O.K so the plan was to take a picture of my husband in his full costume but I forgot and now he is sleeping and I have no time. I will make this up to you later but right now…. got to fly. So here is the idea:
C is for cookie that's good enough for me!
This costume started with a mask that I friend brought me from Venice, Italy. It was a blank Zanni mask (commedia del’ arte). I already have a decorated Zanni mask that I brought home myself and the problem with wearing the for Halloween is that you are a mute… you have no mouth. Now since I like to get my drink on on Halloween this does not work. So for this costume I decided to cut away the mouth… totally ruining the Zanni archetype. I always wanted to do a flapper costume for myself but I had a hard time deciding what to do with it but after I finished the mask, then my pallet was set and the rest just flew together.
The trimming on the dress is all from my day job. Oh, except that I found the cool feather brooch (at the waist) at a rummage sale and the lace inset I pillaged off a thrift store dress. The skirt is composed of squares of fabric that are suspended by one corner all layered up.
Getting into the final stretch here. Since we are in the insects vein I thought it appropriate to show you this butterfly even though I did not make it.
Again this girl TOTALLY amazes me with her creativity and ideas. She wants me to make her a peacock costume where all of the feathers SNAP up with the pull of a cord otherwise lay gracefully like a Peacock tail… I’ll keep you posted if I have any break throughs on this. She has been talking about that for years. Anyways, she had a friend air brush these (six foot) wings and we stitched up her a body, of course she really wanted a round molded abdomen but I don’t do those the day before Halloween!
The little shrug that you see in the pictures that the wings are attached is a piece I use often, you can also see it in the bee costume. Basically it is two sleeves attached at center back, very useful!!
Looking at these pics I realize I own a left handed (like me) air brush but my husband traded his air compressor years ago so I have not tried my hand at this… maybe that is what I should ask for for my birthday! Tangent (not halloween related)-I am also looking for a thermal fax (for screen printing) if anyone has good suggestions.
O.K. so not so spooky, I have finished the costume that I a being payed for, which will pay for MY Halloween costume. It is almost done as well, so is Dave’s costume. All and all I feel like I am in good shape. I am nervous to use Spirit Gum as I have only ever required other people (actors) to use it, and have never put it on my own face. Also I forgot to buy Spirit Gum remover and I don’t dare go to the costume store today as it is sure to be a ZOO. Hopefully I can get it off with out (or else I go to work on Saturday with facial hair). Whatever.
Today’s costume has been featured on this blog before here . I really think it is some of my most clever work as it is comfortable and totally trans-formative. It appropriately fits in with the my cartoony costumes and has become a sort of theme for me this year. This costume has had a very buzzy year:
This year the costume is being rented by a good friend of mine for her daughter- funny thing is the bee butt served as a beer holder at Burning Man so she had to stitch that back up and fix the stinger because… well like I said Buzzy year, Buzzy year.
Since we did a hugely bankable cartoon yesterday I though we would do a hugely bankable comic today. Bat Man and Robin. This costume works best if the female is short- sorry I mean petite with short hair so that she look more like the the robin sidekick character.
I DID NOT make this set of costumes it was rented from Champions. They knew that I go big for Halloween so they went all out too. My favorite part is the Bat Man Briefs. Next year I should cut my hair and make more muscle suits and me and Dave should go as super heroes… is that too Comicon-y??
Since we talked about the pattern (McCalls 8953) being the only adult animal costume I wanted to say a few more things. First, I had to elongate it for a 6’3″ frame and second, I always extend the neck down (on the hood) another couple of inches so there is a good over lap. I attach the hood with snaps so it is removable because if the hood hangs it can be kinda choking depending on how much weight the hood has on it. If there is wired ears, EL wire and the battery packs then it could weigh five pounds or so and it pulls the whole costume up and back in the front. Sorry, I am all geeked out on it right now, I’ll stop. Anyways here is another time that I used the animal costume:
Yep, take a look at coat, that's where your going puppy!!
I think there's enough to do a full length coat here!!
O.K. this costume was comissioned by a friend for Burning Man not Halloween but it is still a costume I like to call Radio-Active Bunny.
So Matius (pictured here) pretty much designed this at the shop. But Burning Man encourages you to light everything so he found this stuff called electroluminescent wire (EL Wire)which is battery-operated neon wire. This was my first attempt at ever using it and now I own probably 15 yards of it that I have used in various ways… mostly at burning man. Totally addictive. It has changed the look of Burning Man forever! This is not a very good picture of what this stuff can do because you hardly see the glow but trust me, at night, it’s totally wicked!!
On a side note- if you ever want to make an adult fuzzy animal costume and don’t want to draft a pattern there is only one commercial pattern that I can find McCalls 8953. I have made my husband numerous creatures out of this pattern.
So you have seen the Beta Fishies. My friend who does not sew and is not so crafty (she does hair) was inspired by the fish heads and she totally amazed me with this:
THE JELLYFISH!!! It was awesome. She probably used ten balls of yarn and that is just a piece of foam core on her head. Now it is kind of a challenge to one up each other every year… yeah baby!!
Sorry I did not do a countdown yesterday…. way to busy to even look at the computer. And I have a feeling that this costume won’t get as much attention as the last two because there is no nakedness involved but it is one of my favorites.
O.K so me and Dave are GOOFBALLS!! We like it that way and won’t change that for the world. The Beta Fish Heads were one of the hardest costumes for me because I had to hand sew the entire head because you cannot get two inch-thick pieces of foam under a presser foot. I tried and nope. These guys also look fabulous out in the Black Rock Desert.
While I was going through costume pictures I found one of the first Halloween together back in 1999. I did not realize that we had a picture of us as Olive Oil and Popeye.
I forgot how AWFUL Popeye’s muscles look (yeah, that is what that thing on his arm is). They aren’t even muscles, there just wads of fiberfill crammed into a nylons with crotch cut out for his head. I am embarrassed that I thought that this was alright. I remember them looking particularly odd under black lights because the fiberfill glows.
I am finding this picture is especially fitting because this year I am attempting another built-from-scratch muscle torso (for myself) and I must say my skills has grown by leaps and bounds…
No nipples yet because I have a lady in California covering buttons for me for that just got buttons back and they are too small, but at least I won’t glow like I am radioactive under black lights. I just feel stronger with this costume on…I just realized one super hero secret, it really is in the costume. I am not going to be a super hero, or a naked man… but a God of Greek descent so stay tuned!
P.S. If you are wondering… I did promise my husband that I would make the bottom half of the Naked Man costume, big needle sculpted penis, balls and all, for Burning Man 2009.
Hippy Long Stockings 