Costume!

(pardon the mind-numbingly boring posts lately. I don't know what is up with me)

I love to dress up. I used to do theater and my favorite part was the costumes and makeup. I was not a very good actress but I sure do love makeup (I don't even wear much, which is really sad for someone who loves makeup as much as I do. I just love the idea of it. And the pretty, pretty colors. And lipsticks. I have like 25 lipsticks. And counting. My name is Daphne and I'm a lipstick addict.)

You would think that I would go all-out every year for Halloween, yes? Sadly, no. I usually wait until the last minute and then scrape something together from my closet. When we moved, I got rid of a lot of my costume-y pieces, so my closet is not as good a source of costumes as it used to be. If I ever have a big closet all to myself, I will fill it with lots of costume-gear. Just because.

So anyway, my office celebrates Halloween fairly exuberantly, so this year I figured I'd put a *little* effort into it. I was going to be an Anne Rice-style vampire, all dripping with jewels and lace and tragedy (not very original, but fun!). However, then I realized with just a few tweaks, I could instead be the Other Mother from Coraline.

I found an 80s-style peplum dress at the thrift store for $6 (I'm going to channel Andie Walsh and turn it into a skirt), a lace turtleneck (which isn't at all like this extravagant collar the Other Mother sports here, but I don't think anyone will care -- it kind of works with the dress/skirt), and am working on the rest (claws, buttons, hair).
The button eyes will be the key part. I couldn't find any buttons large enough today, but I might actually have some on a coat that I could appropriate for the costume and then sew back later. I figure I will try both spirit gum (to stick them on) or clear elastic (to make button 'goggles') and see what works best. (if I find some with big holes, I think I will be able to see well enough)

I'm excited about the costume. I don't know if anyone will know what I am, but button eyes are scary no matter which way you look at it. Now let's just hope I can figure out how to make this dress into a skirt. The entire zipper is broken so I think I'm going to hook-and-eye it closed. It just has to hold for one day. I don't know why I'd rather fiddle with transforming a trashy dress than follow a pattern and actually make a skirt. Probably because the trashy dress is mostly done and making a skirt requires patience, which I do not generally have when it comes to sewing.

Yes, I will take before and after photos! This dress/skirt is truly amazing. I believe it's probably vintage 1986. All acetate, and all mine. Can you iron acetate?