Listen to the episode

Links 

Thank you to today’s sponsor LDH Scissors for sending us their 6.5″ Midnight Edition Soft-handled Craft Scissors. Find more at LDHscissors.com. 

Yaya Han’s website: https://www.yayahan.com/ 

Follow Yaya: 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yayahan/?hl=en 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@YayaCosplay 
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@yayahan?lang=en 
Twitter/X: https://x.com/YayaHan

Yaya’s Sewing Machines
Bernette 38 – Yaya Han Edition
Bernette 79 – Yaya Han Edition

You can find the Yaya Han Fabric Collection at:
Mood Fabrics
Michaels
Linda’s

Where to Watch Heroes of Cosplay: https://www.google.com/search?q=heroes+of+cosplay+streaming

Yaya Han’s World of Cosplay (Affiliate link): https://bookshop.org/a/24800/9781454932666

Transcript

Nicole

Thank you to LDH Scissors for sponsoring this episode. More on them later.

Ada

Welcome to the Asian Sewist Collective Podcast. The Asian Sewist Collective is a group of Asian people from around the world brought together by our shared appreciation for fiber and textile arts and our desire to see more Asian representation in the sewing community.

Nicole

In this podcast we explore the intersection of identities and our shared sewing practice as we create a space for Asian Sewists and our allies.

Ada

I’m your co-host, Ada Chen, and I’m recording from Denver, Colorado. Denver is the traditional territory of the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho peoples. I’m a Taiwanese American marketer, turned entrepreneur, and these days you’ll find me running my natural skincare brand, Erleia. That’s E-R-L-E-I-A. Find us on social media at Erleia Skin. Most importantly for this podcast you can find my sewing at i.hope.sew on Instagram.

Nicole

And I’m your co-host, Nicole. I’m recording outside of Chicago, Illinois, the original homelands of the Council of the Three Fires, the Ojibwe, the Potawatomi, and the Odawa people. I’m a Philippine American lawyer who loves to sew and you can find me on Instagram at Nicoleangelinesews.

Nicole

Welcome back listeners for part 2 of our conversation with Yaya Han. Enjoy!

Ada

We’ve still got more questions. And I think it’s really enlightening for us to hear like how it’s been a progression. And you mentioned before that there’s a lot of instant gratification that people expect, especially in cosplay, right? Where maybe you’ll take a shortcut. I’ve seen, i don’t know about you, I’ve seen tons. And I’m like, please don’t, please don’t. It’s making me cringe, but we’ll we’ll get back to more of the business stuff and that journey. But for those of us who might be familiar with you from walking the aisles of Joann’s RIP and seeing your posters and the line of cosplay fabrics, obviously the last few months, years, the sewing industry has changed. Big names like McCall’s and Simplicity Creative have kind of been through a lot.

Yaya Han

Yes.

Ada

if that is the best way to sum it up. And now Michaels is stepping in to sell fabric and yarn. So how have all of these shakeups within the industry, pretty much like, you know, you’ve seen it all for the past 20 years and the last like two years, let’s say it’s been pretty up and down. How have these big shakeups in the industry impacted your partnerships? And if you don’t mind telling us, like how has it impacted your livelihood?

Yaya Han

Oh the last two years have been very difficult. And, of course they’ve impacted my partnerships and my livelihood. Absolutely. I was there for the entire Joann breakdown, including like the first time they went bankrupt as well as, you know, then getting this, the, you know, the, the new, team coming trying to revive it. And I met some of those people that were promising to now listen and were taking great notes and even came to Dragon Con it felt optimistic. I think it was like in 2024 yeah, last year, towards the no, towards the summer, Joann made one more purchase. In two thousand they last the fall no towards the summer Joann made like one more purchase And it just felt like, oh, maybe it’s going to happen. And then just all died. 

So yeah, at the beginning of this year, I really didn’t quite know where where I was going to go Because Joann was dying. My collaboration with Bernette for my first sewing machine was coming to an end. They were like stopping production on it and i And then, yeah, of course, like already McCall’s definitely stopped reaching out months ago. so it felt like like all of these things that I built for a yeah decade were falling apart. And I was also really mourning for the sewing and crafting community in general. It was like not just me, but everybody was going to have such a harder time to find materials. So it just was a fairly bleak outlook. And i I have tried to stay optimistic and to a sort of a driving force in finding us new distribution for the fabrics. Of course, my partners at Wyla and Cosplay Fabrics, they have also worked really hard But they definitely relied on me to, you know, communicate to them what other just you distributors would be willing to sell our fabrics. Because we had thousands of yards of fabrics that was already manufactured for Joann that Joann had put down an order on. that was about to be sent out to the stores before the bankruptcy was announced. So we were actually really lucky to not have sent out the product.

Whereas there were other vendors that I’ve spoken to that did send out their products. And so they lost their products as well as you know the the entire company. operations. So, so, but with this spring and summer, i sort of use social media as a vehicle to rally the cosplay community together. And, you know, i was like, I’m not going to make decisions in, you know, in the background anymore. I want to involve the community. I want them to tell me where they want to buy my products. So I did like a call to action and just amazingly cosplay community you know came together for me and for us and started tagging Michaels and Mood and all these other distributors like crazy. We were able to set up distribution through Mood Fabrics. So my cosplay fabrics are available on moodfabrics.com. We also are available on lyndas.com which is a quilting giant that is really getting into cosplay slowly. And their partners from Famore Cutlery. So famcut.com is also selling our fabrics. And I think that is a really big you know deal for people to still be able to order them online.

But while I was working really hard to set up these meetings, to have these meetings and you know help with the launches and do all this marketing and do all this stuff social media content for these companies, I was making no money behind the scenes because my income is royalty based.

Yaya Han

So the, you know, Joann was able to order a large enough amount for the royalties to, you know, be a big part of my income. But these like these other smaller distributors, they only have one store or two stores and Mood has six, but the fabrics are only available on their website, mine.

So they only order in small quantities, like 100 yards at a time. And so it was like not effect, like it was like, you know, nothing. it was just a drop in the bucket. So yeah. And so I’m still in that, you know, same mindset of work for the greater good of the community. And, you know, hopefully it will come back to me at some point, because we did managed to get a we managed to get a partnership with Michaels so This one the Michaels partnership will bring my cosplay fabrics to 400 of their stores in the US and Canada Which this is going to be the first time that my fabrics are available in Canada and there are many cosplayers there that desperately also been wanting them so Once those arrive in stores later this month and next month, I will hopefully get my first significant royalty check in like two years.

Yaya Han

So it has definitely felt like I’ve worked my ass off for the last two years without getting paid. But i’m i don’t do i didn’t start doing the fabrics because I wanted money. It was like, as a user, it was just like the most amazing opportunity to design my own fabrics and use them. Like I use my fabrics for my costumes all the time. And I see cosplayers wearing costumes made with them at every convention, even when I’m in Europe and you, you, they’re not sold in Europe. You have to buy them online and get them shipped from America. But I go to Europe and every convention, somebody’s like, yeah, this is your fabric. And so it is like such an amazing feeling of acceptance that, the cosplay community chooses things that put together for their costumes, you know? Like, it means so much to me. So, yeah, I’m hoping the Michaels partnership will, like, be really lucrative Michaels, be great for my cosplay partners, be good for me, and then finally, I just hope the community will enjoy going into a store again and being able to buy them in person. So, very hopeful.

Ada

As a fellow business owner who has physical products out in the world, I can deeply relate to all of this because you, my business is different, right? But we spend a lot of money up front to create product and get packaging and all that together. And it takes from like ideation to being done and ready to ship somewhere anywhere from like six to nine months, right, to get the packaging printed, to get it filled, to get it kitted and all the things.

Yaya Han

Yeah

Ada

And so then I’ve spent money on product that I can’t sell yet for that amount of time. And then I sell it to a store and then stores like a Michaels or a Joann’s will ask for terms.

Yaya Han

Yep.

Ada

That’s kind of what you were getting at. For our listeners who don’t really know how that world works, as a brand, when you sell a product to one of these big stores, they have anywhere from 30 to 90 days to pay you on the back end.

Yaya Han

Yeah

Ada

Once that product has landed in their warehouse or in the case of royalties, once that product’s actually sold. So it can be upwards of a year. I think almost two here. from when your product and you put that money out to make that product to you actually getting any money back from it.

And so I just want to acknowledge that that is so hard and difficult to navigate from a math perspective. Like people think your job is really cool and you’re just sewing all day, but no, there’s a lot of spreadsheets going on behind the scenes.

And so I’m wondering, there’s obviously like so many facets of this and part of what you’ve done, which I really respect is to keep folks in the loop as all of these changes are happening and they are like, I don’t know how to support you. I don’t know where to get this fabric anymore. You’ve been posting a lot of it on social media and kind of trying to educate them. And you mentioned the Michaels like 400 stores. So when that comes out, everyone go buy that fabric because that’s the only way Michaels knows to continue buying it and stocking it.

Yaya Han

Please. Please

Ada

Truly, they do actually look at that data. Now I can tell you now that know, but I’m wondering like, With your presence on social media and social media kind of changing throughout your career in cosplay, how has social media and all of these platforms changed both the ways that you keep on top of trends and know what’s going on in the community and run your business, but also how you interact with the community and how you interact with your fans?

Yaya Han

Woo. Social media, it’s a double-edged sword. I do a whole panel about the pitfalls of social media because I think especially for cosplay, it’s such a visual medium that is perfect for social media, but it also becomes so complicated. like If you take into account that anybody around the world can see you representing a character that means a lot to them, but then you look different than what they imagined the character to be, you know? And then you can just imagine, like, if your skin tone is not the same, if your ethnicity is not the same, if your body type is not the same, then it really can invite a lot of negativity. And many cosplayers deal with that. But at the same time, social media has been so good for cosplay and has allowed people to have this amazing way to share their knowledge. Like the the DIY aspect of crafting and sewing is spread through social media you know like sewing used to be you learn in classes and one-on-one with a family member or you know like you now you learn how to sew through tiktok you know and it’s like that’s so great but also there are also people posting a lot of random weird methods that as hacks that that you know not not necessarily are great. So it just complicates everything. And then for me, I’ve been trying really hard to balance being like using social media and growing social media, but then not being consumed by it.

Yaya Han

The pandemic, it was like I realized when I didn’t have conventions anymore. For that year and a half, two years, it was very difficult for me to only present myself through social media. I really missed the like experience of connecting with people in person. So I try nowadays to actually not let social media control me too much, even though I could be playing into the trends more. I could be you know doing all the trend of the week, TikToks, whatever. But actually, I don’t like TikTok. I’m not really on TikTok. I’m the most comfortable on Instagram. So and I tell people like in my panel, you find the platform that you’re the most comfortable in and where you can be the most authentic.

And it’s okay to stick with that platform. You don’t have to be superstar on every single platform. So I find that I’m able to like get the best engagement and results with social media if I post things that are genuine and and authentic to me and really put time into thinking about what I’m going to talk about and what I’m going to present. I think it’s like, I don’t like the idea of just making a bunch of content and then throwing it and hope that something’s going to go viral. Like that’s not ever been my approach to promoting myself.

And I’ve adamantly kept up a website since 2003 And I think I owe a lot of my name recognition and success to actually having a website versus social media because anybody you know who wants to know more about me, they can find out everything about me very quickly on my website versus scrolling through whatever social media that that doesn’t really tell you who that person is. You know you only see what the last nine posts are that they’ve made.

Yaya Han

So I have always sort of tried to be patient and think longevity and remind myself that you know you don’t have to go chase all the hype constantly and like I’m trying to take maybe a little different of a path than all the trending cosplayers that have more followers than me but you know that probably will burn out in five years you know and I’ve been doing this professionally for 20 so…

Nicole

Thank you to our friends from LDH who are sponsoring this episode. They sent us some goodies in exchange for an honest review. And today we’re looking at the six and a half inch soft handled craft scissors. What do you think, Ada?

Ada

I will be honest, I was a little skeptical of these when I opened the package because as most sewists do, I have lots of scissors around my house. Some are for fabric and some are not. My non-fabric scissors are what I use for everything from cutting out paper patterns to random bits of yarn, hem tape, whatnot. So when I pulled these out of their felt case, I was so pleasantly surprised.

They are not kid safety scissors, let’s be honest and clear about that. They are actual craft scissors meant for adults and sized for adult hands. So they are sharp and they have a nice but not too heavy weight to them and they do the job efficiently and effectively.

They’re so nice that I’m hiding them in my craft space so no one can use them on random boxes or shipping envelopes because I would like to keep them sharp. Nicole got the Midnight Edition, so all black of these, but I have the pink ones and honestly, they’re very cute and they do kind of bring a pop of color to my hanging wall of random stuff. There’s even pink on the little case, so a little ah little nice touch that we appreciate from LDH.

Nicole

I really love how it has a cover. It’s really nice. The scissors come with a slip cover to cover the blade because these are real sharp and real like not kiddie scissors like Ada said. And I very much appreciate that. I think all scissors should probably have something like that. Anything with that’s pointy. um And then just a shout out, not about the product itself, but I’d realized that LDH is very low plastic in their packaging. Their packaging is really cool.

It’s definitely the boxes that you’re like, ooh, I gotta keep this box. I don’t know why, but it’s really nice. So shout out to them for being relatively very low plastic in their products, in their packaging. We’ll link to the craft scissors in the show notes for this episode. Thanks again to LDH for sponsoring.

Nicole

Social media is a place, I’m telling you.

Yaya Han

Yes.

Nicole

But I appreciate, because you are professional, because you’re a business owner, really needing to take, understanding that you need to take the long view.

Yaya Han

Yeah.

Nicole

And social media, like just by its nature, is fleeting. And something that I had not considered, like until recently, you don’t own anything on your social media.

Yaya Han

Nothing. Yep, they can.

Nicole

They could take it all away.

Yaya Han

Yep, in a second. And happened to so many people I know. so many are just like, oh, I’ve lost all of my content in the last five years that I’ve posted. and i was like, I still have every single picture from the early 2000s because it’s all on my website database, you know.

Nicole

Yeah, something to think about for folks who are only on social media and want to make sure that their, their content or their memories are preserved.

Yaya Han

So, yeah.

Nicole

Like that’s really important. Thank you so much for sharing like all of the changes you’ve been as it like been through as a businesswoman, you’ve pivoted a lot. And I think it’s going to be really enlightening for our listeners who may only know you as a cosplayer, which you are, but to see what it took to get there and to know what it’s like on a day-to-day basis, I really appreciate it.

One thing I do want to ask you, you mentioned a few times that you were business partners with your now husband, Brian.

Yaya Han

Yes.

Nicole

Are you still business partners?

Yaya Han

Yeah, yeah. So he basically just works with me and for me. So we kind of decided that it’s just best for us to, you know, like, it works great for us. I think at one point, I wanted to like expand and maybe he, you know, him have him do other things while I travel and then again, like, you’re, you know, the pandemic hits, and you’re just like, oh, life is short, and you don’t know what’s going to happen. And I’m like, if I’m going to travel the world to these events, I want to do it with the partner I’m the most comfortable with, you know, I want to have these life experiences with him.

So whereas, like, you know, many years ago, he would stay home and make products while I was speaking at a convention, but then I would be like in a country by myself. And, you know, it just was a totally different experience. And now I’m like, let’s stay a couple extra days. Let’s actually enjoy this trip.

If the travel goes wrong, at least I’m with, you know, someone I love that makes me laugh. And it definitely works the best because we would rather have those memories than like expand to have more business, but then you know we don’t see each other yeah of course yeah.

Nicole

Yeah, I love how you’re making it work. I think that’s really wonderful.

Nicole

And so for folks who are wanting to become professional or working in cosplay, do you have any, or to work in cosplay, i mean, do you have any advice for people just starting out you know, who want, yeah, what what do you got?

Yaya Han

Yeah people people asked me. People ask me all the time how they can get started in this. And I think it’s so important to find the thing that you love doing. So for me, I’ve learned over the years that sewing is the thing I love doing the most. And that is not to sell my sewing machine or my fabrics because I was also one point selling Dremel rotary tools and making like armor projects and filming the process of armor making and 3D printers and 3D, you know, or laser cutters and stuff like so I have worked with many different materials and techniques and tools, but I’ve learned that I love sewing the most. It’s like the most therapeutic for me. It’s like, I love fabrics. I’ve always loved fabrics. It’s kind of like destiny that I ended up working in fabrics.

Because I’ve always hoarded them and just loved, you know, mixing textures. And so that’s the material I enjoy working with the most. And then that, I don’t like styling wigs and I don’t like making armor. I will do that. I will do it if I have to I know how to, but I don’t enjoy it as much. So you got to learn what it is that you love the most. And it has to come from within and not because you are very good at something and people tell you, you’re so good, you should do more of this.

Like that takes time. And I think like my advantage is that I’ve been doing cosplay for long before social media. So I had much more time to hone my skills and really develop like, what do I love the most actually. So now like you, you got to make sure that when you’re crafting that you take note of what it is that you love the most. And then envision, can you do that thing you love the most as a job? Will you be okay doing it every day for the foreseeable future?

And then are you willing to work every day for the foreseeable future and not have a day off? And then if this is like the life that you want, then I suggest building a brand through making a website. I’m telling you, it works. Make a website, have your own portfolio, collect everything, still use social media, but use it together with the website and share your progress. Don’t just share the final product, whatever it is that you’re going into. If you’re really into makeup, share the progress of the makeup.

And like, also share the things that were difficult for you. Share your failures. Engage with people in a way that makes them feel like you’re a whole person and not just this character that popped up on their screen, you know, so I believe in authenticity very much so.

And then just have to be very patient. But I think persistence definitely pays off. I’ve seen a lot of people become very successful in cosplay much faster than I did, because they, you know, are following these small but important guidelines. And yeah.

Nicole

Sounds like really great advice. And it actually reminds me about how I am not a professional in any way, shape or form, but the learn what you love is such a big deal. It’s such a big deal.

Yaya Han

So important. Yeah. And it can take a really long time. Like you might have to try different things and be okay with something not working out, you know, like.

Nicole

Yeah. It reminds me of when I first started. I first started sewing about five years ago and my first exposure was the Instagram community and it’s still really fun and inspiring. And I’ve met a lot of great people, including Ada. and But I would do the, I would sew up the pattern that everyone else was sewing up or I would buy the pattern that everyone was really excited about.

Yaya Han

Right.

Nicole

And then I’d make it and then they’d post it because I wasn’t going anywhere.

Yaya Han

Mmmhmm.

Nicole

It was during the pandemic. So I was like, yeah, this is exciting. But then I realized I wasn’t really wearing them and I was making things to post.

Yaya Han

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Nicole

And then they just sat in my closet and You know, it took a while for me to let go and maybe listeners, if you remember earlier, earlier podcast episodes, I was very much like starting to let go of the trendiness of it all. And it’s led me to realize that it is the sewing that I love. It’s not the sewing clothes. It’s not the sewing a gown or, you know. It’s the act of sewing and realizing that can really open up many doors for the future, whether it is professional or whether it’s just finding greater satisfaction in your craft.

So if you if listeners, if you are looking to professionalize anything, make sure you love it.

Yaya Han

Yeah.

Nicole

I love that advice.

Yaya Han

That’s great.

Ada

Can we ask a invasive question about, since you love the sewing part, what are you sewing now? Is there anything you can share with us, cosplay or not?

Yaya Han

Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, I’m always working on a costume. I actually wish I had more time to make clothes. But they always like, it’s too many costumes.

Nicole

Yeah.

Yaya Han

Always like another one. So I am working on two at the moment, at the same time. And that happens often, I don’t mind working on two projects at the same time. And so one of them is a original costume that is going to showcase my new Bernette Yaya Han B38 edition. So yes, I have a second sewing machine coming out with Bernette thank god.

Ada

Listeners, you heard it here first.

Yaya Han

Oh my god.

Nicole

Ha ha ha ha.

Yaya Han

I know. I’m so excited. It’s gorgeous and this machine can handle everything. And so I’m making a costume and documenting the whole process of you know using the machine and it’s going to be part of the promotional campaign. But it’s also a way for me to make another original costume because I don’t have that much time to design them, but then to promote a product, you really can’t use a licensed character. So it’s like a really good chance for me to just be creative and use whatever the heck that I want. And then I’m also working on a K-pop demon hunters costume. Everybody is. But I’m making Rumi with two girls doing Zoe and Mira, but we’re doing the hanbok conceptual art version.

Ada

Nice.

Yaya Han

So it’s like they weren’t used in the movie, they almost had these elaborate light-up skirts and hanboks for the final battle. and the concept artist has posted turnarounds and they’re so pretty and we’re just like we want to do it right like even though it’s not used in the movie it’s like it’s very recognizable as the characters it has like I love the homage to the you know Korean traditional wear and so we’re trying to be really respectful and and like do this all properly so I’ve had a really nice time drafting jeogori like the cropped little like shirt. So yeah, it’s been really great.

Nicole

I’m really looking forward to seeing all this when it comes out and congratulations on the second Bernette sewing machine. Listeners will, if this comes out after the release, we will link to the show notes, but otherwise keep your eyes out. So thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate you taking the time out and Ada, anything else you wanna add or ask?

Ada

No, yeah, yeah. Where can our listeners find you? It sounds like Instagram and your website if you want to promote those and anything else.

Yaya Han

Absolutely. yeah I post to Instagram almost every day. @yayahan Y-A-Y-A-H-A-N. And then my website is the same, yayahan.com. There you’ll find all of my costumes.

There’s a gallery for each one and how I made them and so many entries in the media section. And I even have travel logs there. So yeah. If you want to know me and get to know me, you can do that.

Also, a lot of the things that we talked about today, I actually wrote in a book. So I published a book in 2020. It’s called Yaya Han’s World of Cosplay. It’s a biography as well as sort of like my relationship with cosplay. so It’s sort of like history of modern cosplay, the sociology of modern cosplay. And so, yeah, like I can ramble on for so long about all these things because I literally spend all this time writing them down in a book. So if you want to know more about my story, definitely check out the book. It’s on Amazon and in bookstores.

So, yeah. And I’m also on Twitter and YouTube and TikTok. So, yes, you can find me there. But, yeah, I would say Instagram is the main one.

Ada

Nice. We love it. Thank you so much for being on today, Yaya. We had a great time learning from you.

Yaya Han

I did too. Thanks for having me.

Ada

Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of the Asian Sewist Collective podcast. If you like our show, please consider supporting us on kofi by becoming a one-time or monthly supporter or by buying our sewing labels. Your financial support helps us with our overhead expenses. The link to our coffee page is KO-FI .com Asian Sewist Collective and you can find the link in our show notes on our website and on our Instagram account. Check us out on Instagram at Asian Sewist Collective. That’s one word: Asian Sewist Collective. You can also help us out by spreading the word and telling your friends We would also appreciate it if you could rate review and subscribe to this podcast on Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast

Nicole

All of the links and resources mentioned in today’s episode will be in the show notes on our website That’s Asian Sewist Collective.com and we’d love to hear from you Email us with your questions comments or even voice messages if you want to be featured on future episodes at Asian Sewist Collective@ gmail.com. Thank you so much to the other members of our collective who made this episode a reality. This is the Asian Sewist Collective podcast and we’ll see you next time.