High Holy Day Approaches!

So it's kinda cold out. That means it is now fall of course and with fall comes Halloween- high holy day for costumers. So tonight I'm beginning my three Halloween projects which I'm all very excited about.

     

A friend of mine came to me the other day and presented me with a bit of a challenge. She wants to be the caterpillar from Alice In Wonderland. You know the one that smokes the hookah. So there are two  paths we could go down. One would turn her into a giant blue caterpillar quite literally. The other is a more interpretive approach. Needless to say, I'm leaning to the latter option. I was thinking, not having discussed this with the customer yet, of doing an Indian sort of thing. I was inspired by the hookah and my mind jumped immediately to organza and metallic brocades. After initial sketches it's proving kinda tricky to incorporate the many legs the caterpillar needs. But I think I have a good plan. I'll post my sketches if I ever get to a scanner.

   

For myself and my boyfriend I was inspired at a party one night. We were sitting around his apartment playing Mario Kart when the idea popped into my head to be Mario and Peach. I haven't decided yet if Mario is going to look more realistic or cartoonish. I guess it depends on how Peach comes out, though I'm attempting a more realistic approach for her. Either way, I'm not anticipating much difficulty with his.

 I'm starting Peach tonight with a muslin of the bodice. Since Peach is a bit more modest then convenient, I'm having a spot of trouble finding a good pattern to use for the collar and I don't feel confident enough drafting one from scratch. So I'm attempting to modify Simplicity 4136 (Wizard of Oz inspired). The trouble with this one is that the fabric of the bodice is gathered into the collar piece which won't give me the smooth look I'm going for in the front. It does have the puffy sleeves though. I also bought (for a 1.00! Yay sales!) Simplicity 2813 (Snow White and Cinderella) because I like the shape of the sleeves a little better, and it has a hip poof thing that I want to incorporate into my dress. So we'll see how this goes. I also bought a pair of long white gloves at a local discount store for 2 dollars that I plan to use for this costume.

More Peach inspiration: