Just when I've been floundering around for a creative challenge, Halloween arrives! Well, it's not halloween for another month and a half, but this is the season of prepping for Halloween. A few weeks ago I said to my husband, "well, it's almost time for Halloween prep" and he looked at me like I was insane. We live on a private road with 3 houses and practically no one sees the front of our house so he knew I was not talking about decorating the outside of the house. But I digress... (as usual)
I'm excited because I'm going to a Halloween party. I'm not into gory, gross Halloween, (I'll pass on the rubber face masks of zombies and the fake blood everywhere) but I love making costumes and getting dressed up. I've been tossing around a few costume ideas and this weekend I settled on the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland.
There are LOADS of costume and make-up ideas on Pinterest for the Q of H. There ARE really nice costumes you can buy, but I like the challenge of making one myself. In the past, I've gone to the fabric store, picked out a pattern and fabric and made my costume that way, but that method can be QUITE expensive. AND time consuming. Plus, I'm just not into the nitty gritty details of sewing a costume from scratch. And my sewing machine has become temperamental. So this morning, I took a trip to the local Savers (for those of you not in this area, it's a thrift store chain) to see what I could find to fit my costume goal.
When you start with pre-made pieces you have to be open to different options. You can't go in there looking for a very specific thing because it's quite likely you won't find it, but you WILL find something that will work. The most important piece I needed was a top in either red, white, black or pink. I needed a base to sew the skirt onto - something that could attach a skirt to and I could tailor to fit me.
I found a few options:
A corduroy stretch blazer from Loft. I liked it, but I wasn't sure the buttons in the front would work. Plus, it was not really red, but a kind of plum-ish red. And it wasn't long enough for me to attach a skirt and have it hit me in the right spot. AND the stretch might be a problem if I sewed a lot of trim or embellishments to it.
A short, brocade shirt from Forever 21. I liked the brocade on this, but while it was appealing, it was also sort of a drawback. It was black and white with silver and white seed beads on it, the print was a little bit geometric and I thought it would detract from the hearts theme. Plus, this was borderline crop-top, and while it had a zipper in the back that would allow for me to custom fit it, it would again be really short in the end, creating an empire waist dress. Because of those two cons, this one was out.
A stretchy front zip jacket in red. This one would have worked, but it was XL, and I want the top of my costume to be fitted so this would have required a lot of alterations. More importantly, it just didn't excite me. Gotta have some excitement.
A few different vests in grey. These were options, but one had a modern print to the grey fabric, and both were too short for me to make their buttons work. Out.
The above Lord and Taylor, linen jacket in black with the FABULOUS buttons. ($7.99) I was totally attracted to this jacket because of the buttons. They're was made me notice it on the rack. When I looked at it, I noticed - hummm, nice and long, so even though it has buttons, I can make my dress a drop waist dress if I want to, and the buttons will work. There are SO many buttons, it will be secure enough for me to wear without an additional shirt underneath if I want. It does NOT stretch, which will be a plus when sewing on embellishments, and it is pretty much my size. I scooped it up.
I got a fabulous red curtain/tablecloth (for $2.99) and a pink tablecloth (also $2.99) as well to make my skirt. I plan alternate the red and pink in stripes. The pink is an oval tablecloth and I think I can use the rounded parts for the front of the skirt. For the top, I'm going to 1. round out the neckline, take off the sleeves and add embellishments, then attach a skirt.
I'm pretty excited with my start. Next, I'm going to check out the fabric in the fabric store and see if I have any clothing items at home that will work with this project.
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