Thursday, October 22, 2009

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?

8 comments:

Theresa said...

awesome idea!!! I can't wait to see the pictures!

Eva said...

There better be pictures posted!!! :) I don't think I'm going anywhere for Halloween this year, but I really want to dress up as a mime. :D I got a silk bright red skirt at Goodwill the other day, and I've got a black & white striped shirt and white tights that I think would all work together. :) Maybe I'll have to find a party just to dress up! hehe

Lara Starr said...

That ROCKS! I can't wait to see pix! My office gets REALLY into Halloween. My dept. is doing a Zombie Real Housewives skit - they blocked out 2 hours last night for rehearsal!

Kate said...

Oh, you took the words right out of my mouth. Can't wait to see pictures.

Daphne said...

Barefoot: I will be sure to post!

Eva: That's a cute ensemble (sounds like). Any excuse to dress up. Will be sure to post pictures!

Lara: I figured this was just up your alley -- are you a zombie this year, then?

Kate: for sure!

Anonymous said...

i cannot wait to see pictures of this. i still really like your sexy secretary costume thats on your flickr page. was that from last year? jay wishes i would dress like that all the time. yeah.

Daphne said...

It was actually suggested to me that I dress like that more often at work (by our CEO! Who is a woman!). I didn't think it was that sexy but I guess beehive + cat-eye glasses + sweater set + pencil skirt translates into sexy no matter what decade it is.

Stefanie said...

What a great idea! Can't wait to see the results. You can iron acetate but you have to be very careful or the iron will melt it. Use a very low setting and/or put a towel over the skirt and iron it through the towel.