Contest: The Big Reveal

Happy Halloween and Merry Samhain!  After a week of hints and numerous great guesses, I am pleased to reveal my costume.

I was Jareth, the Goblin King from Labyrinth.  On the left is the costume I attempted to reproduce.  Jareth wears it in the As the World Falls Down/ballroom scene.  It's a good thing I really like that song, because I had to watch it for reference quite a bit.

I'm not sure why I picked this particular outfit.  Jareth wears about eight or nine different outfits in the movie, all of a very similar style, but this one particularly struck a chord with me.

You guys are good.  Several people were correct, but C Girl's Life guessed the answer first, on Day 3.  And I was afraid that no one would get it.  C Girl, please contact me at spookyseamstress AT gmail DOT com regarding your prize.

Since there were so many guesses, I will also be picking a random winner, which I will announce today or tomorrow.

The patterns I used were all Simplicity: 2172, 3629, 3685, and 4077.  Reviews to come.

Thanks to everyone who participated.  I hope you had as much fun as I did.  I'll definitely do this again next year.

Contest: Day 7 (Last Day)

Today is the seventh and final day of the Guess My Costume Contest.  If you need a refresher on the rules, go here.  Remember that it is in your best interests to enter every day!  You can leave your guess in the comments, or if you can't comment for some reason, you can email your entry to spookyseamstress AT gmail DOT com.

Previous hints:

• The character I will be portraying is from a movie.
• The character I will be portraying is male.
• The Henson Company was involved in this movie.
• George Lucas was involved in this movie.
• The movie came out in the 1980s.
• A member of Monty Python was involved in this movie.

Today's hint:

via Wikipedia

Contest: Day 6

Today is the sixth day of the Guess My Costume Contest.  If you need a refresher on the rules, go here.  Remember that it is in your best interests to enter every day!  You can leave your guess in the comments, or if you can't comment for some reason, you can email your entry to spookyseamstress AT gmail DOT com.

Previous hints:

• The character I will be portraying is from a movie.
• The character I will be portraying is male.
• The Henson Company was involved in this movie.
• George Lucas was involved in this movie.
• The movie came out in the 1980s.

Today's hint:

• A member of Monty Python was involved in this movie.

Contest: Day 5

Today is the fifth day of the Guess My Costume Contest.  If you need a refresher on the rules, go here.  Remember that it is in your best interests to enter every day!  You can leave your guess in the comments, or if you can't comment for some reason, you can email your entry to spookyseamstress AT gmail DOT com.

Previous hints:

• The character I will be portraying is from a movie.
• The character I will be portraying is male.
• The Henson Company was involved in this movie.
• George Lucas was involved in this movie.

Today's hint:

• The movie came out in the 1980s.

Contest: Day 4

Today is the fourth day of the Guess My Costume Contest.  If you need a refresher on the rules, go here.  Remember that it is in your best interests to enter every day!  You can leave your guess in the comments, or if you can't comment for some reason, you can email your entry to spookyseamstress AT gmail DOT com.

Previous hints:

• The character I will be portraying is from a movie.
• The character I will be portraying is male.
• The Henson Company was involved in this movie.

Today's hint:

• George Lucas was involved in this movie.

Contest: Day 3

Today is the third day of the Guess My Costume Contest.  If you need a refresher on the rules, go here.  Remember that it is in your best interests to enter every day!  You can leave your guess in the comments, or if you can't comment for some reason, you can email your entry to spookyseamstress AT gmail DOT com.

Previous hints:

• The character I will be portraying is from a movie.
• The character I will be portraying is male.

Today's hint:

• The Henson Company was involved in this movie.

Contest: Day 2

Today is the second day of the Guess My Costume Contest.  If you need a refresher on the rules, go here.  Remember that it is in your best interests to enter every day!  You can leave your guess in the comments, or if you can't comment for some reason, you can email your entry to spookyseamstress AT gmail DOT com.

Previous hints:

• The character I will be portraying is from a movie.

Today's hint:

• The character I will be portraying is male.

Contest: Day 1

Today is the first day of the Guess My Costume Contest.  If you need a refresher on the rules, go here.  Remember that it is in your best interests to enter every day!  You can leave your guess in the comments, or if you can't comment for some reason, you can email your entry to spookyseamstress AT gmail DOT com.

Today's hint:

• The character I will be portraying is from a movie

Reminder: Contest

Remember that the contest starts tomorrow.  The rules can be found here, if you need a refresher.

Contest Rules

1. The point of the contest is to guess my Halloween costume.  I will be giving out one hint a day, for seven days.  The contest will start on October 24 and run through October 30.  The winner(s) will be revealed on October 31.  The contest will run from midnight to 11:59 PM on the US eastern time zone.
2. Anyone that does not know me in IRL may enter the contest.  You do not have to be a follower of my blog, or even have a blog of your own.  You do not have to promote the contest on your blog or through social media (though if you would like to do so, please go ahead).  I have the comments pretty open, but if you use the anonymous comment feature, please leave me some sort of way to identify and get in contact with you.
3. If you can't leave a comment for some reason, you can email me your guess for that day to spookyseamstress AT gmail DOT com.  I will post the email entries at the end of the day.
4. You may ask questions about that day's hint or leave your suggestions for future hints in comments/email.
5. One entry per day per person.
6. The first correct answer wins.  In the event that no one guesses correctly, I will pick the closest answer.  If no one is close, I will pick the funniest/most creative answer or pick someone at random.  If there is a large turnout, there might be multiple winners.
7. It is in your best interest to guess every day!

Daisy-Head and Confused

via Wikipedia

I've mentioned the Daisy-Head Mayzie costume I've made a couple of times, and the blog gets a lot of search traffic for that, so I figured it was time that I showed it off.

A friend of mine asked me to make the costume for her.  It was a last minute thing and we didn't have any time to ensure a good fit.  The shoulders ended up being too wide for my liking, and the torso too long, but considering the rush, I was pretty happy with the fit, and so was she (and she was the one who had to wear it, so that's what matters).

The pattern I picked Simplicity 2325 (view B).  I went with cotton for cost reasons and because it was supposed to be worn to an outdoor event in August.  While it looks like I changed the pattern a lot, most of it is pretty superficial.  IIRC, the bodice has separate pieces for the pinafore and the dress, so I simply omitted the pinafore pieces.  The skirt is actually all pinafore, so I just made that in the dress fabric, leaving the ruffle off.

The collar and sleeve scalloped edges probably caused the most problem because I had trouble getting them to lay flat.  I made several patterns and muslins before I got one that worked.

This pattern took more time than you would think that it would.  Due to the bulk of the skirt and the gathering involved, sewing it to the bodice was cumbersome and time-consuming.    It wasn't hard, per se, but I certainly wouldn't recommend this pattern if you want something you can knock off in an afternoon.  The difficulty her would probably be for an advanced beginner.

The contest rules go up tomorrow and the contest starts October 24.  I hope you'll be participating!

Poe-Pourri

This week's post is my costume from two years ago: Edgar Allan Poe.  I know, I am a cliche.  It is difficult to find modern female sewing patterns that emulate the look of late-Georgian and early-Victorian men's clothing.  I had considered buying men's patterns and adapting them to fit me, but that seemed like too much work.  Another option was sewing men's patterns and padding or binding my curves which applicable.  In the end, I decided that it would be better to use women's patterns: if any of the pieces turned out well, I could use them in my daily wardrobe, I could see the idiots I worked with at the time making inappropriate comments about my body if I disguised my figure, and I had never tried to turn a male pattern into a female (and it was not the time to experiment). While I was searching for patterns that would work for this costume, I happened across Butterick 4815, a double-breasted vest.  I sewed this in a beautiful brocade of black, gold, green, purple, and magenta.  The pattern featured birds of paradise and other Asian-inspired designs.  I wish I had bought more of this brocade because it is utterly stunning.  The vest itself isn't too different from any other vest pattern.  The changes I made to this pattern were raising the front a little so there was an extra row of buttons (their vests came up higher back in those days) and put actual welt pockets in (which meant I could wear my pocket watch). While questing for patterns, I hit dead end after dead end with the big four.  This caused me to resort to more obscure pattern companies for the rest of my costume.  Most of these actual ended up being reproductions of authentic late-Georgian or early-Victorian era patterns. The next item I made was the coat.  I wasn't too pleased with this.  I think it makes me look bulky.  Some of that was probably the fabric selection (taffeta), and some of it was probably that I was wearing it over a vest and blouse.  The pattern here is Buckaroo Bobbins Outing Jacket.  But the pattern has such potential that I think I would like to try this again as a non-costume garment in a different fabric.  The sewing of this one was a little tough because some of the lines were mismarked.  Additionally, because there are so many variations on this pattern in one envelope, it made following the directions a bit tricky.  IIRC, the only change I made here was to lessen the poofiness of the sleeves.  I would recommend this for an intermediate, and I bet it would be a great addition to a steampunk costume. May I also state that I spent hours sewing on this gold trim by hand. The blouse is Laughing Moon 103, view A.  This is meant to be worn with a corset; given that I was cross-dressing, I did not wear one.  The fit was still pretty good, even without the corset, but it was a little tight around the neck. I expected it to come down further than it did (it ended at the waist), so it was fortunate that the vest covered this up.  I won't be wearing this blouse again for that reason.  This is another pattern i would recommend for an intermediate.  It does have boning (which I omitted because I don't need the support), so bear that it mind if you want to sew this. The pattern I bought for the pants, and fully intended to use, was Laughing Moon 106.  I ran out of time and never got to the pants.  What I am wearing is my tuxedo pants from Burda 7986.  (I will post pictures of the tuxedo at some point in the future.) The reason I ran out of time to make the pants is because I was busy making myself the hat band (not featured) and tie at the last minute.  I had commissioned someone to make those for me, as well as gloves, on Etsy, and they flaked.  This led me to staying up until midnight the night before, and getting up at 4 AM the day of, to finish these last minute items. The raven is from Etsy, and so are the tie pin and earrings.  The boots are Vegetarian Leather combat boots.  This bottle of absinthe I gave to my husband as a birthday present.  It should surprise no one that I already owned the Poe tome and the top hat.

It's My Party, and I'll Cry if I Want To

In the time I've had this blog (about eight months), I have made a lot of apologies for not posting as much as I feel I should be. First, it was the havoc of leaving my old job and starting the new one. Then it was my allergies. My current excuse is I was super busy making my Halloween costume, which I could not reveal because of the upcoming contest. The plan was to post my old costumes until the contest started. But because I was sewing so frantically and prepping for the party, that didn't leave me any time for blogging.

My party was last night. I just barely finished my costume - I did the final hand-sewing about an hour before the party started. I didn't get everything done for the party that I wanted. But it doesn't matter now - the shindig was last night. So while there are some alterations I would like to make before Halloween proper, I should have some free time for blogging (finally).

 So once again, sorry. There should be posts this week and the contest will start October 24 and run through October 30, with the winner(s) revealed on Halloween! I will post the rules soon too.

Catfishing for Compliments

Readers have likely surmised that I enjoy a good pun (and bad ones as well).  I had it in the back of my head for a while to dress Theora as a catfish for Halloween.  I found the idea utterly hilarious, though I knew she would hate it.  Last year, I found the time to finally get around to the costume. The pattern here is Simplicity 3667. I used D, the dinosaur, but omitted the legs, cuffs, and spikes.  I added fins and a sad looking tail (you can see it flopped to the side in the bottom picture). Theora is Siamese, which tend to be a smaller breed, so I used the smallest dog size (based on the spine measurement).  I had to cut the leg holes bigger, but it was a pretty good fit. This was an easy costume; I knocked it out in an afternoon.  The tiny little legs openings might present a bit of a challenge, but it's no more difficult than baby clothes.