Halloween 2010

So Halloween was a mix of "meh" and "cool" this year (yes, I know...I'm a month late posting this!). Friday night some friends and I went to a bar in BFE; they only go to places with the best prizes. Which, I can understand when you have dumped a grand or so into a single costume. But for those of us just looking for an excuse to wear a costume and have a good time...it can lead to a "meh" situation. So my friends went as Gilligan and Mary Ann zombies from Gilligan's Island and I wore my beloved She-ra. Yes, I got the sword right before Halloween!



Lisa and Alex as Gilligan's Island zombies

Apparently, no one over the age of 25 goes to bars anymore. Absolutely no one there knew who I was; and one dumb whore actually called me "Wonder Woman." *sigh*

So Saturday night we went to the Q104 BooBash at the Boneyard in Mayfield. I already had done pretty, and that went over like a lead balloon...so on to hideous! Saturday afternoon I went to my local Halloween costume store and bought a generic fairy costume. Then I had some fun...destroying it! I had always wanted to do a zombie fairy so here was my chance!

Quick tips for zombie costumes...being sticky sucks, but looking sticky is cool! I never liked doing zombies until I learned how to do it without leaving traces of my costume everywhere. Best starting point is shredding the costume up a bit. You can use either scissors or (my personal favorite!) burn holes in it with a long grill lighter. Next, dirty it up. Again, don't want to be leaving bits behind in friends' cars or on the inside of your coat, so I use paint. Regular cans of spray paint will cover a large area with a rather even coating of color. I found bottles of craft paint with pump-spray tops which gave a splattered effect. The best part is next...the blood/gore! Use epoxy sets from any home improvement store or even Walmart. These are the kind that have the chemicals in 2 separate tubes but get mixed when you squirt it out. Use disposable plastic cups to put a little epoxy in then mix in some red acrylic paint. Depending on what kind of epoxy you get (there is fast drying - about 5 minutes, and long drying - up to 60 minutes) you have to work fast after the goop is evenly mixed. Use a Popsicle stick to mix and then to smear globs of it on the costume. When it dries, it will be shiny like it's wet, but will feel like plastic. It's great to also get the look of "drips" off of collars and such. Obviously, red is for blood but don't be afraid of other colors...black and green makes awesome perma-slime. I wanted the front of the dress to look like I had been eating lots of princesses so I mixed red acrylic paint with water and just poured in down the front. Then I added my perma-blood to it.



That "drip" hanging off the tip of my wing is permanent!

I just did a quickie zombie make-up job on my face (white base, green and brown blotches, dark under eyes, green veins with a pencil, and of course blood!), teased my hair out, put some holes in a pair of tights and called it done. Oh, yeah, I also wore a pair of bright turquoise contacts to get that "unnatural" look. I have a pair of milky contacts but I can't see well out of them. I didn't want to have to put a ton of makeup on my arms so I threw on a fishnet top to kinda break-up the flesh. Not bad for just an afternoon of work! Still needs work, though, especially the legs and footwear. I had one really drunk chick tell me she was going to have nightmares about me...so totally worth it! It was also nice that all the creeps that kept banging into my wings didn't matter! There's nothing worse than having an awesome costume fucked up cuz some jack ass plows through the crowd.

Feeling a bit ADD today...

So, I have all these random pics of various costumes (some don't even exist anymore!). Not really worth going into detail with, but what the hell...I'll throw 'em up here!

This was from a friend's party. They always did some sort of costumed theme. This was the "Spy Party." My husband is the Scarlet Pimpernel and I was just some random courtesan. This dress was sacrificed to the costume gods quite a while ago.

This one was for a LARP I did at MarCon one year. Yes, those eagles were hand embroidered. For those of you that recognize the costume as the uniform of the Stelets from the game 7th Sea...you get extra points for your "Identify Obscure Gaming Reference" skill check! BTW...this is probably the only pic in existence of me with brunette hair.

And back when I was skinny, I was able to wear this one...this is the Blood Elf jewelcrafter trainer in Silvermoon from World of Warcraft.

This is Brzzzt...my crazy Ren Faire fairy (Brzzzt raised by squirrels! Ooooo....shiny!) Many moons ago, this was one of my favorite characters I got to play as part of the Great Lakes Medieval Faire cast. I spent one Pub Sing attached to the finger of the King. He pointed at me, and someone said "Careful! She bites!" And I did...and I didn't let go until close. Gotta love "yes, and..."

This is my sister Rachael and myself at the Great Lakes Faire this past summer. This was going to be Rachael's first costume she did by herself...ya...she wound up gluing the jewels on her wings...I did everything else!

Yup, not even my pets get to escape my costuming wrath. This is Nia in her Fairy Pug-cess costume. Hey, she won 2nd prize! Still trying to figure out if I can get my cat to wear a Dex-starr costume...



She-ra

As a child of the 80's, I wasted many an hour plastered to the TV watching the Princess of Power cartoon. And, true to my geek nature, I still have my entire collection and keep it proudly on display. The first version of this costume was an absolute disaster. In a nutshell, I cut up a plastic mannequin and covered it in fabric. Very uncomfortable, but I always giggled cuz the mannequin had molded nipples which showed even under a layer of fabric.


Bummer...can't see the nips in the pic!

 And then I discovered the joys of the seamless long line bra...

She-ra gang from left: She-ra, Frosta, Castaspella, and Catra at Dragon Con 2009



For Dragon Con 2009 myself (She-ra), my sister (Frosta), and my friends (Casta and Catra) did these using the long line bra. Luckily, I did not have to dye mine. However, the other 3 used just regular old Rit dye. Who sez polyester doesn't dye? The skirt is actually a skirted swimsuit bottom. To get a more "cartoon-y" look, all the gold bits I stitched onto light weight foam padding. It's sold at Jo-Ann's in the home dec area and is supposed to be for making table pads. It works great for getting flimsy fabric to hold a shape...especially on the headpiece:



Close up of She-ra headpiece

The headpiece is directly sewn onto a blond wig. The jewel on the headpiece is the biggest craft gem I could find. It's actually the perfect size. The gems for the bodices, however, needed to be larger than any gem I could find. So, I decided to make them! I used clear resin and added food coloring and iridescent micro glitter for sparkle. This was poured into an oval mold that was for jewelery crafting. 




Close up of resin gem on front of She-ra

 The cape is just costume satin. The boots are standard gold go-go boots. I'm not happy with them so at some point I am going to do boot tops that look more like She-ra's. Lastly, I have ordered a custom latex He-man sword that I will glue one of my resin jewels to. This is coming from Edhellen Armoury. At the time of this posting it hasn't arrived yet, but I will be sure to add pics when I get it!

Fairy Queen

Fairy Queen at the Great Lakes Medieval Faire 2009

I decided my first post would be a costume that (so far!) has taken the longest to complete. In terms of customizing, I actually stayed fairly true to the original pattern: Simplicity 0679 (which is apparently out of print) 

The thing that drove me nuts about the pattern, though, is that the skirt is separate from the bodice and are supposed to attach together at the waist with hooks and eyes (wtf?). Sooo the biggest modification I did was to make the construction a little more "period;" the bodice and overskirt are one piece and the underskirt is a stand alone piece. I created an open seam along one side of the bodice with heavy duty coat hooks on the inside:

Close up of bodice hooks and eyes

Before I even got to the part of assembling the whole thing, I wanted to first bead the "puffed" fabric. I figured if I did it after it was constructed, it would be too easy to miss a spot due to the fullness. That is what took me (and several friends!) over a year to do! Lucky for me, the fabric was purchased already with those gathered puffs.

Close up of pearls on fabric "puffs"

Besides the bodice/skirt reconfiguration, the only other modification was the addition of hanging sleeves (which amounted to a rectangular piece of trimmed out fabric attached between the fitted sleeve and the puffed sleeve). The other pain in the ass part was the cartridge pleats on the overskirt. If you don't know what they are, pray you never find out the hard way! Cartridge pleats = hand sewing = cranky costumer.

Close up of cartridge pleats

Finishing touches include a jeweled belt I found at my local "scratch and dent" clothing outlet, Gabriel Brothers, jewelery from now defunct Sleepy Hollow (used to be at the southern Ohio Renaissance Faire...miss them terribly!), and an old 1930's era hair comb I found garage sale-ing that I painted gold. The staff is a curtain rod setup from Lowe's home improvement stores that I glued gems on. As for the wings:

Fairy Queen wings now serving as wall decor in my spare bedroom when not in use

I think I am going to do a whole post dedicated just to the creation of all my costume wings.