Lion Tamer Costume Finished!

There she is! Took me long enough, but I'm done!. This outfit will be worn with boats, black pants, my black leotard, and this. It's hard to see, but the black part of the jacket has roses on it to add a touch of texture. The vest is tea-stained to match the fabric I used for the ruffles. Overall, this costume cost me about $28 to make. Could be more, could be less because I was disorganized with my receipts *-.-*

I had pictures of the progress I made, but the files on my memory card are corrupt. I have no idea how to recover them, but luckily, the final result pictures made it.

The pattern I used was not my own, but Simplicity's 2525:

With some minor alterations, I was able to complete this jacket. The main difference is the volume around the arm holes. I took most of the poof out to give the jacket a more masculine appearance and to accommodate for the epaulettes.

I would be careful using canvas for the interfacing. I used more of a duck cloth to provide the interfacing, and it can be quite tight in the elbows. Otherwise, it is fine in the shell, and necessary for the collar.

The armholes are also to small for a girl with arms as big as mine. I made the armholes slightly bigger. I wish I had added more fabric at the end of the sleeves, but it'll do.

The fabrics I used are:
Broadcloth - red
Broadcloth - interfacing
Jacquard - black
Broadcloth - tea-stained white
??? - ruffles (I used someone's old scrap from a garage sale, feels silky)

I'm Not Dead

Wow, how long has it been?! I've been incredibly busy. Not only did I have an insane workload last semester, I'm now in summer school. Still, I'm planning well in advance for my Halloween party! My fall semester is going to be crazier than the last (Physical chemistry, chemical analysis, biophysics, and all their labs. Yikes! I would say pray for me but I'm an aspiring scientist ;P )

I already have this year's theme ready and it's....

EVIL CARNIVAL!!

Yeah, that's right! Evil clowns, hall of mirrors, cotton candy.... that's the plan. I've already been garage saling for some items and have started on my costume. My eyelids can barely stay open right now, so I'll leave it at that. Just expect a couple of updates about the costume I'm making and the awesome garage sale items I've found, plus I'm going to be posting about music, decorations, crafts, and other carnival party goodies.

Alice in Wonderland - Halloween Party Updates

My party is going awesome so far! I calculated the total amount spent, subtracted how much I earned secret shopping for some of the items, and I came to about $18.22. I spending most of my budget on food, I think, since I'm currently making half the decorations out of card decks or papier-mache.

I finally finished my American McGee's Alice costume today! It's pretty much completely done; there are just a couple minor things I want to fine-tune before wearing it on Halloween. It looks pretty close to the picture and I feel I did a great job creating my own pattern for it. Can't wait!

I need to fix the back mostly: the bow's too droopy and the zipper's showing.

On a slightly different note, the funniest thing happened at the grocery store today. I saw a Halloween magazine at the checkout and just decided to flip through it to see if there was anything interesting.... Well, guess what I happened to find? An Alice in Wonderland themed party in there! I was completely floored. Usually when I find Alice themed parties, they are for the summertime and for kids. This is not only for adults, but for Halloween! I had to buy it.

This magazine was a special issue of "Better Homes and Gardens." They had some really cute ideas in there, but I'm probably going to stick with my ideas mostly. You can view part of it online here. They mostly had great food ideas and some decoration suggestions. I liked this one food idea: "Convert finger sandwiches...into saucy playing cards with hearts cut from roasted red pepper slice." That sounds pretty cute. The magazine says I can get the recipes on their website, but for some reason it's not loading properly. I'll have to try again.

One in particular I thought was absurd: "Use a few books to raise one side of an empty china cabinet...Then carefully arrange not-so-good china to look as if it slid topsy-turvy." Umm....I can easily see that falling over and hurting someone...not to mention damage the wall it was resting on.

Update: I have tried a Alice in Wonderland craft from this book! I give improved instructions, as well as pictures of my final results, HERE!


Lots of excitement in regards to Halloween! Working on the Jabberwocky skeleton as we speak!


Posts of Interest:
Alice in Wonderland Music Playlist
Mushroom Decorations