Pins and Needles

I always start a costume by pinning it to the dummy.I stare at it for a while and think about what I might be able to do, and then after days or weeks or longer I start cutting. I have a pattern for a bodice laid out, which the cats have attacked, and I am not close to cutting it yet. I feel I'll need a lining for the bodice to reinforce it and the idea of looking in the closet for material (And you can bet I have it) wears me out. I am sorry for the sad turn of my life, grief takes all the creativity out of me. I hope I can keep on with my plan, which has tipped over into being "Pink Princess" which is more my style as giant fairies are probably frightening to young children.

Is there a market?

I wonder if I could find work as a freelance costumed face painter? I am totally artistic, which is something that hasn't done me much good most my life. I always figured I'd be a tattoo artist someday if I wasn't playing guitar in a band.
What shall I do when I grow up?

More Ideas

I think of all the things that mothers of young children can do- complain, hate my work or me and take me to small claims court for their $30 back. It makes me think, big deal! I've been through worse!
Working on costumes will be fun, marketing myself will be hard. I had a kind of idea about this years ago when, at work, dressed as Snow White, I was asked to pose for pictures for old ladies' grand daughters. I do make a hell of a Snow White. The pink fairy, well, that might not be so awesome but I think it would appeal to a certain element. 8 year old girls. I'm an 8 year old girl in a 45 year old body!

Ideas

I am filled with ideas! The Pink Fairy (I don't know, that's more like a working title but it would appeal to 6 year olds, possibly) would be so much fun. I've been all over the net looking at facepainting tutorials and pictures and supplies. I think it might be one of those things that is...laying my hands on the axle of my destiny. Entertainment! That's me!

Epiphony

Ah, yes. It struck me as I was driving to Missouri in the middle of the night, how to combine all the things I love to do to make a living.
I love costumes, I love art, I love making a living. I plan on making a children's birthday party business where I dress as Sno-you know who, copyright etc. etc., Marie Antoinette, the Pink Fairy, or any other cool costume and do facepainting, entertaining, and charming the hell out of adorable little birthday kids.
It's like....I thought, OMG! I would LOVE that!!!!!!!!!
Plans, plans, plans.
Pink Fairy party, with face painting and wings for the little girls. I think I could do this, Jane. I really do.
I really am.

The only photo on existence

I got the picture from work and hope I can post it. I can't believe I didn't take any myself, and to be honest, I thought about it but it seemed like such a hassle. I must have been out of my mind.

Surprise

I won $100 for my costume at work- which was a total surprise as I didn't enter the contest. I was sneaked in by a fellow employee. I didn't think I should be in the running because I was on vacation and I was only there two hours and really, it's like me playing a tennis match against Serena, only, I'm the Serena of Halloween costumes, and the rest of the world is the me of tennis. None of that made much sense, but I have a deep sense of guilt and the feeling that I'm a weirdo because I sew big elaborate costumes.
I have the picture of my costume at work, but there were problems emailing it home, and with all the firewalls I can't get Blogger at work to add the only existing photo of me in full makeup. Great. But trust me, it was pretty cool. I do have a pic of me in the makeup with no wig, but, uhm...yuck! Maybe I'll post it. It's pretty horrific.

Pink!

My dress form is swathed in pink satin and I have stared at hundreds of flapper dresses, photos and costumes. I swore I'd never make a big costume like Marie again, and that's my plan. At least not for several years. I do plan on taking some pics of the outfit after I get un-sick of it, but that'll have to wait.

Epic Fail

I am sitting here shaking my head over my complete lack of pictures. Good going Jane. Moron! (I almost wrote Mormon, perhaps inspired by their new muffin calandar.
Daylight Savings time, of all things, has me up at 6am. I hate this, it's hard for me to adjust. On the upside, I have pictures of everyone at work who dressed, though I have yet to hear who in our department won the much coveted skeleton trophy.
So maybe it wasn't such a failure, because I got some beautiful pictures of my friends at work. Just now Bug said, get your costume on and I'll take some pictures of you in it. Ah, dear bumbling idiot, I do love him. I don't want to look at that thing for several weeks. But, maybe it would be nice to have to good pictures of it. What a load of work.
Next year, pink flapper! I am almost done with it--no, not really, just possessed of a lot of pieces. And that is really sick.

OMG

I got pictures of everyone in costume but me. Dear Lord what was I thinking. Eh. Barely made i t out of the house. I'll put it on some time but it wont be the same. Dumbass.

This is That Day

So, despite being sick with the mega-barfs Thursday and Friday, or maybe because of it, I might be able to wear the costume this time around. If I started finishing right now....
I had a lot of adjusting to do on the skirt. Had to finish hat (I did dye the feathers....so-so. I might have let them soak longer but I was afraid of damaging the feather. They blow-dried ok. I don't know that I would do it again) and wig. Had to CHARGE MY CAMERA BATTERIES!!!!!
Whew, got the charger plugged in.
I am happier with the wig than I was the first time I wore it. I bought a strip of white doll hair and mixed it in with the existing thing- which, alas, was getting a trifle yellow with age. Sad!
It's funny, I keep thinking of that part of Marie Antoinette when Kirsten Dunst poses in front of Leonard and asks, "It's not too much?" and the hairdresser and his assistant immediately shake their heads, murmuring, oh, no! Not too much! Because it is too much. Too much by far. And yet, how can we resist?
I often ponder Coco's advice to pause before you walk out the door and remove one accessory. I nod to this wisdom, knowing it's in good taste, but this makes me think about fashion and if I walked in to a 1700's tea party wearing a nice pair of slacks, jacket, blouse, cute shoes and bracelet (the necklace went during a pause at the door..) it would look as ridiculous as the woman showing up for work in a robe a la francaise and two foot wig. Wig-woman would pause at the door and run for just one more ring, or an anklet, or some more lip pomade.

Feathers!

I am in a quandary! I have some lovely ostrich feathers I used for the original Marie in 06. They are white, and this costume is black and gold. Dyeing them is what I plan to do but I have combed the internet and developed a lot of fears. I read that Rit dye (the kind I have on hand) isn't recommended, then I read that it is as long as you prepare with hot water and then dye the feathers in room temperature water and blow dry them on 'cool' to prevent clumping when you're done. I have looked at the Rit website and though it details the possibility of doing feathers the place where instructions should be does not exist. So, I am going to try it, after thinking about it half the night, because the hat for this outfit must have feathers and while white might work, I would prefer the black. I am quite pleased with some of my work, which would horrify anyone who really knew what they were doing. But my husband always says, It doesn't know how it got there, whenever I try something really bizarre and unusual to get a result. Just like my knitting- I purl with my thumb a lot and people who see me are puzzled, but I am a quicker knitter because of it!

Costumes Cost Money

I like to sew. I particularly enjoy sewing ruffles and ruching, flounces and bows and lines of beads and pearls....the kind of sewing that goes on things you can't wear around town on a normal day. So I make Halloween costumes of historical figures..I've done Marie Antoinette costumes 3 times in my life and this is the last one. I promise, honey! No more knocking things off end tables test driving my 'pocket hoops'. No more rigging things up on my bar stool dress form in the livingroom because, I NEED MORE ROOM! I'm going to make less huge things from now on. I promise.
That said, I need to finish the one I'm working on now. A black and gold mess, hopefully looking like 1770's but done with foam and tulle and $2 a yard costume satin from WalMart. Why spend a lot of money? You wear it one day. Then you have to store it, then you lend it to a friend to wear it on Halloween next year, then you give it away to someone who's into Renaissance Faire stuff. What else can you do?