What I did for Halloween – part two

On to photos from the costume ball.  You see, Gandalf Murphy came out as 4 different acts – their pirate personas, their hillbilly personas, their extraterrestrial personas, and as the band.  Aerialists performed between the acts.  A whole lot of pictures follow:

Part 1 – Pirates

 

Part 2 – Hillbillies

Part 3 – Extraterrestrials

Part 4 – The Circus

Pictures of others:

See those lovely stickers on S’s shirt and Mr T’s hat?  That was the only way they were allowed to film the show.  We’ve learned all about the intricacies of the videographer’s union in New York from this experience!

It was over 4 hours of nonstop fun.  Unfortunately, I had arranged for a driver at midnight – silly me for assuming it would be over by then.  We missed the last few songs and encores.  Neither of us were thrilled with the thought of walking home after the show with video equipment.  We had an early flight the next day anyway.

In the meantime, back at home, the Girlie Girl informed us that we had at least 500 kids come by for halloween, and Grandma was overwhelmed.  Next time, we may just have to take the whole family and take a pass on halloween at home….

One more halloween costume nearly done…sort of… maybe…

So….  I had to make an executive decision – the neon had to go – it wasn’t working as I hoped it had.  Here is a picture before I removed it:

The overskirt simply wouldn’t lay right at all.  If I had wanted an external hoop on a skirt, it might have done the trick, but the wire was just too inflexible.

It looks better without it….

What is very subtle here is the lighting under the planets – they do sort of glow in daylight, but when the lights get turned off:

I actually have two more items to complete for my costume.

I need a black petticoat, as I used one from a long ago costume to take these shots, and it really doesn’t fit anymore (hmmm, maybe that was WHY it was in the daughter’s dress up box!).  I just couldn’t wear it for two nights in it’s current state.

And I need a nice-plain-not-filthy-looking-or-festooned-with-slutty-‘pirate’-lace pirate hat.  They don’t exist this year.  Why does every pirate hat either go with the pirate mini dresses, or look like it was dragged through the mud to emulate Jack Sparrow?  I bought black denim and a small piece of ultrasuede for edging, and will make a nice, plain pirate hat from that.  I will use the same method as used last year for the miniature pirate hat, and just enlarge it.

S’s tuxedo needs more gold spray paint, and then someone needs to paint the skull on the back.

Thank goodness I still have a week and a half!

Hmmmm – maybe the neon would make a good hatband.

Progress on my costume

One more piece finished – the underskirt for my costume is done.  It is a 3/4 circle skirt – I simply didn’t have enough of this fabric to do a full circle, and was pushing it as it was.

Note the planetary fabric in the background.  That is the overskirt.

I recognize that they totally don’t match – no worries as the underskirt matches the pirate corset.

Hopefully, it will look like the following in the dark when I use my LED’s and neon:

The neon will go on the outside, and I’m going to sew the LED’s to tulle beneath the planets.  We all agreed that they were a little too bright to endure as an external lighting – they needed something to dull down the shock of them.  Now the skirt becomes a projector of sorts!

We are going to an extraterrestrial pirate ball, after all!

Now the question I have to figure out is if the tulle should be attached to the planets, or if I should keep them separate…

…Did I mention that the neon lines can flash?  I may be responsible for sending someone into seizures…hehehe.  Or, maybe I’ll be nice and just leave them on a normal setting.

Boy, I’m going to need a place to hide all the spare batteries!

And, a parting photo of my studio guest, who prefers to sleep while I sew – Mickey:

Off to do more geometry for this skirt – nothing like trying to remember how to measure ellipses and circles!

One costume down!

Here are the finished efforts for Glitter Glue Princess’s costume.

She is going as a Mummer Pirate, and if you don’t know what a mummer is, look here and here..

The hat is her homage to the lead singer – Joziah – of Gandalf Murphy (she saw it at the store and HAD to have it)….

We found the skull button set at Jo-Ann’s, and she hot glued them to the hat.

The skirt is a clearance item from J.Jill.  It is a cool ragged silk number.  It was the smallest petite skirt I’ve ever seen there, and it is a bit long for her, but works great with the costume.  The ragged bias strips make it move and shimmer when she walks.

The shirt was previously posted, and the corset was just finished.  How do you make a corset for a girl?  You make it comfy, that’s how.  Note the shirring on the sides – looks like a corset, but fits like a comfy tank top…  I think we can use it for at least a couple years.

Now she wants some glittery dorothy shoes to go with her jingle-y red belt!

That costume was finished…. I swear…

I had the little pirate costume all done, with pictures to prove it….

Then the Glitter Glue Princess found coin scarves at the Renaissance Festival.

Now I have to take about half of the lower portion off the vest off and rehem.  This removes all the gold coins I had applied to it…  Oh, and change the buttons.  Sigh….

A mini pirate hat for my little pirate girl

So…  we are progressing on the costumes for the Gandalf Murphy Pirate Ball next month.  Glitter Glue Princess requested a mini pirate hat for wearing with her costume.  Ummmmm, o…..k…..  This one took some noodling to figure out, as I couldn’t find easy ways out of it (I tried finding a build a bear hat, american girl hat…  no dice there).  It is amazing how much little hats go for (try $150 on etsy!!!).  This is what I came up with:

I used the free download from Wild Ginger called Wild Things, and used the sunhat pattern, just making it smaller than usual size (12.5″ around forehead, 3″ brim depth to allow for the point formation, 2″ band height).  This same pattern could be used for making mini top hats, and other things as well.

I used buckram for the top and interfuse (a heavy double sided home dec fusible interfacing) for the brim to keep it stiff.  It is made of poly taffeta.  The two front sides are sewn down to the hat top, and the back is rolled.  I sewed in two elastic loops for attaching bobby pins or clips, and am installing a barrette to the front of the hat to stabilize it.  The inside has a petersham ribbon band to make it clean around the edge.

We’ve looked at adding feathers, headband, tulle fluffery, and most have been ruled out at this time.  She is leaning toward a simple braided hatband as the only trim aside from the bows on the side.

A test action shot…

Yes, it even will work as a dollie hat for her american girls when the season is over – yay!  So very Felicity…

Arrgh, or how to dress like a pirate…

So, now for the long awaited pirate garb. This has monopolized my sewing time for the last three weeks and I’m just now coming up for air!

 

Here is my pirate outfit – pardon the dazed look and frazzled hair, it was a long day at work before this was shot:

The chemise is hand drafted and made of pima cotton- not bad for my first try yes? The 8 point skirt is hand dyed after being sewn together, also hand drafted. And the bodice, well, I cheated and bought it off ebay. But….. It is SO cool, man! Look at this thing! Who could turn this down if they were going to a pirate party??? (Besides, I couln’t find the fabric anywhere and I didn’t want a crash course in corsetry!)

Here is S’s outfit:

The vest is a thoroughly modified and adjusted version of the Simplicity Pirates of the Caribbean pattern, but I added fabric to the back, added side slits, drafted a facing to the remove the lining (I made the thing out of stretch satin backed suede, for goodness sakes!) and did a full waist adjustment to give it more ease. There are 15 buttons down the front, but lucky me, the fabric store was selling random metal buttons by the bag for $2! The top is another pattern redraft after my last post on stupid sizing. During the photo session, S complained about the back being too narrow in the top. This will be definitely remade a bit later. I really thinking of hand drafting it too after my success with my outfit and finding some lovely tutorials on the net.

And every pirate needs accessories yes?

The pouch is for me – obviously there is no place to stash anything in my outfit, I drafted the embroidery myself. The nametag was S’s idea – note the obscure Dread Pirate Roberts reference from the Princess Bride. We’d discussed adding “ask me about my multi pillage discount”, but obviously there wasn’t enough room.

Now….. to go finish the facings in a Minnie Mouse shirt and hunt for some missing ears!