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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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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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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pertaining to successful shopping as well as wings

I've been working on the halloween costumes again... I don't remember if I've posted on costume number two, but if I have, you'll just have to sleep through the parts about it... anyway, the embroidery is going nicely (obviously, I had a lecture to listen to) and I finally have a purpose for embroidering it. More on that later; now:

I've been working on the wings more now. I tried boning them with my standard pockethoop boning. Very odd pics of me, I know...

the ends of the boning are tucked into my corset; I found that idea online! It worked quite nicely.

Rather floppy, don't you think?

I then tried it with (what else?) coat hangers! Y'know, the wire kind? It worked a lot better, but notice the uneveness of height/angle...




Wow horrid pic of me. (I've been a bit ill, in fact did almost no homework today.) But the wings! I got the coat hangers to bend the correct ways for "takeoff." Bad pun I know.

The back. I'm wearing all modern things under the corset, so it will lace much tighter (and therefore hold the wings better, hopefully) when I wear the corset correctly.

...My mum, sister and I went shopping last weekend as well. The candy corn here is for cookies... we've since eaten a bag of it (hm, no wonder my emergency-before-halloween diet is not going so well...)

Also, we picked up a second pair of tights in case I run mine, orange eyeliner and lipstick (yay so fun to do makup strange!) and fake eyelashes with little plastic gems on them.

....And SHOES! Wonderful halloweenly victorian shoes! Aren't they gorgeous? I absolutely love them!

Spiderwebs, for decoration....

And fabric for my second costume, a victorian-inspired girly apron and bloomer set. It should be darling. (I've misplaced my drawing of the costume, or I'd post it. For now you'll just have to trust me it'll be lovely.)

Close-up of spider fabric for one side of apron. Darling, isn't it? A lucky find, actually.

...And for the other side, candy corn of course. So cute!

A bit out-of-order, but we found black temporary hair spray (I didn't think we'd be able to find that!) and colored skin paint. I plan to use it for 18th century also, it looking to be the right colors.

Oh, and a witch hat.... this is getting to be a complicated costume. =P We actually this hat is for the little aproned costume.

My little brother and sis LOVE the hat; my mum advised me to hide it from them. =P

Me with the hat on. It is a bit hard to take pics of yourself... pity I didn't get a pic of my little sister in it, actually, she walked around Target wearing it!

The current positioning of my costume.

I was originally intending to use this ribbon for a necklace for the bat costume (can't get away from the 18th century, can I?!?) but it appeared too wide.

I decided on this one instead. It looks quite nice.

But, foolishly, I decided to bead-embroider a bit of the thick stuff, and when I tried the bead-embroidered on, it looked like it was choking me or something! It would be a better garter...

Beading and embroidery for halloween apron.

Bead-embroidered witch's hat! Wonder what Hermione Granger would have to say about that...

And, finally, you find out about my embroidery. I'm using it as the front piece of one side of my apron! Notice that it is fairly charted out in ink! I know, putting one pic at the beginning and the other at the end... but it made you read it, didn't it? Hehe it meant you saw my new adorable halloween shoes! =P

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