Costumes (Part I of III)

So this is just the telling part of the costume story. Making of photos as well as finished product photos are to follow.

Megan mentioned she wanted to be something different and imaginative this year. I was just going to be a snowflake again, but I love Halloween too much to wear the same costume two years in a row. So Megan got me thinking. Of course I had some bad ideas ("I know, we could be FEELINGS!") but after I slept on it I came up with three options.

The Fates (ala Greek times minus the oldness and sharing of one eyeball)
The Three Blind Mice (more recognizable as a group, less fun dressing up opportunity)
Three Witches (ala Shakespeare)

We (Megan, Whitney and I) all really liked the Fates idea because it meant we would have some fun and different costumes and accessories. We get to have fun with the dresses, jewelry, makeup and hair.

So I drew up a sketch giving each of us a different greek-style dress with details to tie us together. We went to DI (a very successful trip in fact) and found three black dresses (it was black or white and they didn't have white - we figured the black was more appropriate considering we were the Fates) to use as a base for the costumes. I didn't really know what I was going to do, but I knew we wanted to remain modest and comfortable and not have to worry about shifting and such. Then we bought black sheets and I spent the day draping the sheets and pinning the dresses so we didn't look like we were actually wearing sheets.

Let's take a moment here to realize that this is not an easy task. At all. Sheets have a lot of fabric to deal with and I am in no way a professional (I just thought, "It doesn't look that difficult, I could totally make a toga" and then we did some trial and error). Anyway, the dresses all came out looking great. Each dress has a different style (all pretty accurate with my initial sketch) and a different neckline and I think the styles are flattering for the person wearing them. It probably helped that I just made Whitney and Megan stand there while I pinned and sewed (that's right, they are even all hand sewn in the sloppiest way imagineable) the dresses together and tried to make them still look like they had a figure. I made mine the simplest design since I couldn't do the draping on myself and it's turned out quite nice as well. I still have a bit to sew on that one.

Last night, Megan and I went to Michaels and bought the stuff we needed to make gold jewelry. Different earrings for each of us, a few necklaces for Megan and the props we needed for each of our roles. The Fates each have a different job. One holds the thread of life, another spins it on a spinning wheel and the third cuts the thread when a person's fate is decided (think Hercules).

So we found some sparkly thread for Megan to carry, some cheapo scissors for me and we fashioned a spinning wheel kind of thing for Whitney. The scissors and spinning wheel were spray painted gold and we will wear them around our necks.

Bascially, Megan and I are geniuses because honestly, where does one find a miniature spinning wheel nowadays? So we found a cheap wooden bracelet, used gold ribbon and duct tape to make spokes for a wheel then attached a piece of pointed dowel rod to make a spindle. It looks a little like a snail or a freak fishing pole, but also a little like a spinning wheel so good enough for me.

Anyway, there's the update there. I will be posting photos soon.