restroom by yourself. It’s pretty comfortable. I could probably sleep in that dress and be perfectly happy with it. So the Anthrax Nun outfit is the one that I’d want to spend a week in. However, being an Anthrax Nun by yourself wouldn’t read too many people, so I would look like a nun walking around, which would be a little weird. That one’s better in a group.
Abby: So, the funniest or weirdest cosplay adjacent thing that ever happened to me was when my friend Claire and I were getting ready to wear our Dumb Bunny outfits together. And the last thing we needed to do, before we put them on and went out for the night, was trim Claire’s bangs. They were clip on bangs, so she had to look like she had the bowl cut. And we were both stone cold sober and mutually decided that the best way to do this would be to put them on her head, so we knew exactly how short to cut them, which we did. And, once we took them off, we realized how short we had cut her real hair as well. So I accidentally gave Claire bangs without her knowledge or consent. Please never do that. I’m very, very grateful that Claire had a good attitude about it and a good sense of humor about it. I was horrified. She really took it on the chin without complaint. But we do look back at that and think, “What were we thinking? Why did we think scissors anywhere toward or near someone’s hair was a good idea?” I don’t know, but we did. She actually looks cute. There’s a picture of her with those bangs wearing my Elizabeth outfit. It actually worked for her Elizabeth character as well.
Abby: I have been a judge three times. I am going to judge later this summer as well, so we’ll add that to it. I’m not exactly sure how many competitions I’ve entered. I would estimate that it’s in the range of 15 or so, give or take. I love competitions, and I am very competitive. However, I think the most value I get out of the experience of competitions is getting to network with other people and getting to meet other competitors backstage. It’s kind of like a set audience of people who have the exact same hobby as you, making costumes, wearing them on stage, and you get a chance to see incredible work up close and talk about people’s processes, and make friends, get inspired. It’s been backstage that I have come up with great ideas for costume groups because I see something that inspires me. Or it’s been backstage where people have asked me to participate in groups with them. And I think that networking part, if you look at that as what you need, in order for a competition to be successful, I think you’re going to be in a really good place. I’ve talked to people who put so much pressure on themselves to win, and that’s how they measure whether or not a competition was successful. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m competitive. I want to win, too. Everybody wants to win, but not everybody gets to win. And so if you go into competitions with the attitude of seeing who you can meet and what you can learn, and if you can have fun, and if you can be proud of what you’re putting on the stage, then you can find that success in other ways. Were you successful at what you could control? Were you successful about having a good attitude? Were you successful about being a good sport, being encouraging to the other people around you, about taking constructive criticism? Well, I mean, these are things that if you go into a costume competition thinking along those lines, then it’s so much less about whether or not you win, and it’s so much more about making the experience a positive one.
Abby: With cosplay competitions, especially high level ones, the difference between winning it all and going home with nothing can be really, really slim. I mean, sometimes judges have to really nitpick because that’s, that’s the only thing that they have that they can look at when you’re looking at a bunch of very high level, high quality costumes. And because of that, stage presence in performance can be the thing that makes or breaks you. I think the most important thing when approaching performance on stage is to put any shame, embarrassment behind you. You can’t go out there feeling like what you’re going to do will be embarrassing or what you are going to do, people will be laughing at you for it. That hesitancy will come through on your stage performance, and the audience will be able to pick up on it. The judges will be able to pick up on it. You have to approach it like everything you’re doing on stage is brilliant, that you are the star of the show, that everybody wishes that they were you. And whether or not that’s true, if you are approaching it with that attitude, that’s going to be something that the audience can read. They don’t want to watch somebody who’s unsure of themselves, in their poses or in their characterization. They want to watch somebody who’s on that stage having a blast and selling it. For my comedic characters, it’s actually easier than my more serious ones because the comedic characters give you so much you can work with. You can make the funny faces. You can be hammy or campy or over the top or extra, and it makes sense. I actually have a much harder time being on stage in my serious characters because I do feel like in order to sell sexy or scary or dramatic in that way, I don’t feel like I’m as good. The comedy side of things is where I love to be because I just chew on that scenery, take big old bites. It’s a lot of fun.
Abby: When I think about bringing comedy to a team situation, the primary factor that I think about is who I pick to be on my team. When you’re doing a character like those comedic characters, and there is that element of being a ham or campy, you want to be cosplaying with people who are willing to go all in with you. And I do have a few friends that are like that, that are my go-to people. If I’m thinking, “Oh, this would be a really funny duo or this would be a really funny group,” I know exactly who I’m going to ask to be a part of that because I know that they are the ones who are going to approach it with the same kind of attitude as me, where there’s going to be no embarrassment, where being comedic and campy and funny is something that they enjoy just as much as I do. Bringing somebody with you along with one of those duos or teams where they aren’t as into that performance aspect of it is going to make it so that nobody’s having any fun. Nobody wants to be drug along in a situation that they don’t find fun or comfortable, and nobody wants to be trying to have fun and dragging along somebody who doesn’t want to be there. It’s a bummer for everyone involved. So be careful, or like, just be particular about how you or who you choose to take that approach with. I’m very fortunate to have some friends, Erin of Team Totoro, who is Zoot to my Galahad, and Claire, who is always my bunny partner. I just know that I can throw any idea at them and they’re going to get onboard, and they’re going to be excited about it, and they will jump in feet first. I think that attitude is the best when it comes to performing comedic characters or creating a comedic duo. I mean, anybody can wear a costume and look great and look fantastic, but can you perform as the character? And not everybody even wants to do that. Some people, they just want to wear their costume and go to a con, and not really have anybody even look at them. That’s fine. Go for it, if that’s what makes you happy. What makes me happy is being able to act a fool with my friends, hopefully without annoying anybody else in the room.
Abby: I’m a member of Team Totoro Cosplay, which is a group of cosplayers that have essentially decided to pool resources, pool skills, and use that to create some really fantastic group cosplays and sometimes individual cosplays, but we just pool our resources together to get whoever’s going to wear it across the finish line. The friendship with the people in Team Totoro and my relationship with that group has been such a huge benefit to my cosplay experience, because not only is it an opportunity to learn from each other and to get support from each other, but it’s also a group of people who are willing to jump on board with weird ideas. I can say, “I want to have a group of Anthrax Nuns and a Sir Galahad,” and there are people willing to put on the nun outfit with me. There are people who will say, “I really, really want to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz,” and people will be willing to jump in and be like, I’ll be your supporting characters. It is very collaborative in that way. I think the most important part about being a member of a team is remembering to give more than you take. And I don’t mean that to, say, “Be a pushover, work yourself to the bone, and get nothing in return.” If everybody is approaching the group with a give more than you take attitude, then it really does come out in the wash. And if there is a time when you need more support, then people are willing to give it to you. I remember a particular moment where I was trying to get ready for a photo shoot, and I had this one little thing I needed to do left, but I’d had a horrible week, and I was working on it, and I made a mistake, which meant I basically had to start over again and I just broke down, couldn’t do it. If getting that thing done was on my shoulders, it wasn’t going to get done at that point. And the members of Team Totoro just said, “It’s fine, we’ll do it for you. Don’t worry about it.” And I showed up to the photo shoot and everything was done. Conversely, I’ve been the person that has been able to go up to somebody and say, “It’s okay, I’ll take this off your plate. You focus on this other thing that you need to get done, and it’s going to take more time and more energy, and I’ll take all this other stuff off your plate. You won’t have to worry about it.” That kind of give and take is not just what makes a great team, but it just makes a great relationship. Being there for each other, through thick and thin, being willing to accept help when you need it, offering help when you have the ability to do so. I honestly think that’s an approach that every relationship needs to have.
Abby: I think one of the big things to realize is that excel at crafting costumes and cosplaying professionally are actually two very different goals. If you are wanting to excel at crafting costumes, then what you want to do is you want to build those foundations. My skills are with sewing. I do believe you have to know the rules before you can break the rules. So, learn how to do things like follow a pattern, read a pattern, know the difference between an unfinished seam and a finished seam, and build on those foundational skills. And from there, you can start to make bigger and more impressive costumes with a wider variety of skills involved and a higher level of skill to achieve it. If what you’re wanting to do is cosplay professionally, then that is going to be about networking. That’s going to be about building your social media presence. That’s going to be about emailing con organizers to see if they have room for cosplay guests or trying to get in with different cosplay communities that have those connections. There are professional cosplayers that are not known for high level costume making, and that’s fine. There are a lot of different ways to be a cosplayer. There are a lot of different goals to have within cosplay, but one does not necessarily mean the other. I also know some extremely talented cosplayers who have no interest whatsoever in competing or becoming professional, and their goal is just making the most beautiful cosplay that they can. Look at Karen of twobluefish studio, and she’s also a member of Team Totoro. Just take a look at her Stede Bonnet costume for an example of somebody who exceeds at excellent craftsmanship and has no designs or desire for professional or competitive cosplay. If you do want to achieve one of those things, I think having a very clear idea of what your end goal really is, so that you can strategize how to work towards it. My end goals have changed over the years. I think the first one that I really wanted to achieve was being a cosplayer that was respected by other cosplayers. And, I do think in a way, I achieve that. That’s not the goal I have now. The goal I have now is to make what I want to make, and wear what I want to wear, and have fun doing it. And if from that I have opportunities to judge or compete or make friends, then I’m going to be grateful for it. But I think having an idea as to ultimately what your goal is is going to be really helpful for you.
Abby: I am strangely superstitious about my future cosplans and what I’m making in the future. I don’t like sharing work in progress pictures. I don’t even like telling people my ideas. I don’t know why. It’s not that I think anybody’s out there going to steal my ideas or judge me if I not able to actually complete them, but I just, I keep what I’m working on very close to the vest. What I can tell you is that I’ll be going to Dragon Con, and there, I will be bringing a new bunny. Team Totoro will be there with Totoro, and Totoro will be in a new costume, and I will be a handler, in that case. I will be bringing two new Bob’s Burgers characters. I will not share which ones. Yeah, so I’ve got a bit that I’m working on for Dragon Con. I’m very excited about them. I am taking on another really big build that is utilizing my new love of crocheting lace. But again, I’m not going to tell you who it is. One of these days, maybe I’ll stop being so weirdly protective about my plans. But that day is not today.
Abby: The person I want to give a shout out to is Saynotoscrunchies Cosplay. Corrie, she is one of my favorite cosplayers ever. Her work is so good, and so creative, and she has such an interesting approach. She uses recyclable materials. She dumpster dives to find her materials. And what she does is at such a high level and it’s not like anything I’ve seen anybody else do because she does so much, like, dumpster diving. Her work is truly one of a kind, and she’s also just one of the nicest people you’re ever going to meet. So Saynotoscrunchies Cosplayer or Cosplay is who I want to be when I grow up. Not that she’s that much older than me. I think she’s just got a couple of years on me, but still, I aspire.
Abby: I am on social media @abbycatcosplay on Instagram and Facebook. You can also find me as one of the founding members of the SheProp community, which you can access through Facebook as well as Discord. The SheProp community is a group for people of marginalized genders to come together and talk about their costume and cosplay experiences, share successes, get support, ask questions. It’s really a very positive space, and so I am there a lot.
Abby: I think the world would be a better place if everybody was just kinder to each other. Like I was mentioning about working as team cosplay, if we all approach it from the perspective of giving more than we take, I think that would benefit everybody.
Abby: Well, thank you so much for having me and for saying that. It’s really nice to know that what I do brings a smile to people’s face. I love this art form and I love this community, and it’s nice to feel some of that love back.
Discover AbbyCat Cosplay on:
Did you know that you can record a video or type a comment for this POPcast transmission?
BOOM’s Transmissions, a post-aPOPalyptic POPcast brought to you by BOOM Rattle BOOM LLC.
