Final pics of halloween costumes!

Just to hold y'all in suspense, I'm putting the pics of the Big and Elaborate costume at the bottom of the post. So first here's my little aproned costume (I don't have any pics I don't think of the apron without the lacy top apron...)

Aren't the boots gorgeous?

Here's before hair/makeup/shoes/wings....

I like this pic cuz it is oh-so-victorian... except for hair gr!

Ha here we go! I took most of my pics, obviously...

...And what happens when you hold the camera wrong because suddenly you realize that someone's coming to the door and you'd better get the candy, peferably without catching your boots on your train.

Okay I strongly dislike how I look in this pic, but it's the only really decent one I have of the costume w/ wig and everything! It was at the very end of the night... my lil sister took it. She was dressed as Penny from Bolt the Disney movie. hehe

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Cookies can be vintage too =)

Warning: lots of pumpkins ahead!

Obviously, I baked today! Low-fat cookies. They were quite nice. And compared to regular, very guilt-free! Anyway.

Unbaked. I figured if they blew up into shapeless blobs in the oven, I'd have photo evident that they started cute... horrible lighting, sorry, I believe it was getting dark by then.

The first batch out of the oven! Note little stems I made out of the same cookie dough dyed brown.

Finished cookies, cooling. They didn't blow up! Hehe

Don't they match my costume? =P




...I made icing-faces on some of them! They look so vintage-y! I am really loving vintage things right now...

...And again...

Note that I gave some of them candy-corn noses. That melted. =P

Here's my favorite. Isn't she cute? Now that I think about it she reminds me of my pet rocks (remember the post from long long ago? Well I have about 50 more rocks now... I made them on vacation this summer =D)




...And the cookies again.

...And finally, costume content! Here's the earings I bought more than a year ago at a garage sale but never wore! Obviously the goldtone is too old for me (c'mon, I'm 15, and silver is the new gold for jewelry generally!)

...I painted them orange with sparkly nail polish ( !!! ) and will wear them tomorrow if all goes well... (in other words, if I don't forget to... =D)


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Halloween bat dress, and a few side-tracks...

Here's what I had left of the spiderweb fabric before I started the apron ruffles! Box pleats take a lot of fabric, see... I had to piece, obviously.

Here's some of the flowers I put on our counters the morning after my grandfather passed away... totally un-pertaining to Halloween, but pretty anyway. But sad. Aren't the prettiest things sad, though?

Oh, and here's the MOUSE that was in my lil sis' bounce house! hehe




Anyway back to present. I pieced a fair amount of the spiderweb fabric into a box-pleated ruffle, and attached a piece of plain black cotton ( ? unsure of content) at the top.

Here's skirt attempt one! Kinda a boxy shape, don't you think?

The box-pleated trim with another box-pleated ruffle attached on top of the black cotton. You can't see it but there is another, white, pleated ruffle on the other side. So fun to sew through all those layers of fabric! Not. I bent a needle!

YAY dress pics! Okay, without correct hair or makeup, but still.... yes I'll be changing my lace colors.

Yes, I am wearing a witchy hat. I was *trying* to cover my not-so-costumey hair.... which is a mess anyway in these photos. I need it cut again.... =P

The back, with my wings. I'm not wearing gloves; that's just the wings.

I'll be changing the necklace as well.... do y'all like my chemise? Isn't it so cute with the little sleeves? I totally love it!

The front. Note stockings.

Yes, i'm looking over the banister rail. This is because my lil sister and her friend decided I absolutely MUST wear my wig, even if I didn't pin it into my hair, and the wig was downstairs....

See? Wig! Not pulled up like it should be!

The final cut of the apron. Cute, I think. The apron will be double-sided.

Lol teaser pic for apron! I'm wearing it over my 18th century chemise, because I haven't made a shirt for it yet. This will probably be the final time you see my teeth, lol, I got braces today. Black, to match the costume. Though I must practice keeping my mouth shut. Cuz my neighbor has spotted it already.

Lookie halloween stuff on a chair! Note lil pink stroller belonging to sis.

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what do you do when something unexpected happens...?

This is what the sky looked like the last time I saw him.


I'm just doing what I do. When I get some freaking out issue, I write. And my own blog is a place to do it.





So this morning I got up, curled my hair a ran a band through it, put on a high-waisted dress and a regency-eraish (not authentic) cameo necklace. Went to school, told the girls I was some Jane Austen freak. Which is true.





Went to spanish, then did spanish homework in study hall. About halfway through the period (third period) changed to algebra homework. It was a bit before eleven, I'd estimate.





So I'm just sitting there doing Algebra.





Just after the strike of eleven, as the nurse put it, my grandfather died.





...And I didn't know! I just sat there doing algebra! So I went to lunch, went back up to study hall, kept doing algebra, then went to my honors class(es).





We discussed people in heaven in honors.





My mum had told us the night before that our grandfather was doing poorly. Like really poorly. But she and my dad had been telling us that for years.





I kinda let it slide. My mum and dad had told me a few months ago that he'd live another year.





And I so wanted that to be true, I just believed it.





But I got out of honors, my mum was waiting in the parking lot. I was a bit surprised; because there were other kids waiting too. Usually our honors class is the last to let out it seems.





Basically I walked around the car and threw my backpack in the back (it's really heavy) and pulled out the algebra I wanted to work on the way home.





I got into the front, started writing little numbers on the paper.





My mum said "We lost grandpa this morning." And I was like "WHAT?"





Inwardly I asked, "Oh God, why did you do this?"





Told myself I wouldn't cry. Slapped sunglasses on my face so I could.





God had a reason.





I know he had a reason. But it hurts. 'Specially cuz I was silently praying for grandpa there in honors this afternoon. After he had gone.





I keep thinking, "what if I had prayed earlier?" But y'know, God had his reason... and he'll be seeing my grandmother now (when she passed away several years ago I was like in straight shock about it for six months. Then it came out. When my mum had someone over, no less.)





But I, right now, can't even think about Pomerainians without crying. My grandfather had one, and he loved that little pup. Spoiled it rotten. It's going to be up there yapping, wondering why, oh, why, she can't find him. Why she can't find her human grammpie. Why he isn't giving her little treats.





My dad's flying up tomorrow to help my aunt with stuff. They'll have to manage stocks, wills, all three houses he owns, and the farm (make that four houses i think then), and the pomerainian. Poor Pippy. She'll be distraught, I know it.



But God has a plan. He always has, and he always will.

~c

You have one guess which costume this post entails =P

Okay. So I haven't actually done any sewing since I last posted. But I did clean up the sewing area (to some extent =P) and the table is finally see-able. Sometime I will have to post detail pics of the table--- it is rather wacky in itself, though you can see only some of the detail in the pic... see the colored markings? Hehe

Actually, when I layed (is that the correct verb usage?) everything out, I was surprised that I had done so much over the past couple of months! For halloween this year I have made---

-a victorian-inspired skirt (except hem)

-a victorian-inspired corset

-a victorian-inspired pair of drawers

-a short chemise

-a halloween wig (well, styled it)

-a pair of giant bat wings

-a spiderwebby lace apron (50s style? That is a wild guess!)

-most of a shorter skirt

---and this doesn't include the 18th century things or the modern stuff!

Here's roughly what I have left in the ways of fabric/trim. The apron pieces are not pictured, though.

And for fun, I had to have the boots in a pic with the hat... It made me think Marcia Overstrand from the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage! Yes, I read them. Yes, I am 'classified' too old to do so, but whatever! ...Though Marcia wears purple python heeled boots, not black... and she doesn't have a witch's hat! And I've noticed ---small books rambling here--- that most amazing authors are British... From Jane Austen to C.S. Lewis to Charles Williams to J.K. Rowling to Angie Sage, they're all British. And I'm not. But I want to be amazing! Well, there are some American ones too... namely Jean Birdsall and Heather Vogel Frederick and and Louisa May Alcott... And they all live or lived on the east coast. The two currently living live in Massachusetts. And I live on the west coast. Reeeeeeaaaaaly west coast. =P Oh well (!)

At least it seems that lots of fabulous seamstresses live in CA! Or so I've noticed.

=D

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And again...

So again with the costumes... I was actually horribly productive today! Shocking! But anyway I decided that I didn't want to prepare for my precis of Descent into Hell, and I didn't want to read/note-take on Orthodoxy.... so the costume prospered. The second costume, that is. In this pic I am working on the drawers... deciding if I want cream trim as well as black on the edges of the little pants.

I decided, though the cream was pretty, to go with just black because it fit my costume theme better. I know the blacks clash; but in person I will not be seeing ANYONE who knows a lot about victorian undergarments, so I don't think I need to worry!

Unsewn, but (machine) embroidered, lying on a chair... I semi-made my own pattern because I lost my trusty pj-pant pattern that I alter for all kinds of pants. Well costume pants and pjs... The one time I tried to make a little pair of shorts... a disaster there!

Eeeks! First leg on me! Note embroidery. Isn't it darling?

He he they look like pjs! Note lovely shirt from Pink. Completely unhistorial, of course.


Close-up! Aren't they just oh-so-cute? I think they'll fit better when they aren't over skinny jeans...

Skirt, trial one. It isn't fluffy enough!

Skirt, trial two. I folded up six inches of the skirt, which made it puffier, but now it is too short to display the aprons correctly! I plan to lengthen it three more inches, which hopefully should be a good balance.

The little over-apron, in process. For the box-pleated ruffles, which you can't really see, I folded a wide(r) piece of fabric over and then box pleated the two thicknesses as one. It ate up tons of fabric but looked quite nice.

The finished apron, on the floor. I put thinner box-pleated trim around the top piece of the apron. Again, this was a total fabric-eater, but it is quite cute! I didn't use a pattern.

... and the fabrics for the bottom apron, which will be completely reversible. I hope. They might need some starch... though I really don't know how to starch stuff! Or get the starch, for that matter! My only issue is that I had planned a ruffle of spiderweb-sheer fabric on the edges of this; however the over-apron ate most of that fabric. I could try piecing (haven't we all heard it: Piecing is Period) or I could figure something else out... we will have to see! It would be interesting to piece, but also time-consuming. And even then I might not have enough fabric! I know I'll have to piece the bodice (used most of the cotton-poly blend on the drawers! And I didn't cut them very well; that might have been most of the problem. =P) but should I piece the ruffle too? It might just work! Stay tuned...

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