100 days to Halloween Shoot

I’m trying to get back on the regular-posting-train, I swear! I’ve been busy with teaching dance camps and sewing. I have some exciting news on that front, but for the moment let me share with you a quick photo shoot I pulled together to celebrate the official 100 days to Halloween countdown.  (Y’all know I live for this )

 

This was a quick costume, the pieces created at different times. It’s vaguely inspired by the turn of the century Edwardian gowns, but obviously with a modern goth flare. The new underbust corset is the piece that initiated the whole dress.

 

Our Halloween theme this year is going to be a witch’s town. We’ve decided to call our fictional town Dreadfell Hollow and this seemed to be the perfect way to introduce our theme. 

How fabulous is that pearl collar? I inherited it from my late grandmother. It’s faux pearls, but that makes me more comfortable using it for costuming purposes. Here I think it looks like a spider web made of pearls. 

Hair styled by the fabulous best friend. I certainly can’t do this ^, I get fed up with the weight of my hair and usually quit. here’s a tip, if my hair looks nice you can probably assume my friend was behind the scenes styling! 😉

Realized now that I failed to get a close up of the corset. It  has an adorable pattern of dancing skeletons on it and will shortly be available on my Etsy page.

Which, by the way, recently surpassed 20 sales! HUZZAH. (hey little steps are important!)

Not So Scary and Disney!

To finish up on all that happened in October here’s my post about the Birthday Disney trip!

My best friend and I just happen to have a birthday a day apart, I’m the 25th and she’s the 26th, this year she put together an amazing birthday trip to Disney where we also attended Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.

The cool thing about NSS? You’re allowed to dress up! Obviously we weren’t passing up that chance!

I kid you not, we agonized for months about what to wear but in the end we had a stroke of genius and decided on Once Upon A Time characters. My friend as Regina, the Evil Queen, and I as Zelena, the Wicked Witch and evil (psychotic) half sister to Regina. A third friend accompanied us on this trip and at the last moment decided to accompany us in our theme and go as Rumplestiltskin. She wore the Rumplestiltskin coat I made a year ago but I had to make the Regina and Zelena costumes from scratch.

This was the dress my friend chose:

And this is Zelena’s main dress:

I toned down those weird hip pads but other wise followed the costume design.

And here is where I confess, I have almost no pictures of the finished products. I finished my dress at 11:30 the night before (and we left at 4:00 in the morning!!) and promptly fell into bed. I do have this one picture of Regina’s riding dress during its construction, half of it’s pinned and it’s missing buttons but you can see the general idea:

Minus the lace dickie she wears at the neck.

 The night of the event turned 0ut to be sadly rainy. We had fun no matter the weather but it didn’t make for great photo taking weather! We had a picture professionally taken in front of the castle but I havn’t gotten my hands on it yet!

Here’s one picture my friend snapped of me in my costume while we ate in Gaston’s Tavern. The rain had beaten down my hair so I gave up and put it in a bun to keep it out of the way.

 

The castle lit up while we awaiting the Villains show, hosted by the Sanderson sisters!!!!

And a picture of my dream home, taken earlier in the day. (AKA the Haunted Mansion)

But then there was something the really excited me. I found dresses!

We stopped in the Hall of Presidents and to my delight found two reproductions on display:

Reproduction of one of Martha Washington’s dresses. I wonder if the original dress was once black?

Reproduction of one of Ida Mckinley’s dresses

They also had a dress from a more modern first lady but eh, who cares about modern dresses.

The next day while we made our way through the line to the great movie ride I came across this gem:

Rose’s sinking coat from Titanic, this is the actual garment worn in the movie.

There were several other pieces on display but the line was moving too fast and I had to run to catch up with my friends so I didn’t see what they were :(.

We stopped in Epcot which is a place I’ve always enjoyed. however, I was IMMENSELY angry to find that the Norway section has been turned into Frozen-ville. A place that’s supposed to be dedicated to culture has been taken over by the most irritating movie to come out in this decade. If they had put the frozen related ride and shops in the Magic Kingdom I would not have cared, that’s what that park is for. But Epcot?!? I wanted to scream to Odin and rampage the place.

I did get this picture of a cool viking statue. Because Viking.

Notice the little birds perched on the scabbard?

I promise to do a proper photo shoot of the Once costumes soon!

The Annual October Sewing Panic

So. Many. Things. To stress about!

Less than a month till my first show. Do I have enough wares? Will I be ready? Will anything actually sell? Should I put more stuff on Etsy or reserve it as stock for the show? And if it doesn’t sell at the show will it be too late to sell on Etsy because the Halloween costume shopping season will be over?

On top of this plethora of worries there’s the ‘normal’ Halloween sewing madness going on. This year my best friend is taking me to Disney World to attend the Not So Scary Halloween Party (which, despite its lack luster name, actually sounds awesome!) Costumes are allowed so obviously we are taking full advantage of this and I am sewing two entire gowns for the event. More on those to come!

Just because I apparently like to test myself to the limit, we decided at the last moment to have a Haunted House at our house this year in our backyard. There are costumes to make, props to create, scenes to set, scripts to write and the ‘actors’ and helpers keep bailing on me!!

Oh well, who needs sleep anyway?

With all this weighing on me, every finished piece feels like a small victory. My latest completed piece is particularly notable to me  because I finally feel comfortable with sewing corsets. I mentioned my corseting troubles back here https://dancingseamstress.wordpress.com/2015/08/15/corset-drafting/

I needed a break from pirate so I dug out some scraps of cotton and on a whim made this Autumn inspired corset, which turned into a full Autumn Fairy Dress.

My self-drafted pattern is much improved, it’s comfortable and everything stays where they’re supposed *ahem* . I was wary of the steel boning but now I can’t believe I ever tried to get along with out it. If you are getting into corseting, take my advice. Bite that bullet and buy the steel boning. Plastic does not cut it. Yes it’s pricey but it is well worth it.

So comfortable I kind of wish I was keeping it.

Observe how I manage to look serene when I’m actually freaking out because I know I should be working instead of posing.

If you like the look of this outfit check it out on my Etsy shop! There is still time before Halloween!

As for me … well, I guess I better go get to work. You know what they say: You can sleep when your dead after October!

 

 

Halloween Sneak Peek

My floor has disappeared. Well, I guess it’s there somewhere but I can’t find it beneath the piles of fabric and half-sewn costumes! My room has been taken over by Halloween sewing.

Applique detail on a skirt.

 I’ve pretty much finished my viking outfit and one other costume but as predicted a few more have been added to the que.

When I’m not working on Halloween I’m stalking researching agents and trying to keep my hopes up regarding those agents who currently have my queries/pages.

More pictures of costumes to come eventually but for the moment I have to get back to sewing.

The Grey Lady Bustle Dress has been updated —->

This and That

First thing, you may notice a new page over this aways —> I’m going to keep a dress diary on my Halloween gown (or at least, it will probably be my Halloween gown, sometimes my mind changes last minute so who knows, but either way an awesome dress is happening so check it out).

There hasn’t been that much sewing going on in the last week, I help teach a week long dance camp every summer and, after six hours of fifteen or so kids doing hardshoe drills in a small room, the only thing I wanted to do when I got home was lie down with an ice pack on my head. My writing didn’t suffer as badly as I thought it would, I got a couple of queries sent out, my synopsis is mostly rewritten (just need to force myself to proofread it once more) and I even found a half hour to do some real writing before I had to leave in the mornings. 

     I have to admit, teaching kids is not something I really enjoy, but teaching at the camp is a great experience and it also helps me hone my techniques.

(Photo credits to Marie Marzi) 

Next, for those of you who are struggling with querying your novel, here’s an author who offers to critique your query, your synopsis and the first ten pages of your book for $25 http://metteivieharrison.com/ her specialties are YA SF/F. The only thing is there is no information on how to submit your work, maybe y’all will have better luck finding it.

Is anyone else watching the BBCA show The Musketeers? My whole family is loving it, it’s the perfect mix of humor, sword fighting, and hot guys in leather (or ladies in low stays if that’s your preference).

 Asides from all that awesome leather, the costumes (while some are pretty) are mostly a motley array of inaccuracies but since I’m enjoying the show I’m trying not to let it bother me. If you like fun adventure/drama then I would highly recommend the show to you.

On the same note, I tried watching the pirate drama Crossbones … Yawn.

100 Days till Halloween.

 

We are officially in the Halloween pre season! The craft stores are starting to haul out the goods and costumers around the world are turning their attention to this years costuming frenzy.

So what is on my upcoming sewing schedule? Let’s take a look.

Finish my Viking outfit.

Make my mother’s Viking outfit.

Make my brother’s Viking outfit.

Make my costume for Boynton’s Haunted Pirate Fest.

Make my mother’s costume for Haunted Pirate Fest.

Make my main Halloween costume.

Make my mother’s main Halloween costume.

Make various other costumes at the last minute for surprise events/parties.

Make accessories for almost everything.

Not to mention my mother just bought a bunch of fabric so I can make her some skirts. This is the realities of being the only one in the family who knows how to turn on a sewing machine. Virtual slavery.

In light of the enormous amount of work in front of me I’m getting ready to start my main Halloween costume ASAP. If I don’t do it now it will be pushed to the last moment and barely get done as I slave over everyone else costumes. How fair is that since I’m the one doing all the work? Thank you, I’m glad you agree with me.  

All complaining aside though, I LIVE for this. So celebrate! Halloween is coming. (Seriously, go make pumpkin cookies or something.)

I’m too excited about my costume to keep it a secret so next: The Halloween Costume, Revealed!