costumes Archives - Page 4 of 4

I’d rather have a paper doll…

Man, I think I’ve only heard that song as part of a medley, because I just looked up the lyrics and it is way more bitter than I ever knew.

Anyway, here’s my paper doll.

And here are some pictures of the making!

I went on a remnant rampage, buying material off the bolt only for the slip. It gave me an excuse to buy the fun cityscape material.

I basically freehanded everything, using elastic to pull in the slip at the waist and top. You can see above that I was a little overoptimistic about my ability to just stretch the elastic into the correct alignment for sewing. The picture below is the slip finished but for two things: the straps are not sewn at the back, and there is no velcro yet to attach the doll clothes.

So I wouldn’t freeze, and for modesty’s sake, I bought a long-sleeved leotard to wear under the slip (I tried to find similarly-colored heavy tights or leggings, but struck out on anything under $40, so I wore nylons). I didn’t want to have to completely undress to use the restroom, though, so with some snaps that came with my eyelet pliers and some extra “skin-color” fabric, I made the leotard snap-crotch. For the outdoor event we went to I also wore a camisole under my slip.

The final touches were to draw fringe on the flapper dress side, and add velcro tabs to the shoulder straps. I’d added the side tabs before sewing the two halves together (down each side and in the neck opening), but the shoulders were not wide enough to accommodate the remaining tab. I made two small pleats in each and tucked them in, and then topstitched all around the dress, except for a little bit where the “skin” showed through on the hippie side but the flapper side had red fabric.

To my surprise, it was a really difficult costume for people to guess. Next year I’m going to find a less labor-intensive costume to construct!

I love Halloween

Really I do. I love the autumn, I love costumes, I love pumpkins and cats and goblins and witches. I love committing myself to serious costumery:

The cash box says “Step Right Up!”

I had to take the beard off to eat, though. Otherwise I’d have ingested a lot of plastic.

I love making excessively seasonal food:

Okay, that was for Thanksgiving, I’ll admit. But these weren’t:

What do you do for autumn and/or Halloween?

Silver tie event

Remember this?

Burly Hot-Pants has been with me or one of my former roommates since my senior year of college. I have no idea what sort of action figure he is, except it is not one of the major brands. I bought him at Wal-Mart, I think, and he became our mascot. We had photo shoots like “Burly Storms the Capitol!” (of Virginia) and “Burly in the Lost World!” (after Cha Cha brought home a bucket of plastic dinosaurs). We immediately gave him dark roots and tattoos. I don’t remember when we cut his pants off into short shorts, which eventually died and had to be replaced with new short shorts (those, I made in summer 2005). Originally he hung from the wire shelf in our fridge, a Cha Cha innovation, with a gun in his free hand. The guns disappeared long ago, leaving him only his boots and ammo belt. Near the end of senior year I bought him some Barbie accessories, though the only one that survives is a pearl necklace.

For Nickel’s wedding he acquired a silver Sharpie bow tie, and the necklace became a bracelet or anklet. That may have been when we gave him lipstick and nail polish, though we may also have done that earlier. Alas, the lipstick bled all over his mouth.

Naturally, he needed some new accoutrement for Dana’s wedding. What would be more natural than a Chippendales-style tuxedo jacket and cummerbund? He ditched his brown hot pants altogether in favor of his black plastic codpiece, but kept the boots and ammo belt (you never know what situations may arise at a wedding).

As BHP’s personal tailor and photographer, I present to you: Silver Tie Burly.

You may be able to see in the back that I was watching Quest for the Mighty Sword, the greatest movie ever made.

As tough as he is, Burly has a softer side.

As you can probably tell, the cummerbund in the sneak peek picture was not the final cummerbund; I ended up just taking a length of ribbon and Stitch Witchery-ing velcro on each end.

Construction notes: I started by cutting a straight line across a strip of velvet and lining the bottom up with the top of BHP’s codpiece and the inside with the center of his chest or back, and gradually cutting the front and back pieces to shape. I used fusible interfacing both to stabilize the velvet and in place of sewing the seams (so it is far from the sturdiest item I’ve ever made). After cutting four pieces, to which tails would be attached, I realized it would be better to make two pieces that went around under his arms on each side and only had to be ironed together at the shoulder and center back. I also realized the heavier of the two interfacings I’d gotten to try (both Pellon, but one a lightweight standard-style interfacing and the other a sheer tricot) was the only one that worked – the tricot had too much stretch, which would be desirable in other settings but not when using it like tape. So I cut new pieces from wider velvet and used my tailor’s ham to aid in ironing (I could have used a smaller one! Perhaps I’ll make one). For the tails, I attached a strip of velvet to one side of the back hem, cut it to a nice shape, put another piece against it wrong sides together and cut it to match, and then ironed it on. I decided not to attempt a collar; I rather like the military-vest look of the front as it is, but admittedly the omission had more to do with thinking it would be difficult.

In the picture you can also see my primary inspiration.