#78: Birthday Week, Costumes, and Halloween Surprises!

Celebrate good times, come on! :)

This has been a fun and busy week for me. Last Wednesday was my dating anniversary, which we celebrated at a Masquerade Murder Mystery dinner.

Masquerade Murder Mystery Dinner

 And I won best costume!

Best Dressed!

I also had a Harvest Festival at my work at which I buzzed about! I found all the materials at a thrift store and the 99 Cents Only Store totaling less than $7.

Bzzzzzz...

A lovely bee!

This Wednesday was also my BIRTHDAY! For that, my husband surprised me with dinner and some time at miniature golf where the original Karate Kid was filmed, and a video game arcade!

Golf 'n Stuff

Birthday girl!

I didn't have enough power behind my swing...

He had too much power behind his swing!

 

Queen and King of the castle!

Mario Kart!

Super fun arcade!

We had lots of fun. I felt like we were teenagers again!


Last in this busy, fun week was Halloween! I decided to make my costume again, and had it in mind all year. I'd be going as the Batman villain Poison Ivy.

Original comic Poison Ivy

Modern Poison Ivy

I decided to go with Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy look from the Batman and Robin (1997) film.

Batman and Robin (1997)

Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy

I bought the materials throughout the month, and began by gathering artificial leaves.

Leaves galore!

I took a leotard I owned, and hand-stitched/glued the leaves on individually. If I could change anything in this process, I would have adjusted this, maybe by hot-gluing them directly onto the leotard, or getting a green leotard so I could use fewer leaves. This was WAY too labor-intensive and time-consuming.

Sewing on the leaves

For the hair, I found a matted up red mermaid wig at a thrift store for $2.

Matted mermaid wig

I painstakingly used conditioner, detanglizer, and a comb to straighten out the wig, then pin-curled the bottoms. This was also very labor-intensive, and I would have been better off spraying my own hair red, but my husband didn't want it to rub off in our car.

Straight and smooth

Poison Ivy wears 2 distinct outfits in the movie, and each outfit has a corresponding hairstyle.

Long and twisted top

Long with hair-horns

I thought the leaf bodice was more iconic of Poison Ivy, but the (what I call) hair-horns look is also more iconic. So I decided to mix and match. To make the hair horns, I took paper cups and painted them red.

Trying 2 sizes

I went with the smaller cups. I bought 2 hairbands from the Dollar Tree which had light red and dark red hair attached, sewed them together, and sewed the cups on top. I carefully spiraled the hair around the cups, using bobby pins to pierce through the cups and hair spray to keep it slick.

Makeshift hair horns

I also added some extensions to make it longer.

Poison Ivy has some interesting leaf-things over her eyes, and I found a magnificent mask at the 99 Cents Only Store which I thought would suit the job.

Leaf eyes

Elaborate mask

I carefully and strategically cut out pieces of the mask and painted it green.

(Painting my husband's claws in the background)

I also wanted to make a cape like the one she wears in the picture.

Red/green cape

I found a green crinkled curtain at a thrift store, and I cut off the rings, shaped and sewed the neckline, and dyed the bottom with red dye in the stove top method.

Dying the bottom of the curtain red

Lastly, I bought a pair of short heels and painted them green too.

Paired with dark green tights, my look was complete!

Here's Uma Thruman's Poison Ivy look:

Poison Ivy's hair-horns

Poison Ivy

And here's my Halloween costume!

Poison Ivy costume

From behind

Closer up

Closer up

I enjoyed walking around Hollywood Boulevard, but was overwhelmed with the masses of people. I must have seen 10+ Poison Ivys out there! It's not a creative costume, but I think I did well in the details.

And my husband went as the Wolf who ate Red Riding Hood :)

The week has been so busy, that I'm ready for a vacation from the fun!

I hope you had a safe, fun Halloween. 

Until next time, blessings :)

#77: White Lace Maxi Skirt

What's up, what's up?

Today I've got a new transformation that I paid a bit more than I usually would for a project piece. I found this white lace maxi skirt at a thrift store for about $12, but it was more than I wanted to pay, so I left it at the store. A few weeks later I went back, and it was STILL THERE! And it was half off at only $6! I definitely couldn't leave it there for a second time.

Before: White Lace Maxi Skirt

Before: From behind

It had some nice ribbon zig zag design.

Before: White Lace Maxi Skirt

And I really liked the length. I wanted to spin and let it flow!

Twirling!

The thing I didn't like was the color. The white on white made it look very bridal, and didn't define the lace well.


So for the first time ever, I'm trying something new and going where I've never gone before...


...I'm dying this puppy!


I had a leftover pot of red dye from my Halloween costume I'm working on,  so I decided to toss in this white skirt and see what would happen.

Looks like entrails. Mmmmmm

After boiling for an hour, I hand-washed and hung it to dry.


After drying, I ironed it to get some of the major wrinkles out, and cut about 20 inches off of the length of the attached underneath slip.

Cutting length

And that was the transformation!

Here's how it looked again before:

Before: White Lace Maxi Dress

 

Before: From behind

And here's the end result:

After: Salmon-orange Lace Maxi Dress

After: Salmon-orange Lace Maxi Dress

After: From behind

Amazing what a dye job can do!

I got to feel the breeze in the newly-shortened slip taking a walk in the park.

Breezy

And traversed some cool trees.

Grounded

I'm really digging the new salmon-orange color. It really gives the skirt new life, and makes the $6 price tag worth it!

I'm still working on my Halloween costume, and I've got a lot of new projects in store. Check back again soon for more transformations!

Until next time, blessings. 

#76: Purple Floral Muumuu

Hello!

My month hiatus was not on purpose. My schedule is so demanding, that I haven't made time to sew, let alone blog about it. But today I've got a new project which I completed last week.

I found this purple floral muumuu at a thrift store for about a buck. I usually stray from most florals, but I'm a big fan of the pattern with the deep hues.

Before: Purple Floral Muumuu

Before: From behind

I saw the potential in this right away. So let's get to it!

I began by removing the sleeves at the collar seam.

Removed sleeves

I also cut about 5 inches off the length of the muumuu.

Shortened

I hemmed it up, took it in a few inches on the sides, and hemmed the new arm holes.

New hemmed top, turned backward

I decided to flip this piece backward. I trimmed about 2 inches off of the top of the collar and added a clasp to close the open collar area in the new back.

Sometimes the best part of the transformation is in the details.
I decided to take the extra sleeve material and length material, and sewed multiple inside out strips of material. 

Sewing inside out strips

I turned them right-side out and braided them together.

Braiding

Once I had them braided, I sewed the ends together to make one long braid. Then I pinned and sewed them across the top of the front collar.

Sewing braids

I also used one of the braids as a belt.

Here's how it looked again before:

Before: Purple Floral Muumuu

And here's how it looks after:

After: Purple Floral Dress

After: Purple Floral Dress

And here's a close-up of the collar:

Sleepy photo

 There it is! I hope you liked it :)

The next few weeks I'll be working on my Halloween costume, which I'm excited about.

Check back next time for more transformations!

Until next time, blessings.