About + Q&A – You're how old?! – The Story of Bella Mae's Designs

hello I'm Donna Mae and welcome to this video that's about me but also a Q&A session thing video so I sent out a question thing on Instagram and I've got some really good questions that I'm looking forward to answering but before we get started I wanted to just kind of give my story a little bit and about Who I am Who am I I'm sorry I am a total Elena's fan so there's a little fun fact about me but yes whenever I hear the phrase Who am I I can't help but think of the song so anyways I'm Ella Mae and my full name is Isabella but pretty much everyone calls me Bella so hence Bella Mae Mae is my middle name that's pretty basic and then as far as age goes I know a lot of people have asked me in the past how old I am and before I go on to answering that question I wanted to give a little bit idea of why I didn't share my age earlier and one of the main reasons is I was selling custom orders at a very young age and to release my age I felt like it would somewhat discredit my business so even though my work is what my business is and that should be what it's based off of it is maybe a little concerning to hear of a very young girl who's making your several thousand dollar dress because adding an age I was making several thousand dollar dresses for people and I felt like at that point it wasn't necessary to say how young I was and I felt like it was more professional to not do so so now I get to the point where I actually tell you all of them when I was 13 I made my very first costume and we will definitely look and do that more as I tell a little bit of my story that was in the year 2013 in 2015 I was 15 and I made Cinderella fall down and at age 17 in 2017 I made Belle's dress so you're probably picking up a theme so yes it's 2020 and I am 20 years old now that I'm going on to the realm of YouTube and Instagram as more of a seamstress who really wants to inspire others and help others learn the art of sewing I felt like it was about time to just kind of release how old I am release that sounds like so professional anyways I'm 20 now that you know my age let's go on to a little bit about my story I was born in California and then I've lived in a few other states such as Tennessee and Texas I now live in Arkansas I live in the northwest corner which for any of you who might care Bentonville Arkansas which is in the northwest area is the headquarters of Walmart so yeah so anyway that's where I'm located now there's another thing that may be a little unique about me I have nine brothers and sisters so there is 10 kids total I am the second youngest so I have a little brother and then everyone else is older than me a lot of them are married and have kids of their own currently I have 15 nieces and nephews and two more are on their way this year and I love babies so that's very exciting and you saw some of that in that do little video that was just a fraction of my nephews and nieces but I love them to pieces and they're the best so yeah large family gatherings are very large but we have fun and it's crazy but it's family um and another interesting fact about me and act see someone asked this question I was home-schooled all the way through the top to bottom whatever however you say that as I'm cold and really that is something that helped me build my career and business was having the freedom to pursue sewing and everything in general I was able to have that freedom to pursue it because I wasn't in a classroom for several hours a day and now that doesn't mean that I didn't do my schoolwork or something or that I didn't do as much as I should've it's just you're able to get it done quicker then if you're in a classroom with 20 other kids because you know it's just like one-on-one learning almost so in that aspect you're able to get it done faster and then also it came in super handy when I had a custom order or something that really needed to get done soon I could just postpone that week of school and either that would go into summer or I would pick up the night following week so really it was really flexible and I was able to have that freedom to pursue sewing and learn and to really leash down on to sewing and that was what I was interested in my mom always encouraged all of us kids to find our niche and just explore many different options and see where we wanted to focus on and what inspired so all those different things that you kind of want to figure out what you're good at or not necessarily what you're good at but what you're intrigues you and what interests you and such and so for me that was selling so let's talk a little bit about that sewing journey so as I mentioned before I was 13 when I made my first costume so that's not when I learned to sew I had been sewing for a few years before that and but it was fairly basic things like baby bibs and some other things like that and the people who taught me those sewing skills or my mom and then my sister and they are excellent seamstresses and my oldest sister is actually the one that got us into Civil War reenacting and she was amazing at creating historically accurate costumes for that reenacting and really that probably is part of the reason I dived into costuming was the fact that I grew up kind of just surrounded by all that you know we would go to reenactments and we would dress in period clothing and we were really intentional on being period-accurate so that's kind of maybe partly the costuming side of what I do and then also the selling skills and then also my great-grandma which I talked about a little bit in my Secret Santa video immigrated from Poland and she and her husband were furriers and so they were of course experts in dresses and then it kind of just got passed on so I guess you could say sewing runs in my blood but at age 13 I kind of had this crazy idea to make a costume and well replicate a costume from a movie and this movie was The Chronicles of Narnia and the dress was in the Prince Caspian one and I don't know why I wanted to make this costume because literally it was in for like a couple seconds in the end of the film it's the coronation scene and for some reason I wanted to make it that does tell you a little bit about Who I am because I tend to find those projects that are kind of hard to replicate or do I guess what I'm trying to say is I really love a challenge give me something that I have to figure something out or learn a new skill to do any of those things that are challenging I'm really just I'm attracted to that and so I tend to get these projects that halfway through I'm like why in the world that I choose to make this I have no idea but I enjoy it and that's that's what counts right so I wanted to make this costume and I was in a fabric store and I saw the perfect fabric for it well perfect as in it was the right color and I thought it worked well and everything and I bought the fabric and it was fifty dollars and I remember in my 13 year old brain thinking that's a lot of money like I better not mess this up that's a lot of money to spend on a costume that I'm pretty much not gonna wear ever because where do you wear a medieval dress because I didn't know of cosplay at that point and I still haven't gone to a cosplay event if that's what it's cold but so I bought that fifty dollars of fabric which now is seems extremely cheap for anything project wise there came a time when I was gonna start this dress and start replicating it and my mom and my sisters were gonna help me because I didn't know what I was doing I never made anything that you're supposed to wear before and I was gonna start on it but then my mom went out of town for several weeks and I asked if I could start it I was like I really want to start it so she just said yeah sure start it but make sure you know I'm a text away ask me questions ask your sisters you know get advice and all of that which of course anyone would do right know about a couple weeks later I sent her pictures of the nearly finished dress and I think we kind of all were shocked by it I don't I don't remember it very much I mean really I don't remember making it hardly at all but I learned things along the way and this was the finished dress making that dress kind of opened up a whole new world of possibilities that kind of began at all so I was 13 when I made that I was about a month away from turning 14 I think the pictures were actually taken when I was 14 so when I was 14 is when I opened my XE shop for costumes and such so yeah right after I made it that was kind of my goal in making this was to see if I could start making costumes for people little did I know how crazy that would be it was about a year later when I received my first custom order and that was for another Narnia dress there was a good amount of time in there that I was able to learn more and pick up new skills and such but that was kind of at the beginning of a crazy whirlwind of Bella Mays designs so after I made that first custom order about six months later is when I started on my Cinderella ball gown replica and that took off like crazy on Etsy because that's pretty much where I was in Bellamy's design so I was on Etsy I didn't have Facebook or Instagram it was just at sea custom orders started flowing in because of that and when I say flowing in it's not like crazy amount it was maybe for a year I don't know I know that's not very much well for someone who's trying to finish high school that was a lot and in that time from 2015 to 2017 is when my I made my fifth one I think so so I made five Cinderella dresses in that two-year span Elsa had other custom orders mixed in and that was really when a lot of my learning curve my large learning curve because always learning but that was when my sewing that kind of took off and I do a lot of self learning like a lot of goo going a lot of googling just lot of googling and also books so that is basically I'm self-taught in the sense of taking it from basic sewing skills on to where at now which I don't even know where I'm at now I just so so yeah that's kind of my beginning journey I guess you could call it there's a little bit about me and my story and I think we can move on to the questions so the Q&A section of this video starts now let's look here on this Instagram thing when and how did you learn to so I kind of already answered that with my About section of this video when when I was 13 is when I started costume sewing and learning to sew from my mom and sisters and then south top then it swung where did you find this inspiration and you are so talented gorgeous thank you so where did you find this inspiration that's hard one inspiration so some people you know are really drawn to the mountains or the ocean and I I love that stuff and it's beautiful but forms of beauty for me are really and intricately designed costume or historical fashion I mean I am a huge fan of pretty much all historical fashion there's a few eras that aren't my favorite but pretty much that is my dress you know I just love that and I guess that's kind of a way to answer that as far as inspiration it's just I love fabric and design and [Music] everything about it so I guess you could say that's my inspiration is sound there how did you get into custom eight so again I think I answered this in the About section how did I get into costuming was basically making that first costume based on a dressing and maybe because again as I said the beauty of fashion kind of overwhelms me and that dress was beautiful to me and so I replicated it and that kind of just that just kept going as first I saw a movie and I saw the costume in that movie and it was gorgeous and so why not replicate it because I can and what are some hobbies you have other than sewing and youtube so hobby define hobby because I don't know if I would call sewing a hobby because it started off as a business and it's still technically a business to me but in the sense of I just kind of sew things I want when I have the spare time it is hobby I don't know if I really have other Prabhas I don't poor much more energy and choose anything else other than sewing there's other things I do what advice do you have for aspiring the seamstresses okay this is a good one because I was thinking about this and I would say the best advice I could give to anyone who's wanting to sew or wanting to get into costuming is really just do it dive in and do it so often you kind of want to hold back because you don't know how to do that maybe that one technique or you know whatever it may be it kind of holds you back but my advice is to just go out and do it you're gonna fail you're gonna fit that's the key I know that sounds really depressing and all that but it's true when you fail it's the perfect opportunity to learn and you can always learn and I think that's the key to pretty much anything it's don't be afraid to fail and learn from that failure because there's a lot of things I've done with costumes that I look back on and I'm like why did I do that why did I do it that way it looks terrible or ever but by doing it and doing it the wrong way I discovered the right way and now I'm able to implement that right way into other future costumes and that's something I just would recommend doing you're not gonna know everything when you start that first project there's just no way I don't know everything when I start a new project like just recently I started an outfit from 1918 this is an era I have never worked with before I mean I love the fashion and I've you know looked at that before but I've never made anything before and there's a lot of things that I didn't know when I started it I of course always research because research is very important so don't forget that step but also know that there are there's tidbits of information that you're not gonna find right then sometimes it's you just have to do it and that's when you discover it or the next time you found another article that reveals some more light there you might find later on oh why did I do this to this corset or why did I do this to the skirt because that's not necessarily accurate for that era but you can't get everything perfect the first go-around I mean I'm a perfectionist so I like to think I do but it's never gonna happen and that's not discouraging or anything it's to motivate you to do it even though you don't know everything and to learn along the process knowing that when you come out of that project when you finish it you're gonna be you're gonna have a boatload of information from just hands-on experience that now can add to your whole other world of sewing just do it so maybe that's helpful also pretty much every costume that I start out on there is something at least something probably more there's one thing that just I don't know how to do and I have to learn that technique in order to do this costume and really that makes me choose that costume because I know I have to learn that technique in order to do it and that means every new learn technique it's not going to leave you anything you learn along the process is going to be a part of who you are as a seamstress and now that can be applied to anything so pick a dress that challenges you and you may not get it perfect right away but you're gonna learn a long process and also make dress Morgan Donner talks about this and I'll link her video down below but definitely make drafts that is where you can do a lot of learning and then your final product will be that much better because you've done all that learning on that draft that isn't gonna be seen by anyone so that's I guess my second piece of advice is to make drives moving on to the next question best costume drama ever so I have about three four favorite movies and this is limas rob the 2012 with hugh jackman i mentioned before I love Lana's Rob so a movie of course Cinderella the live action because obvious reasons and then my third one is greatest showmen those are my top three movies so I would have to say that out of those costume wise Cinderella is the top there's pretty much no dress in there that I don't like they're just gorgeous so there you go do you want to take your ambitions beyond the Etsy YouTube yes and no so I do have this longshot dream that will probably never come true because I'm not pursuing it I would love love love to design costumes for a film design or make and make either/or and that's just something I've always wanted to do and at one point I was going to pursue that but there are certain aspects to pursuing that that I didn't feel like I was ready to do some of that is moving to a film a hot spot I guess you could call it like LA and that's just not something that I want to do at this time I'm happy where I am and I can't imagine moving to LA ever so and then the second thing is getting a degree in fashion design I would feel like is something that is very helpful for that dream ambition but that's not something I'm gonna do because I'm very self learner and I am okay with that so those are two aspects that I'm not pursuing that dream because I don't want to pursue it in that way and if some time down the road in the future that comes up as far as an option to design costumes or something I would totally grab hold of it but I'm not pursuing it so that's I guess you could say a far probably unreachable dream that might but we can always drink right what is your favorite part of making costumes that's a hard one because I like all the different aspects pretty much I like the finishing touches I do enjoy that part but I would also have to say the beginning stage is also very exciting to me when I think of a project or an idea or something I kind of just want to jump on right now abandon all other projects and just go do that other thing that I just dreamt of which can be kind of annoying sometimes but that initial planning and gathering supplies and all that I really enjoyed that part about halfway through the project is when I usually get discouraged and abandon it or set it aside for a little while but so that's probably my least favorite part and then also I guess it as you can doubt I can't really name a specific favorite part I do like detail a lot sometimes I don't like how long that detail takes to accomplish but I do like adding those details that are just maybe not even noticeable or just really complete the whole outfit so yeah probably details for historical projects do you only use natural fiber fabric strands and thread yes and no when I start historical project I do want to do my best to be historical accurate I mean basically in everything I do want to be accurate to what I'm trying to accomplish and for a costume that's making it look like it looks like in the movie for a historical that's making it look like how it would be historically and that would be natural fibers I do make exceptions here and there such as nice if war-era ballgown that is not a natural fiber it's I think about 50/50 Cotton's maybe and the others around but the reason I did that is because I wanted to make a civil war-era ball gown for myself but I didn't I couldn't justify the cost of spending money to make it in silk and I had this fabric in there that I spent $2 a yard on that looks like silk and feel like silk but it was it soaked and that's an exception I made I was okay with having that ball gown in a not natural fiber and it's not something I regret I would love it was made out of soap but I couldn't justify the cost that was the next best option but on other things so I do but I don't it really depends on the situation I will tell you you're not gonna see me choosing a polyester satin for something because that's just you you can tell that it's not historically accurate and when I make something I want to make it look historically accurate in every aspect sometimes that fiber isn't necessarily 100% historically accurate but it looks it and and often feels like it so I guess it's kind of a hard balance because you've got to work with your budget and often when I make a dress for myself I have a very low budget and so I'm gonna kind of skip on that now that has changed slightly now that I'm mostly making my costumes for myself and then I'll either sell them or I'm hoping to make YouTube a business for me where it can be a source of income but that's I guess it's kind of a fishy answer as far as what I do or don't do but on the most part my intentions are to be as historically accurate as possible do you ship your products for overseas customers so currently I don't do custom orders so no as far as in present tense but in the past yes I shipped costumes worldwide I shipped a few to the UK one to Austria a couple other places that I can't think of right now my dress is wet all over the place talk about expensive shipping but yes how much time do you need to sew a dress this is very much based on what dresses so to give you a little comparison my nan upgraded Cinderella dress so my first dress that I made I spent about a hundred hours on with my upgraded version I spent $200 on it so that gives you a little idea of the two dresses they don't look a ton different but I put more details and attention on the upgraded dress so double the hours my Belle dress that was 200 hours my civil or a ball gown that's I think about 60 but that's kind of a vague number because I get it didn't keep track of how long it took to sew on hand so on that trim on the bottom so it really depends on the costume I would say for a non intricate dress so something that doesn't have like really detailed details I'd say about 50 hours for those type of dresses and then if it's more advanced has more undergarments or structure or whatever you're talking several hundred hours where did you buy your dummy I will put the link for that down below in this video why did you get into sewing what are some of your inspiration I answer that first question in my about part of the video some inspirations basically any costume that is just beautiful look through my Pinterest board which I'll link down below that's kind of my inspiration when I need to get inspired I go on my Pinterest and just scroll on to gorgeous miss Joe how do you make a pattern for a bodice that's kind of complicated but a lot of the times I just drape it so I use my dress form and I just drape the fabric on it and play around with it until it's doing what I want it to do and that's basically how I make a lot of my patterns sometimes I use a base pattern so but that means is I just find a pattern that's similar to what I'm trying to create and I get those basic pattern pieces cut out and then I go into my dress form and play around with it to adjust it to what I want it to look like so those are kind of two ways that I do it and then here's the one were you homeschool I was and you give me those homeschooler vibes yes I'm homeschooled yeah I guess this is what I should put on some nerdy glasses or something what's your favorite food this is a random one I like a lot of food I like pizza I like burritos and quesadillas [Music] as you can see I can't think of anything specific but I do really love a good Pizza barbecue pizza it's extremely good what's your favorite costume that you've made and that you have it made as far as have you made it's probably a toss-up between the Cinderella ball gown and my civil war-era ball gown I really like both of them the Cinderella dress is just kind of the symbol of when I first began this whole crazy journey as far as really really turning it into a business and I just really love the design sandy Powell did an amazing job on the costumes of Cinderella and this dress is no exception and so I don't own one right now which just kind of makes it sad that's why I'm making a sixth one but yes that is definitely a favorite costume of mine and then also my Civil War bald down that was just something it was fun and kind of spur of the moment and I really like how it turned out so yeah kind of probably between those bills and then what I haven't made I would say there's a lot of costumes that I absolutely love and would love to make someday but I would have to say that Ella's wedding dress in Cinderella is my all-time absolute dream a dress that I would love to make someday I don't know if we'll make it someday I really hope I do do it but it it would be a huge project so we'll see but yes I would say that whenever I see it it's like yes I really like it so and then here's the last one your photography is amazing though who does your photography what camera do they use what's their favorite editing software how long do they typically spend any me a photo okay so my photographer is my sister as I mentioned earlier she's incredible and yes I'm a little bit biased any finished costumes you know finished photoshoot those are her photos she does it all and she's incredible any in-progress shots that's done by me I use a Canon EOS 5d Mark - I don't know if that's how you say it but those are the numbers on the camera because I'm looking at it right now that's what I use for my photography and video of in-progress stuff any finished photos that's my photographer and she has the same camera but a mark 3 so she has a Canon but the mark 3 she uses Lightroom to edit her photos I believe and as far as how long she takes to edit it I'm not really sure what she usually does is she gets the Edit the Edit down for that batch of photos and then when she gets that done it's kind of the same for each of the photos in that photo shoot so I'm not really sure how long it takes her I'm guessing an hour or so to get that first edit ready to give to the rest of the pictures if that's how you want to describe it so yeah I hope that answers your question that's what I use also to edit my photos is Lightroom and I just play around with all the settings I'm not specific at it at all I'm pretty sure that answers all the questions that I got on Instagram if you have any questions that maybe some of my answers arised more questions or something be sure to calm those down below also I have different links in the description be sure to check that out and then before we close this video out I did just open my patreon account so if you'd like to support me via there the link that is down below and if you decide to support thank you thank you thank you it would be amazing to have you along for this journey what that patreon money will give me is the opportunity to make more videos for you to make more projects so I can make more videos for you and all that so thank you if you choose to do that the link for that is down below I think that closes out this about and Q&A video thank you for watching be sure to give this video a thumbs up and also subscribe to my channel if you want to see weekly videos from this YouTube channel and then as always go out learn create and inspire [Music]

Channel: Bella Maes Designs

Views: 15,484

Rating: 4.9661837 out of 5

Keywords: about, seamstress, story, who am i, Bella Mae, How I learned to sew, costume, costume replicas, learning to sew, making costumes, historical clothing, love sewing, diy, costuber

Id: kpoEPmQsLWE

Length: 33min 36sec (2016 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 03 2020