costumes | k8et's ramblings

Category: costumes

Halloween!

Filed under: cool shit, costumes, PEX — 4 Comments

October 14, 2009

So I’ve been uber excited today over Halloween costumes. Yup, what can I say….

My first plan was foiled when the costume was out of stock – it may be back in stock Friday, but that’s at the website that had it at a higher cost… and it’s hard to justify spending so much money on a pre-fab costume, that still needs a crinoline and accessories, even if I would wear it at non-Halloween events.

Now my first IDEA had been an awesome handmade Rainbow Brite costume – because I hated the ones I saw for sale online. If I wanted to be broke AND stressed about finishing it from now till Halloween…. Well, I decided I don’t want to do a half assed job on it. I may make it for a burn and use it next Halloween.

Idea #3. I saw a Candy Corn Witch that was cuuuute. But the plus size version? Maybe it’s the model or photography, but it did nothing for me.

However, a handmade Candy Corn costume DOES seem doable, both budget and time wise! I put out a call for help, and my awesome friend Prism (who runs Prism Magic TieDye and Burner Wear out in Reno!) offered me a yellow tutu!

An example of the tutu, not the actual photo of it

A stop at Etsy was very productive – not only am I shopping for Halloween, I am replacing my favorite earrings (lost one last year!)

I also found a cute cheap necklace

Then, a clutch purse!

And I may have gotten a little overexcited and purchased TWO (inexpensive! one was $8 and one was $5!) necklaces… Halloween IS my favorite holiday, and I will wear these again!

Next… Sock Dreams. I avoid this site for most of the year. Free shipping. Socks, tall socks, tights, leg warmers, arm warmers… Yeah, it’s a dream all right!! Disappointed I couldn’t find candy corn print ANYTHING in adult size except short socks, I contacted them for help as their site is massive. They have amazing customer service too 😛 Amanda pointed me towards the only yellow/orange socks they have. And my second choice (even though they contain green) hopped in the shopping cart, as well as cute garters to keep the socks up. (3 items? smallest sock dreams order ever for me!)

Over the knee socks that are the top choice thanks to Amanda… Click to view these on Sock Dreams

Loving these too, I’ll see which works better but trust me, both will get lots of use!

Button garter to hold up socks that want to slip. Maybe the one item that put me over the top in terms of “overdone” and “budget”… *shrug* It’s not like I only dress up once a year!

So now I’m thinking – white blouse (which I have or will buy cheap). Orange underbust corset/waist cincher – only just for appearance not for structural importance. Kinda like this. Made as cheaply as possible… I don’t really want the white shirt showing underneath and don’t know what the top of the tutu looks like, but I’m thinking orange tulle that is sold on the roll could do a shorter layer on top of the tutu. (A friend made a tutu like skirt with these rolls of tulle just tied onto elastic! This will require much less, and it’s only like $3 a roll.)

I estimate about $15 max in fabric and tulle, I have everything else… one evening sewing for the waist cincher… So yeah, I just spent as much as I would have on a pre-made costume and accessories, but many of these things I will wear again in other variations, where the pre-made costume is what it is, and eventually (if it doesn’t fall apart) gets boring after wearing it a few times.

Yeah. And now you know more about my Halloween planning than you ever wanted to know, huh?

By the way, this outfit will be rocking the PEX party, message me if you need info on tickets (being sold in advance over the web, $20 plus fees, and it will sell out!)

What are YOU going to be for Halloween??? 😀

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Quiet, yet not.

Filed under: brimsteam, costumes, fun events, life — 2 Comments

July 23, 2009

I’ve been quiet for a while! Wasn’t really on purpose. I got a head cold, and I’ve been very spacey/introspective for the past few weeks. I needed to slow down, to remember to prioritize and say no… I feel overwhelmed in the summer with the crazy schedules, but yet most everything (except work) is something that I want to do, something that makes my heart sing and refuels me. But I need to have enough down time to recharge or I’m running on empty. No idea where all these gas metaphors are coming from 😛

Not long after I posted about flow, my love posted as well, and you should read it. 😀

Two weekends ago, we went to Dexcon – same people who run Dreamation, the game convention in February. We are truly lucky to have this in our backyard, and took full advantage of the weekend this time.

Friday night, at the last minute, we dressed up steampunk and stopped by a LARP that was created by someone I know – called Brimsteam.

The Dexcon gathering of Brimsteam

While we weren’t there for long, we had an amazing time playing Maddy and Clarke, on a scientific expedition from the University to study plant and insect life in undiscovered lands. Clarke learned to gamble, successfully, and we had a small expedition in a hot air balloon for some sport hunting of astral jellyfish. Yeah, I know. But it was FUN!

Steampunk Self Portrait

We then went to the vampire LARP that we played in February. You know, vampires really aren’t very sociable, especially when you are enemy clans… but we enjoy dressing up and pretending to get along with all the others, and well, the costumes are half the fun 😀

The next day, we went back for board games. Gloom, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and something else… Then we were dragged into $300 Pyramid, where I did better than I ever expected to and won $6 in credit at the vendors room! Played a game of Poison, then went home to change and returned for the continuation of the vampire LARP. (Photo above is from the second night.) Despite staying up late both nights, we returned Sunday – Nate for a game of Magic, and me for something that was overbooked and had no room. But we were roped into a game of Puerto Rico, and then headed out to get to Philly for practice with our fire performance group for Burning Man.

Insert boring long work week, with being sick and lots of unpleasantries.

I was worried my health would prevent it, but I recovered in time for the weekend and on Saturday we caught up with the next playtest of Brimsteam. This time, there was actual Danger! and Excitement! as I got caught in my first gunfight (and hid. yup. I did. Not ashamed to admit it. I AM playing a sheltered intellectual 😛 Not to mention wearing heels in a dark area with steps, I thought I’d kill myself before a bullet could.)

Kaylee and Maddy

12 hours of character creation, game play, fights, downtime with refreshments and gambling, and lots of mystery and mayhem. I can’t wait to do it again. (While I don’t mind the vampire LARP, this is such a different experience and more suited for me personally!)

Kaylee turned out to have a similar education to myself - here we are investigating a bio-luminescent fungus attached to moss that was a key clue to a murder and sabotage plot!

And Clarke gambled. And gambled. And drank and fought and was shot and unconscious for a bit. And gambled.

Unfortunately we are missing the first full weekend of play, as we’ll be out in Reno for Burning Man. But we hope to make it to the one in September, and I only hope it’s not during my cousin’s wedding! 😀

So that’s two busy weekends, with lots of work and rest in between. My added stress is having to significantly purge and reorganize my apartment before some electrical work needs to be done – luckily the date is postponed, but I’m not sure to when, and I have to keep up with it while the crushing pressure is off.

This weekend we’ll be traipsing around south Jersey, seeing some of my love’s friends and family, another conclave rehearsal, and at some point seeing my brother for his birthday. Hope you all are enjoying your summer!

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Dress up

Filed under: costumes, deviants, photos — 2 Comments

June 29, 2009

Remember how much fun it was to go through a box of fun clothes when you were little? Guess what – it still is! I challenge you to not laugh just looking at this… but maybe it’s just because we had so much laughter during the photo shoot that it’s still putting a smile on our faces.

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Costuming Talk

Filed under: costumes, PEX, random stuff — Leave a comment

October 24, 2008

On to more pressing items ;o)

I’m about to go home and finish working on our costumes. Alice in Burnerland and Mad Hatter. Started out just wanting to steampunk it – mine won’t be hugely steampunk (though gears, potions, and goggles are involved) and a bit, funky, so Burner/Playawear covers all 😀 still should be recognizable. Photos coming soon, as I finish more!!

Started with this McCalls pattern – it comes in kids and adult sizes.

The little blue and white dress. I did have a pattern I liked better, but it was $16, and this was on sale for $2. No brainer. It’s actually a very good pattern and results in a quality dress, not a costume level item. Which means more time.

So my modifications… Take the blue dress as shown. Remove the top of apron. Make neckline lower. Decide to wear white corset on top, make neckline even lower, but wearable without the corset and still not flashing people ;o) Skirt will be shorter, above the knee, with a crinolin (hopefully) underneath to make it more full. White eyelet along edge of skirt just because I like it! (If I have enough!)

Apron will have pockets, gears, vials*, chain (ala pocketwatch)…. who knows what else. It’s not done yet.

White wide headband with silver goggles on my head.

Black and white checkered tights, same for wristwarmers, and cute black shoes I wore with my rockabilly costume last year.

One stuffed white rabbit. Hopefully with a vest (hitting kids department!!) and pocketwatch, we’ll see.

I stole the apron ideas from this post in a steampunk LJ comm. (Can’t wait to see her outfit!)

Anyway – blue dress is 90% done – rather than handstitching some lining/hems I’m going to grab some iron on hem tape stuff. Make the crinolin and hem the skirt. Make apron and headband.

Finish pants for Random’s Mad hatter outfit (I only made the hat and pants. Just need to do the waistband/buttonholes/buttons.) Oh – and arm bands and a cravat. He needs to steampunk his teapot that we found, and make a 9/10 sign for his hat.

That’s it for the most part. I need to figure out a purse of some kind for myself (if all else fails just a small bag of blue fabric, unless I find something at Walmart) I keep thinking it’s not much work but worked feverishly for 4 hours last night and not done with the dress… The night before worked 2-3 hours on pants (which were cut and started) and I didn’t get the waistband/buttonholes/buttons done. We’ll see!!

Definitely looking forward to the finished product. 😀

* Also stolen from the LJ post referenced, they will be labeled “Drink Me,” “Cheshire Cat Bitters,” “Jabberwocky Repellant,” or such. Rather than antique bottles, though, mine are test tube shots 😀

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