Additional Fabric for Queen of Hearts Costume

When I last posted, I had just purchased a jacket and two pieces of fabric for my Queen of Hearts costume from Savers.  This past weekend, I went to Joann Fabric and Craft store.  I knew I wanted a black and white checked fabric.  I found one with alternating squares of black and white, but that looked too much like a flag on a car racing track.  Then I found this - diamond checks.  I thought I might use it for the large collar of her dress, and maybe some highlights on other areas. PERFECT.  I bought 3 yards of it.  I checked out the Valentine's Day fabric, but nothing really spoke to me.  Then I found this lovely photographic roses print.  This is perfect for the Queen of Hearts, right?  I mean, all that talk about painting the roses red, etc.  I got three yards of this, also.  I seriously had no idea how I was going to use these prints, but I figured I could decide at home. 

Back at the ranch, (so to speak) I knew that I wanted to remove the sleeves on the blazer, so I did that right away.  I was left with this: 

Although the jacket is lined, it was pretty easy to take the sleeves and lining off with a seam ripper.  I think I'll have to cut the shoulders back a little bit and make the arm holes a little bigger to accommodate the puffy sleeves I have in mind.  I thought about the checks for the collar and now I can't decide if that will be too busy of a print next to the face, especially with the roses print thrown in there.  I'm thinking of going with a big white collar and maybe making a piping around the edge of the collar in the checked print.  To get a feel for how all of this would look, I decided to lay the fabric out on a flat surface so I could picture it better.  

Here's my plain red, alternating with the roses print.  Then I decided maybe I can use the checked fabric as a belt highlight along the waistline.  There must be a proper name for that, but I don't know what it is.  (I definitely didn't need 3 yards of the checked print, but oh well.  See below:

I liked the checks in that spot, but it seemed a little too busy with the brocade weave of the plain red.  I added some black in between... (which is actually not fabric, but a t-shirt dress I had hanging around - I'll have to buy the black fabric).  When I added the black, I liked it a lot better.  I also put the end of the roses print under the black jacket to simulate puffed sleeves.  NOW, it's kind of coming together...

I still have the pink fabric (tablecloth) from Savers.  I'm thinking it might look good cut into heart shapes and sewn in a line down the black strips of fabric in the skirt.  Maybe I can add one strip of black with pink hearts down the sleeves, too, to bring the pink up to the top half of the outfit as well.  I'm feeling encouraged to continue this project.  So now I need to buy a few yards of black fabric and some white for the collar.  Oh, and a bit of iron on interfacing to stiffen the collar and to iron on the back of the pink for when I cut out the hearts.  Hoping to  make some more progress by the end of this coming weekend.  Wish me luck! 

Queen of Hearts Costume from Thrift Store Finds

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. 

Halloween Idiot

I am what you might call, a Halloween Idiot.  I invented the term approximately a week and a half ago, as I was frantically arranging my schedule to accommodate trips to the fabric store and to block out time on the sewing machine.  This year we were invited to a Halloween party, and as I was madly sewing one night, I thought, “I’m going through all this crazy effort to sew the PERFECT costume, and everyone else at the party is just going to buy theirs. What’s wrong with me?  I’m a Halloween idiot.”

I blame the start of this costume obsession on my mother because when I was a kid and all of my peers were wearing ugly plastic jumper costumes with plastic face masks and emblems on the chest of what you were supposed to be, my mother sewed us homemade costumes.  We’d walk up to each door and wow the neighbors. 

My costume obsession was cemented as soon as I learned to sew.  First, I was a mermaid (revisited with gusto and success a few years later), Cleopatra, Catwoman (a little risqué I must admit, even though I was completely covered), a Wild Thing (from the children’s book - complete with paper mache head), a medieval lady, Miss Spider (another children’s book and another paper mache head) which won me a gift certificate to dinner, by the way, and most recently before this year, 5 members of the cast of Jimmy Neutron, each with his or her own very large paper mache head.  What can I say?  I like to sculpt, and my medium is paper mache.

So this year, when we were invited to this Halloween party, I was kind of excited to flex my costume-making muscle.  But I don’t have a lot of time (this writing is subtracting from my snooze time, for example).  My dear spouse suggested we be Sonny and Cher, and I said,

“No way, I’m not going to be Sonny.”

Why do I think like that? 

I decided to be a pirate.  It could be a nice mixture of creativity and found items.  But of course, I tend to get obsessed with costumes.  I found a jacket in the thrift store and sewed lots of pirate-like trim on it.  I cut down some velour sweatpants so they would show my boots (I really liked that sweatsuit, but you know, sacrifices had to be made).  I made two necklaces, and then I made the lace-up vest from scratch, which came out great (thank you dad, for helping me with those grommets!) but was a pain in the ass with boning and lining and 3 broken sewing machine needles.  And here’s a secret that hints at my obsessiveness… I truly considered making the sword out of wood, then sanding and painting the blade silver and gluing large rhinestones on the hilt… wouldn’t that have been AWESOME?  But ultimately, I’m just not THAT nuts.

So in the end, the costume really did come out great.  Lots of people said so.  I hate those times when you have to explain what you are…  I always want it to be PAINFULLY OBVIOUS what I am.  The irony is, in my pride and glory I drank ONE nice, large Cosmo and had to be taken home by my husband after only about two hours.  Some pirate, eh?  I am truly a Halloween Idiot.