Years ago, when she was about 8 years old, Amalia Voiss made a common rookie mistake in the world of sewing: dipping her toes into the craft with an overly ambitious project. In her case, said project was a pair of pants.

That angry child had no idea that, over 30 years later, she’d win accolades at a prestigious national event and graduate college with a Presidential Scholar Award after surviving breast cancer.

In June, a Coupeville class of 2000 grad was recognized as one of seven Western Washington University students who stood out for their academic performance and service to the university and its community.

Each year, faculty members nominate a student from each of the university’s seven colleges, who is then recommended by the dean and selected by the president. Voiss, a 42-year-old Stanwood resident, was chosen to be the College of Fine and Performing Arts’ recipient.

Since 2017, Voiss has made hundreds of costumes for dance and theater shows. Her office is invaded by about 50 pairs of shoes, 50 hats and an infinity of materials that can come in handy anytime.

“Anything that I think could be a costume at some point, or I know I could use for a costume, I have a hard time not collecting,” she said.

After high school, years before turning her office into her own personal Michaels store, Voiss began performing as a belly dancer. About eight years ago, she joined a cabaret and belly dancing fusion group in Seattle.

Despite her very little experience with needle and thread, she was asked to help make sparkly costumes for the company’s yearly burlesque show. Before then, she had tried to help her mother sew on a few occasions and made a blanket and a pillow for her baby niece after following some tutorials on YouTube.

“I quickly decided that when I couldn’t find things that I felt were what I had in mind, then I had to make it,” she said.

Soon enough, Voiss came to realize that creating costumes was not only fun, but something that she wanted to further pursue. She volunteered at a theater in Marysville, her hometown, and made costumes for two theater productions.

In 2019, four months after giving birth to her daughter, Voiss was diagnosed with breast cancer. While the diagnosis brought fear and uncertainty into her life, it also helped her re-evaluate her career.

In February of 2020, Voiss’ cancer was gone. It was her chance to take a leap of faith and turn costume design into more than a hobby.

Two years ago, at the age of 40, Voiss went back to school to major in theater at Western Washington University. There, Assistant Theatre Professor Sarah Jo Monaghan asked her to design the costumes for one of the school’s plays, “Hay Fever,” a farce written and set in the 1920s.

With a limited budget, Voiss was able to create costumes that a wealthy and eccentric family would have worn in that time period. Usually, when people picture the 1920s, they picture flapper dresses and shimmy fringes, which Voiss said isn’t really what women wore.

Voiss starts a project by creating a moodboard, a collage of historic photographs, drawings and patterns that each character in a story evokes in her mind.

She then creates the renderings, drawing the actors and the outfit she believes they should wear based on their personality. Voiss confessed she spends a lot of time drawing the face of the actor, because she otherwise wouldn’t be able to proceed with the costume design. After that, with the help of other seamsters, she gets to the sewing part.

A garment she is particularly proud of is the “upside down dress.” While scanning clothes in search of the perfect dress at a vintage store, Voiss found a $25 dress that had the right beading but lacked the 1920s silhouette she was looking for.

Voiss came up with the idea of flipping the dress upside down, replacing the long sleeves with shoulder straps.

For the Hay Fever costumes, Voiss won first place at the regional Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, securing a spot at the national competition in Washington, D.C. where she received an honorable mention.

Monaghan, who nominated Voiss for the Presidential Scholar Award, said Voiss stood out for her ability to integrate her peers into her work in a department that really values teamwork and for her designs, which feel both like an expression of herself and what makes the public happy.

“It invites people to sort of participate in the same sort of joyful practice that she had in the making of it,” Monaghan said.

Voiss’ creations are also inspired by her own experience with performing and battling cancer. Three years ago, she began performing burlesque to celebrate and reclaim her femininity after losing her breasts and hair while fighting cancer.

In burlesque, she felt joy seeing a diverse range of people take part in the art — people with different body shapes, skin colors, genders and even scars, like herself. With her work, she hopes to further celebrate and encourage inclusion in theater.

Now, Voiss looks forward to pursuing a master’s degree in costume design, in hopes to create costumes for big name productions and to open her own multi-use space for theater and burlesque shows.

Despite the challenges that came along the way, Voiss was able to exceed her own expectations.

“Don’t allow yourself to make yourself small because of what you think your limits are,” she said.

At left, Amalia Voiss’ rendering for one of the costumes in the play “Hay Fever.” At right, photographed by Sattva Photography, an actress wears the final result.

Photo by Sattva Photography Voiss’ Upside Down Dress, made from a thrifted dress that was flipped upside down and modified to be historically accurate.