Halloween

Is invariably my favorite holiday second only to Christmas. So this year I made an amazing costume. I also blackmailed my dad to take me to dinner, which he did not appreciate very much. But we ate and it was delicious and I was the prettiest girl at the prom. In a manner of speaking.

This is my original thread I was using. I did, in fact, use it all. Which was too bad because it was exactly the right color.

So, a little background. I love steampunk. I also love to dress up in ridiculous ways that maybe are not necessary to whatever occasion I happen to be dressing up for. ("Hey, cool Batman mask Carli." "Oh thanks." "Uh, you know it's Valentine's Day, right?" "Oh yeah.") So as it happens, I had pretty much everything to put together a glorious steampunk outfit, except for the actual outfit. Goggles? Check. Bullets? Check. Any number of swords or large toy guns? Double check. Leather jacket? Check. White, sufficiently Victorian blouse? Check. Boots? Check and check.

But I wanted to have a glorious, luscious skirt. So I found a pattern and some fabric and cut it out the Saturday before Halloween. And then started sewing it on Tuesday. Remember how Halloween this year was on Wednesday?

It was essentially a long skirt with a sweet ruffle on the bottom, and a bustle. I didn't have enough of the green fabric to do it all one color, so I swiped some brown crepe back satin and made some adjustments.

This is the bustle in a state of almost-completeness. I took this on Halloween, while I was finishing up the bustle. And by "finishing up" I mean "actually getting it all put together because I had procrastinated too long and it was hardly even begun yet."

So there were some grand adventures. Mostly, I did a lot of gathering, and a lot of pinning, and used loooooooots of blue-green thread. And then brown thread. But! I think it all worked out in the end.

Ta-da! Ruffles and satin and boots oh my!

From the back! The bustle just ties on, which is really nice, because when it got wonky it was usually a pretty easy fix.

Shockingly, everything I wore on my torso I already owned. Also, thanks to Molly the dressform for being my model.

Le bustle again. I was rather proud of it, once all was said and done. And I hadn't had to work on it again.

So that's what I did for Halloween. I suppose eventually I'll try to get a real picture of it on my body, with my hair and makeup all properly done, but that might have to wait for next year (YES I am wearing this next year when I go back to school).