Monday, October 31, 2016

Happy Halloween from Cuz I Said Sew!

Guys.  I totally half-assed Halloween this year.  Everything from my party to the decorations to the costumes.  Especially the costumes.  Behold my tale of woe.

It starts back in 2014, the year of Wonder Woman and the pirate.  We were laying in bed, playing with our phones, when I came across color pictures from the Addams Family TV show from the 60s.  I made the comment to The Boyfriend that I had always thought Gomez and Morticia would be an excellent couples costume, but let's face it, Morticia is only a slight exaggeration of how I typically dress.  Then the fateful words came from his mouth: "Well then, next year, I will be Morticia and you can be Gomez!"  And so our fate was sealed.

Except that last year, we were not Gomez and Morticia.  Despite our best intentions, the trip to Germany took up so much time and energy that we wore our trachten (his purchased from a department store in Stuttgart).  We also wore those costumes to a 17th century market last spring and we have a Christmas market event his December, so we are definitely getting our mileage out of them.


Then we moved in May.  Honestly, the sewing room was the second room in the house to be mostly functional, with the first being the kitchen.  And, really, I promise, I was sewing, but it wasn't for me, so I didn't really bother to take pictures for the blog.  I made two cloaks for a friend of a friend of The Boyfriend, and did some upholstery projects for his boat.  I also seem to became the Baby Pumpkin Hat Crochet Factory.  I also threw a pretty big (and secret) baby shower for a friend of mine and his wife.

I will apologize for these terrible pictures taken at our party.  They were taken in dim light by an inebriated person.




















So I was left with very little time to do our costumes.  I'm ashamed to say, the only thing I did for mine was make the smoking jacket.  And that started its life as a $8 velvet robe on clearance at Target.  I bought it on a whim, years ago, intending all along to turn it into a smoking jacket, because I am sure it shocks everyone that I would want to own a velvet smoking jacket.  So all I really did here was chop off most of the skirt of the robe.  I intended to do some trim it in burgundy or purple, if I had the time.  Which of course, I did not.

Everything else was in my closet or The Boyfriend's.  I had a black tuxedo shirt in the pictures above and the pinstripe suit.  I wore heeled saddle shoes that I purchased several years ago.  For a mustache, I originally used a stick-on one, but after I sweated that off in five minutes, I drew one on with eyeliner.

I ended up drafting the pattern for his dress from a long-sleeved t-shirt of his and a pair of pajama pants (to get the length and general shape).  My intention had been to make it out of cotton jersey, but he wanted velvet.  I was also going to make it as a two-piece, to make it more comfortable for him, but he said he wanted his dress to resemble Carolyn Jones' as much as possible, so we went with the classic Morticia style.

The tentacles on the bottom were just free-hand cuts and I zig-zagged over the edges to keep them from ravelling.  The organza drapes on the sleeves were also free-handed but I left them unfinished because I wanted them to look a bit distressed.  It ended up fitting him well, but he complained about the lack of pockets all night, and kept saying "how do you dress like this every day?"










I ended up buying a garish ring and a fake cigar.  His necklace is one of mine.  We ended up attending another party after ours and I wore a white button-up shirt and one of ties instead of the black shirt shown here (see below).

Gomez doesn't work as well without Morticia, so I wore a different costume to our work party: the Tenth Doctor from Doctor Who.  I bought the 3D glasses and Converse, but otherwise had the rest.  Believe it or not, this is a different suit.  The Gomez suit was double-breasted and this is single.  The shirt and tie here are the ones I wore for our second party as Gomez and Morticia.  I had the sonic screwdriver because I am a ridiculous fangirl and the psychic paper is just an old checkbook that I stuffed with some printer paper.

And for last party that we are attending tonight, I think I might resurrect my pirate costume.