Category Archives: costumes

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone on this side of the country is safe and dry! Here in Boston we had tons of rain and wind yesterday but it’s suspiciously sunny and dry now.

We celebrated Halloween this weekend with a little too much vodka. And now I’m sad that my favorite holiday is mostly over. I had been wracking my brain for over a month and couldn’t for the life of me think of what I wanted to be for Halloween. It wasn’t until the morning of the Halloween party while Boyfriend and I were wandering around a thrift store that we both happened the find the perfect alterable garments for a couples’ costume.

Anddd here’s what we came up with!

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I tore up the top a bit to make it more ratty, and that skirt used to be ankle length. I cut the top off and gathered the bottom, mostly in the back, to create a faux-bustle effect.

Boyfriend did his all on his own! The costumer in me swells with pride.

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And here is Boyfriend being pervy. <3

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Have a great Halloween everybody!

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Mad Men florals

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Sometimes I decide to do crazy things like make a dress in one day. Sometimes it’s fine because the reason for rushing has more to do with the excitement of working on it than a deadline. Other times it’s because I have a Mad Men party to go to the next day and had completely forgotten to make something to wear to it.

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This was one of the latter.

I thought I was planning ahead, I had a Betty Draper dress all picked out to replicate (and by replicate, I mean loosely. I’m not a huge fan of the pointy boob thing and I really can’t wear a skirt that long), and I even ordered a lovely vintage 1960s dress pattern on Etsy. I did everything but remember to buy fabric and, you know, start sewing it.

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It was a bit of a stressful day, but luckily the pattern was pretty basic (despite missing the instructions!) and I managed to cobble together this lovely thing.

I even had time leftover to make this poofy monstrosity to go under it! See how un-poofy it is without it? A miracle, I tell you. 14 yards worth of miracle.

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I used this tutorial.

And now I want to make that pretty blue dress Jane wears. The one with the gorgeous tie collar.

Uh oh. This is a dangerous path.

What’s your favorite Mad Men dress?

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Katniss

It’s been a loong time since I’ve posted anything costume-related, hasn’t it?

Well, here you are then: a costume replica! Katniss Reaping dress

I read Hunger Games a few months ago and pretty much fell in love. I knew the film version wasn’t going to be as good as the books so I made Boyfriend read the book before we went to go see it. I still think the book was tons better but I have to admit they did a pretty decent job with the movie version!

That said, I wasn’t a huge fan of a lot of the costumes, especially the ones of the other tributes during the parade. A lot of them seemed too much like elementary school play costumes.

Katniss Reaping dress

Anyways, the point is, I absolutely adore the dress Katniss wears to the Reaping. I thought it was very true to the way it was described in the book and even as I sat in the theatre I had a sinking feeling that I was going to be on a rabid hunt for light blue linen.

And then one day I was wandering around the fabric store looking for floral cotton when I happened to walk by the linen section where they had the exact shade of blue I needed in a linen/rayon blend, which is exactly what I’d wanted to use!

I had a vague idea of how I wanted to make it but I wasn’t entirely sure it would work. For the bodice I used the Darling Ranges bodice (haha, totally shocking right?) but made widened the shoulder parts to about 8.5″ for the gathering. I also raised the neckline on the back bodice piece a bit and widened the shoulder a bit.

The skirt was drafted by tracing the skirt of an existing dress, nothing fascinating. And since there are no buttons on the skirt, I added a side zip.

Katniss Reaping dress

I’m pretty happy with how this turned out! Boyfriend even recognized where it was from so that’s a good sign.

(Although to be fair his first guess was “that one movie with the famous kiss scene.”)

(On the other hand, he is a boy and that dress is also blue.)

(I’m talking about The Notebook in case anyone is lost.)

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Happy Halloween

I did manage to scrape together a last minute costume yesterday. Boyfriend and I had plans to go to a party hosted by his school at a club downtown, but neither of us had had time to discuss or put together a costume until the day of.

Still, I think we did pretty well!

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Dwight K. Schrute and a Schrute Farms beet. 

He bought his entire outfit at a thrift/costume shop and I picked out a purple dress at Forever21 and plucked some leaves and tied them to a headband. The sticker on my side is a Schrute Farms logo like those stickers that come on veggies. 🙂

Sidenote: IT’S SNOWING!! I’ve never lived anywhere where it snowed!! There are literally bits of ice falling out of the sky!! Thisissocool.

Guys, I’m freaking out a little.

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Harry Potter squee halp yee!

Call me a dork but I cannot for the life of me decide what to wear to see the last Harry Potter movie next week. (I bought tickets last night and have been flipflopping on what to wear ever since. How I do suffer with these dilemmas.)

Option #1 is the dress. My sister thinks I should go with this one, and I’m kind of leaning toward it just slightly. Except sitting through a two hour movie in a chiffon dress is not exactly the definition of comfort. Except it’s the last Harry Potter movie so comfort schmomfort. I once went to a Lord of the Rings premiere in a full length elf gown, complete with a velvet cape. But no one needs to know about the days when I was super cool.

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But then there’s the sweater! This was the sweater that I saw in the Deathly Hallows Part 1 that made me pick up knitting! I feel like it would only be appropriate to wear it to see Part 2.

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And then of course there’s the Gryffindor scarf but I might drape that around Boyfriend’s neck when he’s not looking.

HALP!

 

 

 

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