C'est l'hallowe'en

I've been so busy and now suddenly Hallowe'en is over! I went out six times and my introverted self is so burnt out and tired I don't want to leave my apartment for a month now.

I decided in late September that I would be a Sexy Volcano as my main Hallowe'en costume. I had some idea of what that would involve but not too clear a picture. I started working on it over the Thanksgiving weekend, by making myself a crinoline so my dress could be mountain-shaped. Then decided I would use some black denim that I've had around for a couple years as my slightly textured mountain rock. Because I had gotten *so far* *so early,* on my next Queen St. W. trip I bought all the materials for a cosplay costume I thought I could get done in all the *extra time* I was going to have.

Then I procrastinated for a week so I wouldn't have time. (But I do have all the materials to do a Haruhi Suzumiya costume, which I feel I should do in the near future so my hair doesn't get too long.)

For this particular dress I decided to alter another princess dress pattern I made- the one for my Victreebel costume I made when gijinka Pokemon were first popular. I had to flare it out at the waist and completely draft a centre back piece since the back for Victreebel had this big U shape cut out so I could lace it up instead of using a zipper closure.

So I knew it was going to be a flared, sweetheart princess dress and that I was using the crinoline I had made, and I knew that I needed some sort of molten lava erupting from it somehow. But I hadn't decided how I wanted it to cascade down over me or what colours or fabrics it would be.

Sketchbook brainstorm of different dress ideas.

I drafted the base dress and put the lining together- as I tend to do to fit things instead of making muslins- and then I drafted the outside of the dress, finally deciding on the design.

Of course I didn't even have anything wearable made by the time the 27th rolled around (the main Saturday of Hallowe'en), so I spent the entire day working on my costume. I also made a smallish grey veil so everyone could tell how smoking hot I was as a volcano.

I left the skirt hem edge raw. I thought it would go better for the volcano theme than double-folding the edge. The next day before I went out again I spent some time beading the dress and the veil (I lost that veil before I got the photos and made a new one without any beads). I finished it off with some lengths of ribbon cascading from my neck.

In the end, I don't think anyone got it without my telling them, but I still think it was a fun idea. I even won a prize in a costume contest.

Fake Prom: Enchantment Under the Sea

I went to Fake Prom on Friday (Fake Prom website). Fake Prom is an annual dress-up dance party in Toronto that I've gone to for the past couple of years. Each year it has a different theme and people dress up either according to theme or as if they were going to prom. This year the theme was "Enchantment Under the Sea"- the prom theme from Back to the Future.

Because of being away and then having to catch up on all the things I fell behind on because I was away, I was unable to find the time to make a new costume. I did, however, have something to wear. My grad collection from last year was a set of evening wear dresses inspired by some of the works of M. C. Escher, especially his "Three Worlds" lithograph (pictured below). Because of that, I've got a couple of dresses I made with fish appliqué. The one that fits me is partly inspired by salmon swimming upstream, jumping up waterfalls and such.

"Three Worlds" by M. C. Escher

The fish dresses from my grad collection.

Birthday Costume (so I'm not caught in my "Birthday Suit")

It was my birthday last weekend, and I really like costume parties. I find it's easiest to get more people to participate in a theme if it is something broad enough that they can combine pieces that they have in their closet with an accessory or two from the dollar store into a costume. Partially because I've been watching Once Upon a Time lately, I decided to make the theme Fairy Tales, so everyone could be pretty princesses or whatever they wanted. I thought it would be easy enough for anyone without much time and resources to pick out a fancy dress from their closet and a Dollarama tiara, but for anyone who wanted to put the effort in, there was a lot more they could do.

I decided that I would be a genie. I ended up getting to Queen St. W. in the middle of the week and got some  georgette to make a pair of sheer harem pants. They didn't have any other nice colours so I went with black, which is a little boring but at least is easier to style. I made them in two pieces so one leg was one piece and one leg was another, cut at the same time, with a seam up the inside of each leg and a crotch seam connecting them. There would be elastics in casings at the waist and the bottom of each leg. I drafted them straight onto the folded fabric so I didn't have to fiddle with patterns or anything.

The photo is not very good so you can't tell how sheer the pants are. You can tell somewhat that I am wearing coloured fishnets underneath them so the texture would show through. Then I was wearing black bike shorts for decency, and a top I bought in high school at Promenade Mall. I also wore the outfit to Hallowe'en Usergroup last night and still didn't get any good photos.