Characters come to life at cosplay lab

The soon-to-be-widowed wife of one of the Founding Fathers.

One of the coldest supervillians around.

And the only female chef in a rat-infested French restaurant.

A group of a dozen teens gathered at the Bainbridge Public Library this week for a Cosplay Design & Sewing Lab.

During the four-day camp, the teens picked one of their favorite characters and made a cosplay costume.

Cosplay — dressing up as a character from a movie, video game or book — has been around for more than a hundred years, but has skyrocketed in popularity recently.

For the teens at this week’s cosplay lab, though, designing and making their own costume was a first.

Ruth Ard hunched over a sewing machine Thursday, putting together a black-and-blue outfit like the one worn by Killer Frost, a DC Comics supervillian.

She said she originally wanted to create the costume for Ms. Lint, the angry lightning lady on Amazon’s web television series, “The Tick.”

Ruth decided instead on Killer Frost, as seen in the CW television series “The Flash.”

“It’s easier to do this one because I saw the series. And there were more photos, so it was easier,” she said.

Zola Cassidy waited for a turn at the sewing machine to put the finishing touches on a skirt that could have been worn by Eliza Schuyler, Hamilton’s wife from the hit Broadway musical of the same name.

Zola hasn’t seen the play, she admitted, but “I listened to the cast recording a thousand times.”

“I’m a theatre kid,” she explained.

In a far corner of the library’s meeting room, Amina Ahmed was working on the buttons for fictional Russian ice skater Victor Nikiforov, from “Yuri!!! On Ice,” a Japanese sports anime television series.

“I thought it looked really cool,” she said of the figure skater’s outfit. set off by striking black sleeves.

“It’s turning out good. I’ve sewn before, but never made a full costume,” Amina said.

Luna Rivera decided to create the chef’s costume worn by Colette in “Ratatouille,” an animated film about a rat who wants to become a chef.

“It’s like a childhood movie for me. I’ve been watching that movie for a long time, so it’s something that came to mind,” she said.

“I look decently like her and I don’t have to buy wigs or anything,” she said of Colette.

Luna said she already had sewing skills as a Waldorf student, but creating a costume was something new. “I’ve never made a costume before, so it’s kind of like getting a feel for it.”

She’ll wear her completed costume, she said, on “Halloween or whenever I get the chance.”

Stefanie Reddy, teen services librarian at the Bainbridge branch of Kitsap Regional Library, said the lab has been held before in Port Orchard, but this was the first time the program has come to Bainbridge.

Assisting her at the lab was instructor Michelle White, a cosplay aficionado.

The lab was a big hit, Reddy said.

“They loved it,” she said of the teens who participated.

While some knew how to sew and others, not so much, the mood was supportive, with plenty of tips and suggestions from their fellow teens.

“They were really collaborative and inspired,” she said. “They all just found a piece of their costume they wanted to work on and they were really, really focused.”

“It was a very cool week,” Reddy said.