Sara Siemers is a modern-day seamstress with a love of kimonos, alternative music and stylish wigs. The would-be fashion designer is currently working on creating a leather-studded jacket similar to one Karen O. of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs sported on the cover of Spin Magazine on March 2009. In addition to her sewing skills, Siemers is a photographer, model, aspiring drummer and a black belt in tae kwon do. She works out of her basement.

How did you get into sewing? How far back does this go? I’d say about early high school. My mom is a sewer, and I had the sewing machine. I picked up tips from her. I learned from her, took a class or so, and then just was attracted to costumes, like, the Lord of the Rings was the first one. Which costume in Lord of the Rings? Arwen’s blood-red dress. The body is black, and the sleeves were red, and I loved the long sleeves. And that was actually one that my mom made. It was the last costume my mom made for me for Halloween. And then after I took everything up and made my own stuff. So what was the first costume you made for Halloween? It was from King Arthur, one of Guinevere’s costumes. Her’s is very scandalous and it has two belts over her boobs (laughs). Mine was actually a top, but I made the pants, and all the belts were strung together. You say you draw inspiration from Karen O, and Lady Gaga. What about their style appeals to you? It’s just different. Gaga wears leotards and that’s completely different. They are putting a performance with the clothes into their musical element instead of just wearing a t-shirt on stage. It attracts me. What was it like to see a costume coming together for you the first time? I think it’s really amazing. I remember, because I was just a beginner, after a few stitches are done you’re just like, “Oh wow these are pants now, they look like pants instead of just, like, a flat piece of fabric.” Every artist turns nothing into something, but what you do seems to be even more transformational. You take these large, unshapen pieces of cloth and turn them into clothes. It starts out with a pattern. I try to find a pattern that looks like the shape of the dress or the jacket or the pants, and then I just put it together and conform it to where it looks like the costume should be. So, basically, where I was starting to learn about the sewing was in flat patterns. You just put them on the fabric and hope they come out properly. I also have style wigs that go with the costume. Really? What do you feel that adds to the creation? To me, they go along with the costume. To me it’s more of a character thing. The costume couldn’t go along without the wig, I think. How do you deal when the pattern doesn’t come out right? I don’t think I have one piece that I am 100 percent happy with. Sometimes I have to come back after I wear it once. Then I see these flaws (that) I have to come back to it. So how often do wear the clothing that you make? Usually when I go to California, which is once or twice a year, then I have at least two or three new costumes or designs that I put together. So what is sewing to you now? When you started it seemed to be about Halloween costumes but how has that changed? Now it’s more of a … hobby, something that I really enjoy, maybe even I would think of it as a job later. If I can get into it that’s what I would like to do. I’d like to find a model I could design for. What do you do during the process of creating a piece? Usually I just listen to music, but with hand sewing and pushing in the studs, I have been watching movies lately. What kind of movies do you watch? Lately, I’ve been on a Jeff Goldblum kick. I’ve been watching a crapload of Jeff Goldblum movies. And then for some of the studs the whole back of the jacket was season one of Gossip Girl (laughs) and some of the sides were Robot Chicken episodes. So when do you work on your sewing? Sometimes when I am really bored and there’s nothing to do, I’ll find myself coming down here (to my studio). And then other times when I have two weeks, three weeks before I am actually heading out to California, I’m like, “Oh crap, I should actually get down here and make it so that I can actually have something finished before I fly out.” So that’s a good motivator. It’s just whenever I have free time. You said that you like to model your costumes for friends in photo shoots, tell me what that’s like for you? It’s so much fun. I’d really love to make a costume, outfit, design, whatever, and then wear it, model it off, and then sell it. I think that’d be an awesome job. Would that be your dream job? Yes, for sure!