Monday, October 26, 2009

Let's get creative!

For whatever reason I decided to try and sew my own Halloween costume this year. I really had no clue what I was doing. I had an idea in mind, I knew I wanted to be a corpse bride or zombie bride. So, without a pattern and little to no knowledge of how to sew properly I set out to the fabric store to see how much damage I could do to my crafty alter ego.

I bought 5 yards of shimmering white satin Halloween fabric, 2 yards of black lace and a couple yards of tulle. Also some ribbon, hooks and eyes and elastic.

Thought I would just use a simple dress I already owned as a guide. So I cut out the dress and sewed it together and put it on. I mean...TRIED to put it on. It didn't fit. The seams were busting open everywhere. And the sleeves looked ridiculous. I don't know what I was thinking....sleeves. Sheesh. Not to worry. I had an idea.

A good mistake. I just cut the dress down the center and added a little lace covered fabric to the center. Which was cool cuz I wasn't really sure how I was going to use it in the beginning. I just knew I wanted to incorporate it somehow. Then I had away with the stinking sleeves. BAH!







Hey, I think I'm on to something here! I'll add some of that ribbon I bought and give it a nice corset look.




This is the back of the top. I had to cut the back of it and sew it up with a cute satin button I had laying around, so that it didn't hide my train on the back of my skirt. I looks funny hanging on the hanger, but it really works when I'm wearing it.





And here is the back of the skirt. A little more black lace in the middle of the bustle.




I knew before I started that in the end I was going to roll it around in the dirt outside and cut it up to make it look like I just crawled out of the grave. I was almost scared to do it after the dress came together. It really didn't turn out half bad. But, it was a detail I felt it needed to have.

So...I hacked away.



And the finishing touches...






I can't wait to see how it looks with some messed up hair (complete with dead leaves) and some corpse-like make up. I think it will be EXACTLY how I pictured it.

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

That's fabulous! And you're right, it wouldn't've been the same without the dirt...but that was some pretty white satin. You're way braver than I am. Check this out, if you like: http://www.instructables.com/id/Headless-Corpse-Bride-from-Duct-Tape/

This strikes me as overkill, when one can simply be a dead bride with head attached, but they have some lovely details.

Jess said...

I am so impressed. My sister must be rubbing off on you. That is totally something she would do except with thrift store fabric that wasn't so pretty. Looking forward to the complete ensemb.